Research

Adherence

Individual variability in dopamine response to ultra-processed milkshakes is associated with perceived hunger and hedonic ratings (pleasantness, wanting), but not with adiposity or glycemic response.

While the average dopamine response is negligible, some people do experience a dopamine release. These 'Responders' tend to be hungrier beforehand and find the food more pleasant and desirable. This suggests that managing hunger and focusing on the sensory enjoyment of food (rather than just its composition) might be key factors in how your brain processes these foods.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Responders perceived the milkshake to be more pleasant... they wanted more of the milkshake... and tended to be hungrier in the overnight fasted state... as compared to the Non-Responders.
Valerie L. Darcey et al. · medRxiv · 2024

Why this rating

Exploratory analysis, smaller subgroup sizes, correlations are weak to moderate.

Source

Brain dopamine responses to ultra-processed milkshakes are highly variable and not significantly related to adiposity in humans

Valerie L. Darcey et al. · medRxiv · 2024

DOI 10.1101/2024.06.24.24309440

preprint · n=50Cited 1×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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