Those days of feeling like a total pig after ordering so much McDonalds that it looks like you’re eating for two are (possibly) over. According to a new study published by Nutrition and Diabetes, you can rewire your brain to want healthy food. 

13 overweight adults were either given nutrition plans engineered to keep them satisfied (lots of protein, etc.), or stuck with their normal diet as a control. It was randomized who got the diet and who didn’t, to reduce any placebo effect, which means that your brain can convince you something is happening to the point where your body responds as if it is.

 Six months later, all the participants took an MRI. While in the MRI, they were shown photos of healthy foods, and their response to that food was observed.

The way to tell the response to healthy foods is by studying the striatum, which controls reward processing. What this means is when you like a food or listen to a song you love, your striatum sends chemicals to your brain that make you happy.

As they observed, researchers found the people who had been on a strict six month diet actually responded more positively to healthy foods than the people who had not been on a diet.

 Basically, if you eat healthy food, you want healthy food. It’s simple. So just stick it out, keep eating healthy, and eventually you’ll want to eat healthily instead of just doing it because you know it’s good.