The Nature of Guilty Pleasures by Chase Lin Certain foods are able to elicit this emotional paradox we term “guilty pleasure” so viscerally. Whatever oozy, fatty, richly-flavored food it may be, there exists a battle between the mind and the path to the heart we know of as the stomach. It’s about time we dive into this mental divergence to unravel why particular foods can make us feel so bad and yet so good. Most of us are familiar with the D word. When it comes to brain chemicals, dopamine always seems to be a trending topic. This neurotransmitter is known to mediate our feelings of pleasure; it is a biological way in which we are rewarded for activities that are necessary for survival, such as eating and sex. This chemical messaging system plays a central role in the brain’s reward circuit, the nucleus accumbens. According to neuroscientist and writer, Alex Korb, guilt and shame activate the nucleus accumbens, which is why these emotions actually make us feel good - at least in the short term. In the same way addiction works, gorging ourselves sends a surplus of dopamine that floods the reward center of our brain. Even though we may consciously register it as negative behavior, our body responds differently.
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