War against food choices moving into high gear

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Now that the anti tobacco war has largely been won the attention shifts to food that has been decided we should not eat.

Quote:

(Health.com) -- Scientists have finally confirmed what the rest of us have suspected for years: Bacon, cheesecake, and other delicious yet fattening foods may be addictive.

A new study in rats suggests that high-fat, high-calorie foods affect the brain in much the same way as cocaine and heroin. When rats consume these foods in great enough quantities, it leads to compulsive eating habits that resemble drug addiction, the study found.

Doing drugs such as cocaine and eating too much junk food both gradually overload the so-called pleasure centers in the brain, according to Paul J. Kenny, Ph.D.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/03/28/fatty.foods.brain/index.html?hpt=C1

food that is supposed to be not good for us is now put on the same level as heroin. And this is ok? But you know, it is sex that really must be made illegal, overloading the pleasure centers of our brain, making us want to get more and better sex to get the same high as we get bored with the same routine night after night.

No smoke, no decadent food, no sex....then we will finally be upstanding humans...

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Type: Discussion • Score: 10 • Views: 5,529 • Replies: 93

@hawkeye10,

The rats knew a good thing when they tasted it...

How dare they call cheesecake "junk food"! Mad

I'd sort of like to have the pleasure centers of my brain overloaded. Very Happy

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smoke inhalation is one thing, everyone should know it's bad for them

food is the toughest one, the main culprit is not the food itself, it's the processing of said food, i never use salt when i'm cooking, yet processed foods are full of the stuff, and even worse from my checking labels, the cheaper the food the more salt, this means that lower income people are getting the raw end of the deal, an example, a store brand can of baked beans has at least 20 % more sodium than the national brand, and is at least $0.50 cheaper than the national brand, why is this (another interesting aside, why do the maple syrup beans have more sodium than the beans with pork and tomato sauce)

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

food that is supposed to be not good for us is now put on the same level as heroin. And this is ok?

I think that you should read the information you posted, Hawk.

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Hawkeye, what is it you're objecting to? The label 'addictive'?

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@hawkeye10,

Does it bother you that 33% of American children under 14 are now classified as obese? Does it bother you that many of these children will become diabetic before the age of 20? Does it bother you that your tax dollars go to subsidies that support the companies that make the worst of these foods which allows them to offer this unhealthy crap very cheap? So cheap in fact that a family on food stamps, or a tight budget, is almost guaranteed to buy this junk? And Hawkeye, only you would somehow tie this into your favorite topic of sex, most people would look at this as a health issue, but no - for you it morphs into sex. No surprise there.

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@Green Witch,

We went to the American Quilt Society"s annual show in Lancaster yesterday. I would say that 75% of the women quilters were obese. These were women that were in their 30's and up to maybe their 70"s . The vast majority were really hugely overweight. I was amazed at the way I hadda wait behind a large clot of flesh in order to get around in an aisle.

Ya know where the fat kids get it from.

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@farmerman,

I once went to a quilting bee in my rural community - every woman brought a whole cake. Thirteen women, thirteen cakes. Each one of them had at least two big slices, some three. Quilting is not a marathon sport, they should serve carrots and celery.

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@farmerman,

That's evolution in progress, FM. As folks get heftier, quilt thickness decreases.

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@Green Witch,

Quote:

Does it bother you that 33% of American children under 14 are now classified as obese

It bothers me a great deal that Americans have an uneducated and unhealthy relationship to food, that people suffer as a result, and that this move to ban/tax food we don't want others to eat shows that we have not learned a damn thing.

There is no such thing as bad food, everything has a place in our diet if we happen to like it, a healthy food choice for one person is not what the person sitting next to them would be eating for health, because we all have different needs. We have different metabolisms and different health issues. And science and the do-gooders are still thrashing around trying to figure out what it is that we are supposed to be told to do. We spent want, 15-20 years pushing low fat diets already and the net result has been people getting fatter and fatter WHILE they eat less fat. Why you ask? Because people have replaced the fat with even more carbs, which puts on the weight faster as well as causes increased blood sugar problems because of the high glycemic index of most carbs. So what do we do about that, start criminalizing portion sizes? This whole scheme force behaviour change through the law is ******* nuts.

All of this time and money spent telling people the wrong thing about diet and what do we do? We double down on the bad advise.

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I'm glad you posted this. Last weekend, I went to visit my grandkids in upstate NY. We had lunch at the zoo and I ordered a ham and Swiss sandwich. I was asked whether I wanted a whole or half sandwich. I said whole . . . well, the sandwich was made from very wide bread, so that a slice was the equivalent of two slices laid side by side.

Besides, all the food I had on the trip was terrible. Nothing tasted good.

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@hawkeye10,

Of course there is such a thing as bad food - chocolate bars, coke, and potato chips come to mind, not to mention deep fried chicken wings, and other fried bar food. Tell me one good thing you get from those other than feeling full and satisfying a craving. Nutrition-wise, they're all zero.

What I think you might mean is that everything's okay in moderation. With that, I would agree.

Edit: And I sort of agree with you that this sort of thing shouldn't be regulated by governments, but I've heard/read over the years how out of control some Americans (just to pick the country I know about) are with these foods, plus an excess of salt and sugar. Well, isn't this the whole thing behind Jamie Oliver's food revolution in Britain?

If people's eating habits are going to negatively affect health care, child care, work performance, etc., then maybe it should be dealt with, one way or another.

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When I think of bad food, I think of badly prepared foods.

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@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

This whole scheme force behaviour change through the law is ******* nuts.

No matter how many guns they put to my head, I am not eating that spongy white stuff that passes for bread!!! Razz

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@Irishk,

I agree with you if you're talking about WonderBread, but if you're talking Sourdough, well, that's another thing...

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Fats are apparently not the key problem, but refined carbs, which we seem to eat more of in avoidance of fats. I just spent twenty minutes trying to find the article I read a day or two ago that agreed with me on this, alas, no luck so far.

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@ossobuco,

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Fats are apparently not the key problem, but refined carbs, which we seem to eat more of in avoidance of fats

Ya, yet the latest "unintended consequence" of the continued need for liberals to try to run everyone else's life. They have been completely wrong about the interaction between food and human biology, again, for something like the hundredth time in my life time. They lost me when they told me for ten years that butter (which I love) would kill me so I need to switch to margarine. Then they decided that margarine was worse. OOOPS!

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@Mame,

Quote:

Of course there is such a thing as bad food - chocolate bars, coke, and potato chips come to mind, not to mention deep fried chicken wings, and other fried bar food. Tell me one good thing you get from those other than feeling full and satisfying a craving. Nutrition-wise, they're all zero.

wrong answer. We are emotional and spiritual beings, good food choices not only enhance our biology but out minds and spirits as well. All of those things have a place in my diet, and if you like them they should be in yours as well.

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Are we not the descendants of the survivors of the last ice age, when putting on a little weight was an advantage? It is in our genes to eat more than we need. The problem might be that the climate changes faster than evolution changes us.

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Quote:

For years, experts have warned us to cut down on saturated fat -- think butter, cheese, bacon, red meat, and countless other tasty foods -- because it clogs arteries and causes heart attacks.

Now, new research suggests all that self-restraint may have been misguided. While saturated fat does indeed raise LDL (or bad cholesterol), mounting evidence suggests that the fat, in and of itself, may not be as bad for your heart as previously thought.

But don't rush out to the diner to order a big greasy breakfast just yet.

Cutting back on saturated fat is important, but not if you simply replace the calories with carbohydrates -- such as those found in fat-free cookies, cakes, or other types of food. In fact, you need to replace saturated fat with polyunsaturated fats -- the good fats found in nuts, vegetable oils, and fish -- to get a benefit, according to a study published this week in the journal PLoS Medicine.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/03/24/moh.heartmag.saturated.fat/index.html?section=cnn_latest

OOPS!

Lets face it, the experts dont have a ******* clue. We should do nothing until they can come up with some advise that holds up for at least a decade.

Until then, eat what you like in moderation, exercise, and eat a well rounded diet. This is what my Grandma taught my mom who taught me. There is nothing yet that trumps this good advise.

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War against food choices moving into high gear

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