Everyone experiences food cravings, yet they can be different for each person. Some might crave food such as french fries or bacon while, for others, cravings lead them to Prince Pucklers. The common underlying trend with these cravings is that they tend to be high in fats, cholesterol and sugars. Humans still need these things to thrive, but during more primitive times, they were much harder to come by.
A study called “Devaluing Energy-Dense Foods for Cancer Control” is being conducted at the University of Oregon to test two online treatment programs designed to reduce cravings.
The study’s researchers, including associate professor of psychology Dr. Elliot Berkman, plan to have a sample size of 300 participants, the majority of whom are in Lane County.
“Reward systems in the brain encourage us to eat these certain things because they used to be hard to find, but now it’s too easy to get them,” Berkman said. He’s also the director of the Social and Affective Neuroscience lab at University of Oregon, housed in the Lewis Integrative Sciences building.
A Scientific Breakdown
Berkman specializes in the science behind cravings and addictions; many of the things that people crave or are addicted to make them more susceptible to certain types of cancer-inducing behaviors. And for Berkman, this research hits home. In addition to experiencing food cravings himself, Berkman was once addicted to cigarettes, which have been long-known to cause lung cancer.
Strong connections between high amounts of certain foods and an increased risk of cancer is becoming more apparent as this field of research grows, yet this topic isn’t something as readily talked about outside the scientific community.
Merely consuming certain foods can lead to a higher chance of cancer, according to Cancer Research UK. The chemicals commonly used to preserve processed meats, such as bacon, ham and jerky, can be converted into cancer-causing chemicals in the body.
Craving unhealthy foods in general can lead to adult obesity, which is also a high-risk factor for cancer and an area of focus for Berkman. When someone is obese, the additional fat in their body releases hormones and other chemicals that increase the risk of cancer.
According to State of Obesity, an annual report providing current information on obesity, the percent of obese adults in the U.S. has grown from 30.5 percent in 1999 to 39.6 percent in 2016. This means that behavior-induced cancers are likely to become more common, as obesity leads to a significantly increased risk of several types of cancer. Berkman hopes his study will find more efficient treatment methods to decrease the urge to eat these unhealthy foods, thereby leading to healthier lifestyles.
“Our goal is to try to get people to care more about changing their behavior,” Berkman said. “People often say they ‘want to want to change’ but then struggle when cravings happen.”
Scans of the medial wall of the prefrontal cortex. Activity of reward is shown in green, self-processing in red and their overlap in yellow. (Courtesy of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Lab)
Reducing cravings is an often overlooked way to fight obesity. Normally, people would think of diets or exercise regimens. But if people can reduce their craving of unhealthy foods, then that leaves more room for the good foods, like fiber-rich greens. Berkman said it might even be possible to train oneself to crave healthy foods.
“You can learn to crave healthier foods, but craving comes from a reward system,” Berkman said.
How the Study Works
This preclinical study was created to test two different programs designed to change eating behaviors. One treatment plan was previously formed by Berkman from previous research, while the other plan was designed by his colleague Dr. Eric Stice, a senior research scientist at the Oregon Research Institute who also focuses on eating pathology. The two scientists are looking for the pros and cons of each treatment plan in the current study.
While Berkman oversees that the broad goals of the project are being met, the nitty-gritty work is done by project manager Victoria Braun. She received a Master’s degree in social cognitive psychology at Oregon State University.
“I really like translation in research — bridging the gap between what we’re doing and making it a realistic and useful tool for what people actually need,” Braun said.
The study is currently in the beginning of the second year of its five-year grant, and Braun is tasked with prescreening potential study participants. She has about 50 participants in treatment plans so far, and the goal for the study is 300. Less than 10 percent of volunteers actually pass the prescreen because there are many requirements that have to be met.
The participants must be between 18 and 60 and must not have an eating disorder (craving is not an eating disorder). They must have a Body Mass Index within a certain range deemed to be overweight or obese, and right-handedness is a must because brains between right- and left-handed people are oriented differently. Participants also can’t have any metal in their bodies to interfere with the MRI machine, and they can’t have any abnormalities in the brain, such as small aneurysms or benign tumors.
To get a sense of what people tend to eat, the researchers ask people to log their daily food intake using an online automatic self-assessment tool. They use a Bod Pod to measure the person’s body fat percentage and BMI.
The Bod Pod, a small chamber-like machine that the clinical study team uses to measure body fat and lean body mass. (Dana Sparks/Emerald)
“The inclusion criteria for the study represent a balance between rigor and generalizability,” Berkman said.
While the list of conditions that a participant must meet might sound picky, it is necessary for studies to only look at a defined population to reduce “noise” — the amount of variability that makes it difficult to compare participants. And while they recognize that participant self-reporting and tools such as BMI can be faulty, they had to set guidelines somehow.
Once a participant has been given the green light, they begin their treatment plan and receive regular check-ins from the researchers for about 13 months.
The treatment plans are online, so participants can see them at home to work on and then check in once a month. Braun said that they have a diverse set of participants so far. While they’ll accept college student applicants, the study focuses on helping a more broad, non-specific set of people.
The study still has a ways to go before any findings come out, but maybe in the near future, people will have a more formulaic way to fight their temptations to eat all the unhealthy things.
Those interested in filling out the pre-screening assessment can go to http://healthyeatingstudy.com.
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