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Fast food addiction.

  
 
grant
15:17 / 10.02.03
This study should put the McDonald's class-action suit in a new light...

Fast food could be addictive.

Researchers who have been testing the biological effects of fast food are discovering that they can trigger hormonal changes in the body that could make it difficult to control eating.

"New and potentially explosive findings on the biological effects of fast food suggest that eating yourself into obesity isn't simply down to a lack of self-control," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.

Fast-food meals can deliver nearly the recommended daily calorie and fat intake in one meal. As people put on weight, they become more resistant to the hormone leptin, which is strongly linked to weight and appetite, and a brain peptide called galanin that stimulates eating.

Leptin releases signals to the part of the brain that co-ordinates eating behavior, but as people gain weight they become more resistant to the effects of the hormone.


More at the link.
 
 
000
16:35 / 10.02.03
This is a step in the right direction, but there still is so much ground to cover. Waisays.com has been telling it like it is for 2ยง years now, and luckily certain people have been paying attention. The last I heard, the creators of the site had been asked if schools in Jordan could use the articles for educational purposes.

Cool, huh?
 
 
Ganesh
17:24 / 10.02.03
Isn't fat in itself 'addictive' in that our exposure to a certain dietary amount in childhood hugely influences the extent to which we seek it out later?
 
 
Funktion
15:44 / 11.02.03
[bold]Isn't fat in itself 'addictive' in that our exposure to a certain dietary amount in childhood hugely influences the extent to which we seek it out later? [/bold]

Hmm, I not completely grokking your intent here but I would say that dietary intake in childhood is more a psychological effect on what foods your body is used to and what foods you mentally prefer rather than a biological addiction...

And of course there are different types of fats too. Super-unsaturated fats or Omega-3 fatty acids are very healthy for your whereas saturated fats with no electron sharing are stiff and not as healthy for your body.
However saturated fats usually taste good and it is easier to imagine someone with an unhealthy lifestyle whose body craves food energy for ATP would imagine themselves "biologically addicted" to unhealthy fats...

Edit:

To expand on my point alittle...
saturated Fats and sugars are not intrinsically addictive to the human body the way say tobacco or heroin is addictive.
Say a kid grew up eating mcdonalds, lottsa Mothers cookies and Chuck E Cheese pizza. When older that kid might have an extremely difficult time eating healthy food and Hir might CRAVE fast food and claim to be addicted.
But it is not like heroin where the person's BODY is physically calling out for fast food...
The kid's BODY surely isn't going to mind if the kid starts eating a lot of Walnuts, Salmon and Grape juice instead of Big Macs, Twinkies and Coca-Cola...

It is the kid/adult's BRAIN that feels the addiction.
Those fast foods/high saturated fat/sugar food is stimulation for the brain.
'Psychologically' used to those kinds of foods, the brain craves the instant gratification of this type of food especially if depressed or overly stressed out...

BTW on a tangent,
Obesity in America is a horrible epidemic. Since 1985 it is truly incredible how high the levels of obesity have risen.
Accompanying this is a giant spike in how many older adults are contracting Type II Diabetes..

American culture needs to change the way they look at things like fat.

I, for one, am sick of sloth and gluttony being made to look "cool" and "hip" now...
 
 
000
08:40 / 12.02.03
grant, do you know how far this article has gone, newspapers-wise?
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
11:03 / 12.02.03
I, for one, am sick of sloth and gluttony being made to look "cool" and "hip" now...

I'm not sure I follow - is it hip to be fat in the US these days? Or hip to be slothful and gluttonous?
 
 
grant
13:24 / 12.02.03
Not terribly far quite yet.
 
 
Funktion
13:49 / 12.02.03
I'm not sure I follow - is it hip to be fat in the US these days? Or hip to be slothful and gluttonous

It's been hip to slothful and gluttonous a while...

Recently the symptons of that are becoming more hip...
 
  
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