We often think that food and drugs are two completely different categories, but in fact there are many similarities between them. Both of them are substances that enter the body and it is difficult for many people not to consume them in excess, and this is evident to us in the phrase, “I dare you if you eat just one!” Which was the logo for Lay's potato chips. Much research has been conducted to find out the reasons for these similarities, but a recent study found another reason. It turns out that fast food can harm your health just as quickly and severely as drugs.
Comparison between pizza and cucumber
Researchers from the University of Michigan Department of Psychology and researchers from the Obesity Research Center in New York showed participants in this study a series of pictures of different types of food next to each other. For example, a picture of a pizza next to it is a picture of a cucumber. Participants then determine which of the two items presented to them is more likely to have difficulties eating it. These include: Difficulty stopping the consumption of this food or losing control and eating very large quantities of it.
Which means that these difficulties are signs of addiction. During this study, the researchers compared 35 types of foods that they specifically chose to fall into one of the following four categories: foods that contain high fat, sugar, or refined starches, such as chocolate or French fries, or foods that contain high fats but do not contain refined starches, such as cheese or Bacon, or foods that contain high refined carbohydrates and do not contain high fat, such as saltine crackers or soft drinks. Or foods low in fat and refined starches, such as cauliflower or chicken.
Overall, the most addictive foods among participants were all ultra-processed foods, which are foods modified to contain high levels of refined fats and carbohydrates, which raise blood sugar levels. This is a measure of the amount of food that raises blood glucose levels after eating it, and often a high blood sugar level indicates bad carbohydrates. This was proven true in an initial group of 120 participants from University of Michigan students.
Another, more extensive group of 398 participants took place online through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Although the exact classifications of addictive foods differed slightly in both groups, all participants were addicted to the same main snacks: chocolate, pizza, ice cream, biscuits, burgers, and French fries.
The science behind addictive snacks
Scientists believe that addiction to snacks is more logical than addiction to other foods, such as grilled chicken, for example. Snacks also resemble drugs in some basic aspects. Drugs are taken in high doses and are quickly absorbed by the body, leading to a sudden spike in blood sugar. This also applies to fast food, as it is also processed, that is, modified with additional fats and refined carbohydrates, or modified with one of them.
It is also devoid of fiber, protein and water, which helps stimulate appetite easily and eliminates the urgent desire to eat it. If coca leaves do not cause addiction like their processed counterpart, cocaine; It makes sense, then, that grilled chicken does not cause addiction like its processed counterpart, fried chicken, which contains more fats and carbohydrates.
Processed food is not only addictive to humans, but mice may also be addicted to it! They showed signs of addiction when they ate, for example, Oreo cookies with double cream, but they did not show these signs when they ate natural rat food. They will also seek out highly processed snacks even if they will receive punishment such as an electric shock. This indicates that these foods have a powerful influence that controls all creatures.
This is very logical and intuitive, as we all know that we do not tend to eat cucumber slices greedily, but we tend more to eat sweets greedily. Although this is the first scientific study that supports the idea that processed food is more addictive than natural food, it is a clear and important result, and it may be one of the means to overcome the obesity epidemic that is scheduled to affect 85 percent of adults in the United States of America by the year 2030 AD.
This study could potentially lead to changes in diets, as lead author and professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, Erica Schulte, said in a statement: “If the properties of certain foods are linked to addiction in some people, this could impact nutritional facts and public policy initiatives as well as marketing.” These foods are for children. If fast food harms the body as much as drugs do, then should we not classify it as drugs?