Why is Junk Food so Addictive?

Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes: small, medium, large, thin crust, thick crust, stuffed crust, extra cheese ….

Most of us know what we’re getting ourselves into when we eat junk food:

Junk food is usually high in calories from sugar or fat, with little nutritional value.

Junk food is often highly processed and contains too much sugar, salt, fat, oil and a whole bunch of artificial flavour and colourants.

Junk food provides empty calories and none of the protein, vitamins, or minerals you need for a nutritious diet.

Not all fast foods are junk foods, but a lot of them are. A burger or a pizza could be considered healthy, depending on the ingredients used.

I know they’re bad for me, but …

I know that excess carbs and sugar and fat may lead to a higher risk of obesity and heart problems and a whole lot of other chronic health problems. I know that chugging a litre of Coke or eating six caramel Easter eggs can affect the way my brain and my body reacts. I know that trans-fats and refined grains and salt and high fructose corn syrup can bring my miserable life to an early visit to the coroner’s office.

But they taste so good.

How you get addicted to food

It’s been suggested that eating junk can be compared to taking addictive drugs.

Our basic instinct is survival; whenever we eat, our brains releases feel-good chemicals, including the neurotransmitter dopamine, which the brain interprets as pleasure.

A piece of fruit or a steak might cause a moderate release of dopamine, whereas eating a Mars bar is so rewarding that it releases a larger amount.

Downregulation

When you habitually consume the bad stuff, dopamine regulators can suppress a response to that stimulus: for instance, the release of insulin will be affected due to a decrease in the number of receptors on the surface of the cell.

With few dopamine receptors, you will have less dopamine produced and feel unhappy when you don’t get your junk food fix. You’ve got withdrawal symptoms.

Now your only solution is to eat more junk food to avoid going into withdrawal.

Cravings

We get hungry, we eat. Right? Not necessarily.

Our need for specific nutrients varies and, if we are in a normal state, our brains tell us what to eat. We’ve just lost the knack or instinct to tell the difference between “real” hunger and cravings.

A craving is when, for instance, we walk past a bakery and a waft of freshly baked bread reaches our nostrils. We might have just had a three course meal and are definitely not starving, but that smell of bread makes us want to gobble it up.

Other cravings can be induced by specific circumstances or state of mind, such as going to the movies. A bag of popcorn and a litre of Coke is associated with that action. It has nothing to do with being hungry.

Binging

We’re talking about food addiction here. You are going to need more food to give you the same level of satisfaction and reward of dopamine.

That is why asking someone to “eat from a smaller plate” or “have a smaller slice of cake” is the same as telling a cigarette smoker to vape. They won’t get the same amount of satisfaction or the same nicotine high.

Will eating nutrient rich food help my cravings?

They certainly will.

When we eat junk food, we are consuming calories, but they are empty calories most of the time. Our bodies and brains still need a variety of nutrient rich food to continue working effectively.

The calories from sugar and fat can keep the machine of our body’s going, but you can only fool the brain for so long. Eventually our organs and joints and muscles will start to protest to the brain that they aren’t getting the right foods to be able to function effectively.

The result will be that the brain will continue to ask for food consumption … and until the food you shove down your gullet contains the right stuff, you will just get fatter and you will get flabby and weak.

Bottom line is that you must ditch that junk food and make a decision that your brain will love.