Hyperpalatable Foods: Science or Science Fiction? Part 3
Childhood obesity, adult obesity, food addiction, processed food, chemicals, and corporations… all these things and more are inextricably entwined, and their relationship gives rise to many questions. Like, are they putting stuff in food to make it addictive, on purpose? What is the probability level of that happening? There used to be a widespread urban […]
Hyperpalatable Foods: Science or Science Fiction? Part 2
A lot of creativity goes into persuasion, as in advertising and marketing fast foods, and a lot of originality goes into efforts to deal with the obesity epidemic. A great deal of creative energy is found in the projects of Public Matters, an organization described thusly: Public Matters is an interdisciplinary California-based social enterprise comprised […]
Hyperpalatable Foods: Science or Science Fiction? Part 1
What do we know about the chemical commonly known as salt? According to David Kessler, the former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, over-eating might be due to… the combination of fats, sugars and salt used by food manufactures to trigger a ‘bliss’ point in the human brain. Sarah Hughes said that, in […]
Snacks and Labels, Junk and Nature
In December, Bruce Horovitz reported on a rather interesting event, the announcement by Frito-Lay that the corporation will start making half of its snacks from all-natural ingredients. (Frito-Lay, incidentally, is part of PepsiCo, so you know what kind of natural, healthy credentials we’re talking about.) According to Ann Mukherjee, the chief marketing officer, there will […]
Eating as Recreation, Food as Fun
When something hits a nerve, there’s no mistaking it. Friday’s post “When There is Nothing to Do But Eat,” concerning one of the contributing factors to the childhood obesity epidemic, definitely brought forth a flood of comments, ranging from pure nostalgia to well-reasoned arguments. Many thanks to everybody for contributing to this topic! By the […]
The Irresistible Junk Food
Let’s take a look at the simple explanations of several landmark studies in the field of childhood obesity, many of which seem to point to the reality of the food addiction paradigm. Freelance journalist Bijal Trivedi specializes in scientific, environmental, and medical matters, and her work has appeared in every magazine you’ve ever heard […]
Child Obesity, Junk Food Tie Worldwide
The bad news: childhood obesity is on the rise in many places around the globe. The good news: it’s not exclusively an American problem. And if that is what we’re willing to settle for in the good-news department these days, we’re in deep chocolate pudding. Geoff Cumming tells us that New Zealand, one of the […]
Is Junk Food Addiction for Real?
A recent study published by Scripps Research Institute indicates that foods laced with fat, sugar, and salt are capable of causing addiction similar to the addiction to nicotine and cocaine. At DiversityInc, Sam Ali quotes one of the researchers, Paul Kenny, who says he and his fellow scientists […] let lab rats gorge round-the-clock on cake frosting […]