Why is junk food addictive?

1smemae94

I understand the fact that it is loaded with additives and sugar and fat. I get that, but so is alot of other stuff that i've been able to leave alone. Why is it that when you're bored or mad or sad or happy, your first thought is "lets go eat"? Why when you feel sad you need "comfort food"? Why is our society so resolved around food, or more importantly, bad food. The food that makes you gain ten pounds just by breathing when it's in the room. Why when you want to celebrate something do you go to pizza hut or ponderosa? Why dont we join a gym as our "prize" Or take a nature walk? Why is this? And how do we change it? How do we undo years or subconcious training and things that have been engrained into our minds? Is it possible to just stop? To just give up junk once and for all? To give up our vices and move on with our lives? This is what i want to find out. I want to find out what is in the food i'm eating and why it makes me want more. I want to know how to not let food influence my life. any ideas? Or opinions?

cjwolfjen

when you find these answers, let me know. better yet write a letter and inform CNN. Its a mystery.

corpseskank1

It's part that "junk food" is very purposefully thought out to SELL. The texture, flavor, everything is made with the specific commercial purpose of moving it off the shelves. In short...it's made to be tasty over healthy, and it works!

The second part I believe relates to the term "comfort food." It's been "proven," (I'm sorry, it was so long ago I can't quote a specific link) that one craves the food one grew up on. I grew up on mac'n'cheese, and "soup'n'ramen" (cream of chicken and ramen noodles) and still love these things when I'm feeling down. It feels homey, but more pertinently, your brain was trained as a kid to develop a taste for what was there!

McKayMachina

We're wired, as mammals, to stuff our faces at every opportunity. Our bodies just don't yet know we no longer live in the wild and don't have the same problems other animals have.

A lioness stuffs her face when she can but doesn't become obese because food is scarce and meals are rare. Also, other predators like hyenas lurk in the shadows ready to steal dinner. So the lioness goes for the good stuff - fat and protein - when she has the chance. Given the opportunity, she might gorge all day just like we're apt to.

Basically, we're too civilized for our own good.

corpseskank1

I disagree with being wired to stuff our faces because we are mammals. I work with foster cats, and in more cases than not, a cat that has regular access to food as a kitten is less prone to over-eating. A cat fed in meals as a kitten eats when food is there and DOES stuff its face. I think it goes right back to the foods we are raised on and commercialism doing its job and doing it well.

McKayMachina

I also work with foster cats. 60 of them, actually. And some of them are morbidly obese because the volunteers free-feed.

I'm not saying commercialism isn't to blame. Sugar (high-fructose corn syrup) is pretty much what makes the first-world obese. But I'm not just making this stuff up. Go have a look.

EDITED TO ADD:

http://www.newser.com/story/106087/animals-face-obesity-epidemic-too.html

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Wild-Animals-705/Overweight-Wild-Animals.htm

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/12/10/what-fat-animals-tell-us-about-human-obesity.html

corpseskank1

Obesity is also genetic. For instance in mice (also mammals...), mice with dominant yellow genes are more prone to obesity, regulation or no. I'm just sayin' being a mammal isn't to blame, is all. I'm also not trying to compete with qualifications...so I'm not going to go there...I was just throwing in my 2 cents!

McKayMachina

I wasn't trying to compete. The only reason I raised that point was to show that your experience is limited, as is mine.

Handling foster cats was the control. Obesity in the cat population was the variable.

Also, I added some links if you're curious about obesity in wild animals.

healthybabs

Sugar is like CRACK!!!! Highly addictive, extremely difficult to kick. Now I am talking about "added" sugars here, not the ones that are in fruits and veg but even those should be eaten with protein and carb so they metabolize correctly in your body and not just turn to fat. If you are not tracking sugar here on your food log YOU SHOULD BE, ----everyone should be! You will be stunned to see how much sugar is in food that you never suspected. Challenge yourself to reduce it a little bit more each week and you will be amazed how much better you feel after about a month! If you are eating non or low fat you will see how much sodium and sugar is in those foods, after all sugar and sodium are added for flavor since the fat is being removed.

jaitken_22

I think in a lot of foods like takeaways, they will have MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) in it which is apparently the stuff that makes you want to have more!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate

I also believe this ingredient/food additive will come under different names in the ingredients list.

I don't know if anyone will agree with me but this is what I have been led to believe in the past. I think we should learn how to control our addictions to junk food and we will appreciate them a lot more if and when we have our treat.

sunkisses

Read Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food" for a more scientific answer, if you want a reasonably solid answer.
http://michaelpollan.com/books

I don't eat emotionally. I do like junk food, though.

Historically, food has always been used in celebration in every culture (big harvest? let's throw a party!). I think having food = prosperity and feelings of security. Back when our grandparents were coming up, they likely experienced the Depression, but if they didn't (like our parents didn't) they were raised in a Depression mindset. You ate food not for nutrition but to stave off hunger. So people weren't concerned with health benefits beyond that; they were concerned with keeping children from suffering the pain of starvation.

Those of us in our 30s and up (maybe younger too) we were raised by people who value fullness and fatness as a means of health. We have an overabundance of food here and we're still making choices as though there's a shortage. Can we stop doing that? Yes, but it's up to individuals to change societal mindsets. We act like the next meal or snack isn't just moments away. We don't have to grab food that stays on the shelf for months as safe-keeping. We can eat perishables before they rot. We don't have to cook our food swimming in grease because we can reuse the grease and butter is too expensive.

We seem to just keep going without stopping to think why we have these behaviors.

RuthAne

The End of Overeating is a great book on this topic. I highly recommend it!

http://www.amazon.com/End-Overeating-Insatiable-American-Appetite/dp/B004NSVE32/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317294354&sr=1-1

Review from Publishers Weekly:

Conditioned hypereating is a biological challenge, not a character flaw, says Kessler, former FDA commissioner under presidents Bush and Clinton). Here Kessler (A Question of Intent) describes how, since the 1980s, the food industry, in collusion with the advertising industry, and lifestyle changes have short-circuited the body's self-regulating mechanisms, leaving many at the mercy of reward-driven eating. Through the evidence of research, personal stories (including candid accounts of his own struggles) and examinations of specific foods produced by giant food corporations and restaurant chains, Kessler explains how the desire to eat—as distinct from eating itself—is stimulated in the brain by an almost infinite variety of diabolical combinations of salt, fat and sugar. Although not everyone succumbs, more people of all ages are being set up for a lifetime of food obsession due to the ever-present availability of foods laden with salt, fat and sugar. A gentle though urgent plea for reform, Kessler's book provides a simple food rehab program to fight back against the industry's relentless quest for profits while an entire country of people gain weight and get sick. According to Kessler, persistence is all that is needed to make the perceptual shifts and find new sources of rewards to regain control.

Review from Booklist:

Kessler surveys the world of modern industrial food production and distribution as reflected in both restaurants and grocery stores. To his chagrin, he finds that the system foists on the American public foods overloaded with fats, sugars, and salt. Each of these elements, consumed in excess, has been linked to serious long-term health problems. Kessler examines iconic foods such as Cinnabon and Big Macs, all of which have skilled marketing machines promoting consumption. Such nutritionally unbalanced foods propel people who already tend to eat more than mere physical need might otherwise warrant into uncontrolled behavior patterns of irrational eating. These persistent psychological and sensory stimuli lead to what Kessler terms “conditioned hypereating,” which he believes is a disease rather than a failure of willpower. There is hope, however. Kessler identifies the cues that lead to overeating and offers some simple, practical tools to help control one’s impulses.

HMonsterX

Why dont we join a gym as our "prize"

Congratulation HMonster! You win teh Prize!

Me: Yay! What do i get?!

Them: You win a place where you will be out of breath and in constant pain!

Me: yay...


The gym doesnt take good!

Grokette

We're wired, as mammals, to stuff our faces at every opportunity. Our bodies just don't yet know we no longer live in the wild and don't have the same problems other animals have.

A lioness stuffs her face when she can but doesn't become obese because food is scarce and meals are rare. Also, other predators like hyenas lurk in the shadows ready to steal dinner. So the lioness goes for the good stuff - fat and protein - when she has the chance. Given the opportunity, she might gorge all day just like we're apt to.

Basically, we're too civilized for our own good.

I agree with this.

bcattoes

Habit.

Food taste is learned. Sure there are some foods you'll never like, and some you'll always like, but you can re-train your tastes if you want. You will miss the old stuff at first and maybe some of it always, but you won't miss most of it. I was raised on junk food - burger / hot dog joints, pizza, frozen dinners, etc. When I had a children I decided to eat healthier and started reading anything about nutrition that I could. I now think frozen dinners, fast food burgers, most fast food or prepared frozen meals taste horrible. Once you develop a taste for fresh cooked food with proper seasoning that stuff doesn't taste good. And I simply can't eat very much sweets. I like them, but just a little is all I can handle because I'm not used to all that sugar.

I still love pizza and hot dogs though. And I've never been able to make myself like bananas or oatmeal. So I eat pizza and hot dogs occasionally as treats, and I don't eat bananas or oatmeal ever (though I do try to add oats to meals occasionally in other ways).

1smemae94

Thanks for the answers everyone, Its so great to hear all the different view points and ideas. Thank you.