MIT explains why bad habits are hard to break

There’s some interesting news about bad habits released by MIT. This can be seen as both bad and good news for those of us who’ve struggled with our weight for a long time. Good, in that there’s an explanation why it’s so easy to re-gain the weight we lose. Bad, ‘cuz it means that we have to continually watch our behaviour for relapses.

“It is as though, somehow, the brain retains a memory of the habit context, and this pattern can be triggered if the right habit cues come back,” Ann Graybiel, the Walter A. Rosenblith Professor of Neuroscience in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, said in a prepared statement. “This situation is familiar to anyone who is trying to lose weight or to control a well-engrained habit. Just the sight of a piece of chocolate can reset all those good intentions,” Graybiel said.

Technorati tags: habits, physiology

Related posts:

1. Eating right is HARD!
2. Bad time of the year