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When traveling through towns and cities, it’s noticeable that different areas vary significantly in their appearance and available amenities. Some neighborhoods boast well-maintained, larger, and aesthetically pleasing buildings, while others are defined by smaller, older structures showing signs of disrepair and neglect.
We are all familiar with the devastating consequences resulting from the prolonged use of illicit drugs on an individual. In the beginning, the drugs produce pleasurable feelings by activating the brain’s reward system, and novice drug users experience euphoria, relaxation, or reduced stress. This, in turn, trains their brain to associate drug use with pleasure, reinforcing the desire to use drugs again. However, over time the body develops tolerance for the drug, and the individual needs to increase consumption to achieve the same effect continually. Ultimately, this changes the brain’s chemistry, which then becomes highly fixated on drug-induced pleasures and, consequently, less responsive to natural rewards. The desire for the drug becomes uncontrollable, and if this need is not met with more of the drug, unpleasant and difficult withdrawal symptoms occur. To avoid these symptoms, the drug user prioritizes his/her life to be exclusively focused on cycles of drug intake. This is damaging to both psychological and physical health and, in extreme cases, can lead to death. This development is what is usually referred to as addiction.
There are many factors that can contribute to the breakdown of a healthy relationship between an athlete’s diet and mental health, putting them at risk for Eating Disorders (ED). In fact, ED are one of the most common psychiatric pathologies...
Almost all foods are processed to some extent (Monteiro et al., 2019). Humans process food to preserve it so that it would not spoil, to make it edible, to destroy harmful microorganisms or chemical compounds, to improve its taste, and for many other reasons.
When we want to track whether our body has accumulated (unwanted) body fat, we usually assess this by weighing ourselves. This is adequate because, after we stop growing, changes in our body mass will most likely be due to changes in our body composition (e.g., accumulating or losing body fat). However, when we need to compare different persons, their differences in height come into play. People with very different weights can have similar body compositions if they are of different height. To solve this issue, scientists use the body mass index.
