Sometimes, the title of an article really does say it all: Fatty Foods Addictive Like Cocaine. Huh. I could have told them THAT.
A growing body of medical research at leading universities and government laboratories suggests that processed foods and sugary drinks made by the likes of PepsiCo Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) aren’t simply unhealthy. They can hijack the brain in ways that resemble addictions to cocaine, nicotine and other drugs.
[...]The idea that food may be addictive was barely on scientists’ radar a decade ago. Now the field is heating up. Lab studies have found sugary drinks and fatty foods can produce addictive behavior in animals. Brain scans of obese people and compulsive eaters, meanwhile, reveal disturbances in brain reward circuits similar to those experienced by drug abusers.
[...]“This could change the legal landscape,” said Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity and a proponent of anti-obesity regulation. “People knew for a long time cigarettes were killing people, but it was only later they learned about nicotine and the intentional manipulation of it.”
I have no problem saying this — I’m overweight. It’s something that I would like to change about myself, but I’m not “ashamed” of it. It’s just a fact. That said, my weakness has always been sweets. Cookies and cupcakes and those blasted Fuzzy Peaches. I eat them all, and even when I’m not hungry and I know that they’re bad for me, I still head for the candy and bakery aisles every time I go to the grocery store.
Has my weakness for sugary foods contributed to my excessive weight? Most definitely. Would I sue the company that makes Fuzzy Peaches for making me fat? Dear God, no. At the end of the day, I’m the one who opened the bag of candy, the same as I’m the one who lights up my cigarette and I’m the one who pours a rum and Coke (more sugar, I might add!). At some point, I am responsible for the choices that I make and no one else should be made to pay for them.
Ten bucks says that the first lawsuit is filed within five minutes of this study becoming scientific fact. And I find that sad.
