Why Junk Food Is So Addictive?

Eating healthily is simple on the surface; eat genuine food and avoid junk food. Doesn't it seem to be simple? But, as you would expect, things aren't always that straightforward. Why? Because junk food is designed to make you consume it, overeat it, and want it more often.

Many individuals find it difficult to say no to junk foods, despite their best intentions, since they are so addicting. The reality is that there are many reasons why junk food is so addictive; nevertheless, information is power, and when you know more, you can do more.

1. What Makes Junk Food So Addictive?

Junk Food Isn't Really a “Food”.

The first thing to realize is that, despite the fact that these junk foods are referred to as "food," they are not food at all. Junk foods, in my view, are food-like items that look like food and may include food, but are not food. Real food only comes from one of two sources: plants or animals.

Food that comes from Mother Nature grows on the land, grazes on the grass, soars through the sky, or swims in the sea. Real food does not have a barcode or ingredients since it is made up entirely of components. Junk food, on the other hand, is just that: junk food. It is also known as processed food and is described as "poor nutritional content pre-prepared or packaged food." What's the catch? It often tastes fantastic.

2. You're up against a lot more than the food.

You may believe you're simply eating a handful of chips, a cookie, or a few sweets when you consume junk food, but you're really eating much more; you're eating something that has been scientifically designed to make you want more of it. When you consume these meals, you're up against more than just the food; you're up against food scientists, brands, and businesses whose entire goal is to produce foods that people will love and want more of so they can profit. It is a precise science that analyses addictive behaviors, big research, marketing tactics, and finding the perfect mix of flavor, texture, color, and design to encourage you to eat more when businesses invest time and attention into producing junk food.

Food producers invest millions of dollars to develop goods that reach the "bliss point," the moment at which the components have been tuned for the taste to keep you wanting more. The perfect mix of salt, sugar, fat, and flavors in a meal that isn't too much, but not too little, and leaves your brain wanting more. Food engineers employ a variety of techniques to produce extremely addictive processed foods, and this is only one of them.

Crunch point (the formula for getting the ideal crunch), salivary response (the formula for making you salivate), dynamic contrast (the combination of various sensations in food), and something termed "vanishing caloric density" is all factors considered by manufacturers. Cheetos are the greatest illustration of this. These fluffy air-like treats melt in your mouth as soon as you bite into them, fooling your brain into thinking no calories have been eaten, encouraging you to eat more. So, although you may believe you're simply enjoying a handful of chips, a cookie, or a few sweets, what you're eating is really intended to do a lot more.

3. Your Mood, Feelings, and Brain vs. Junk Food

Our bodies have natural built-in mechanisms that tell us when we're hungry, when we're not hungry, when to eat more and when to stop eating, but junk food is created in such a manner that it overrides all of those systems. It should come as no surprise that consuming junk food may provide a lot of pleasure and activate your body's reward system. This system was created to “reward” you when you do things that help you survive, such as eating, and your brain produces feel-good chemicals like dopamine as a result. The brain is programmed to seek out behaviors that activate the reward system; however, the issue with junk food is that it can stimulate this system much more effectively than healthy meals do.

Consider the following scenario. Potato chips are a junk food version of potatoes that are produced in a factory and arrive in a bag, while potatoes are a complete food that is cultivated in the soil on the farm. Despite the fact that potato chips are produced from potatoes, they are not potatoes. So, if you had the choice between plain boiled potatoes and potato chips, which do you think you'd choose? Most individuals, I'm willing to guess, could easily consume a whole bag of potato chips but would struggle to consume several plain potatoes.

If we consume junk food, our brain neurons produce more and more dopamine, which makes us feel good. When dopamine is produced, it binds to receptors in the brain, similar to how a key binds to a lock, and when the fit is perfect, pleasure is felt. When you eat junk food, however, something odd happens: your neurological system reduces receptor activity as a defensive physiological response to an abnormal amount of dopamine activity, meaning you need more junk food (to generate more dopamine) to get the same degree of pleasure. While eating a chicken breast and salad may provide a modest release of dopamine, eating a pint of ice cream will cause a huge release of dopamine, making it seem more gratifying.

These meals not only activate our reward center, but they also affect our insulin, leptin, and ghrelin responses, which is an issue in our contemporary society since junk food is so freely accessible. Leptin is known as the appetite gatekeeper, whose job it is to tell the body when it's full, while ghrelin and insulin have an impact on how much and when you eat. Unfortunately, junk food tries to override all of these natural processes, making it harder for the body to tell whether you're hungry or full.

4. Marketing's Influence

Despite the fact that most of us believe we are too intelligent to be fooled by marketing, this is not always the case. Commercials featuring happy people enjoying tasty sweets, bright and colorful food packaging, and eye-catching in-store displays all contribute to our urge to consume junk food. We're constantly inundated with videos and pictures of delectable meals, urging us to eat whether or not we're hungry.

This usually happens on a subconscious level, and we aren't even aware of it. That's why you may be watching TV and suddenly feel hungry after seeing an ad. That's why you may be at an office meeting and not even think about food, but when the doughnuts appear, you have no choice but to eat one. Much money is spent on marketing junk food to us, much like food engineering, simply because there is a lot of money to be earned.

5. The Impact on Rituals and Habits

Junk food businesses also attempt to influence our dietary choices by instilling habits and rituals around-consuming their products. They not only toy with our taste senses but also with our emotions and sentiments. Is it true that you must eat popcorn at the movies, hot dogs at a baseball game, and pizza on a Friday night, or have you just been socialized to believe that you must?

Food producers work hard to establish connections between particular meals and certain activities, so that it almost looks like it was our idea in the first place, and that it would be stupid not to consume those things at those times. Some of these patterns become so ingrained that when you see or simply think about certain meals, your brain starts to recall the memories and emotional responses associated with them, prompting you to repeat the process. This is the junk food mentality.

Final Thoughts

To make junk foods extremely addictive, food corporations spend millions of dollars on research, development, and marketing. These individuals aren't bad; it's just the realities of business and the present condition of our food market; nevertheless, that's no reason to keep eating them. Of course, treating yourself to a treat now and again is great, but bear in mind that every time you purchase these foods, you are financing additional research, development, and marketing for the same foods that are already extremely addictive.

Although it may not seem so at the moment, you are in control as a consumer; you have the ability to choose what you want to see more of and what you want to see less of. Those who suffer from severe food addiction should seek professional treatment; yet, those who do not are already in a position of power. So, the next time you go grocery shopping, think about where you're spending and investing your money since every purchase is a vote for what you want to see more of.