In a society constantly changing and adapting to better itself, there are also downfalls to advancement. The 1980s introduced the ability for a new lifestyle, focused on efficiency and the pioneering of new technology. With this new opportunity focused on a less active lifestyle, individuals adopted a “sit time” view on daily life (Television Watching and “Sit Time”). People found themselves behind the wheel of a car and operating behind a desk. Individuals became less active and progressively began to gain weight. This overall weight gain contributed to the increase in the prevalence of obese children and adults in the United States. Obesity then began contributing to an increase in the number of adults with life threatening conditions. But, with the rise of obesity, came the rise of food addiction. Food addiction seems to coincide with the negative physical aspects induced by overeating due to the neurotransmitters that contribute to drug addiction. This same neurological condition is encouraged through marketing, ingredients added in fast foods, and hyperpalatable foods. Because of the shift, proportion sizes also increased which in turn made the potency of food addiction comparable to the biological effects of drug addiction. Food addiction contributes to biological dysfunction, physiological changes, and psychological damage.

Food addiction is characterized as a disease which causes and individual to have the inability to stop eating an abundance of certain foods. In general terms, food addiction is caused through the dependence of certain chemicals in the brain released in association to highly palatable foods (What is Food Addiction?). These highly palatable foods are usually high in sugar, excess fat, and/or salt. The brains of some people can develop a physical craving for these specific foods. This addiction can distort mental thought processes and lead to further negative consequences. (Are you a Food Addict?).

A main contributor for the increase in food addiction, is the change in lifestyle since the 1980s. The 1980s introduced an epidemic movement towards the importance of efficiency. (Life in the 1980s). Major labor-saving technologies like the computer and internet combined with the introduction of entertainment through television and the rise of the efficiency of cars, overall decreased the need for an active lifestyle (Komlos and Marek). This inactivity led to individuals adopting a “sit time” view on daily life, one of sitting in front of the television (Television Watching and “Sit Time”). Many people’s daily lives revolve around being behind the wheel of a car and sitting behind a desk (Why Obesity Is a Problem). But with the efficiency of technology also came the increased efficiency of foods. New chemicals began being added into foods to increase consumption to account for this efficiency and promote overall market value. Fast food restaurants began popping up all over the place, using television ads to promote their unhealthy foods. Food brands also began taking more of an approach towards customers, changing their foods to become cheaper and easier to make while also appealing to the taste buds of a customer. This introduced a new line of foods known as hyperpalatable foods. While the brands and food chains tried to account for the need for more and more food demanded by Americans, they began to increase portion size to exponential amounts. As the waistbands of American’s clothes increased, so did the portion sizes (Figure 1). “The size of plates, bowls, and glasses in our homes has also steadily increased over the years, and the serving size of some entrees has virtually doubled in
recipe books since the 1930s” (Davis).

Figure 1. (Obesity and Portion Changes Over Time).

Food addiction can be classified as a behavioral addiction or a neuroaddiction. Often someone with food addiction will relate a normal biological function such as eating to a sort of reward and good feeling, fooling when the appropriate times to release neurotransmitters in response to eating (Behavioral Addictions Process Addiction Treatment). Neurotransmitters play an important role in shaping everyday life and functions and are necessary for survival: for example, controlling muscle movement, regulating emotions, providing the ability to learn, regulating sleep, and forcing attention spans. (Baik). However, when in excess, neurotransmitters can also cause biological dysfunction. The two neurotransmitters mainly associated with this disruption are dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine is the main neurotransmitter in the brain responsible for the feeling of reward, motivation, and emotion. The reward aspect of dopamine is the main contributor for food addiction. Because the motivation for food is strongly associated in correlation to reward and is further exacerbated through sight, smell, and taste (conditioning cues: they alter behavior), normal homeostatic and biological conditions can be overridden (Baik). In turn, dopamine will be released more frequently and in inappropriate times, further increasing the reward-like feeling, resulting in eating past normal homeostatic conditions (Baik). “These hedonic qualities can override the homeostatic system. Therefore, delineating how this food reward circuit in the brain can control appetite and eating behaviors in connection with the brain’s homeostatic system of energy balance is difficult.” (Baik). Serotonin on the other hand is the neurotransmitter responsible for sleep, mood, anxiety, and emotion. The main contributor to food addiction from serotonin, is the relation of food to the elevation of mood. “In the case of certain carbohydrate cravers, the Wurtmans found, dietary tryptophan was being converted into serotonin, like always—but this concentrated serotonin surge was also a powerful mood-booster. It was medicine.” (Hanson). When dopamine and serotonin signaling are combined they create a ‘dopamine-serotonin phenomenon’, the act of wanting and liking something.

We like to receive gifts, for example, but we want food, sex, and drugs...The ‘liking’ system is activated by receiving reward, while the ‘wanting’ system anticipates reward and motivates instrumental behaviors. When the two systems are exposed to [food], the “wanting” system motivates persistent pursuit of [food] that no longer give pleasure, thus offering an explanation for a core paradox in addiction. (Hanson).

For food addict, it’s extremely difficult to refuse to eat an excess of carbohydrates, sugars, fats, and salts because of the biological effects neurotransmitters have on the brain in association to these foods. “Like biological alcoholics, they must struggle against a physiology that is telling them otherwise.” (Hanson).

Hyperpalatable foods and the ingredients in which they contain contribute to the psychological effects on neurotransmitters related to addiction. Humans have evolved too crave or prefer foods that are high in fat, sugar, and salt. However, today the increased availability and obtuse proportions of the processed and refined food that contain high fat, sugar, and salt, have incredibly high abuse potential. Many high processed foods have been changed in ways like addictive drugs.

Many abusive drugs are derived from plant materials that are then refined into higher concentrated substances (e.g., grapes into wine; the coca leaf into cocaine). As a result of processing, these substances became more potent and the active ingredients is more quickly absorbed into the bloodstream…Many highly palatable foods follow a similar process that results in the quicker absorption of sugar and higher level of reward…corn was refined into high fructose corn syrup – a highly concentrated and very sweet simple carbohydrate. (Gearhardt, Davis, Ashley N., and Brownell).

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been added to many foods in the past years, shown through an exponential growth in the caloric intake of HFCS. But, because of the increase in quantity and proportion of this consumption on the rise, the physiological effects of HFCS can be compared to those of drug abuse. HFCS can be widely compared to that of alcohol due to the biological similarities. HFCS and alcohol consumed in appropriate proportions can have some added health benefits. However, HFCS and alcohol are frequently consumed in excess resulting in problematic biological dysfunction. HFCS is known to contribute to insulin resistance and not allowing leptin signaling. Therefore “promoting sensations of hunger and activation of the reward pathways creating a desire for consumption independent of energy needs.” (Gearhardt, Ashley N, Davis, and Brownell). HFCS in high quantities also can bypass the satiety system controlled by the release of insulin. This is contrasted to the natural sugar, glucose, and its effects. Glucose encourages the release of insulin which decreases the want to keep eating, but fructose only encourages insulin release to a minute degree. Overall, the consumption of hyperpalatable foods can cause biological effects within the brain that promote overeating.

The food industry can be widely blamed for the exploitation of human’s desire for sugar and fat. Vegetable oil and sugar received an exponential decrease in cost, in turn allowing food companies to focus on pumping out processed, highly palatable foods. “there was a 42% per capita increase in the consumption of added fats and a 162% increase in cheese relative to only a 20% increase in fruits and vegetables between 1970 and 2000” (Davis). But, besides the overall quality of fast food changing to be more and more unhealthy, the portions in which food is served is extremely skewed. One meal at a fast food restaurant, can provide the needed daily caloric intake within that individual meal. On top of fast food itself, these companies are appealing to the brains of individuals using marketing.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that the food industry spends almost $10 billion per year marketing food and beverages in the U.S. that appeal to children and adolescents, including $1.6 billion to target children and adolescents directly with soft drinks, fast-food, and cereal promotions. In 2005 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that food marketing contributes to unhealthy diets and risk of poor health among American children and youth. (Toxic Food Environment).

Companies are thinking of more ways to appeal to the youth across various mediums “including cell phones, video games, social media, and immersive ‘virtual worlds’” (Toxic Food Environment). But, there has only been limited change to these forms of marketing. By 2012 fast food television ads had declined by 10% and Burger King and McDonald’s reduced their advertising (Fast Food Targeted Marketing). These minimal changes however are overshadowed by the introduction of mobile applications, websites, games, ads on third-party websites, and introduction of new unhealthier foods (Fast Food Targeted Marketing). Beyond the entirety of ads, fast food restaurants themselves, menus, and packaging, have been proven to all provide environmental cues that encourage overeating (Is Fast Food Addictive?). These environmental cues are also known as ‘conditioning cues’, another aspect in which plays into the psychological senses of an individual’s brain. Conditioning cues are any cues that appeal to the biological senses of an individual that, in this case, are associated with eating; for example, the tantalizing scent of food, the appealing sight of food, and the taste of food (Baik).

Perhaps the most disturbing issue with fast food marketing is the targeting of children and teens. Children and teens who have yet to go through puberty have more difficulty making health conscious decisions because their prefrontal cortex has yet to fully develop. In simpler terms, “at a time in their lives when their biological urges are particularly intense, adolescents have yet acquired the ability to control these urges.” (The New Age of Food Marketing). Because of the lack of biological development in the brain teens and children are more susceptible to advertising through marketing tactics like distraction, increased stimuli, or peer pressure, further disrupting normal dopamine and serotonin release into the brain before adulthood. Obese children and teens are at a higher level to continue making unhealthy decisions into adulthood further contributing to future complications.

“Today, one in three teens is either overweight or obese, and overweight young people are likely to stay overweight throughout their lives, which puts them at higher risk for serious and even life-threatening health problems…The teen years are a critical developmental period when consumer and eating behaviors are established that may as well last throughout an individual’s lifetime.” (The New Age of Food Marketing).

Fast food beyond the limits of advertising, can appeal to the physical senses of an individual and encourage addiction. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is commonly used in the flavoring of fast foods. MSG is extremely high in salt, therefore turning seemingly regular foods into highly palatable foods. “This flavoring agent may also interfere with appetite suppression and cause you to feel hungry even after you’ve eaten a large amount of food.” (Addictive Ingredients in Fast Food and Their Effect on Your Body). Like high fructose corn syrup, MSG is a synthesized ingredient from extracting and a component in starch, sugar beets, sugar cane, and molasses, therefore increasing its potency (Questions and Answers on Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)). However, MSG is still “generally recognized as safe” by the FDA and because of this is widely put in a variety of foods (Questions and Answers on Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)). Another potent ingredient placed in a multitude of fast food is casein, also known as the “nicotine of foods”. This food is found naturally in milk however when refined, creates calcium hydrogen phosphate, a highly concentrated milk solid. Casein is often put into acidic foods which aid its already addictive properties. Acidic foods are usually high in fat and sugar which promote weight gain. Common foods featuring casein include french fries, buns, drive-thru-window baked goods, desserts, creamy salad dressings, whipped toppings, and sausages (Addictive Ingredients in Fast Food and Their Effect on Your Body).

Food addiction however, is also a contributor for physically damaging behaviors involving eating. A main disorder associated with food addiction is binge eating disorder. Food addiction and binge eating disorder show similarities in how individuals interact with food “such as diminished control over consumption and continued excessive consumption despite negative consequences.” (Gearhardt, Marney, and Potenza). Binge eating disorder is characterized by three main factors “frequent episodes of uncontrollable binge eating, feeling extremely distressed or upset during or after bingeing, and unlike bulimia, there are no regular attempts to “make-up” for the binges through vomiting, fasting, or over-exercising” (Binge Eating Disorder). Binge eating disorder overwhelmingly is characterized through the dopamine activation pathways, like that of drug or food addiction. On top of that, when obese binge eating disorder participants were shown conditioning cues (conditions that appeal to individual’s senses involving eating) they showed higher dopamine release in contrast to individuals who were obese but did not have the disorder (Gearhardt, Marney, and Potenza). While food addiction effects an individual biologically, physiologically, and psychologically “BED and substance dependence appear to share multiple behavioral, clinical, and neurobiological similarities.” (Gearhardt, Marney, and Potenza).

Perhaps one of the most obvious and prevalent physiological problem associated with food addiction is obesity. With the introduction of the television, individuals began to develop less active life styles, especially children.

“…the more TV children watch, the more likely they are to gain excess weight. Children who have TV sets in their bedrooms are also more likely to gain excess weight than children who don’t. And there’s evidence that early TV habits may have long-lasting effects: Two studies that followed children from birth found that TV viewing in childhood predicts obesity risk well into adulthood and mid-life.” (Television Watching and “Sit Time”).

Obesity during childhood increases the chance of serious health conditions and issues during adulthood, ones that are life threatening (Toxic Food Environment). In adults being obese can contribute to the cause of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, certain cancers, and other chronic conditions. “According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) (2009-2010), approximately 69% of adults are overweight or obese, with more than 78 million adult Americans considered obese.” (Why Obesity Is a Health Problem). See Figure 3, regarding the prevalence of obesity since 2011.

In conclusion, food addiction can affect an individual holistically. Psychologically, food addiction targets the dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitters in the brain, coincidentally the same centers in the brain as drug addiction. These two neurotransmitters create the dopamine-serotonin phenomenon, which is the act of wanting and liking a certain effect due to the feeling of reward. When the effect takes place, an individual’s body begins to confuse when to appropriately release dopamine and serotonin in response to food. Individuals can also be effected psychologically through marketing. Fast food targets children, playing through the lack of a fully developed prefrontal cortex. The lack of development makes them more susceptible to making bad decisions when eating food, also contributing to unhealthy decisions as adults. Physiologically, individuals are more apt to resort to bad eating habits like binge eating which contributes to obesity. More children and adults are becoming obese and further having life-threatening conditions. Biologically, people’s bodies begin to mistake the appropriate times to release certain neurotransmitters in response to conditioning cues, directly eating, and observing marketing advertisements. This biological effect also begins to confuse when and when not an individual reaches satiety, further contributing to obesity. These factors combined, took a sharp increase with the advancement in the 1980s towards efficiency. With technological advancement comes shortcuts that lead to unhealthier decisions.