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Winning the Junk Food War

Recently I had an experience I am sure many will find very familiar.  One evening I hosted a little get-together in my home to celebrate a friend's recent promotion at work.  Like all such friendly gatherings, I wanted it to be a fun, relaxing experience.  Food, of course, would play a vital role.  Considering my guests, I put together a large variety of delightful "finger foods" - Bite-sized sandwiches, veggies and dips, cheese and crackers, nuts and lots and lots of what I somewhat euphemistically call "snack foods".  But let's face it, we know what I really served.  Junk food!  Potato chips, Doritos, Cheetos, Oreos, Chips Ahoy cookies and the list goes on.  I normally never allow such things in my home, and for very good reasons.  

But what's the problem?  I am an adult, with self-direction, control, and free will, right?  I'm not stupid and not childish.  Right, that's what I thought too.  But by the end of that evening, I felt physically rotten and had probably gained a pound or two of body weight.  While I enjoyed having my friends over, my self-esteem took a bit of a hit having realized (once again) that these "snack foods" had got the better of me, despite my determination, understanding and resolution.   And you know what?  It isn't entirely my fault.  

Do you ever wonder why some foods have that unique ability to make you lose track, lose control, lose concern, and always eat more than you ought?  Well, believe it or not, it's no accident.  There is a real science to why certain foods have this affect and other foods, which we may very much like and enjoy, do not.  To understand this, and get the bottom of the problem that I, and so many, have with these foods, we need to consider how certain foods "work" with our bodies, and how food manufacturers capitalize on this phenomena.  

We eat to survive, obviously.  Our bodies need a combination of protein, fat, and carbohydrates to operate efficiently.  Further, we need fiber and a large variety of vitamins and minerals.  A significant lack in one of these can create cravings that are sometimes hard to resist.  This is nature's way of driving us to do what our bodies need, and underscores that there is a chemistry and a science behind eating.  To make sure we eat, again, nature has made food pleasurable and all creatures have evolved to enjoy certain foods. Though personal tastes vary, in general, we like complexity and intensity in the flavors and experiences we are designed by nature to enjoy in food, and our senses reward us with endorphins when we experience the right combinations and right potency of experience.  

We respond to sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami, the main tastes we can experience, but there is much more to it.  The sight, sound, smell and texture all play huge roles.  The initial taste in the mouth, how the flavor develops as we chew and  the aroma released all combine to create complexity of experience.  Add to this components like crunchiness, or chewiness, or creaminess, and when you get just the right balance of flavors and complexity of sensory experience, you are rewarded - you have that "mmmmm, yummy!" experience of pleasure.  

Knowing this, there are things food manufacturers can do to food to hit all the right notes.  For example, coating the surface of a food, such as a chip, with a combination of flavors that are most instantly registered, such as salt or msg, then mixing in other flavors that will develop as you chew, such as fat and yet more salt, and giving it a definite crunch that then becomes the right consistency of tastes and textures in the mouth, is a trigger for a lot of people.  Combining fat and sweet in a crunch and creamy combination is another complex experience that many cannot resist.  Adding artificial scent factors further enhances the experience.

We all know this on some level - that these foods are designed to please and to sell.  So what's the problem with such tactics?  Well, much of this food manipulation has an agenda that really isn't so benign - or at least the ultimate effects are not benign.  Unlike more natural foods, junk foods that are carefully concocted in this way are meant to make you eat more, and more, and more.  And to create cravings based on that pleasurable experience.  This is very different from craving an orange because you need some vitamin C, or feeling satisfied after a balanced and pleasant meal.  It is much more like a compulsion - and a compulsion that isn't just about getting nourishment and nutrients. 

Food manufacturers know these effects well and are forever working to perfect the magic formulas.  They know all the tricks and combinations very well, and have teams of food developers working always to create just the right formula that will hit all the right buttons.  There are "food scientists" who study the affects food has on the brain and body chemistry, and have documented the reactions and responses that lead to the cravings and extreme responses junk food can trigger.  Did you know that there are even studies done to get just the right crinkly sound to the bag that holds your chips, since studies show this even can persuade you in the experience?  Or that foods are tested over and over, with teams of scientists and professional food "tasters", working to always refine the product  - adding fat, salt, sugar and altering every aspect such as color, surface textures and aromas in just the right amounts to create the complexity of our most basic food desires that don't appear naturally in food.  The goal?  To really get you hooked.  And that is the problem.  

Such foods are not created with any concern for nutritional value.  Often these foods are really unhealthy.  But that, in itself, isn't the real issue.  The most serious problem is that these foods are designed to make you want more and more.  They are designed to not fill you up, though they are calorically dense, so you will keep eating them.  They are designed to make you crave and create a profound enough response that you will struggle to maintain moderation, that you will throw caution to the wind. They are meant to create a profound physical, psychological and emotional response that will overwhelm your sense of moderation and control.  There is nothing wrong with the elements of foods that create pleasure.  There's a reason for that - an evolutionary, biological reason.  But nature isn't forever working to create foods that trigger the most extreme responses, that are excessively fatty, sugary, salty, etc.  That is the realm of man - and specifically the realm of junk food manufacturers and their marketing teams.

For some people, it's not a big deal.  They can control their desires for such foods, and can have such items as a treat or forego them altogether.  But for many people that is not the case at all.  They can't easily control these cravings and the effect is almost like a drug.  They can't have just a little.  In fact, studies of both animals and humans have shown that food can trigger the same pattern of response and reaction that is seen in drug addiction.  There are even eating disorders such as binge eating in which one literally cannot control the behavior and usually needs medical and psychological intervention to gain control.  Obviously those are extreme examples, but the fact is that for many people, to some degree, food can exert a control and create a response that is not easily controlled, and that is highly detrimental.  It isn't fresh vegetables and fruit or low fat proteins creating the problem.  It is most often the food we class as "junk" - the food designed to trigger such responses.  

And food marketing counts on this.  In fact, there was a brand of potato chips with a marketing campaign  boasting the fact that no one can "eat just one" and challenged you to test whether you could eat a single chip.  This brazen, almost shameless boast was not a boast.  For most people it is a fact, a fact the manufacturers are counting on and the marketing teams have even come to use as a marketing tool.  You'd think that fact - the scary idea that you literally cannot control yourself, that you cannot have a limited amount -  would be off-putting.  Well, not if we make it funny and cute and a challenge in the television and print advertisements.  Thus the jingle and cartoon characters, or the happy, attractive, physically fit actors all singing and dancing and enthusing about chips, or cookies or candy bars.  

For many, the feelings of guilt or fear or regret that such foods inspire is the only defense against the pull they can have on us.  Marketing plays a big role in creating the moods and thinking behind the emotional and mental framework for accepting junk food in our daily lives.  Marketing strives to normalize a relationship to these foods that is really anything but normal - a relationship that, for many, is almost like an addiction, or like using a drug.  You never see a massive campaign to promote apples, or carrots, or grapes.  But the cookies, potato chips, snack crackers, and candy bars that fall into the junk food category have millions of dollars and teams of marketers behind them to push you to try it, to accept it, to think of it as fun, as a treat, as totally normal.  Everyone knows they should not be eating such things, even those who love these foods and crave them.  So it isn't enough to scientifically design an addictive junk food.  You also need to "push it" through marketing, to overcome the defenses.  And the marketing component does just that.  

These foods have a very long shelf life, and the ingredients are relatively inexpensive when compared to fresh food, so their popularity has a lot of  benefit for the manufacturers.  So we have nutritionally deficient foods, high in fat, calories, sugar and salt, designed to hit all the various aspects of pleasure in the most intense way.  None of these are good for you, and you know it.  Yet every year billions of dollars are spent on these foods, while obesity, diabetes and heart disease continue to be near epidemics.  

This is not some doom and gloom conspiracy theory about our evil enemy.  It is the nature of mankind to want to make a profit and have success.  Food manufacturers are simply taking advantage of an obvious and easy path to such goals.  So it isn't about moralizing or condemning such companies, and many would object to the idea of regulating or controlling, in preference of freedom of choice and commerce.  But where then does this leave those for whom such foods and their lure is a true problem?  This is why we need to really understand what is going on with these foods, so that those of us who are most vulnerable, who try though we might, will always fail when facing the challenge of moderation regarding junk food, can formulate a strategy.   

What is that strategy?  Well, knowledge really is power.  Perhaps just knowing you are being tricked can help you resist the lure.  Perhaps we can view those happy, innocuous ads with a more dubious eye.  But aside from that, the key for many is simply not to participate.  Anyone who has ever gone on a healthy diet, and cut out junk from their diet can attest to the fact that the cravings do fade.  In fact, for many people after changing their diet, such "treats" seem overwhelming when they try them again - too salty, too sweet, too rich.  

For those, like me, for whom such foods really are a serious problem, it's important to understand that it's not your fault.  It isn't about your will power.  There has been a lot of effort and energy and science and marketing aimed at overcoming that will power, at hitting your most basic and primal physical and psychological buttons to make you lose control.  You can't win this game.  So don't play it.  For many, cold turkey really is the only answer.  Just as an alcoholic cannot decide one day just to drink in moderation, so those of us who are vulnerable to losing control regarding junk food need to make sure we don't have it in our lives.  Turn the trick back on them - if you can't eat just one, then don't eat any.  

It is easier said than done, and we live in a world of temptations and pressures.  But in the end, we do have choices.  If you don't face issues with these foods, and feel you can control your intake, that is great.  But for many,  knowing your limits, and knowing what is happening can empower you to protect yourself from the carefully created pitfalls that can turn one of the great pleasures of life, eating, into one of its biggest problems.

By Jeanette at Grace. 

By: gracecuisine | In: Health | Comments: 10 | On: 08/30/2015 12:10:33