Science of Junk Food

Just got done reading this article from the New York Times.

The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food

Grant Cornett for The New York Times

Blog by: Liz edited by Bev

THE EXTRAORDINARY SCIENCE OF JUNK FOOD

By MICHAEL MOSS
Published: NYTimes, February 20, 2013
www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

This above article describes how American food producers use science to make fast food and snack food so addictive that a lot of us would rather die than give it up. Unlike someone who’s cooking meth, what the food producers do is legal. Result? While so many on our crowded planet are starving,  tons of junk-food -addicted Americans are snacking themselves to death.

I’m an angry and worried wife and mother who’s saying enough already.

When I was growing up, there was always chocolate in our house.  My friends would come over and see the bowl brimming with candies.

 "Can I have some?"

"Sure, it's old take it. I don't like candy"

On my way home from riding on weekends we would go to McDonalds where I would get a double cheeseburger, small fries and a Sprite. Yet when I rode in my friend’s car and asked for McDonalds, her parents would wrinkle their noses and say "no".  This made me want it even more! I would sing the McDonalds song, and wouldn't give up till finally we were in the drive-thru to get that precious order of  small fries.

I can eat whatever I want and not become obese.  So I don’t truly feel the food-addiction thing – the trials and tribulations of size extra large.   Blame it on my mom. She fed me, she raised me... and she eats killer foods. If left to her own devices she would happily douse every meal in ketchup, mayonnaise and white sugar. Spread that load of heart attack on some cheap white bread, slap on a side of tuna...and you have a happy old British Lady.

Some of the meals I now make for her are very healthy but taste bad, even to me. She looks at it and says "but war food-rationing is over!" and starts to pick out the vegetables and fake tofu-meat. Can you blame her?  Mom loves her béarnaise sauce with a little red meat, washed down with a glass of wine.

At our house, Mom fed us English style  It was steak and potatoes almost every night. Sorry, my mom will object to that. So let’s admit it. She did serve other things...like shepherd’s pie, Yorkshire pudding, roast beef, meat loaf, beef Wellington, London broil, bubble and squeak, toad in the hole, bangers and mash, bacon roly-poly, and sometimes for a special treat, a slithery mass of haggis. It took hours to make, and she cooked it well...but  it was truly a labor of nutritional catastrophe.

Since you asked, here’s a haggis recipe: enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 sheep stomach
• 1 sheep liver
• 1 sheep heart
• 1 sheep tongue
• 1/2 pound suet, minced
• 3 medium onions, minced
• 1/2 pound dry oats, toasted
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried ground herbs

What can I say?  I quickly became a picky eater.

By the time I was in high school I was eating a bowl of oatmeal, a Snickers bar downed with two cans of Coke, followed by a Celeste pizza and that was it for THE DAY.    I ate small portions of sugary greasy things that would get me high enough to make it to the next "cheap and fast meal". No more of that super heavy English cooking. No more taking time to cook any food for that matter. Grab a bag of chips and run.

Then I met my husband. Whether it was meat, fish or veggies, he’d put spices on everything, add a little cheese,  some bread crumbs and sauté it... till it was perfect. I started to understand why people crave this stuff.  He taught me how to cook a meal, as in:  a meat, a veggie, and a starch heaped onto a plate. That's how we ate for four years.

Now,  it wasn't that he was eating bad things.  It’s just that his portions were HUGE.  He needed to lighten up. He agreed, and the pounds started to come off.

I was going in the opposite direction. By this time in my mid 20's I ate Adderall mixed with booze, and smoked, and drank a ton of coffee. This was a problem.  But I felt it brought me pleasure. In reality, I was an in-denial wreck with terrible mood swings, depression and often an upset stomach.

It took me only 27 years of bad nutrition to figure out that fiber-rich, regular and moderate eating can be a girl’s best friend!   Hubster’s, too.

So I backed off from my food phobia, and he dialed down his food fascination. As a result, I added a few much-needed pounds to my boney frame, while he dropped a cool 50.  How many years will that add to his life?

We do indulge our greasy food cravings. Just once a week, as in: Yay, it’s Saturday, let’s have a cheese-steak!  Allowing that one  treat  permits us to be disciplined for the rest of the week,  when we faithfully follow the “Forks Over Knives” whole-food, plant-based diet.

www.forksoverknives.com/

But for most of America?  Read those bathroom scales, people!  And weep.  

Back to my mom...

Both during and for some time after World War II in England, people, including my mom, were given Ration Books, that contained cards like this one.

Ration card for groceries.  My mum still has hers.  I’ll post it later.

A card might allow you to buy 2 oz or 3 oz of candy, for example. Also rationed were butter, meat, flour, tea – all the basic necessities. People grew fresh veggies in back gardens. There was no fast food, or pre-baked dinners. No food additives. Those coupons, while they lasted, kept a nation on the dietary straight and narrow.

How far we have strayed in our good old stuff-your-face USA! The article that I mentioned at the top of this blog?  It  shows that despite all the government’s talk about curbing obesity, the fast-food, snack-food industry is pouring billions into advertising and into ever higher crunchiness and calorie levels along with chemically manipulated tastes that will hook people on food products that you wouldn’t feed your dog,  because it would be cruel. So why are we cruel to ourselves and our children?

Next time you go to the supermarket, read the ingredients! And understand what they mean. Here’s a great little book to take with you on your next shopping trip…twelve bucks on Amazon.

Feeding the kids (and mom) is hard. They won't eat salads or whole grains; you have to trick them into it. My son loves chicken nuggets. It would be fast and easy to do a drive through and get him some, or to thaw some out of a frozen bag. Instead I buy free range organic chicken and dunk it in some breadcrumbs with a dash of garlic and a dash of parmesan cheese, and he loves it. I even let him dip it in some honey from my neighborhood apiarist.

I want my kids to love food and not crave McDonalds. I want them to look at food and see a rainbow of healthy choices. I want them to eat a Dorito chip and have it blow their mind because it feels wrong in their mouths... I want them to know that this taste is unnatural and modified to get them addicted to it. I want them to say nay to colorful packages of candy.

 This will never happen of course. I can however, feed them in moderation and feed them well with home cooked healthy options. I'm a stay at home mom in that regard, so my kids are lucky to have my time and energy. If you have any bright ideas to help working moms make better choices, let me know!

Bon appetit.

We certainly did not need this during the war. Just saying. 

Me in high school drinking my coke, I went through sometimes 6 a day. I was depressed.

Me in art school, smoking and drinking, still depressed.

Me in grad school. On Adderall, happy and starving to death.