Spam Journalism #87
Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article.
And in the quest for ever more sensational headline, MacDoctor brings you the original spam – food.
Tasty foods linked to addiction
“Sugar and fat produce changes in the brain which resemble the effects of addictive drugs, a Waikato University scientist says.”
but wait, there’s more..
““We don’t want to send the message that if you’re eating a sandwich, that you’re consuming a drug. However palatable, high-sugar foods very often increase activity of the same brain circuits that are involved in the creation of the addictive state.
““So we believe this addictive-like behaviour stems from the effect that nutrients, in particular sugar and to some extent fat, have on the same set of brain areas that drive addiction.””
Of course, almost anything that stimulates the pleasure centres in the brain can be addictive. so this piece of research is unlikely to be telling anything we didn’t know. On the other hand, we can be sure that it is not telling us that tasty foods have any link with addiction beyond the fact that they are pleasurable.
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Jan 12 12 9:57 pm
My guess is food is addictive – I think it has something to do an evolutionary adaptation that ensures that you ingest enough calories for your body to function and not run out of steam
Andrei´s last [type] ..21st Century relationships in the wasteland
Jan 13 12 12:53 am
If I couldn’t eat food, I’d just die…
Jan 13 12 11:20 am
Seriously though, I’d recommend reading David Kessler’s The End of Overeating. It discusses (scientifically) the effects of fat, sugar and salt on the brain. Foods that humans were eating when they were evolving never contained all 3 of these ingredients. But now manufacturers put all 3 into foods. The brain has NOT had time to learn how to cope with that.
Jan 13 12 11:50 am
Fats, sugars and salt are all essentials – what “the brain” might not have “had time to learn how to cope with” is the availability of nourishing food 24/7/365 without having to move any muscles besides those required to move your hand to your mouth in order to ingest it.
Andrei´s last [type] ..Degrading people for our pleasure and amusement
Jan 13 12 5:03 pm
Your argument is wrong because humans won’t overindulge on, say, carrots. But add fat, sugar, and salt to carrots and they will.
Jan 13 12 8:19 pm
You are missing the point here, Nick. Humans are genetically programmed to like sugar, fat and salt because these things are essential for survival. The current obesity “epidemic” is entirely due to the fact that these foods are over-abundant in our first world society.
Should you go to Africa, you will note that the natives eat meat and maize meal and little else. They will eat plants, but only when there is nothing else. It is the tiny quantities available that keep them from becoming obese.
Jan 14 12 8:43 am
I accept that humans are genetically programmed to like these things – I certainly do. But what I can’t get my head around is the quantities that some people eat. On the rare occasion that we feel like a takeaway roast meal, my partner and I will buy a single large size serving, and get two meals each from it. The idea that one person could eat all that in one go amazes me. It seems there are two distinct issues here, the programmed preference for certain foods and the lack of programming to say “that’s enough”.
Jan 14 12 10:11 am
That is exactly right, Rod. The addictive personality takes the pleasurable stimulant – whether it be food, coffee, sex, the internet or pornography – and can’t stop using it. It is not the stimulant that is addictive (as in Heroin or smoking) but the person themselves who lack the ability to deny themselves the stimulant. The person who finally shuts down his computer at 4am is the same personality type as the one who eats a large meal followed by a 2 litre bottle of coke, a large bag of chips and and entire slab of chocolate. All that is different is what they find pleasurable.
Jan 13 12 9:02 pm
There’d be sugar naturally occurring in carrots Nick
The thing about carrots though is that the energy required to chew and digest them is nearly what they provide so as a dietary source of energy they are woeful.
There are other things we need in our diet beyond energy various elements and compounds to build our bodies and make our biochemistry function and carrots provide well in some of these – so carrots add color and flavor to what we eat but we don’t go for them the way we go for a T-Bone.
Some of the things we need and get sick if we don’t have are toxic if we have too much – like selenium, which is supposed to cause cancer as well some claim but you need some in your diet
Andrei´s last [type] ..True Grown-ups and a little on male emasculation
Jan 14 12 3:04 am
I don’t know if it’s fat and sugar but , a Maccy D’s can be god damn addictive.
I’m sure they put something in that makes you want another one 2 days later! lol
Regards,
Ali x
ali@ali weight loss´s last [type] ..Natural weight loss supplements
Jan 14 12 11:53 am
I think there is a bit of confusion here – especially the comment “anything that stimulates the pleasure centres in the brain.” So let me clarify.
The brain has both (obviously oversimplifying) a pleasure centre and AND addiction centre. For example, advertisers who test their ads on people in fMRI machines are looking for a brain response in the addiction rather than pleasure centres. Scary.
My point and the Waikato point is that certain food combinations stimulate the addiction centres above and beyond the brain’s needs. And I offered an evolutionary explanation for why the brain hasn’t fixed the problem.
Jan 14 12 1:37 pm
Technically, Nick, the brain has neither pleasure or addiction centres, but a system of reward pathways mediated, for the most part, by dopamine. what advertisers are looking for in an fMRI is a prolonged response in these pathways. This could be read as a more intense pleasure response or a greater potentially addictive response.
Addiction occurs when these pathways are reset with permanent neurotransmitter depletion – at least, that is my understanding of the process. I am no neurologist.
Thus, the study in the above post actually said that some foods are more potentially addictive than others, presumably because they cause a more prolonged response from the reward pathways. This is true, but it is a far cry from “Tasty foods linked to addiction”. For addiction to occur, one has to have the obsessive personality that fixates on the addictive object, unless one is dealing with a substance that resets those reward pathways chemically, such as heroin.
Jan 15 12 10:01 am
The real addiction here is of spam scientists for public money.
Jan 16 12 9:15 pm
And I have it on good authority (dailymail.co.uk) that eating food off red plates causes people to eat 40% less food and thus will be solved the obesity problem worldwide. Attention all retailers … blow the dust off that old stock in the storeroom and get it on display NOW. I reckon if pink is all you have, you’d manage 20% reduction. Who knew!
Jan 16 12 9:21 pm
I would have thought that the SIZE of the plate was more important than the colour!