Fast Food & Junk Food Addiction

With the rise of diabetes and obesity in our society, it is not hard to imagine that the eating of excess amounts of fast food and junk food is part of the blame.

Fast food and junk food include  hamburgers, French fries, so-called "milk" shakes, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), pizza, processed foods, lunch meats, soda, diet soda, sweets, candies, pastries, fried chicken, tacos, and many other so-called "foods".

Intellectually, we know that these foods are bad for us, but, these foods taste so good and they're so easy to obtain, that it is difficult to not stop by McDonald's or KFC on the way home from a tough day at the office and pick up some burgers and fries or a bucket of chicken.

Researchers and biochemists that work for food manufacturers know how to make these foods taste delicious. They are aware of the combination of the brain, mouth, nose and gut when it comes to adding chemicals to food to make these foods taste so good. As a result, they know what specific chemicals to add to the fast food that will trigger the release of dopamine, norepinephrine and other brain chemicals. And, it is the release of these brain chemicals that make us addicted to these fast  foods and junk food!

Consequently, it is very important that you understand how to break the addiction and still enjoy some of your favorite foods every once in a while. During his research, Mr. McCulley (the author of "Death to Diabetes") figured out how to break the addiction and then learn how to eat healthier versions of these foods!

First of all, there are several factors that drive us to eat fast food and junk food. Maybe if we understand these factors, we can determine how to avoid poisoning our bodies with these dangerous foods in the future.

The factors that influence our behaviors to buy and eat these toxic foods include the following:

• Chemical addiction: There are chemicals in these fast foods and junk foods that make us addicted to them just like crack cocaine and heroin!
• Emotional connection: Eating some foods trigger happy memories from the "good ol' days".
• Cost: Most fast foods and junk food are less inexpensive (at least in the short run).
• Convenience: Fast food and junk food are very easy to obtain. Doesn't it seem like there's a fast food place on almost every major corner in your town?
• TV ads: Marketing plays a huge role in creating the desire to go out and buy these foods. Every 20 seconds, there's a TV ad about some fast food! Children who watch more than 1 hour of TV each day become "brainwashed" into wanting nothing but sugary cereals and McDonald's burgers! Plus, it doesn't help when we see celebrities and athletes on TV trying to convince us to buy lots of fast food and drink a lot of beer!
• Lifestyle: The American lifestyle embraces a culture of eating fast food and junk food as part of a normal recreational activity or a celebratory event.
• Discipline: The lack of discipline, motivation and our own laziness make it difficult to want to change our poor eating habits.
• Lack of Knowledge: Our own lack of knowledge and awareness when it comes to what we put in our mouths is appalling! Plus, we set a bad example for our children! The various education platforms have failed to adequately promote nutrition education alongside physical education, creating new generations of overweight and diabetic parents along with their children.

Marketing
When traveling across major cities like New York, Minneapolis, San Diego, Chicago, and Atlanta, literally around every major street corner is a fast food restaurant. Fast food is readily available for those of us who understand that time itself is money.  In our society, time is valuable. When we have so much to do every day and we don't feel like cooking, fast food seems to be the easiest way to get more accomplished.

In addition to the fact that fast food is readily available, the heavy use of commercial ads on all major stations makes it impossible to watch your favorite show on television without seeing a friendly ad with addicting music and cute children (Ever wonder why they use so much rap music with these ads? -- a topic for another day).

Hmm-mm. Have you ever noticed that they use good-looking thin people and not fat people in these TV ads?  I wonder, if these ads showed fat people enjoying an over-sized hamburger, would they have the same appeal?

Lifestyle
Besides marketing, the typical American lifestyle and culture has also played an important role in the obesity epidemic. When going to the movie theater or a sports event, it is acceptable for us to buy some of the unhealthiest food available. Between the high levels of saturated fat and salt, we seem to think we’re invincible against hypertension and high cholesterol. Also part of our culture is the donating to charity by accepting something in return, like chocolate, a cake or some cookies. Sure, we all love the Girl Scout cause, but do we really have to indulge in 3 boxes of peanut butter cookies?

So, what about the poor in our society?  Not everyone in our society can afford to take part in recreational activities and accept cookies for donating to a good cause, yet we still see obese people.  For them, junk food is fast food and fast food is readily available and generally the cheapest in the sense that it does not require the use of a well stocked kitchen and fills you up in little time.  In the short run, it appears to be “cost efficient” for a poor person or family to eat a lot of fast food. Why pay several dollars for fresh vegetables and beans that you have to go home and cook when you can buy already-prepared burgers, fries, chips, and soda for the same price and be full for a lot longer?

Education
Finally, we examine education, or shall we say the lack of education.  Despite being seen as global leaders, nutritional education is not valued as much as math or English.  It is very rare to find a school that requires all students to take nutrition or cooking classes. Even physical education, which at a minimum encourages water over soda, doesn’t receive as much funding as the science or math departments.

Then, there is the lack of education children receive at home. Just like parents explain in grave detail the importance of avoiding drugs and violence, they need to teach their children how to make positive eating choices like eating fruits more often than candy and buying a salad meal w/milk instead of a double hamburger meal w/ fries.

But, the good news is that there is a reasonable solution that doesn't require you to drastically change your eating habits requiring you to only eat raw food and grass every day.

Solution
It is clear how marketing, lifestyle, addiction, and education affect our ability to choose healthy food over fast food.  They are connected in many complex ways, but the most important thing to remember is that if you want to eat healthy, you have to address all of these areas. Take the following steps to eating healthier and avoiding fast food:

• Try to plan your meals when going out.  Bring your own lunch, but if you can’t, buy a salad instead of hamburger.  You can add chicken to the salad for protein to help fill you up.
• Try to read about why junk food is so unhealthy and ways to add more healthy foods to your diet.  There are lots of free healthy recipes online.  Take advantages of a few.
• Try to eat foods that contain good chemicals (phytonutrients) that will help to break your addiction to the fast food.
• Read a book like Death to Diabetes to educate yourself and your family about healthy eating.
• Visit the Death to Diabetes website or read a book like the Death to Diabetes Cookbook to learn how to enjoy healthier versions of your favorite junk foods.
• Try donating to charities and good causes without accepting cakes and cookies or a pie in return.  If you want something back for your effort, try a tax deduction instead.

These steps can help you change your lifestyle to the point where you avoid junk food on a subconscious level, which is a lot better than counting calories. More importantly, the steps in a future post will show you to kick your poor eating habits and kill those food addictions and food cravings forever.