So this article was in the Buffalo News the other day.... I can admit that I don't post stories to often on here anymore.... Now part of the reason is that reading the paper is mostly an at work thing and then it takes like 2 or 3 clicks to share them.... And one shouldn't really be on (e:strip) at work so even on ones break..... Now that being said I wonder if the addiction part of this has to do with Habit? Humans love their habits.... Go to a movie there has to be Popcorn and drink other wise the movie blows.... Football = Food and drinks... There is a Habit part of addiction that is very strong... I would assume that someone who had a gambling problem might not know what to do with them selves during sports.... Some times when people stop smoking their fingers don't know what to do.... In any event an interesting article....
That being said though I do think that food can be addictive and would say I mostly agree with this... At the least isn't it odd that Chips and salty and so are Pretzels and then one needs something to drink....
A sugar high
New evidence suggests fatty foods are as addictive as drugs
By Robert Langreth and Duane D. Stanford
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Published:
December 11, 2011, 12:00 AM
Updated: December 11, 2011, 6:56 AM
Cupcakes may be addictive, just like cocaine. A growing body of medical research at leading universities and government laboratories suggests that processed foods and sugary drinks aren’t simply unhealthy. They can hijack the brain in ways that resemble addictions to cocaine, nicotine and other drugs.
“The data is so overwhelming the field has to accept it,†said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “We are finding tremendous overlap between drugs in the brain and food in the brain.â€
The idea that food may be addictive was barely on scientists’ radar a decade ago. Now the field is heating up. Lab studies have found sugary drinks and fatty foods can produce addictive behavior in animals. Brain scans of obese people and compulsive eaters, meanwhile, reveal disturbances in brain reward circuits similar to those experienced by drug abusers.
As the evidence expands, the science of addiction could become a game-changer for the $1 trillion food and beverage industries. If fatty foods and snacks and drinks sweetened with sugar and high fructose corn syrup are proven to be addictive, food companies may face the most drawn-out consumer safety battle since the anti-smoking movement took on the tobacco industry.
“This could change the legal landscape,†said Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy&Obesity and a proponent of anti-obesity regulation. “People knew for a long time cigarettes were killing people, but it was only later they learned about nicotine and the intentional manipulation of it.â€
Food company executives and lobbyists are quick to counter that nothing has been proven, that nothing is wrong with what Pepsi- Co Chief Executive Officer Indra Nooyi calls “fun-for-you†foods, if eaten in moderation. In fact, the companies say they’re making big strides toward offering consumers a wide range of healthier snacks.
No one disputes that obesity is a fast-growing global problem. In the United States, a third of adults and 17 percent of teens and children are obese. A 2009 study of 900,000 people, published in the Lancet, found that moderate obesity reduces life expectancy by two to four years, while severe obesity shortens life expectancy by as much as 10 years.
Sugars and fats have always been present in the human diet and our bodies are programmed to crave them. What has changed is modern processing that creates food with concentrated levels of sugars, unhealthy fats and refined flour, without redeeming levels of fiber or nutrients. Consumption of large quantities of those processed foods may be changing the way the brain is wired.
Those changes look a lot like addiction to some experts. Addiction “is a loaded term, but there are aspects of the modern diet that can elicit behavior that resembles addiction,†said David Ludwig, a Harvard researcher and director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Children’s Hospital Boston. Highly processed foods may cause rapid spikes and declines in blood sugar, increasing cravings, his research has found.
Constant stimulation with tasty, calorie-laden foods may desensitize the brain’s circuitry, leading people to consume more junk food to maintain a constant state of pleasure.
In one 2010 study, scientists at Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla., fed rats an array of fatty and sugary products including bacon, pound cake, cheesecake and cake frosting. The study measured activity in regions of the brain involved in registering reward and pleasure through electrodes implanted in the rats.
The rats that had access to these foods for one hour a day started binge eating, even when more nutritious food was available all day long. Other groups of rats that had access to the sweets and fatty foods for 18 to 23 hours per day became obese, Paul Kenny, the Scripps scientist heading the study, wrote in the journal Nature Neuroscience. The results produced the same brain pattern that occurs with escalating intake of cocaine, he wrote.
Damage to the brain’s reward centers may occur when people eat excessive quantities of food. In one 2010 study conducted by researchers at the University of Texas in Austin and the Oregon Research Institute, 26 overweight women were given magnetic resonance imaging scans as they got sips of a milkshake made with ice cream and chocolate syrup. The women got repeat MRI scans six months later. Those who had gained weight showed reduced activity in the striatum, a region of the brain that registers reward, when they sipped milkshakes, according to the study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
New evidence suggests fatty foods are as addictive as drugs
By Robert Langreth and Duane D. Stanford
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Published:
December 11, 2011, 12:00 AM
Updated: December 11, 2011, 6:56 AM
Cupcakes may be addictive, just like cocaine. A growing body of medical research at leading universities and government laboratories suggests that processed foods and sugary drinks aren’t simply unhealthy. They can hijack the brain in ways that resemble addictions to cocaine, nicotine and other drugs.
“The data is so overwhelming the field has to accept it,†said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “We are finding tremendous overlap between drugs in the brain and food in the brain.â€
The idea that food may be addictive was barely on scientists’ radar a decade ago. Now the field is heating up. Lab studies have found sugary drinks and fatty foods can produce addictive behavior in animals. Brain scans of obese people and compulsive eaters, meanwhile, reveal disturbances in brain reward circuits similar to those experienced by drug abusers.
As the evidence expands, the science of addiction could become a game-changer for the $1 trillion food and beverage industries. If fatty foods and snacks and drinks sweetened with sugar and high fructose corn syrup are proven to be addictive, food companies may face the most drawn-out consumer safety battle since the anti-smoking movement took on the tobacco industry.
“This could change the legal landscape,†said Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy&Obesity and a proponent of anti-obesity regulation. “People knew for a long time cigarettes were killing people, but it was only later they learned about nicotine and the intentional manipulation of it.â€
Food company executives and lobbyists are quick to counter that nothing has been proven, that nothing is wrong with what Pepsi- Co Chief Executive Officer Indra Nooyi calls “fun-for-you†foods, if eaten in moderation. In fact, the companies say they’re making big strides toward offering consumers a wide range of healthier snacks.
No one disputes that obesity is a fast-growing global problem. In the United States, a third of adults and 17 percent of teens and children are obese. A 2009 study of 900,000 people, published in the Lancet, found that moderate obesity reduces life expectancy by two to four years, while severe obesity shortens life expectancy by as much as 10 years.
Sugars and fats have always been present in the human diet and our bodies are programmed to crave them. What has changed is modern processing that creates food with concentrated levels of sugars, unhealthy fats and refined flour, without redeeming levels of fiber or nutrients. Consumption of large quantities of those processed foods may be changing the way the brain is wired.
Those changes look a lot like addiction to some experts. Addiction “is a loaded term, but there are aspects of the modern diet that can elicit behavior that resembles addiction,†said David Ludwig, a Harvard researcher and director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Children’s Hospital Boston. Highly processed foods may cause rapid spikes and declines in blood sugar, increasing cravings, his research has found.
Constant stimulation with tasty, calorie-laden foods may desensitize the brain’s circuitry, leading people to consume more junk food to maintain a constant state of pleasure.
In one 2010 study, scientists at Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla., fed rats an array of fatty and sugary products including bacon, pound cake, cheesecake and cake frosting. The study measured activity in regions of the brain involved in registering reward and pleasure through electrodes implanted in the rats.
The rats that had access to these foods for one hour a day started binge eating, even when more nutritious food was available all day long. Other groups of rats that had access to the sweets and fatty foods for 18 to 23 hours per day became obese, Paul Kenny, the Scripps scientist heading the study, wrote in the journal Nature Neuroscience. The results produced the same brain pattern that occurs with escalating intake of cocaine, he wrote.
Damage to the brain’s reward centers may occur when people eat excessive quantities of food. In one 2010 study conducted by researchers at the University of Texas in Austin and the Oregon Research Institute, 26 overweight women were given magnetic resonance imaging scans as they got sips of a milkshake made with ice cream and chocolate syrup. The women got repeat MRI scans six months later. Those who had gained weight showed reduced activity in the striatum, a region of the brain that registers reward, when they sipped milkshakes, according to the study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
In Terms of Health It isn't a big deal to me right now.... I don't do the fried foods anymore but I didn't do them much in the past any ways.... I think food should be enjoyed but that doesn't mean you eat at burger king every day....
Before this I have heard the fact that McDonald's is addicting and that it has something to do with the fats and Sugars that I don't really remember so this isn't the first of heard of food being addicting.... There was some kind of brain is craving that went on but no idea where to find it in print....
I think though really taste has a lot to do with things... Now I won't say Fatty stuff tastes better to everyone but to some people it does and the same is true with other foods... Some people like sweet and some prefer sour... Sure some of that is just how one is made and some of that is how one is brought up... But there is also a Social Aspect.... And People's taste buds do change Hence why I know like Green Peepers? In terms of social aspect wish I had a good example but lets say Ramien Noodles not bad if one knows how they can make them great (just not me)... Well if one see's that as what poor people eat and you aren't them you might not ever like them because you have put this stigma on them... Like some people don't like frozen Pasta dinners but you nuke it and put it on a plate they would eat that up.....
This is a complicated issue. A lot depends on what you grew up eating, what health scares you have had in the past, how palatable the alternatives are (or rather how palatable you can make them) and how adventurous one is to venture beyond the comfort level of comfort foods.
I was recently counseling someone about the wisdom of avoiding dairy with saturated fats altogether, stopping intake of processed food of any sort, reducing staple cereals and switching to plant based protein instead of meat. Agreed. it is a massive change, but it is more likely that people will follow through if the first 5 conditions I listed are favourable.
Change and "de-addiction" of any sort takes a lot of personal effort. There is very little margin for throwing up your hands and saying that you cannot do it because it is tough. Nothing really is easy when it comes to building health. Damaging one's health takes a number of years. How can one expect to get back to normal in a jiffy? If not anything rebuilding health takes even longer and requires 100x patience and will-power.
This takes me back to the alcohol discussion in my blog. You could argue that moderation is fine here (like pepsi is doing). But what is moderation anyway? If you drink a bottle of soda everyday, over a span of a year, you would have drunk 365 cans of soda. Do you think 365 cans of soda will go without an impact on the human body?
So it all comes back to what everyone's personal outlook of risk really is. Worded another way, how far are you worried about your health? Are you worried enough to do something about it? If the answer to either of these questions is kind of lukewarm or indifferent, then statements about the wisdom of moderation, the helplessness of individuals in decision-making, the assertion of free-will against governmental bans all will eventually come up in discussion. If you have had a scary brush with ill-health, even then, perceptions of risk (or consequences of continuing poor habits) might not necessarily change.
Humans are complex. Many make peace with disappointment. Some make peace with helplessness. Pursuing health is a question of how far beyond your comfort level you are willing to take things so that your body could function on a higher level.