Yes, You Can: Train Your Brain to Crave Health Food

It's possible to train your brain so that it not only likes, but craves healthy food, according to a new study published in the journal Nutrition & Diabetes.

The basic idea is that over time people acquire the habit, sometimes even addiction, to unhealthy and junk foods.

"We don't start out in life loving french fries and hating, for example, whole wheat pasta," senior author Susan Roberts, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Energy Metabolism Laboratory, said in a statement.

"This conditioning happens over time in response to eating, repeatedly, what is out there in the toxic food environment."

Researchers tested a group of overweight and obese men and women, and after six months of eating healthy, lower calorie foods their brains began to respond positively to those healthy foods.

The researchers say they're encouraged that weight loss programs can change what foods are tempting to people.