Grist:
With the rumors swirling that Michelle Obama is a big fan of former FDA Commissioner David Kessler's new book The End of Overeating, it seems reasonable to check in on the science behind an "addiction model" for salty, sweet, and fatty processed food (an assertion at the core of the book).
Adam Hanft: I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke - And Slap It With a Big Fat Sugar Tax
I wouldn't be surprised at all if local sugar-and-fructose taxes start appearing in city after city, as one politician after another races to jump on the bandwagon.
Carole Bennett: The Addict's Recovery Process - Steps In Rebuilding TRUST
An enormous part of your loved one's recovery process and progress is built around them starting to pull themselves up by their own boot straps.
Dr. Susan Albers: Getting Motivated to Eat Mindfully: 5 Tips
Do you need motivation to start eating more mindfully but don't have the money to hire a trainer like Jillian Michaels? If so, don't...
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The worst poison in prepared and processed food is High Fructose Corn Syrup, it is destroying the health of our nation! Since the widespread use of HFCS began in the 1980's, Obesity and the incidence of Type 2 Diabetes has more than quadrupled here in the US. The same thing is NOT happening in the rest of the developed world where they still consume Cane Sugar.
I was obese, 360 lbs at my heaviest.
Once I cut out ALL food that contains HFCS from my diet I no longer had a difficult time losing weight!
Trust me on this, I had been obese for most of my life and diets never seemed to work, until I cut out the HFCS.
To date now I have lost 170 lbs through diet alone, I don't exercise and would NEVER consider Bariatric Surgery to lose weight.
That's another topic altogether, Bariatric Weight lose surgery is currently the biggest medical scam in this country.
Now that so much Corn is being used for Ethanol Production the price of HFCS has skyrocketed so now there is no price savings from using HFCS in prepared food.
It does not help that US companies have a monopoly controlling Sugar production and importation.
The tariffs on imported sugar are so high, to discourage importation, that the US citizens pay roughly 10X the price for sugar than in other nations.
So, now it costs us more to eat unhealthy food.
I've found food in general as addictive as heroin. I feel this increasing urge to eat it if I go without it more than a few hours. And, man, you really suffer some serious withdrawal symptoms within just a few days, if you give it up altogether.
Is forcing people to live the way you want them to as addictive as heroin?
I'd like to suggest a new rating system for prepared or restaurant food. It would be called the skull rating. The food would get one skull each for a high fat content, a high sugar content and a high salt content. The sugar content would be weighted by the glycemic index of the sugar so something like high fructose corn syrup would effectively need less to meet the skull standard. The skulls would need to be fire engine green, posted on the front of the package and be at least 5% of the surface size each or be placed next to a restaurant menu item and be at minimum the same font size as the menu item.
I think people just might get the message with icky green skulls staring at them.
They'd get the message but eat it anyway.
Probably more addictive than heroin, for humans. When cigarette and heroin habits were compared in humans, researchers found a difference in the form of social stigma, that encourages quitting heroin much more strongly than quitting cigarettes. I'm sure ingestion is an even more socially acceptable means of taking addictive drugs than inhalation, which is obviously more acceptable than injection.
I agree. but its changing. There's alot of information out there now that no doubt the food industry doesn't encourage.
When Chinese historians write the history of the decline and fall of America a hundred years from now, who can doubt that the number one culprit in America's collapse began with the coming of the Boomers in the Sixties, when America was the richest, most powerful nation in world history, by far. Obviously, there had always been plenty of alcoholism in The Great Republic. That said, the Boomers put addiction on steroids with their incredibly stupid and infantile oral mantras, "If it feels good, do it" and "Turn on, tune in, and drop out." Not only did the Boomer drug culture end up decimating black urban American, not only did it create the meth plague in the heartland, not only did it create America's first generation on rehab, it also made America the most grossly fat country on the planet, in forty short years! Because the Boomers' greatest addiction of all was FOOD, otherwise known as stuffing your face and supersizing your nation into decadent oblivion (the WALL-E America of lazy blobs). And since the creed of the Boomer's was self-indulgence uber alles, they became the fattest generation in our history, by a huge margin. It's good to call obesity what it is, simply another addiction piled on top of all the other addictions which have made the Boomers narcissistically unique, The Worst Generation following on The Greatest Generation of their hated parents.
OK, the greatest generation made huge sacrifices. But, let's be honest they where far from being the perfect generation. The US at the time of WWII was a racially segregated homophobic society of xenophobic isolationists. Furthermore, about WWII, the government funded it by selling war bonds to the general public and came within an inch of having the public stop buying them and shutting the war down. I doubt the greatest generation would have been called this if that had happened....
oh boy. here we go, blaming the hippies for everything again. It's been 40 years, give it a rest. Sorry, not all boomers are obese. In fact we have the highest obesity rates in the world. It transcends age, ethnicity, religion, etc.. Actually, the research suggests that our children will be the most obese so please get your facts straight and stop living in your reefer madness 1950's blame the hippies fantasy.
This research might make a good case for banning junk food and heroin for lab rats, but humans are different than rats in many ways. One important distinction is that many humans can decide not to eat junk food or use heroin, or use either in moderation. For example, I don't use heroin and only use modest amounts of junk food even though both are quite available. I've read that heroin withdrawal is awful, but many humans can kick even that habit if they decide they really want to. Other humans function quite well with a regular but moderated use of heroin or junk food. Lab rats apparently don't have that ability. We shouldn't criminalize humans for preferences that don't cause them to harm others, even a preference for heroin. Same goes for rats, IMHO.
I had a dream last night after reading this article.
In my dream, I was discussing the junk food problem and we agreed that rather than outlawing anything harmful like junk food, we should tax it.
We also agreed that the "perfect" tax ratio was whatever tax it took to lower consumption in the population to the point that less than 10% of the population used whatever harmful substance.
In my awake state, I think I agree with my dream. Outlawing things only creates a criminal market.
But if something is VERY expensive due to taxes, consumption will go down.
Right now, in the area where I live, less than 15% of the people smoke. It's a combination of taxes (cigarettes are now a very expensive habit) and education/services (plenty of stop-smoking help around). This has, over time, created a "what? you're still smoking?" attitude in a place where smokers used to be 85%. The percentage of tobacco abuse has gone down, down, down since the days when every lumberjack, engineer and fisherman in the Northwest went around with a cig on his lip.
When a "super-size" soft drink costs $15 and a pint of full-fat, full-sugar ice cream costs $25, people will treat them as RARE indulgences, not like a food staple to be consumed every day. Most people will think, "It's just not worth it" and drink water with a squeeze of lemon, or serve sliced fruit for dessert instead.
good point but must the prices be so high? I agree w/the soda tax however, but part of the problem is the giant fast food industry lobby. they are so powerful!
I think junk food should be "outlawed" in schools. If you read about this topic you'd discover the the problem is not just the sugar. The problem is a combination of sugar (often snuck into place where you'd never suspect it) or high glycemic index carbohydrates, fat and salt. It's this deadly trinity that make the food addictive.
this is true. When you have a republican mind set that underfunds our education system so that schools are broke and need money; it's easy for giant soda companies to come in and say, hey look we'll put in a soda machine in every hallway and let you keep some of the profits! This is how it all started.
The main problems are 1. sugars,2, fries, 3 white bread and 4. lack of exercise.
1. refined sugars don't exists in nature, and it is addictive. In Denmark the consumption is abou40 kg pc and in the USA it is about 70 kg.pc.
Sugars should be reduced to max. 10% of your intake and for an average american diet of 3100 kcal/day it is about 28 kgs/year pc. So reduce sugar with 60% would be a good start.
Sugar spoils appetite regulation. You feel hungry when the lood sugar falls. After a big sugar intake (sodas ) the insuline reacts to get the bloot sugar down. Then you feel hungry even with a full stomach, and you eat again.
Fries are potatoes boiled in fats, as dangerous as cigarettes because of the glychemic index..
White bread does the same to your body as sugar. Rats getting only white bread starve to death. Eat whole grain bread.
Exersise lightly (walk or bike) ½ hour every day and hard (makes you sweath) 3-4 times a week.
Solves most health problems. PS. Sell the car and buy a bike.
Really, it's the sugar fat and salt. It's always there in all the bad foods in some combination or another. take fries, fat and salt. ice cream is fat and sugar. Big Mac; sugar fat and salt. Nutrition is missing in fast foods. We would do better by eating a fresher non processed diet including fruits, vegetables and low fat proteins like chicken and turkey and reduce our consumption of red meat. The book is fascinating as it studies what happens in the brain when we eat these highly addictive foods. They make them that way on purpose. There are few of us that can easily turn down such things as chocolate chip cookies or potato chips, cupcakes, etc... They are highly addicting foods which is why we are so obese. It really is like getting off of heroin.
And on the final day, when you are at a perfect weight, having dieted as ordered, you set out to enjoy the spring in your new bike. You never saw the truck delivering fruits and vegetables, but that's ok.
trucks don't delivery fruits and vegetablesiin my neighborhood. Most people get them from the grocery store. do they still deliver milk in trucks too?
For all those commenting, I suggest that you read Dr. Kessler's book and check out his citations. IMO, his conclusions are valid based upon the research and warrants further investigation. His comments about the addictive nature of certain manufactured foods are born out by MRI comparisons with known additive drugs such as cocaine and by comparative chemical analyses as well as experience.
We know for a fact that Wall Street cares for little else than profit -- look at the tobacco industries, the banking industries, the health insurance industries, etc. The only two questions I see, is the provide further validation of the addictiveness of the "foods" and what knowledge agribusiness has of what they are doing to us in the name of "profit."
spot on! I just read the book. It was highly enlightening and something our food industry I'm sure does not want us to delve too much into!
The concern is that constant junk food consumption permanently damages brain pathways, changing what foods children (and adults) desire for the rest of their lives. The obvious result: obesity and associated ailments. Just as addiction to other non-food drugs alter brain pleasure pathways.
Foods are just chemicals that hit the same reward centers. It's really basic.
Yet, Food Scientists have known this data all along. And, junk food (=any non healthy food) companies are multi-billion Dollar corporations, upheld and protected by our laws.
And, to reply to a poster's question below, the reason people (usually) don't rob, beg, or steal for their food addiction, is because a $25/day cream puff & cheeseburger addiction is more manageable than a $300/day heroin addiction. And it's legal.
And parents buy it for their kids. Tragic.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/48605/title/Junk_food_turns_rats_into_addicts
true, well stated
Since I've never used HEROIN how am I (or any non-addict) able to make a comparison? WTF!
You can't. But many others have. If you do one day, you will agree.
Surely you don't have to do something to realize that it is a socially/personally destructive thing to do. Have you ever jumped of the roof of a building? Why not? The point is that the scientists can prove that the chemical constituents of candy have the same effect on the brain as those of heroin, (or it's closest chemical cousin alcohol for that matter). I'm not an astronaut, but I will take the expertise of astronauts as evidence enough that I cannot breath in space without an oxygen tank. Your logic needs another hour to wake up. In it's current dream-state, it is treading dangerously close to holocaust-denier status.
Surely you don't have to do something to realize that it is a socially/personally destructive thing to do. Have you ever jumped of the roof of a building? Why not? The point is that the scientists can prove that the chemical constituents of candy have the same effect on the brain as those of heroin, (or it's closest chemical cousin alcohol for that matter). I'm not an astronaut, but I will take the expertise of astronauts as evidence enough that I cannot breath in space without an oxygen tank. Your logic needs another hour to wake up. In it's current dream-state, it is treading dangerously close to holocaust-denier status.
MSG (and the many other names it is known by) may be one reason:
"Some of us may have thought Monosodium Glutamate is a preservative or contains some nutritional value. The truth is it does nothing to food aside from enhancing the flavor. In fact, MSG is an "excitotoxin" or neurotoxin that has a degenerative effect on the brain and nervous system.
Monosodium Glutamate enters the brain through membranes in the mouth and enters the bloodstream as foods containing MSG are digested. MSG is created artificially using processes that break down and change natural-bound glutamate, which the body produces, into free forms of glutamate. These free glutamates can sometimes enter the bloodstream up to 10 times faster than bound or natural glutamates.
Over the last fifty years, food processors have steady increased the amount of MSG added to foods. One of the primary and most consistent effects of MSG and other excitotoxins is triggering "an insulin/adrenalin/fat storage/food craving response." That response is what causes the, "I'm hungry again an hour after I eat Chinese food," quandary. It is also why some of us crave potato chips and other snack foods that contain monosodium glutamate, even though we're full."
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/442155/monosodium_glutamate_msg_the_addiction.html?cat=5
Another good article about the dangers of MSG:
http://www.msgtruth.org/whatisit.htm
also, cuz most of the time it's just straight starch w/no fiber so our insulin spikes then comes crashing down and we feel hungry all over again and then we repeat the cycle over and over.
Here is my opinion regarding animal fats, salt, and sugar. We crave them because, in their natural form, they promote health and were part of our original diet for almost 2.5 million years. However, it is correct that if we eat what is presently offered by the food industry in these categories, we are likely to get very sick. An answer to this paradox is to go back to nature and see what she had in mind.
Natural animal fats are those from grass and grub-fed free range animals. The nutritional profile of these natural fats is different from the grain-fed caged-animal Frankenfood offered today, and is filled with healthy nutrients. All of the demonizing studies of animal fats in today's literature are based on the grain-fed junk.
Next is salt. Most of the salt present in today's foods is refined salt, which is another Frankenfood, quite likely to make you sick. Natural salt is unrefined, has a nutritional profile different from Frankensalt, and can actually lower blood pressure!
Moving on to sugar. Most of the foods today that contain sugar are yet another category of Frankefoods. Nature's version of sugar is raw, sweet, ripe, whole fruit, which is a far cry from the refined junk brought to you by the food industry.
References in support of the above can be found in: "The Original Diet - The Omnivore's Solution."
Roy Mankovitz, Director
http://www.MontecitoWellness.com
1) This sounds like a different twist on the anti-marijuana crusades of the 1920s and 1930s which eventually led to such movies as "Reefer Madness" (1936). Even if these scientists are correct, the only answer is to make ALL DRUGS LEGAL and over the counter! Banning everything will get you nowhere....
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First Posted: 10-30-09 04:57 PM | Updated: 10-31-09 11:57 AM