Have you ever wondered why you crave food that you know is unhealthy for you?
Finally, Science comes forth and says what most of us have already known; Junk Food IS Addictive!
A new addiction has been coined and has a professional name: Food Addict. Research has shown that food containing refined or processed sugars and fatty foods actually stimulate the same areas of the brain that addictions to cocaine, nicotine, and drugs stimulate.
The director for the National Institute on Drug Abuse states:
“The data is so overwhelming the field has to accept it. We are finding tremendous overlap between drugs in the brain and food in the brain.”
Brain scans in people reveal that areas of the brain light up similar to the areas experienced by drug users when presented with the addictive substance. Food addict’s reward centers of the brain light up when presented with food just as drug addicts’s reward centers in their brain light up when present with drugs.
Unsurprisingly, animals that were tested for food addictions showed that sugar-laden and fatty foods caused addictive behavior patterns. Almost 30 scientific papers have cited this very information.
Kelly Brownellz, Dean of Sanford School’s of Public Policy at Duke University, said this about needing more research into food addictions:
“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.”
It is important to note that food is not bad. It is the processing and manipulating of food that causes the addictions. If you think about it… processed foods are chemical compounds; literally food created in a lab. These chemical compounds cause the chemical addictions we see in the brain.
Will The Real Food Please Stand Up?!
It is sad that we actually call these chemical addictions food addictions because we are now defining our food as chemicals. There is real food to be found that does not cause addictions and problems in the body, but will actually heal the body. These foods are known as living food. Foods that we grow in our gardens and pick from trees and bushes are real food. These foods are the REAL foods.
If you want to kick your food addiction, begin to eat real food as close to nature as you can get it. You will find that you lose the taste and craving for the so-called food you were used to eating.
Do not be fooled by the junk food found in health food stores. Just because it is in a health food store or comes in the name of a popular healthy food, doesn’t mean it is good for you or something you should eat every day.
Take for instance Kale chips. Kale can be found in nature, flavored kale chips cannot.
Eat as close to what you find in nature as possible. Use treats, like kale chips, as treats instead of daily staples.
What is your one healthy junk food addiction? Mine is humus.