Processed foods literally damage your brain, making you hungrier.
Across multiple species (mice, macaque monkeys, and humans), there is evidence that processed food diets cause neuro-inflammation and astrogliosis in the satiety center within hypothalamus.
This is not hyperbole.
Mice (PMID 22381575): An evolutionarily inappropriate processed food diet causes microglial infiltration and astrogliosis of the arcuate nucleus. This inflammatory process prevents POMC neurons from “sensing” circulating leptin, leading to a deficit in the satiety response.
Macaque monkeys (PMID 38892139): Equivalent findings to the mouse model. Processed food diets caused arcuate nucleus astrogliosis and deficits in leptin signaling.
Humans (PMID 22201683): Obese humans show damage (astrogliosis) in the infundibular nucleus (homologous to the arcuate nucleus) on T2-weighted MRI. This directly leads to disordered hunger and satiety cues.
This is what “food noise” looks like at an anatomical level.
Those 200 calories of Oreos, Doritos, or any other garbage processed food are damaging the satiety center of your brain (the infundibular nucleus of the hypothalamus) and making you hungrier later.
Come at me calorie bros...
Interestingly, GLP-1s partially bypass this “brain damage” and help restore satiety. They have multiple side effects, but in some ways, they act as a partial antidote to the “food noise” caused by processed foods.
The more elegant way to solve this problem is simply to eat unprocessed, single-ingredient foods (=food for humans) that do not damage the infundibular nucleus of the hypothalamus.