Junk food addiction is real

[Guest guest]

CBC MARKETPLACE: FOOD » JUNK FOOD ADDICTION

http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/marketfood/junkfood_addiction/

 

Can we be addicted to junk food?

Broadcast: October 29, 2002 | Reporter: Wendy Mesley; Producer: Greg

Sadler; Researchers: Colman Jones, Leonardo Palleja

 

In Duncan, B.C., a group has gathered for a meeting. It’s one of those

12-step meetings - a gathering of people who are hooked. But the

substance at the heart of this meeting is one we have all abused. It is

a gathering of Food Addicts Anonymous.

 

“I’ve been addicted to many substances and it’s exactly the same, " one

participant says. " The getting ready to go to the store to get my

food…feels exactly the same as when I was going for other addictive

substances in my past.”

 

Addicted or not — almost half of Canadian adults are now overweight.

Fifteen-percent are considered obese. Only smoking is a bigger health

problem. The numbers are growing at an alarming rate.

 

We all joke about being junk food junkies. But a growing number of

scientists say there may be something to that.

 

Addicted rats

 

Given a mixture of sucrose and water, Dr Michael Persinger's rats were

insatiable

 

At Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, one researcher says rats

may have something to teach us about why we eat the way we do.

 

For several months, Dr. Michael Persinger fed his rats sucrose — water

and sugar — one week, and then just regular water the next.

 

It was no surprise rats liked sugar. But who doesn't? Persinger set out

to test just how much they would drink. They drank up to 30 per cent of

their body weight every day. They ate more too. They were insatiable.

 

“Can you imagine spending 24 hours a day, once every five minutes,

sucking on a sucrose bottle? I mean, that’s typically what addiction is

considered to be,” Persinger said.

 

Compulsive behaviour – one sign of addiction. Another comes when you

take the desired substance away.

 

“The worst bite I ever received in 30 years of research was with those

animals.”

 

Another sign of addiction – the rats’ sleep patterns were disturbed. But

how does it relate to people?

 

" The important aspect of addictive behaviours is that the time between

the craving and the reinforcement’s immediate. That’s why fast foods are

so effective.”

 

Persinger adds that based on his experiments and observations, part of

the general population could be labelled as junk food junkies.

At 13-years-old, Jonathan Loza already weighs more than the average

adult male should weigh. He says he's not a junk food addict. He’s

trying to kick his cravings for fast food with a little exercise.

 

“When I want something good to eat, I’ll have it and then I’ll think

back on what I did and I’ll say, I shouldn’t have done that, but then

it’ll be too late.”

 

But it's tough, especially for a teenager in the suburbs. In a three

kilometre radius around Jonathan's home in Mississauga, Ontario, we

counted 92 fast food outlets. Tempting and easy to get your fast food fix.

 

The dopamine connection

 

On Long Island, New York, psychiatrist Dr. Nora Volkow scanned the

brains of several of her patients — all big overeaters. She wanted to

try and figure out why they eat so much.

 

Volkow suspected addiction played a part. She found the brains of the

obese look a lot like the brains of drug addicts. It all has to do with

dopamine — a brain chemical that controls pleasure.

 

“The images show the concentration of dopamine receptors…and you see by

comparing these images that the people who have normal weights have much

more receptors here…than the people who are obese.”

 

It’s not clear, according to Volkow, if all this is the cause or the

consequence of obesity. But what is clear, she says, is that obese

people need to eat more to feel satisfied.

 

“It is compulsion to consume the food, and it creates a lot of anxiety.

They don’t take it if they don’t eat, so it’s very similar to what you

see in drug addiction.”

 

Volkow points out that a major difference with drug addiction is that

you can completely separate yourself from the drug. In obesity, you

can't because you need food to survive.

 

It doesn’t help that we’re constantly bombarded with messages about food

— usually fast food — everywhere we turn. Many of those ads are aimed at

the most susceptible — the young, like Jonathan Loza.

 

Loza's been attending an obesity clinic for the past six months. His

pediatrician — Dr. Glenn Berall — is seeing a lot more kids like

Jonathan, who now has a problem with his liver.

 

" We’re seeing more diabetes…we’re seeing high cholesterol, a number of

things that don’t bode well for the future health of our children. When

I was a resident…we never saw that.”

 

'Not sold on addiction argument'

 

Berall is not sold on the addiction argument. But he does want something

done to cut down all the junk food and step up our activity levels.

 

“I think government has a responsibility here. Government’s going to

have to pick up the tab of the consequences of not doing something. And

therefore, I think government might want to invest the money in

preventing that excess tab, which is coming.”

 

In Ottawa, the feds aren’t familiar with the addiction research, either.

Instead, they are taking the traditional route when it comes to battling

obesity.

 

Health Canada's Mary Bush says the first step is to understand the issue.

 

" Education alone won’t do this. What we need is to collectively work

together and in an inter-sectoral, multi-level way, address the issues

and find solutions. "

 

Bush adds Canada's waistline didn't collectively expand overnight — so

it will take some time to turn back the clock on obesity.

 

Back at the food court, it all comes down to people making choices. Or

are the scientists right — that we don’t have as much choice as we like

to think?

 

“The food industry, of course, wants to sell, so they optimize the taste

and composition of food, so to maximize the likelihood that will

generate the compulsive urge to eat more. And we know that because we’ve

all had it,” Long Island psychiatrist Dr. Nora Volkow says.