Despite what I know and say about the health effects of junk food, there are certain foods that once I start eating I just can’t stop eating – those are chips, chocolate and cookies.
If there’s a packet of cookies in the house, I don’t just eat one or two, I mock the crowd.
And as for milk chocolate, well, there are times I’ve broken up an entire bar and thrown it in a bin to keep myself from eating it – only minutes later to rummage around and look for it.
A particularly low point was when I ate my then six-year-old daughter’s Easter egg. She’s 23 now, but she still hasn’t forgiven me.
The notion that you can be “addicted” to food has been controversial, with the argument that food doesn’t alter brain function the way alcohol or drugs do.
But a team at the University of Michigan in the US recently argued in the journal Addiction that highly processed sugary foods like ice cream, chocolate, donuts and cookies should be considered addictive in the same way as tobacco.
And that’s because some foods, like cigarettes, trigger intense urges and cravings to the point where you’ll keep eating them even though you know it increases your risk of life-threatening diseases like type 2 diabetes and increased heart disease.
The notion that you can be “addicted” to food has been controversial, with the argument that food doesn’t alter brain function the way alcohol or drugs do
The researchers also point out that highly processed foods can produce changes in the brain that are similar in size to those from nicotine.
Something like this happened to a friend of mine, Dr. Chris van Tulleken when he went on a month-long diet consisting of 80 percent ultra-processed foods for a BBC documentary.
His diet included foods such as cocoa-flavored breakfast cereals, chicken nuggets, and microwaveable lasagna.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, he’s gained 14 pounds (over a stone), but he’s also found himself craving more and more junk food.
And scans showed that eating all that junk had literally rewired his brain in that short time – there were lots of new neural pathways, many connecting the reward centers and the cerebellum, an area that controls automatic behaviors.
It appears that his new diet has reprogrammed him to seek out and eat even more of these unhealthy foods on autopilot. That’s good news if you’re a food maker, but not so good news for the rest of us.
If you accept that some foods are addictive, then what are the worst culprits?
In 2015, another University of Michigan study asked 120 college students to fill out the Yale Food Addiction Scale (a measure of how addicted you find a particular food) and rank 35 foods based on how addictive they found each one.
Not surprisingly, chocolate topped the list of “most addictive foods,” followed by ice cream, french fries, pizza, cookies, chips, cake, buttered popcorn and cheeseburgers.
Somewhere in the middle was cheese, bacon, and nuts, while at the bottom was salmon, brown rice, cucumber, and broccoli.
So what do the addictive foods have in common?
Well, first, they’re highly processed, designed to be absorbed quickly and give your brain an almost instantaneous boost of dopamine (a brain chemical associated with reward). They are also a mixture of fats and carbohydrates.
And not just any mixture. Broadly speaking, whether it’s chocolate or chips, cake or cheeseburgers, they’re all made up of around 1g of fat and 2g of carbohydrates.
A relationship that we humans seem to find particularly irresistible.
Topping the list of “most addictive foods” was chocolate, followed by ice cream, french fries, pizza, cookies (file photo), chips, cake, buttered popcorn and cheeseburgers
To see if you’re “addicted” to a particular food, try my quiz (at right), adapted from the Yale Food Addiction Scale.
So what can you do if you’re addicted to sugary junk food?
The first thing to do is make sure you don’t have one around the house or you’ll crack it and eat it.
Next, look for alternatives that might at least partially satisfy your craving; I’ve found that switching from milk chocolate to dark chocolate helps a little because I still get the chocolate hit, but less sugar and that makes it less tasty.
I also find that eating an apple or pear can sometimes satisfy that sweetness craving.
Another trick I use is to “surf” the urge to let go of cravings. The urge to surf means that instead of trying to fight it, I try to sit it out by drinking a tall glass of water, practicing deep breathing, and trying to focus on other things. It usually takes me about 30 minutes to regain control.
Seek support from family and friends. I’m lucky that my wife Clare doesn’t have a sweet tooth. So when we are given a box of chocolates, she either gives them away or gives the chocolates away in meager amounts.
Finally, when I’m sleep deprived, I crave sugary carbs.
In a study published earlier this year in the journal Sleep, nearly 100 teens were asked to reduce their sleep to 6.5 hours a night for a week. During that week, they ate far more sugary, high-carb foods than normal, perhaps because they were subconsciously looking for a quick burst of energy to keep going.
So, again, the message is to make sure you’re getting enough sleep.
ARE YOU ADDICTED TO CERTAIN FOODS?
Answer the following questions. More than three yes answers and you could be in trouble.
1. When I start eating this food, I can’t stop and end up eating a lot more than I intended.
2. I keep eating that food even when I’m no longer hungry.
3. I crave this food when I’m stressed.
4. If it’s not in the house, I’ll go to the nearest store that sells it.
5. I hide this food so even those close to me won’t know how much I eat.
6. Consumption causes anxiety and feelings of self-loathing and guilt.
7. Although I don’t get much pleasure from eating it anymore, I still do.
8. I tried to give up this food but couldn’t.
Hearing birdsong can lift your spirits
As it’s getting colder, wetter, and darker, I make an extra effort to go for a walk in the morning. It helps that we have a dog, Tari, who gets excited when I walk to the front door.
Walking, especially in the countryside, is really good for mental and physical health.
In Japan, where I filmed recently, they have a concept of “shinrin-yoku,” or forest bathing — spending time in forests and forests, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells to relieve stress.
Where I live, many magnificent Red Kites (pictured) soar through the sky with their distinctive meowing call
You will also benefit from inhaling phytoncides, essential oils produced by trees that boost our immune system.
Another benefit is seeing and hearing birds.
Where I live, many magnificent Red Kites soar through the sky with their distinctive meowing call.
Seeing her makes my heart beat faster and it seems I’m not alone. More than 1,200 people took part in a recent study on the mental health effects of birds.
Using an app developed by researchers from King’s College London, the volunteers reported whether they could see or hear birds and answered questions about their psychological well-being.
The study showed that birdlife can affect our feelings, especially in people with depression.
Another good reason to put on your rubber boots and explore nature.
Nits are an age old problem
Our kids are grown and moved out and I miss them around me.
What I don’t miss are the little friends they used to bring with them from elementary school. I’m talking about head lice.
I was reminded of this by a recent study by archaeologists in Israel, which revealed these immortal lines were written on an ivory comb over 3,000 years ago: “May this tusk eradicate the lice from the hair and beard.”
The oldest known sentence, written in the world’s first alphabet, turns out to be a guide on how to get rid of head lice.
Oldest known sentence, written in world’s first alphabet, turns out to be instructions on how to get rid of head lice (file photo)
Archaeologists know that the comb was actually used for this purpose as there were nits between its teeth.
There are many special potions to get rid of head lice, but a study by researchers at Ghent University Hospital in Belgium showed that an ordinary douche, a comb and patience are your best weapons.
If you’re concerned that robots will one day take over the world, you might find it reassuring to know that even the most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems sometimes need a nap.
We humans need sleep to consolidate our memories — but it turns out a new breed of AI called spiking neural networks, which closely mimic how the human brain works, also needs downtime as it learns and remembers should remember.
Image: A Walker robot from UBTech Robotics Inc. plays Chinese chess during the 2021 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US have shown that if they don’t get “the equivalent of a ‘good night’s sleep’ they tend to become unstable”.
The researchers suspect that this will also apply to androids and other AI machines that are developed in the future.