Quitting junk food produces similar withdrawal-type symptoms as drug addiction:
If you plan to try and quit junk food, expect to suffer similar withdrawal-type symptoms—at least during the initial week—like addicts experience when they attempt to quit using drugs.
A new study by University of Michigan is believed to be the first of its kind to evaluate withdrawal symptoms people incur when they stop devouring highly processed foods, such as pastries, French fries and pizza.
Previous studies have focused on sugar withdrawal among animals and the literature regarding humans offered only anecdotal evidence, said Erica Schulte, the study's lead author and U-M psychology doctoral candidate.
What all researchers can agree upon is that the addictive qualities of tobacco, drugs or alcohol affect the brain similarly and cutting back can lead to negative side effects that can make it difficult to reduce intake. Anxiety, headaches, irritability and depression are some of those outcomes.
Understanding whether withdrawal may also occur with highly processed foods was an essential next step in evaluating whether these foods might be capable of triggering similar addictive processes.
Abstract: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666318306196 (DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2018.09.013
Pizza is not junk food! It's also not a pie.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 25 2018, @01:10PM (15 children)
Duh and also no. I've experienced both. Drastic diet changes of any kind aren't pleasant while your body adjusts but even quitting refined sugar isn't in the same ballpark as nicotine, much less caffeine.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 25 2018, @01:15PM (4 children)
Nevertheless, I can't wait for the ban on Maccas in public places the way they treat smokers.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 25 2018, @05:48PM (3 children)
Does that mean fat shaming is now encouraged like fake-coughing and glaring every time you walk within a hundred yards of a smoker?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 25 2018, @10:12PM
Now? No... Not yet.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 26 2018, @11:19AM (1 child)
It's not fake coughing for me, asshole. Urge to keep the shit that killed my mother out of my lungs is quite real.
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 26 2018, @12:44PM
You couldn't be adversely affected by cigarette smoking outdoors if you spent a hundred years walking close enough to touch every smoker you saw as you passed. You're just an asshole.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:03PM (1 child)
I'd qualify it as a "maybe". The body usually craves homeostasis above all else. And blood chemistry levels (especially blood sugar and maintaining electrolyte and acid-base balance) may well propel an over-eater into keeping up intake to maintain those levels. It can be well less than what one would see with things the body develops a stronger dependence on and the active damages can be far greater with substance abuse. And since the body requires food to survive it's more a question of appropriate intake levels unlike substances which the body can do completely without and survive well.
Yet preparing a person for diet modification by letting them realize their body does have an expected level of the constituents currently, and the body may fight to maintain those levels even though it is unhealthy, could be helpful to someone looking to change.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 25 2018, @05:51PM
Nah, switching diet's annoying and unpleasant but it's not comparable. Find something you're allowed to eat pretty much all you want of and keep it handy to munch on. It's still unpleasant but your stomach bitches less when you're chewing and swallowing something, even if it's not what your stomach wants.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Weasley on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:49PM (7 children)
Tell that to millions of obese Americans who can't quit junk food. If it looks like an addiction and quacks like an addition...
(Score: 3, Informative) by insanumingenium on Tuesday September 25 2018, @04:08PM (5 children)
Funny AA tells you "not even one", but total abstinence from eating carries a 100% chance of causing acute to chronic morbidity. I wonder how easy even a 6 month chit of "exactly one pint of light beer a day" would be.
Then stop and think about the fact that a majority of the easily available food (time/effort/price, play through your engineers triangle any way you like) you are characterizing as "junk food".
A proper meal takes a decent amount of time and effort (in prep and cleanup) and isn't as cheap as people like to think. Never-mind that a shocking percentage of people flat can't boil water to save their lives.
That said, I have kicked caffeine (admittedly the most minor drug one could kick), and I have lost a significant amount of body weight through diet, there is no comparison between the efforts. Caffeine makes you hurt when you quit, and I found that even after a significant time away (~6 mo) a single dose was enough to put me back in pain town. I decided to manage and not eliminate my caffeine addiction. Dieting wasn't in the same class, neither was easy, but they are not comparable.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 25 2018, @05:45PM (4 children)
Caffeine is the absolute worst to kick for me. Hunger's not that fun and the jitters aren't either but I get actual and significant pain from caffeine withdrawals. Plus, not really wanting to quit is hell on the willpower.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @06:54PM
Same here.
I get migraines so bad only codeine/morphine will stop them. Its like some is ramming a carving knife into my head.
And I get really tired and sleep 12 hours.
Then the next time I am having a rough day and have not had enough sleep...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @08:32PM (2 children)
Yeah, the first time I got a caffeine withdrawal headache - and realized what it was - was when I decided to stop drinking caffeine.
There were a few days of headaches, but it wasn't that bad or long.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:58AM (1 child)
They're functionally crippling after decades of heavy-ish daily consumption. Not migraines, just extremely painful headaches. Even without side effects, I still wouldn't be motivated to quit though. Most all stimulants help with ADHD.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Wednesday September 26 2018, @03:28PM
It is the only drug that you will not only be socially acceptable, but will almost certainly be offered at every gathering, from meals, to business meetings, to church on Sunday (or Friday or Saturday even for all I know). It isn't like I am ever going to have to go without short of apocalypse.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 25 2018, @05:37PM
I just did. Link them to the original post if you like. If you'd ever put yourself through both you would know that the comparison is laughable.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Touché) by SomeGuy on Tuesday September 25 2018, @01:22PM (19 children)
You are not supposed to understand this.
You are also not supposed to understand how smart phones, hypnotic scrolling or animations, posting on Tweeter or Facefook are addictive.
Now be a good little consumer and eat your overpriced Twinkies and post about how much you love your Twinkies on Twatter.
(Since soylentnews doesn't do this: imagine that the page automatically and hypnotically scrolls up/down to expand as this new post is added, and this new content fades in. Then, as it detects it has your attention, it is followed by a popover advertisement for Twinkies)
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday September 25 2018, @01:45PM
Easier method:
fnord.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday September 25 2018, @01:46PM
The twinkies will outlive both the ad and the fad.
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:20PM
(Score: 4, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:22PM (13 children)
Food scientists for the processed foods companies are the "men behind the curtain" which we aren't supposed to notice.
They make things taste better - so we buy more.
They make things that make people feel better when they get them - so we buy more.
The good scientists who came over from RJReynolds into General Mills make things that make people feel bad when they don't get them - so we buy more.
They also make things lower cost - so they make more profit.
They market things to maximize price without reducing sales volume - so they make more profit.
The only concerns for the consumer's health are in the psychology of selling consumers on the idea that a product is "good for them" so they sell more. And, I suppose they don't insta-kill anyone because of regulatory headaches and the negative impact on market size.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:29PM (12 children)
You know what I want modern food science to come up with? A zero calorie gummy bear. My roommate and I would buy stock in whoever markets that, and we would gladly accept payment of the dividends in the form of gummies.
(Invalid form key so hope this isn't a double post! *crosses fingers*)
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday September 25 2018, @03:33PM (11 children)
Ehhh...Haribo makes a sugar-free one, but if they're anything like the hype, I'd stay far, farrrr away from them.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 25 2018, @04:13PM (10 children)
There's money to be made producing simulacra that substitute stevia.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday September 25 2018, @05:07PM (9 children)
Oooh, stevia! I keep some of the liquid extract at home at all times and use it lots. That should be a lot healthier and less likely to give you the napalm shits than artificial sweeteners.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 25 2018, @06:00PM (8 children)
I've made chocolate bars with it and unsweetened cocoa powder. Cocoa butter is full of the medium chain triglycerides that the ketogenic diet recommends, so that's an easy ingredient. Chia seeds and roasted almond slivers add crunch. All in all it turns out pretty well.
Healthy savory snacks are possible also. If you've ever bought the Red Mill nutritional yeast, there's a recipe for nooch crackers on the back that call for the yeast and flax meal. They are addictive. I have to make them in double- and triple batches because nobody can stop eating them.
There are excellent healthy restaurants out there that should open franchises all over, because they're that good. Laughing Planet [laughingplanet.com] in Portland, OR, is one, and Flexit Cafe [flexitcafe.com] in Ellsworth, Maine, is another.
So it's possible to eat delicious food that's healthy (and often good for the planet also), but unfortunately at this point it's still pretty DIY. It's tough to manage that without planning.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:35AM (7 children)
Those sound good. I've been unfairly biased against nooch since my ex swore by the stuff and hurr hurr guilt by association, but a keto-friendly cracker sounds amazing. Ditto the chocolate bars. And I'm all about DIY; I made a desk and a bedframe this past month, after a friend who'd already done it encouraged me.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:47AM (6 children)
Sorry, but a ketogenic chocolate "treat" sounds really hard to like - bitter and oily? Maybe the cocoa & lipid energy rush afterwards could teach you to like it. Of course, I'm so carb-addicted that I find it difficult to stop sucking down a glass of fruit juice after I start drinking it when my blood sugar is below baseline.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 26 2018, @12:50PM (2 children)
I've got nothing against eating keto diet meals as long as we keep some handy carbs around for me as well. The Roomie has been on it for six months or so now and mostly it means I get to eat a lot more two inch thick ribeyes and one pound cheeseburgers. Mind you, it also means I get to make biscuits and gravy and eat them in front of him; dinner and a show.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:47PM (1 child)
You can still eat biscuits and gravy on a keto diet. Mix some flax meal, an egg, a little bit of baking soda and salt in a coffee mug and nuke it for a minute and you have a biscuit. Not quite the same texture as a regular biscuit, sure, but that's just an excuse to add more gravy.
Keto is a great excuse to snack on beef jerky and sausage and eat bigger steaks. After a while rice, bread, pasta, and all the usual carb foods feel like a silly waste of time, pointless filler that could be replaced with more steak, or more salmon, or more lobster...you get the idea.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 26 2018, @02:05PM
Heretic! How dare you adulterate the sanctity of biscuits with your farcical recipe?! I declare a fatwa upon you and your descendants for twelve generations!
Seriously though, if you grew up loving the hell out of biscuits and gravy, you're not going to find a keto-friendly alternative acceptable for either the biscuits or the gravy. Proper gravy is made out of bacon grease, flour, milk, and spices. Both the flour and the quantity of milk make it about as keto-unfriendly as genuine biscuits.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:42PM (2 children)
The part of the chocolate bar that isn't keto friendly is the sugar. Substitute stevia and you're set.
It is difficult to get off carbs, though, because it is as addictive as the TFA says. The upside is that once you're off them, you feel much calmer. You never get hangry, because your body picks up right away and burns fat when need to. You might find that you save a lot of money at the grocery store, too, because there are almost no processed foods that are carb-free.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 26 2018, @04:08PM
The very mention of the word stevia makes me retch. I've had some pretty bad reactions to aspartame in the past and while I haven't made myself deathly ill with stevia, it seems to affect me in similar ways - I just avoid.
We save money at the grocery store by not buying products with gluten in them, then spend a fair bit (though not all) of that saved by buying a few GF alternatives like bread and pizza. Same principle - 90%+ of the processed foods are not GF, and so many GF products are disgusting to the point that you just don't even want them (and a few are quite good...)
My most recent "food processing" observation is corn. Somehow, our local TJ's can sell organically grown, in the husk ears of corn for $0.29 per ear, but if that same corn gets half-shelled and wrapped in a cellophane 4 pack (more corn than we typically want, BTW), it then costs $0.87 per ear. God help you when it gets "puffed" and sprinkled with salty oil (aka cheese) and costs upwards of $3/lb, though TJ's does have nice cheap bulk tortilla chips @ 2lbs for $3.50.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday September 27 2018, @12:02AM
Well, I'm not going to go keto (most likely) but I already do 16/8 IF and just picked up some MCT oil and some grass-fed butter. Going to see how substituting breakfast with a biiiiiig cup of bulletproof coffee (or maybe tea) works out for a while. Only going to use 1T of each, but put it into 32oz of fluid, because I don't really like creamy textures much.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:23PM (1 child)
It's a shame that the film They Live [imdb.com] is mostly remembered for the "... and I'm all out of bubblegum" line.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 25 2018, @04:00PM
Yes, it's a misunderstood classic. The filmmakers were onto something profound 30 years ahead of the curve, and embedded it in a story about aliens controlling humanity through subliminal messages. They hid it in plain sight, so to speak.
A couple decades later another misunderstood classic followed up. "Fight Club" was not about fighting, it was a prescription for action.
"Brazil," too, belongs in the same pantheon.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:08PM (1 child)
Is this from Cornell?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:25PM
Nope. From the wonderful state of Michiganistan. University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Their gender program fails though... frikkin radfem gatekeepers... but presumably that's the psychology department instead of the school of medicine...
Ohshi-! Erica M. Schulte [researchgate.net] is in the psychology department!
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:44PM (13 children)
Word.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @03:37PM
But is it an open faced sandwich?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 25 2018, @04:07PM (9 children)
Hold on, now. Are we talking about Chicago-style, or New York-style? The former could be called a pie. The latter is a canape with an outsized ego. Both of them fall short, though, because they inevitably lack the poorly understood, but divine, ingredient of anchovies; it's funny, because it is the thing that gives caesar salad its irresistible savory quality yet millions, misled by Hollywood, think it's something to be avoided.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday September 25 2018, @11:35PM (3 children)
Yes! Anchovies! To be precise, anchovies and pineapple. Delicious!
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:51AM (1 child)
OMG someone else than me likes this! I got soooo many weird looks asking for that...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday September 26 2018, @02:24AM
I knew you were my kind of girl! And my mother never warned me!
Well, actually, maybe anchovies and pineapple is a feminine-origin thing -- I learned it from my wife, who is also my kind of girl.
-- hendrik
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:50PM
That combination never occurred to me, but will try it now.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Wednesday September 26 2018, @02:40AM (4 children)
Is it made with pastry? No. Then it's not a pie.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 26 2018, @12:53PM
PSA: Cow pies, also not pies.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:34PM (2 children)
What? Shepherd's pie has been called "pie" since forever and a day, and there is no pastry in it.
Even by your definition, a pizza could be called a pie because it does have a crust. Is it the exact same crust you would use in an apple pie? No. Then again, recipes for crust vary. A Chicago-style pizza fits "pie" even better than New York-style because it has a crust above and below the filling.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Wednesday September 26 2018, @03:20PM (1 child)
Touché.
No because bread is not pastry.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 26 2018, @07:03PM
We're beating this to death, but pizza crust is not bread, as much as bobboli would like everybody to think it is.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Tuesday September 25 2018, @10:57PM (1 child)
Yeah, I make pizza maybe once or twice a week and it takes far less effort than a lasagna. And the only parts I don't source from my garden is wheat and cheese
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 26 2018, @01:37PM
That's awesome. I'd love to do the same but I can't get the damn mushrooms to develop, despite having sent away for plugs from Fungi Perfecti to implant in trees that fell during the last hurricane.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Touché) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:55PM (1 child)
The phrase "sugar rush" has been around since at least the 1980s. There's a 2012 book, "Born With a Junk Food Deficiency" by Martha Rosenberg that, while overly sensationalist, gives some details and supporting evidence for what we all suspect, which is that food hawkers, like every business, want to make more money any way they can. If there's a conflict between public health and making more money, we know which way they go, every time.
Okay, back to the video games. Let's see, which one? Fruit Ninja? Burgertime? Wait-- Candy Crush, yeah! Or, no -- Food Fight!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 25 2018, @04:11PM
There is, though, a similar addiction in the other direction once you get used to eating healthy food. It becomes nearly impossible to tolerate junk. You crave vitamins and healthy fats. Eating Wonderbread or McDonald's is nauseous.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @03:58PM
Yep, one of the primary routes via which smoking is addictive is to spike your blood sugar and then crash it when you abstain. The crash is also why so many people eat more and gain weight later.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @04:37PM (3 children)
https://www.thecut.com/2015/10/placebo-effect-is-getting-stronger.html [thecut.com]
Maybe because more US people are addicted to sugar and thus giving an addict a sugar pill is more likely to make them feel better just like giving a junkie a fix?
A lot of these studies actually still use sugar pills and consider them inert. But sugar is not inert. Capsules with saline would be more inert.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @05:03PM (2 children)
maybe it has changed but "amerikan" sugar is gross.
i think it's because sugar cane doesnt grow well enough where amerika is located thus would need to be imported and would pose a too big of financial drain (see: trade imbalance and trade wars).
so the solution is to use maize or corn which somehow turns sweet after some magical spell is applied.
i assume i would be fat too if i had to eat (jucky) amerikan sugar.
i dont drink coffee or alcohol but i smoke (too much) and drink at least 200gram of sugar from sugarcane (per day)... i will probably be dead soon tho maybe 180 cm at 72 kg gives me a survival bonues?
i postulate that consuming (cane) sugar improves wound healing by at least 30% .... study anyone?
last but not least high salt intake is probably worse then high (cane) sugar intake.
also a funny "thing"?: 1 liter of pure sugar turned into water (allowed to use surrounding athmospheric oxygen) would yield what volume of water?
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Tuesday September 25 2018, @07:21PM
Not sure what this has to do with anything, but I thought it would be amusing to work out.
according to wikipedia
sucrose is c12h22o11 and has a density of 1.587g/cm3 so 1587g/l
No, I am not going to figure out packing efficiency, assume we are burning a solid 1l crystal if that makes you feel better.
Please go ahead and check my math, yes I rounded atomic weights to even values. I am obviously ssuming all my spherical cows all have the same isotopes throughout.
1 c12h22o11 + 12 o2 --> 12 co2 + 11 h2o
c12h22o11 = 342g/mol * 1mol = 342g
o2 = 32g/mol * 12mol = 384g
so total conversion would involve (342g+184g)/342g*1587g ~3368.89g of sugar and oxygen gas
co2 = 44g/mol * 12mol = 528g
h2o = 18g/mol * 11mol = 198g
from which 198g/(528g+198g) * 3368.89g = ~918.79g of water would result, and we are going to keep on the round train and say that is 919ml of water.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @07:41PM
To a first order approximation, sugar is sugar.
I don't care if it's cane sugar or high fuctose corn syrup from maize or glucose from sugar beets: if you consume a lot of sugar, it is terrible for your health.
It messes up your insulin response and a fluctuating blood sugar level increases hunger, commands the body to store fat, and causes a crash after the sugar peak is over.
Your fucking cane sugar is crap too.