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Has Food Been Turned into an Addictive Drug?
RichardD83
Posts: 17 Member
in Debate Club
There are so many obese people now
Profit is more important than people
Sugar is added to everything
Millions of dollars is spent researching how to make food taste better
I watched a video where they did an experiment with two identical twins. One given a high fat diet the other given a high carb diet. In the end there was no difference between the two in weight gain.
They showed experiments with mice whereby they mixed fat and carbs for group and not the other. The group which are fat and carbs had tremendous weight gain while the other did not.
In nature fat and carbs are not found together.
They found the effect on the mice's brain worked the same as the dopamine receptors do during addiction
Is it possible food is like a Drug now?
Profit is more important than people
Sugar is added to everything
Millions of dollars is spent researching how to make food taste better
I watched a video where they did an experiment with two identical twins. One given a high fat diet the other given a high carb diet. In the end there was no difference between the two in weight gain.
They showed experiments with mice whereby they mixed fat and carbs for group and not the other. The group which are fat and carbs had tremendous weight gain while the other did not.
In nature fat and carbs are not found together.
They found the effect on the mice's brain worked the same as the dopamine receptors do during addiction
Is it possible food is like a Drug now?
3
Replies
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RichardD83 wrote: »There are so many obese people now
Profit is more important than people
Sugar is added to everything
Millions of dollars is spent researching how to make food taste better
I watched a video where they did an experiment with two identical twins. One given a high fat diet the other given a high carb diet. In the end there was no difference between the two in weight gain.
They showed experiments with mice whereby they mixed fat and carbs for group and not the other. The group which are fat and carbs had tremendous weight gain while the other did not.
In nature fat and carbs are not found together.
They found the effect on the mice's brain worked the same as the dopamine receptors do during addiction
Is it possible food is like a Drug now?
Nuts and seeds.15 -
That is the goal of food manufacturers. To make it addictive/taste good.
I try to avoid fast food and highly processed boxed foods.1 -
Solution - eat things that taste terrible.
8 -
No.
Please:
a) stop posting nonsense;
b) stop watching "videos."15 -
Avocadoes11
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JanetYellen wrote: »That is the goal of food manufacturers. To make it addictive/taste good.
I try to avoid fast food and highly processed boxed foods.
It's the goal of any half-way decent cook, too. Make the food taste good. Not many people try to make it taste like crap (though many succeed anyway).15 -
I think that a lot of processed foods do have some qualities that make them addictive. I've read some books about the food industry--"Food Politics" by Marion Nestle, "Salt, Sugar, Fat" by Michael Moss, "The End of Overeating" by David Kessler, all of Michael Pollan's work, and many other semi-related books on anatomy, evolution, psychology, behavior, habits, and money--and many of them discuss the ways food companies design food to induce craving.
Basically: We live in a capitalist society. All industry has one main goal: to get you to spend your limited dollars on your product. The food industry is the same way--it is quite cutthroat. Therefore, food companies spend millions of dollars every year researching and testing food products. Their goal is to get you to spend as much money as possible on their particular product. With food this has disastrous affects. We don't NEED as much food as we consume, but the food companies want you to buy way, way more than you actually need. How do they accomplish this?
If you read about some of the industry tactics, it's very interesting and somewhat alarming. They look at every aspect of the food. Take potato chips as an example. Food scientists working for this company will measure various levels of salt, sugar, and fat, and various combinations of those levels with one another--they are trying to find the so-called "bliss point," that perfect trifecta of all these elements that make your brain squirt dopamine in pleasure. Through evolution, our bodies and brains have come to crave these things, because they appear in very limited qualities in nature. We had to be driven to seek out that sugary banana, to expend energy to walk the plains, climb the tree, and harvest the fruit. Nowadays, we can get very high calorie food for little to no energy expenditure--this is what has led to the obesity pandemic.
Food scientists are concerned with crunchiness and "mouth feel"; how does the food "swallow", when do the ingredients mesh to become a pleasing bolus, how long does the flavor last, does it urge you to pick up another chip? What about the color of the chip, the size, the general shape? All of this is engineered so you are driven to eat as much as possible. Add in all the advertising--the package, the TV commercials, mascots, logos, jingles, sports partnerships, naming rights--and they are basically drug pushers.
I think the best we, as consumers and people who are conscious about our health and weight, can do to fight against this predatory industry is to educate ourselves. Learning about nutrition and about our anatomy and health is a big step, but it's also important to be aware of the many marketing tricks that the industry uses to get you to buy, buy, buy. There is so much misinformation and confusing mixed messages. You can't look to government for help, because food industry lobbyists are powerful and own many politicians, so they won't allow the government to release impartial guidelines that might suggest consumers cut back on red meat or sugar or salt. (Don't want to mess with the Cattleman's Association or the Sugar Industry!)
The food industry is trying every minute of every day to sell you products that are irresistible and detrimental to your health. You have to play defense.7 -
extra_medium wrote: »Solution - eat things that taste terrible.
My mother-in-law can help you with that.17 -
yes. There are also many cars and tv. and the cost of calorie rich food is at a historic low.RichardD83 wrote: »There are so many obese people now
Not really. Checks and balances exist.Profit is more important than people
No, not everything.Sugar is added to everything
Yes.Millions of dollars is spent researching how to make food taste better
Not sure what this has got to do with anything?I watched a video where they did an experiment with two identical twins. One given a high fat diet the other given a high carb diet. In the end there was no difference between the two in weight gain.
More calories, mice gains weight.They showed experiments with mice whereby they mixed fat and carbs for group and not the other. The group which are fat and carbs had tremendous weight gain while the other did not.
Olives, nuts, avocados, seeds, coconuts, thistle, milk and even wild radishes (not eaten)In nature fat and carbs are not found together.
Not really. And you aren't a mouse.They found the effect on the mice's brain worked the same as the dopamine receptors do during addictionIs it possible food is like a Drug now?
Are you snorting donuts?
Selling your body for a frozen dinner?17 -
I am addicted to food... without it I WILL die... If I don't eat, I get weak, sweaty... clammy... eventually I will get nauseas... STOP trying to pin your poor dietary choices on something other than yourself. OWN your choices!!12
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Who knew that my grandmothers, who made all kinds of delicious foods by mixing fat and sugar, were akin to drug manufacturers?11
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There are awful foods out there, for sure. But there's been donuts, soda, candy bars and chips forever. People are simply lazier these days. Video games, TV, movie streaming, phones, tablets, etc... People don't go out in the world like they used to. I think that's the larger problem.3
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Exactly. There is quite a bit of profit in selling "documentaries" that convince us it's someone else's fault that we are overweight instead of teaching us about nutrition, fitness, and how to eat a balanced diet.RichardD83 wrote: »Profit is more important than people14 -
In addition, many of these items were eating as special treats and/or in smaller portions. Now people eat these calorie dense foods multiple times throughout the day, and in larger portions, in addition to being more sedentary.There are awful foods out there, for sure. But there's been donuts, soda, candy bars and chips forever. People are simply lazier these days. Video games, TV, movie streaming, phones, tablets, etc... People don't go out in the world like they used to. I think that's the larger problem.
Getting a food scale and seeing what an actual serving of chips or ice cream looks like was eye opening. And a little sad at first.3 -
I love to bake. I love to bake yummy treats. I love to bake things that people would want seconds of. I guess I am slinging cupcakes out of my kitchen. Who knew6
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In nature fat and carbs are not found together.
Bacon
4 -
The_Enginerd wrote: »
Exactly. There is quite a bit of profit in selling "documentaries" that convince us it's someone else's fault that we are overweight instead of teaching us about nutrition, fitness, and how to eat a balanced diet.RichardD83 wrote: »Profit is more important than people
One might even say that those documentaries have been designed to be as palatable and profitable as possible. Millions of dollars are spent making them as watchable as possible. Profit is more important than people.13 -
No, it's not addictive. The problem is that people are just lazy. In one sense they are lazy because we are just less active all together. Kids play video games all day rather than street football, and we are lazy in the sense that we are spoiled and want everything now. It tastes good, eat it. It's cheap, eat it. You can easily drop 1,000 calories for less than a buck at the convenience store and it'll take you no time at all as opposed to making a breakfast. So the convenience may be a hard habit to break, but the food isn't addicting.7
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At some point personal accountability has to come into play. I know by looking at a donut it's gonna taste pretty good....I also know it's not as nutritionally sound as an apple. Is it the baker's fault that my fat *kitten* ate the donut instead of the apple?7
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RichardD83 wrote: »There are so many obese people now
Food is cheap and easily available for a good portion of society, including the elimination of any need to prepare it yourself. People also have more sedentary lifestyles.
Also, sugar is not added to everything. I buy almost nothing with added sugar except for the things where it's an essential part of the product (like ice cream). I also make most of my own food, so control what's in it. Neither of these things are difficult to do.Millions of dollars is spent researching how to make food taste better
Sure. Most significantly, lots of money is spend figuring out how to have shelf stable marketable products that taste good for less money. The idea that this food -- which IS cheaper and more easily available than that we (meaning society) used to have access to -- is somehow more delicious than food was in the past or homemade food (or the best restaurant food--and I don't mean fast food, of course) is always so strange to me. I'd have a much harder time turning down a piece of homemade pie (assuming the baker knew what he or she was doing) than some packaged treat from the supermarket. But of course the availability is much greater than if we had to rely on someone baking for us or do it ourselves.In nature fat and carbs are not found together.
As others have pointed out, this is not true. Also, our discovery of how good fat and carbs taste together well predated the obesity epidemic, of course.5 -
"They showed experiments with mice whereby they mixed fat and carbs for group and not the other. The group which are fat and carbs had tremendous weight gain while the other did not."
There was probably more to that experiment that was not mentioned. I think food can become like a drug without self control and without knowledge of the harm it can do, but just like other drugs you can be weened off. Before I came to the States I had no problem with weight. I was I think 4 years old at the time. After moving to the States my parents started going to the fast food places and I gained a lot of weight and so did the rest of my family. I ate what my parents gave me. I didn't know anything about nutrition nor did my parents. Fast food like in the States was not available in Bermuda at the time. My parents thought it was the coolest thing because we had never seen a drive thru before. Our eating habits changed not realizing what the difference was between fast food and real food. Throughout my schooling in the States I never once was taught healthy eating habits. I didn't really learn about healthy eating habits until I was 29 and that was on my own. No body ever told me this is how you should be eating. So what I'm saying is there's nothing to self control until you are aware of what it is you are controlling.0 -
stevencloser wrote: »RichardD83 wrote: »There are so many obese people now
Profit is more important than people
Sugar is added to everything
Millions of dollars is spent researching how to make food taste better
I watched a video where they did an experiment with two identical twins. One given a high fat diet the other given a high carb diet. In the end there was no difference between the two in weight gain.
They showed experiments with mice whereby they mixed fat and carbs for group and not the other. The group which are fat and carbs had tremendous weight gain while the other did not.
In nature fat and carbs are not found together.
They found the effect on the mice's brain worked the same as the dopamine receptors do during addiction
Is it possible food is like a Drug now?
Nuts and seeds.
Beat me to it.1 -
well yea our food is poisoned and so is our water
not sure that it has to do with all the fat people tho
people are just dull , sad ,bored, unaware and stressed out for some the only bit of happiness people have is in food
and honestly i get it
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We're all gonna die!5
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RichardD83 wrote: »In nature fat and carbs are not found together.
Let's assume this is true, for a moment. We know it's not, but for the sake of discussion we'll pretend it is.
In nature, do animals (including people) ever eat more than just one thing?
How long did people live, on average, in nature? How long do people live now? I mean, smallpox was found in nature, and humans eradicated it through great effort and using science. I think the world is healthier and safer and better without smallpox in it, what do you think? Another example going in the other direction is any kind of medicine. What I'm getting at is that "in nature" isn't necessarily ideal. I mean would you rather live in a house or a cave?
What does "in nature" mean exactly? If a pond created by a beaver dam counts as nature, does McDonald's?4 -
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1
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salembambi wrote: »well yea our food is poisoned and so is our water
not sure that it has to do with all the fat people tho
people are just dull , sad ,bored, unaware and stressed out for some the only bit of happiness people have is in food
and honestly i get it
3 -
^^^^^ that video is addicting! I keep watching hoping they will do something different...hahahaha.0
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Between "I watched a video" and asking the question as you did, you have been manipulated into performing as desired by the producer of the video. Consider, is this different from being manipulated into performing as desired by Big Industrial Food?6
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