Curious Cook: Addiction in plain sight
There is a very strong link between rates of food addiction and access to Ultra Processed Foods (UPFs). For one, UPFs are designed to be addictive, accessible, convenient, and cheap. They keep well and can be stored in cupboards and fridges for very long periods, always readily available to be consumed whenever the urge strikes. Hence, UPFs are potentially highly problematic items hiding in full view everywhere in many modern societies.

Although people tend to rotate around various UPFs, especially snacks, quite often this rotation merely involves switching between variants of the same type of UPF, for example, switching between different sugary treats or flavours of crisps.

It would be highly unusual to hear of anyone addicted to gnawing on raw carrots or eating celery sticks, but you would likely know of one or more persons addicted to sugary treats, savoury snacks and/or various other forms of UPFs. And how these addictions arise is an interesting subject, because very few people intentionally set out to become addicted to food.

Food addiction

The process of becoming addicted to certain foods typically involves an initial phase where the consumption of these foods leads to pleasurable experiences. Over time, people may eat these foods more frequently to attempt to recreate or sustain those feelings of pleasure.

As the brain adapts to the repeated influx of pleasure signals, it becomes less sensitive to the neurotransmitters released by food consumption, leading to a condition called “tolerance”. And tolerance means that individuals need to consume more of the addictive food to achieve previous levels of satisfaction. This, in turn, can lead to overeating and the development of addictive behaviours, before potentially becoming full-blown addictions.

To make matters worse, when not consuming such addictive foods, addicts may experience physical withdrawal symptoms, such as cravings, irritability, or mood swings, which can further reinforce addictive behaviours. It may seem that people can only alleviate these negative, uncomfortable feelings by eating addictive foods again.

And that is not far from the truth. Research has found that parts of the human brain are physically changed by addictions in subtle ways. The main components of food addiction lie in imperceptible alterations to at least several of the following brain parts:

Nucleus Accumbens: This is the part of the brain that determines if an ingested food item is delicious or extremely palatable. It would be much more stimulated by a packet of crisps than by a portion of steamed kale, even though kale would probably be much more nutritious. In short, the nucleus accumbens has no sense of nutritional value, only sensory enjoyment.

Research has shown that food addictions cause changes to the human brain. — ANDRES AYRTON/Pexels

Over time, parts of the nucleus accumbens can become “hard-wired” to exhibit a predisposition for various food preferences.

Amygdala: The amygdala is involved in the processing of emotions and memory, and it plays a role in the development of food addiction; for example, it connects feelings of joy, happiness, freedom, and other enjoyable emotions with the tasty foods detected by the nucleus accumbens.

Food addiction has been observed to cause changes in amygdala function and even its structure.

Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC): The OFC is responsible for the subjective evaluation of the “reward” value of food items. It links the outputs of the amygdala with the nucleus accumbens and creates a subconscious assessment of the “reward value” of certain foods.

It is usually an unconscious judgement of some feel-good factor or psychological “gain” derived from the food ingested, with no limits on the level of such “gain”. This part of the brain is closely related to the medial OFC, which is related to the subjective evaluation of reward or gain in other non-food activities.

The activity patterns and the neuron connectivity of the OFC are physically altered by food addictions.

Insula: The insula is involved in the anticipation of food intake and the subsequent processing of tasting of food. As such, it can lead to highly selective behaviours in the choice of foods. A less desirable food item would not invoke any strong anticipatory expectations.

Hypothalamus: This important part of the brain is responsible for regulating eating behaviours and the various peripheral, connected food digestion and metabolic networks. The hypothalamus can be significantly affected by food-related and other environmental stimuli. It is also very sensitive to other hormones, especially those which affect moods and emotions.

A food-addicted hypothalamus is often dysregulated, causing the loss of impulse control when eating. Additionally, a dysregulated hypothalamus can lead to massive mood changes when eating, and/or withdrawal symptoms when deprived of the addicted foods.

Mesolimbic Dopamine System (MDS): All the above parts are also components of the brain’s main reward processing system, known as the MDS. The MDS is where powerful feel-good hormones such as dopamine are produced and released, invoking feelings of pleasure in the brain. Conversely, a lack of dopamine causes feelings of deep depression, discomfort, and anxiety.

This means that a food addiction is often no less demanding and debilitating than an addiction to drugs, gambling, smoking, or alcohol.

Addiction works

Food addiction is a good business model for food producers. A food addict is loyal, predictable, and consistently profitable because a food addict will forego other foods and even other necessities to satisfy an addiction, just like other kinds of addicts.

To make things even better for food manufacturers, UPFs can be stored for long periods, while retaining all the tastes and flavours which appeal to addicts. This is because of the cocktail of chemicals and additives added to such foods to render them cheaper, more convenient, longer-lasting, and extra palatable.

Using stringent criteria for defining addictions, around 14% of the world’s adult population is addicted to UPFs, with 12% of children similarly addicted. However, this belies the fact that 80% of the population’s daily calories are derived from UPFs in many parts of north America. Even if many millions of people are not officially “addicted” to UPFs, there is still a huge demand for them in many parts of the world.

Considering what we know, it is plausible to look at the marketing of UPFs and other foods in a slightly different light. When we see “special offers” and “huge discounts” on food products, the normal viewpoint is that the food companies are wishing for more consumers to buy their products.

However, another view may be that it is a simple ploy to get people to enjoy such products and grow dependent on them to some degree, if not to develop an addiction to them. That is because addiction to their foods would be the ideal outcome for all food companies marketing their products.

Interoception

Addictions may also interfere with a little-known sixth human sense called ‘interoception’. This sense may be said to augment the other five senses (touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste). Interoception is the sense of our body’s internal state. It senses and interprets internal signals that regulate vital functions in our body, like hunger, thirst, body temperature, and heart rate.

Around 14% of the world's adult population is addicted to UPFs and at least 12% of children around the globe too. — POLINA TANKILEVITCH/Pexels

Interoception is often a very subtle sense that alerts us only when our body is out of balance. It makes us drink when the body is dehydrated or makes us add more clothes when the weather is cold. Interoception is also very important for mental health. This is because this sense feeds into many psychological processes - including decision-making, social ability, and emotional well-being.

Food addiction can disrupt interoception and may be the root cause of many mental health conditions – including depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. It is a plausible explanation why many mental health conditions share similar symptoms – such as disturbed sleep or fatigue.

We often do not take much notice of interoception, even though it is a very important sense as it helps to ensure that every system in the body is working optimally. Impairment of interoception simply means that the body may not be aware when it is functioning inefficiently or out of balance.

An aside

Interestingly, a recent paper published by Cambridge University Press, indicates that a novel treatment called cortical Paired Associative Stimulation (cPAS) may be able to perform neuromodulation of the addiction centres of the brain. In a small study, cPAS was claimed to repair certain parts of the brain damaged by addictions.

The power of cPAS lies in its ability to deliver paired magnetic pulses to specific regions of the cortex, which can strengthen neuronal connections. This targeted stimulation appears to enhance or restore the functional integrity of neural networks, particularly those involved in addictive processes such as impulse management for alcohol addicts.

A corporate addiction

People are not the only entities susceptible to addiction. Corporations are also curiously addicted to producing environmentally poisonous compounds in their quest for more profits. A Houston, Texas, company called Inhance was banned in 2020 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from producing a dangerous environmental poison called per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Despite acknowledging the serious dangers to human health caused by PFA, the company managed to convince the US appeals court to allow it to continue polluting the environment with the PFAS used in manufacturing 200 million containers a year.

In case you are not aware, you should note that PFAS is a “forever” compound. Once produced, it cannot be destroyed and this poisonous artificial compound will stay in the environment forever, until the end of the universe. PFAS is associated with human cancers, high cholesterol, liver disease, kidney disease, foetal complications, and other serious health problems. However, the EPA will likely appeal the latest ruling.

The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.
Curious Cook,Chris Chan,UPF,ultra processed foods,food addiction
The columnist examines how increased consumption of ultra-processed foods is causing a tandem increase in food addictions.