Wednesday, 31 March 2010

• Food Addictions: Fat, Sugar, and Salt

  Sometimes readers and friends send me online articles about certain health topics. One trend that I noticed was that a lot of articles talked about how addicting certain components of food are. One article talked about how high-fat foods can alter your brain in similar ways like heroin can. Another article asks if sugar is better than cocaine. And then you always hear bad things about salt. I found another article that talks about how there are more strict laws on salt than heroin in New York City.

  Fat. Sugar. Salt.

  What makes food so addicting that sometimes you feel you just can't stop yourself? Is it one of these or all of these components? What is causing the obesity pandemic?

  There is a really interesting book that a reader recommended to me and wanted to know my opinion on it. I finally got the chance to read "The End of Overeating" by David Kessler a few months ago and I have to say it's really eye-opening! The author argues that it is a perfect combination of fat, sugar, and salt that is addicting, not just any single component.

  

  If it was just "fat" was addicting, then we would reach for whole sticks of butter and stick it in our mouths! I've accidentally done this before (it was a dollop of butter on my pancakes which I thought was whipping cream) and it wasn't nice! I spat it out immediately.

  

  If it was just "sugar" that was addicting, then we'd probably be stealing all the sugar packets from Starbucks and pouring the sugar directly in our mouths!

  

  If it was just "salt" that was addicting, then we'd probably love drinking ocean salt water. If the salt shaker spilled over like in the picture above, we'd probably lick up it.

  But we don't do any of the things above, which is why Kessler theorizes that it's not necessarily any one component of food that is addicting, but a combination of fat, sugar and salt! "The End of Overeating" has tons of examples of these fat/sugar/salt combinations in restaurant foods. (I actually think the author describes the food a little TOO well and he kept making my mouth salivate.) The author believes that the food industry's goal is to find this perfect fat/sugar/salt combination to make us addicted and keep coming back to purchase their foods.

  This book was really eye-opening. I was at a dinner party recently and when I was munching on a honey garlic chicken wing, I thought "Yep there's fat. Yep there's salt. Yep there's sugar. Yep this is definitely delicious and I want another!"

  If you ever get the chance to read this book, let me know what you think. It has some really great advice and tips near the end on how to overcome food addiction and end overeating. The author calls this section "food rehab".

  The end story is that it is possible to overcome this addiction to food.  All these reports about how certain food components are addicting should not be an excuse to be overweight. We can re-train our bodies to get used to wholesome, natural foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. We can also use non-food things as rewards like exercising or buying ourselves something new.

  But it's definitely a tough battle! Many have a love/hate relationship with food and that's absolutely normal. With the right choices, food can be a healthy and plentiful part of our lives.

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