Overeating in America: Controlling Our Appetites by Controlling Our Brains

      New York Times writer, Michael Moss, recently compiled an article entitled, "The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food," a case study of sorts that examines the role scientists play in the obesity crisis in America.  As he uncovers, food scientists, experts in a field that often uses physical and biological sciences to improve food for the consuming public, are hired kingpins in an industry driven by deception, delusion and duplicity.  Big food companies like Coca-Cola, General Mills and Frito-Lay spend millions of dollars in not just getting consumers to buy their products, but in keeping them hooked. 

     As the article notes, in America today, one in three adults and one in five children are considered clinically obese.  Among the top causes of death--cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes and stroke--our diets are critically at play.  Heart disease is number one and as the Mayo Clinic recently announced, is 80-percent preventable with exercise and proper nutrition.  Yet Americans continue to cash in on convenience and sell out on their health; our diets consist more heavily of food items that have been processed and refined to include excessive amounts of added sugar, salt and saturated fat, to which we have fallen victims.

     As Moss outlines in his article, the food industry hires scientists to review, analyze and prescribe variables in food that promote "sensory specific satiety," an effect that causes consumers to not just consume a product, but to continue consuming it to the point of overeating.  He describes a common term in the food industry dubbed "bliss point," an interval of sensory experience that is reached when a food's palatability (i.e its crunch, flavor, texture) culminates in a pinnacle of enjoyment that depresses the brain's ability to tell you to stop eating.  

     He goes on to divulge that sugar and salt are addictive substances and that by regularly consuming items such as packaged cookies and potato chips, our taste buds develop a sweet-and-salty sensory-dependency. Moss describes a study conducted by an expert in cravings who found that people could beat their additions to salt by simply refraining from salty foods long enough for their taste buds to return to a level of normal sensitivity.  

     In other words, if we open our eyes and our minds to become active and critical consumers, we can overcome the sabotage the food industry has set for us.  We can scrutinize food labels and avoid products containing high amounts of sugar and sodium by simply not buying them.  Choose water and lower calorie beverages with meals.  Snack on plain roasted almonds as opposed to the salted variety.  Eat fresh, whole fruit over that which has been canned in a sugar-loaded syrup.  Bake your own cookies and desserts and control the amount of sugar that is used.  Eat in moderation. America is a country of surplus, excess and overabundance and food is no exception--the choices are endless, but it is time the American consumer makes the right choices.

Here is a link to the original article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?hpw&_r=2&pagewanted=all&

High Fructose Corn Syrup: Calories V. Content

     While I once vehemently believed that table sugar was nutritionally superior to high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), my opinion is begrudgingly evolving.  As my Food Science instructor recently informed me, as a registered and licensed dietitian (credentials I plan to achieve), we must base our food and nutrition understanding on science.  And much to my surprise, the science supporting the claim that our bodies do not readily digest HFCS in the same way as table sugar is simply not there.
     Between the 1970's and early 2000s, the prevalence of the use of HFCS as a cheaper alternative to table sugar in sweetening our food, rose dramatically.  In fact, during that time, the US saw a 25-percent increase in added sugars overall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-fructose_corn_syrup)  Derived from the conversion of glucose into fructose using enzymes, it has been believed that this trend correlates to the rise in obesity in America that occurred during the same time period.  However, the American Council on Science and Health asserts that because sucrose (table sugar) and HFCS "have essentially the same composition, [it would] thus be highly unlikely for them to have different effects on body weight or metabolism" (http://www.acsh.org/publications/high-fructose-corn-syrup-separating-myths-from-facts/).  If the link between the rise of the use of HFCS and the increase in obesity were scientifically conclusive, a difference in chemical composition of HFCS and sucrose would be present.
    While the science supporting HFCS as a deviant form of sugar is inconclusive, the focus should shift from the source of added sugar to the additional calories that come with the consumption of added sugar.  As consumers, our attention to food labels should examine not necessarily the type of sweetener present in a food item, but the amount of sugar contained in each serving.  It is the added sugars in our diet (regardless of the HFCS or sucrose variety) that have been proven to play a direct role in obesity, type-II diabetes and high triglycerides leading to cardiovascular disease.