Open Mike: Addictive Foods? (OT)

[Ed. note: The following might be a little too testy for some people. I'm putting it behind a page break so you can skip it if you want to. Feel free to. I can't determine if the testiness I detect is in the piece or merely in me—I've been locked in a titanic battle with touch-typing and it's a toss-up which will win, the whale or the giant squid. I haven't done anything so hard since I stopped smoking.

"Open Mike" is the anything-goes, often off-topic Editorial page of TOP, wherein Yr. Hmbl. Ed. gets to rant 'n' rave about topics he can't quite quit.]

Some of the most gratifying emails I get don't have to do with photography—they come from people who were encouraged by my articles about recovery from addiction (I'm an alcoholic in long-term recovery), or from people who I've helped inspire to get on a plant-eating diet, telling me about how they've lost weight and, more importantly, gained health.

Do the two subjects go together? I'm actually kind of tired of the debate as to whether foods can be addictive. It's one of the many that come down to "a matter of semantics." Yes, a state of altered consciousness is usually considered a necessary characteristic of the substances in our definitions of "addiction." No, massive amounts of chocolate or huge goopy pizzas are not usually considered to alter consciousness. People say you can't be addicted to food because it's missing that essential component.

Still, I don't consider the matter to be controversial. It's a foregone conclusion to me—because I am me and I know me. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009–2010* concluded that half of all the calories Americans consume comes from "Industrial formulations" high in salt, sugar, oil, and fat. "Like cigarettes and cocaine," explains Anahad O'Connor, in "Are Some Foods Addictive?"**, "their ingredients are derived from naturally occurring plants and foods that are stripped of components that slow their absorption, such as fiber, water and protein. Then their most pleasurable ingredients are refined and processed into products that are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, enhancing their ability to light up regions of the brain that regulate reward, emotion, and motivation."

For me, it's simple: I've been an addict. I know my addictive behaviors because I lived them. And I know that those behaviors can center around food in ways very similar to how they used to center around beer and booze.

Sugar is the perfect industrial food: its perceived value is more than its actual cost to produce, people naturally seek it even when they can't detect its presence, it's not critical how it's transported, its shelf-life is essentially limitless, and so on. Like many alcoholics in recovery, I have a problem with it. I recall a time in the past when I actually did the following: got up in the middle of the night, got dressed, got in the car, and drove two miles to the all-night grocery store for a candy bar. That's addictive behavior, plain and simple. If you had asked me at the time, though, I would have taken great umbrage and scorned your concern: I just wanted a candy bar, is all! What could possibly be bad or even unusual about that? O'Connor, citing a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, writes, "certain foods [are] especially likely to elicit 'addictive-like' eating behaviors, such as intense cravings, a loss of control, and an inability to cut back despite experiencing harmful consequences and a strong desire to stop eating them." That was me. Denial is just a known characteristic he didn't mention.

Long ago, in passing, I heard cigarettes defined as "nicotine delivery products," and, ever since, I understood that many things, from cereal to coffee, could be "sugar-delivery products" for me. Recall the phrase the next time you pass an obese person who can't even go for a walk without sucking on a giant cup of soda through a straw. 

At least they don't mince words.

Misery loves company, and we encourage each other in our bad habits. There's a certain meme that's common among standup comedians. With infinite inventive variations, it goes along these lines:

Comedian: Sure, eating fruits and vegetables will make you live longer—but then why would you want to?
Audience: laughter and applause.
Mike, being all, like, adulty and party-pooperish: ha ha, but is it really all that great being helplessly compulsive about cheese, chocolate, sugar-water, butter, and grease?

And being locked in constant cravings? Is that what they're living for? Is it really "having fun" to be trapped in obesity and diabetes, or to have to exercise self-discipline just to drive past a Dunkin' Donuts or a Starbucks? C'mon. Ask the drunk you know if he is having "fun" drinking. Of course he'll say yes. Some fun. Party animal! (Don't get me started on the word "partying.")

It takes only four days of abstinence for my sugar cravings to subside markedly, and only two weeks for them to go away completely. The flip side is that even a small amount of sugar triggers the cravings anew and I have to start all over again.

They say food can't truly meet the definition of being addictive because it doesn't alter consciousness—yet people have no trouble understanding compulsive gambling or even excessive plastic surgery as being addictive. But the heck with finicky definitions of the terminology. Throw 'em all out the window. To quote the bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson, "you name it what you want to—you name it your mammy if you want to." Chuck the word out and call it what you will: certain "industrial formulations" masquerading as food can elicit addictive behavior from me, and that's the fact.

Mike

*Martínez Steele E, Baraldi LG, Louzada MLDC, et al
Ultra-processed foods and added sugars in the US diet: evidence from a nationally representative cross-sectional study
BMJ Open 2016;6:e009892. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009892

**www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18

Gear o' The Week:

I'm going to get a review unit of the Fuji GFX 50R as soon as the weather gets nice. Believe it or not what really appeals to me about it are the simplified controls. It has all the features I like and not many I don't like.

The above link is a portal to take you from TOP to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Here's a handy portal to B&H Photo, which also sells the GFX 50R:

Original contents copyright 2021 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Hermon Joyner: "I also experience refined sugar products as an addictive substance. An open bag of cookies or candy is an empty bag. I have finally adopted a zero-tolerance policy and after a while the cravings really do lessen. However, every once in a while they hit me hard and I have to fight the urge to buy a candy bar. Many years ago, I read a book called Sugar Blues by William Dufty. It was published in 1975. He details the addictive nature of sugar and the history of sugar production. If I remember correctly, he compares the sugar industrial complex to big tobacco. The book sometimes veers into sensationalism and conspiracy theory, but I think he got a lot of it right. You might find it interesting."

James: "I agree. I consider myself lucky that although at times I 'crave' chocolate, I don't like the taste of sugar (as in real sugar). I gave up sugar in tea when I was 12 or 13, and in coffee when I was 18. Never had it since. If I need a soda while eating out I will drink sugar-free. I can go months without chocolate if it is not in the house, but if there is a bar of Cadbury's in the fridge it will not survive long. I will eat a family size bar without any help. I have dinner without wine most nights, but if I open a bottle, I will finish it. I don't know if I would say addictive but, when I was young we would say something was very 'moorish,' as in, gotta have more of that, right now. I appreciate the food posts."

MikeR: "Having once driven out at midnight in a near-blizzard for a pack of cigarettes, I believe your comparison is a valid one. For several years after quitting, I actually dreamed about being able to have 'just one' without consequence. Several years later, a comprehensive allergy test showed, amongst other things, that I was allergic to tobacco! We humans are a bizarre species."

Francisco Cubas: I couldn't agree more Mike. I've been almost clean from industrial food eight years now, and one of the places (maybe The place, my memory fails) where I first learned about its dangers was here. I remember working in a newsroom as an editor, walking to the crapfood machine every three hours for my sugar, a Coke, a false chocolate biscuit. I really felt that I needed them to pass the working days, because I was miserable there. I think that qualifies as addictive behavior.

"So, thank you for always communicating this theme. My life has changed in so many ways for the better after avoiding all that crappy products. I would say that the main consequence is a strong feeling of freedom. I am no longer chained (in that area of life) to the schemes of the non-food industry, its publicists and its politicians. I eat what I want, always looking for health and sustaintability, plus, since I live in Latinoamérica, millennary traditions. I'm still learning, of course, but my life is so much richer and more enjoyable."

Herman Krieger: "Have you tried E'ola for diet control?"

Mike replies: That's funny Herman! You have a knack for the visual as well as the verbal pun.

Christopher Kleihege: This link is to a NYT Mag cover story from years ago. It is one of those reads that has stuck with me since I first read it. It also led me to think, once scientists are concocting the product, marketeers make it attractive, lawyers provide cover for the science and the marketing, and the companies only want to make money, the individual does not have a chance. Box it up, make it all about your individual choice, and away we go!"

Mike replies: Good catch. That's by Michael Moss, whose book Salt Sugar Fat is on my must-read list for food and diet. Good, short, informative book. Even the Amazon page is informative, with a segment of an interview and a short but vivid excerpt that's very relevant to this post. In fact I think I'll read Salt Sugar Fat again.

Comments

[Peter Wright]

OT comment: First, don't get me wrong. I found your post on addiction insightful and interesting. And count me among those who owe you a big "thanks" for pointing them to plant based healthy eating, loss of weight, and better health. I'm always amazed when I think that I got an improvement in health from my photography! Which brings me to my point: I posted a comment on your 'Zeiss clip on viewfinder' post a few days back to the effect that I owned a 21mm Zeiss and a 28mm Voigtlander at only half the cost, which was nearly as good. I though I better check so I dug out my external viewfinders and lo... the Voigtlander was nowhere near the quality of the Zeiss! (It was even tilted inside so than my shots were out of level! Probably from a fall.) So I did the only honourable thing: I ordered the Zeiss 25/28 through your links to B&H, and will throw the Voigtlander out!

[Jim Simmons]

Touch typing is worth the effort. Keep at it.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Food also can't be dealt with the way most recovering addicts deal with what they're addicted to—one can't completely give food up! (One can give up particularly categories of food, of course, which is what you describe, and what most people dealing with it do I think).

Let's see; the seriously obese people I know mostly don't consume much sugar regularly; they're all drinking diet soda out of those cups. I watched one friend move from regular soda to diet soda, and get no effect on their weight, and no apparent change in other parts of their diet.

As to running out to get a candy bar, that seems extreme. But having it happen once every few years wouldn't worry me. Having it happen more and more frequently would worry me—as would getting very careful about keeping them in stock so one didn't have to run out.

I'm pretty sure our scientific / medical understanding of addiction is poor (or at least not at all reflected in societal dialog), and our societal obsession around weight is killing a lot of people (from doctors not paying attention to symptoms of anything else in an obese person).

[John Krumm]

I'm still vegan, mostly whole foods, but made the mistake of buying some vegan "butter" for a recipe that called for it last week. You know the kind, a palm oil mix. A few days later it was all gone, and so was a whole lot of bread. It was a great bread delivery product, and the bread was a great palm oil delivery product. Harmony,.

[Dave Millier]

Hi Mike

Does the word "addiction" necessarily always carry negative connotations? I guess it depends on whether whatever addiction you have causes suffering to you or others. Your enthusiasm to, say, the pool table could easily seem like an addiction to outsiders. I've played the odd game of pool and snooker but I could never imagine spending a significant amount of time practising! I guess though it is completely harmless, as well as rewarding.

With regard to food, there is too much moralising in my book. Food is fuel and building resources for animals. For most animals it is often in short supply. We are evolutionarily programmed to seek and consume, it's literally in our genes. What is remarkable to me about first world countries, isn't that there are overweight people, but that there are thin people. What can they possibly be doing to overcome nature?

Processed food vendors know this, so of course they pack their foods with the most energy dense (thus, desirable) substances such as sugar and fat. We don't like sugar and fat because they taste nice, rather they taste nice because all those joules are what our body wants to survive. It just doesn't know that there is an unending supply coming its way because there haven't yet been enough generations to evolve resistance.

The real question is that given the health damage done by these attractive foods, when are governments going to stop lecturing us and start penalising the manufacturers. Maybe a sugar tax would be helpful?

[robert e]

I don't get how states of mind like hunger, craving, satiety and sensual pleasure could be considered anything but consciousness-altering. Like most all animals, we are motivated by sustenance, our senses and sensibilities hard-wired to identify sources of nutrition or just plain calories. And it's no secret that food marketing, packaging and retailing is devoted to hijacking that wiring. And anyone who has participated in any of our many food-sharing rituals understands the power of food to affect moods, minds, attitudes and relationships.

I too go through bouts of addiction and recovery, not only with sugar but with salt, and with carbs in general. They're a piece of cake (pun unintended) compared to cigarettes, which took me years of trying to quit. I was making progress on coffee, but pandemic measures seem to have set me back.

[Helen]

Of course food is addictive and alters consciousness, for example, carbohydrates are a rapid acting antidepressant that increases serotonin.

[Zyni Moë]

Anyone who believes sugar can not lead to altered state of consciousness has not been a child, nor stayed up all night relying on vast intake of sugar.

I have consumed many stimulants sometimes in large quantities both legal and not so much (am musician interested in jazz (but not heroin), mathematical physicist and hacker (old definition), all groups of people who use many stimulants): sugar is one of the most effective and leaves you just as f*cked up as speed: trust me on this, I know.

[David Drake]

The book “The Sugar Blues”, O my gosh, that brought back memories! In the late 1970’s, my father bought that book and proceeded to throw out everything in the kitchen which had sugar in it, much to the horror of my younger sister and I. That Easter was really hard. Instead of chocolate, the easter bunny got us carob. Decades later, I can still recall the taste of carob. It’s truly awful.
However, I have come to realize in the last number of years the incredible hold sugar has over me. I appreciate the effort which my father made (of course it didn’t last). I have managed to give up gluten ( I had a gluten allergy) and dairy, but sugar is such a big one. For me, it’s really an emotional thing. If I’m feeling down, I want a treat. If I’m up, I want to celebrate. It goes back to my childhood, my mother has admitted that when I was having a bad day she would make me cookies. I think the trick is finding healthier ways of making yourself feel better or rewarding yourself. Anyways, thanks for this article Mike. It’s an ongoing issue for me and for many I’m sure.

[c.d.embrey]

https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NTAwWDM0NA==/z/eM8AAOxyUylTVk5p/$_3.JPG?set_id=2

[Richard Parkin]

Slightly off-topic, but topical, The Guardian today reports that WHO finds a correlation between countries with obese populations and COVID deaths:

The issue is not just obesity, but levels of weight that many assume are now normal in many countries. Death rates are 10 times higher in those where more than half the adults had a body mass index (BMI) of more than 25kg/m2 – the point at which normal weight tips into overweight.

https://bit.ly/3kIA5ff

[BobS]

My current downfall...Girl Scout Cookies!

[Thor D.]

Following up on Dave's comment, I don't think addiction has be be a dirty word. As William James said, "the fact is that our virtues are habits as much as our vices." The brain is a bit harder to meld into those positive behaviors because the reward is a bit far in the future for our immediate-gratification conditioned brains, but true joy in life comes from doing something hard or unpleasant with the knowledge that even that action is in itself joyous.

[MikeR]

Thinking about sugar as an addictive additive prompted me to recall this bit of information, that I acquired just coincidentally while working on an IT consulting contract about 20 years ago.

The client company processed and refined licorice from the dry raw root. Much of the product's final form was in the shape of a dark brick, made from the licorice liquor and molasses, plus some flour. The largest customer base, comprising some 80+% of sales ? Tobacco companies.

They coated the shredded tobacco with the licorice product. Doing that accomplished two things: 1- the company could use a cheaper lower grade and harsher tobacco, and 2- the sugar coating added to the addictive quality.

Evil, no?

[Geoff Goldberg]

I used to pay scant attention to such issues, and woke up at 65 to Drs warning about diabetes. Went on massive diet restructuring, lost a bunch of weight, and changed what's in the house. The usual - no more white stuff - pasta, bread, cheeses (most, not all), potatoes - gone. As to the sugars? Can't fully shake that, but now the urge is met with grapes, some prunes, even for dessert - the 4 dates. Its not perfect, but its a heck of a lot better. The body and head feel better, and the moods are much more manageable. Wish I'd pay attention earlier, but better late than never.

[Luke]

One more vote: I appreciate the food/health related OT posts.

[Jeff in Colorado]

For what it's worth, I felt that the documentary "Fasting" on Amazon Prime Video was a mixed bag overall, but did find the commentary by James Fung of particular note, in which he advocates nothing more drastic than eating regular meals within a certain span of time each day. Anecdotally the idea resonates with me because the in the past that I recall, there were simply fewer opportunities to eat any sort of food outside of family mealtimes: In this past if you had a late night craving for pizza, what were you going to do when microwave ovens weren't common household fixtures, frozen pizza didn't exist, and the only local pizza parlor was closed for the night?

[Homer Office]

Podcasts at "Innovation Hub"

"Fat and Fiction (and Sugar)"

http://blogs.wgbh.org/innovation-hub/2014/2/20/fat-and-fiction-and-sugar/

"Put down that low-fat yogurt! Dr. Robert Lustig says that sugar - not fat - may be the real culprit behind America's obesity epidemic. In the 1970s, America found itself embroiled in a full-on war: on fats, that is. Low-fat foods became all the rage, and supermarket shelves stocked up on a smorgasbord of low-fat yogurts, pastries, you name it. But, in the name of going low-fat, food manufacturing companies began putting their products through quite a transformation. 'When you take the fat out of the food, it tastes like cardboard. It tastes nasty!' Lustig says. 'The food industry knew that. They said, 'What are we going to do to make the food palatable?' The answer: add the sugar."

"The Science Behind Obesity"
http://blogs.wgbh.org/innovation-hub/2016/9/9/mozzlee-obesity/

"We’ve got a growing problem in the US: almost 35 percent of American adults are obese. Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and Dr. Bruce Lee, director of the Global Obesity Prevention Center at Johns Hopkins, think that these stats constitute a national emergency. According to Mozaffarian, the high obesity rates stem more from poor diet than lack of exercise. Americans increasingly eat liquid calories, starch, and sugar."