Junk food is in the headlines again. As if we have to be told junk food is bad for us. Over the last two days there have been a spate of headlines about an announcement that was made over a week ago funnily enough.
Neuroscientist Dr. Paul Kenny presented his findings at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience on Oct 20th. In summary he’s proposing that eating junk food can be as addictive as heroin or other drugs.
The findings were based on experiments with rats, and the junk food included “cheesecake, fatty meat products, and cheap sponge cakes and chocolate snacks”.
Here are my picks of the headlines, with the story looked at from different pespectives. ScienceNews has the most lengthy description of the study, and The Examiner offers the most irreverent look, questioning some of the researchers’ statements…
Telegraph.co.uk Junk food as ‘addictive as drugs’ 28 Oct 2009
ScienceNews FOR KIDS: Junk Food Junkies 28 Oct 2009
TheMedGuru Junk food addictive like drugs: Study 29 Oct 2009
The Examiner Junk food is addictive as heroin say scientists 28 Oct 2009
I couldn’t help but think of Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 documentary “Super Size Me”. Spurlock essentially made himself a human guinea pig in an experiment which had him eating nothing but McDonald’s food for 30 days. His doctor was probably more shocked than anyone about the drastic changes he saw in test results, and even recommended the experiment be stopped. (And in an entirely different way, Spurlock’s girlfriend wasn’t particularly pleased either.)
He carried on however and survived the ordeal. And along the way he spoke a few times of the addictive properties of many of the ingredients. He’d obviously done some research. In one scene about halfway through he was having a particularly bad day, and was actually acting like he was on drugs. Talk about clinical trials! Perhaps the researchers had missed the movie.
Recommended Viewing:
Super Size Me [DVD] [2004] R1
Super Size Me [DVD] [2004] R2
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