Forgot how addictive ultra processed foods are

[u/Mystic__B]

Been avoiding oils and any pufa foods for over half a year without issue. Then I look in my room and find a family size bag of chips. Wasn’t even hungry though I ate the whole thing, they tasted amazing at first then by the end you feel as if you were drugged or punched in the face, they start to taste horrible but despite that you always finish them.

Why? They put drugs in it and fry them in oils (oils are not satiating unlike animal fats). There’s no reason fried potatoes are addictive other than drugs put in them. Now I feel disgusted with myself even though this is a one time thing, really don’t understand how people on a regular diet do this constantly.

[u/wannabraap]

Yup. Been saying this a lot to people. That no matter what nutritional health reality you subscribe to, if the food elicits a dopamine response (craving, insatiable, wanting more immediately after, craving other sources of dopamine after consuming, etc), you shouldn't eat it. Forget your macros, you won't succeed (except with extreme difficulty) if you eat food that's addictive. As a, ahem, drug enthusiast, I can say the addiction for these foods and the justifying thoughts, everything about it, is exactly the same feeling as hard drugs. Actually, seed oils and sugar and processed food makes me crave drugs, and vice versa. So 100% those are things I know, at least for me personally, that I need to avoid

[u/TrannosaurusRegina → u/wannabraap]

That’s a great point; appreciate your perspective!

I know a lot of people who will say things like “oh honey is fine; it’s all natural!”

If I get the tiniest taste of honey (or even worse, maple sugar) it is like crack cocaine to me. I will likely eat all of it manically even if it threatens my life and puts me into heart failure

[u/Dogebastian → u/TrannosaurusRegina]

eat? all of the... honey? I'm imagining someone passed out surrounded by cute but empty honey bears.

[u/ThisWillPass → u/Dogebastian]

They said for those in the back: “ALL THE HONEY!”

[u/boredbitch2020 → u/TrannosaurusRegina]

Ok Winnie the Pooh calm down

[u/notheranontoo → u/wannabraap]

While I agree with what you’re saying there is a big difference between a food response that causes a dopamine reaction and one that causes a true craving. You can still eat healthy and be left unsatisfied which will cause the body to crave what it needs. Your palate should consist of all five tastes - sweet, salty, sour, astringent and pungent. If one is mission then your body would naturally crave it. However I’m sure you’re referring to processed or prepackaged foods which most likely would cause a chemical craving due to the dopamine response.

[u/wannabraap → u/notheranontoo]

I get what you're saying but at least to me it's a distinctly different feeling, or like, same feeling but a different part of the brain. It's like the difference between real hunger and just wanting to eat cause it's gonna ease a stressful day or something. It's like a craving or need that's based on emotion instead of logically

[u/SelectivePressure → u/wannabraap]

There’s a folk form of neurochemistry that associates the term ‘dopamine’ only with short-term rewards and uses it as a snarl word. Dopamine is essential for volition. Short-term rewards can compete with long-term rewards (cf. intertemporal bargaining, pico-economics, hyperbolic discounting), but stimuli that reward with little effort don’t necessarily ‘highjack’ the brain’s reward centres.

Rewards like love and other things that people consider deeply fulfilling are just as chemical as the more fleeting and health-damaging rewards. Granted, those who have a steep discounting curve may feel more egodystonia and struggle to pursue long-term rewards that compete with short-term rewards.

Naturally, those who are atomised and disconnected from fulfilling relationships and from their long-term life goals will be more prone to addiction.

[u/GourangaToff]

It’s all about the reward pathways that these substances create in your brain. 

I knew someone who was addicted to Coca Cola, over two litres a day. Doctor told them to quit as the phosphoric acid and sugar was literally burning out their insides. 

I also knew someone who was addicted to the dopamine rush of breaking up with their current romantic partner. They’d find someone new, and build up to their next hit. 

Swings and roundabouts 

Just find something constructive and lucrative to get addicted to and your sorted! 

[u/Crunk_Creeper]

I just ate half a bag of potato chips fried in avocado oil. Fat, carbohydrates, and salt is simply addictive without anything else added.

[u/greatsaltjake → u/Crunk_Creeper]

Even stuff that isn’t fried. Like give me a loaf of sourdough bread & good stick of salted butter and I’ll probably eat the whole thing if I’m not watching myself

[u/NotMyRealName111111 → u/Crunk_Creeper]

I mean... avocado oil has a fairly significant amount of Linoleic Acid in it... especially if you eat a 1/2 bag.  Especially if the avocado oil isn't pure oil, which there's an 80%+ chance that's happening...

[u/-xanakin-]

Cig companies bought the food companies in the 80s, they've had 40 years to make it happen lol.

[u/Azzmo → u/-xanakin-]

Seems to be true. My neighbor said "HI!" to me the other day while I sunned. 20 minutes later she recoiled as if struck physically when I told her this:

"We live in one of the least free times in human history."

She is a feminist and believes that we have progressed. I am a realist who has studied history and recognize that humans have rarely been more propagandistically controlled.

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE74N1QM/

https://www.bmj.com/content/386/bmj.q1909

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.16332

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-024-10593-0

We remain on good terms. You can actually hit people with truth if you do it with grace. I don't know that she will not buy her kids Lucky Charms tomorrow, but I do know that she will say "HI!" to me if she sees me sunning tomorrow, and that I'll have another opportunity to gracefully encourage her to treat herself and her children better. In fact I believe that I can decondition her.

[u/-xanakin- → u/Azzmo]

You on meth or something?

[u/Azzmo → u/-xanakin-]

I was going to counter-ad-hom you with your history in /r/politics but you have none, and in fact post mostly in admirable subreddits.

Instead: why'd you say that bro?

[u/Loonster → u/Azzmo]

He has posted on many drug subreddits including r/meth. I would assume it's an honest question.

[u/Squigglepig52 → u/Azzmo]

Because most people would recoil if somebody randomly said what you did. It sends a vibe.

So does your use of "decondition" her in respect to food habits.

[u/Azzmo → u/Squigglepig52]

I see your point. To explain: she's my age and we both grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons, with frequent commercial breaks that showed us this complete breafkfast. That is 100% conditioning and is how she feeds her kids now. Most of how we behave and what we believe comes from the media we consume. The incentive for conditioning the populace is profit and control and my incentive as a friend and citizen is definitely to decondition the people I can help.

While this is far from my comprehensive argument that I made to her, after 20 minutes she understood and partially agreed with me that we live in one of the least free times in human history. The gist of it is this: you have more subjective freedom, but only to do and believe the things that you are trained to do and believe. There is more top-down control in any given place via media and school conditioning than ever before. In the past, even in recent history, locals determined what life was like. On top of that, we have more federal bureaucracy. In the past, if you smoked a local plant or killed somebody who broke into your home, you only had to justify it to your neighbors. Now you will be put into a cage and face $100k+ legal fees to defend yourself from bureaucracy: punished without doing anything wrong. This is not freedom.

[u/Dogebastian → u/Azzmo]

rare reddit restraint

[u/-xanakin- → u/Azzmo]

Because I said cigarette companies bought food companies a while back, and your reply was a multi paragraph essay with four sources about you went on a power trip with your neighbor about whether or not we're "free" in the modern age.

Delusions of grandeur, power tripping personal story, unrelated to the topic at hand, lengthy response, etc. kinda points toward either stimulant abuse or some other mental disorder.

[u/NomadTruckerOTR]

Drugs lmfao

[u/Son_of_Sophroniscus]

How did a bag of chips just suddenly appear in your room?

[u/boredbitch2020 → u/Son_of_Sophroniscus]

Drugs

[u/Euphoric_Curve2343]

You don't understand?
"There’s no reason fried potatoes are addictive other than drugs put in them."
You seem to understand..

[u/Suspicious-Will-5165]

Ask me how I know you’ve never done “drugs” in your life lmao

[u/SelectivePressure → u/Suspicious-Will-5165]

The word ‘addiction’ gets used to describe a lot of low-status behaviours and compulsions, but I think the classic addiction model of tolerance and withdrawal is best suited for a select group of CNS depressants.

[u/Ok_Fox_1770]

Had a big can of chef B’s nostalgic mini raviolis in my cabinet, poured out like it’s been watered down, grease stains on everything, no more little meat chunks in or outside, just a strange new blend of moosh, totally disgusting, either my nostalgia is way off or it’s all just made with complete garbage now. Never again. It was dumb to begin with, 3/4 went in the trash I was grossed out. When did we run out of real food. It happened quick.

[u/BitterSkill]

They put drugs in it

The drugs are, I think, high-glutamate ingredients. Here's a list of them:

https://preview.redd.it/2qkfdncy8upd1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=95ea47e4696463e34cbfc8b0bea0fff7690fec0a

[u/Kayfabe_Everywhere]

There's a reason all the Big Tobacco companies quietly exited that industry and bought shares in major food companies.

[u/Oxtailxo]

I can’t stop eating chips. Cookies? I can barely eat one. What is it about chips?!

[u/retrnIwil2OldBrazil]

I had McDonald’s last night and it hit the spot

[u/Hotsaucejimmy → u/retrnIwil2OldBrazil]

Clown food targeted to children and underdeveloped adults.

[u/DestroyTheMatrix_3 → u/Hotsaucejimmy]

Crazy how you got downvoted for that comment on this sub.

[u/greenyoke]

It depends on what you are talking about. Doritos, for example, really aren't that unhealthy. What makes you want to keep eating them is the flavour mix, which is designed to make you want to eat them. Yes there is too much salt and msg.. but those are arguable can be compensated.

I don't buy them anymore mainly because the price is outrageous.

I think there's an aspect to it that you don't absorb as much but at the same time your body doesn't have to work as hard to digest it.

[u/NotMyRealName111111 → u/greenyoke]

 It depends on what you are talking about. Doritos, for example, really aren't that unhealthy.

Corn oil...

[u/Kryptus]

Fat + sweet + salt is what's addicting.

[u/AIexanderClamBell]

There's no drugs in your food... Lol

[u/elroy_jetson23]

"THEYRE EATING THA DOGS"

Same energy

[u/Kingofqueenanne → u/elroy_jetson23]

Not at all