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And none of this even goes into how much modern food is designed and engineered to be as addictive as possible. Every snack food is built practically from the m

And none of this even goes into how much modern food is designed and engineered to be as addictive as possible. Every snack food is built practically from the molecule up to hit as many of the addiction-causing transmitters as possible, from the texture of the food, to the shape of the salt they use, to the size of the serving, all of it is designed to make you want more, perpetually, and as much more as possible. The average consumer is not even remotely prepared in a fight against a food industry with thousands of PhD's working to make the food as addictive as possible, the fight isn't even remotely fair. And then we get mad at everyone who fails, and wonder why so many are so horribly obese.

electriclove 9y ago
The addiction is the part that does not receive enough attention in regards to sugar, caffeine, and other substances that don't carry the stigma of alcohol, nicotine, or other drugs.
- jshevek 9y ago
  This really is a shame. We could improve the quality of many people's lives, extend their lifespans, and save money on health care if we treated sugar addiction as serious social problems, the way we do alcohol, nicotine, and harder drugs.
  - FussyZeus 9y ago
    The extra sick part of this is when you watch documentaries or whatever and the obese talk about this need to eat, just feeling hungry all the time, so much so that diets are literally excruciating all I can think is "This is an addict, this person is an addict, they need help, look at these poor people, they are suffering!" and I can't believe so many other people just don't see that. No one in their right mind would ever tell a meth addict that they just need to use willpower to get over it. And the worst part is, you need to eat, you can't just not eat, so while you're recovering from a food addiction you must continue eating food. And people wonder why the failure rate is so high.
- peteretep 9y ago
  I absolutely believe sugar is addictive, having been addicted to some other stuff, and also having tried to cut sugar. Last I checked though, there's little hard data to back this up.
philipkglass 9y ago
When I was in graduate school many foreign students noted that American food was too sweet and put in extra effort to find food that more resembled that from their home countries. This seems at odds with humans "naturally" loving sweetness-everywhere. The other thing that makes the "carbs are fattening us" story seem incomplete (though not necessarily wrong) is that a generation or two ago obesity rates were much lower even in countries where people ate/eat carbohydrate-rich foods routinely (noodles, rice, tortillas, bread). It's not like everyone in Italy was on a ketogenic diet in the 1980s. It seems like there must be multiple overlapping causes for the rise in obesity rates because all of the One Big Thing stories I've read about it have obvious counterexamples.
- FussyZeus 9y ago
  Your foreign friends were onto it; the problem is that those carb-rich foods in the US are by and large CRAMMED with sugar, which doubles down the effect; carbs to trigger the insulin response, and sugar that the body can convert extremely efficiently to fat. Homemade pasta is incredibly healthy; you still should meter your intake of course, but for the most part it's very good for you (especially if you're doing a lot of exercise). Look at the ingredients in most box pasta sold in the US, however, and you see so much added sugar and corn syrup. It's not One Big Thing. It's several fairly big things, most of which are concentrated heavily in the USA.
  - cyxxon 9y ago
    How do you add sugar or corn syrup to pasta in the US? Shouldn't it basically be just wheat? Or do you mean the sauce you eat with the pasta? Honest question!
    - maxxxxx 9y ago
      I don't know about pasta but with bread you will find d that even whole wheat breads are sweetened. No way they would do this in Germany or France. And sauces have a ton of added sugar too.
  - maxxxxx 9y ago

electriclove 9y ago

The addiction is the part that does not receive enough attention in regards to sugar, caffeine, and other substances that don't carry the stigma of alcohol, nicotine, or other drugs.

jshevek 9y ago
This really is a shame. We could improve the quality of many people's lives, extend their lifespans, and save money on health care if we treated sugar addiction as serious social problems, the way we do alcohol, nicotine, and harder drugs.
- FussyZeus 9y ago
  The extra sick part of this is when you watch documentaries or whatever and the obese talk about this need to eat, just feeling hungry all the time, so much so that diets are literally excruciating all I can think is "This is an addict, this person is an addict, they need help, look at these poor people, they are suffering!" and I can't believe so many other people just don't see that. No one in their right mind would ever tell a meth addict that they just need to use willpower to get over it. And the worst part is, you need to eat, you can't just not eat, so while you're recovering from a food addiction you must continue eating food. And people wonder why the failure rate is so high.
peteretep 9y ago
I absolutely believe sugar is addictive, having been addicted to some other stuff, and also having tried to cut sugar. Last I checked though, there's little hard data to back this up.

philipkglass 9y ago

When I was in graduate school many foreign students noted that American food was too sweet and put in extra effort to find food that more resembled that from their home countries. This seems at odds with humans "naturally" loving sweetness-everywhere. The other thing that makes the "carbs are fattening us" story seem incomplete (though not necessarily wrong) is that a generation or two ago obesity rates were much lower even in countries where people ate/eat carbohydrate-rich foods routinely (noodles, rice, tortillas, bread). It's not like everyone in Italy was on a ketogenic diet in the 1980s. It seems like there must be multiple overlapping causes for the rise in obesity rates because all of the One Big Thing stories I've read about it have obvious counterexamples.

FussyZeus 9y ago
Your foreign friends were onto it; the problem is that those carb-rich foods in the US are by and large CRAMMED with sugar, which doubles down the effect; carbs to trigger the insulin response, and sugar that the body can convert extremely efficiently to fat. Homemade pasta is incredibly healthy; you still should meter your intake of course, but for the most part it's very good for you (especially if you're doing a lot of exercise). Look at the ingredients in most box pasta sold in the US, however, and you see so much added sugar and corn syrup. It's not One Big Thing. It's several fairly big things, most of which are concentrated heavily in the USA.
- cyxxon 9y ago
  How do you add sugar or corn syrup to pasta in the US? Shouldn't it basically be just wheat? Or do you mean the sauce you eat with the pasta? Honest question!
  - maxxxxx 9y ago
    I don't know about pasta but with bread you will find d that even whole wheat breads are sweetened. No way they would do this in Germany or France. And sauces have a ton of added sugar too.
- maxxxxx 9y ago