Scientists Learn More About Foods’ Effect on Brain, Activists Call for Government Action
Writing in the New Scientist, a Washington, D.C.-based journalist recently discussed the latest research on the effect of “junk food,” or foods high in sugar, fat and salt, on animal and human brains and behavior. Bijal Trivedi reports, “Some say there is now enough data to warrant government regulation of the fast food industry and public health warnings on products that have harmful levels of sugar and fat.” According to Trivedi, studies have shown that some foods appear to have an addictive effect similar to cocaine addiction on rat brains and that two routes to “food addiction” could be linked to overactive and underactive dopamine systems: “one if you find food more rewarding than the average person, and another if it isn’t rewarding enough.”
Trivedi discusses the consideration that tobacco activist John Banzhaf has been giving to “food addiction”; he apparently believes that sufficient evidence exists for the U.S. Office of the Surgeon General to issue a report on the subject, just as it issued a report on nicotine addiction in 1988. According to Banzhaf, “At that point people begin to accept it.” He apparently concedes that the issue is not clear cut, stating, “Fast food isn’t a [single] chemical so you can’t meaningfully ask the question ‘Is a triple bacon cheeseburger addictive?’” Banzhaf suggests that the focus would have to be narrowed to specific quantities of sugar, salt and fat.
A former food company executive who now serves as a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute reportedly believes that individual behavior is harder to change than corporate behavior. Claiming that “it’s about getting calories off the streets,” Hank Cardello has apparently suggested that tax policies providing a break for companies that produce low-calorie foods could reduce the overall calories consumed by Americans without unduly burdening fast-food companies.
Meanwhile, Ohio State University Professor Gary Wenk discusses in Seed Magazine the foods and ingredients that can either stimulate or depress brain function. According to Wenk, humans share an evolutionary history with the plants and animals they eat, thus “the chemicals each meal contains may alter how your neurons function and, therefore, how you feel or think.” He notes the euphoria produced in newborn mammals “after their first taste of their mother’s milk,” the psychoactive properties of spices such as nutmeg and the ingredients in chocolate that “resemble the active ingredient in marijuana” as well as have an estrogen-like effect.
He concludes, “because of your shared evolutionary history with the plants and animals on this planet, when you consume them you risk having their chemicals affect how you feel and even how you think. The degree to which they influence your cognitive functioning depends upon how easily they can achieve an adequate concentration in your brain.” See New Scientist, September 4, 2010; Seed Magazine, September 13, 2010.
