[Your] favorite guilty pleasure snack may be just as addictive as cigarettes or heroin, a new study reveals.
An analysis of 281 studies in 36 countries, published in the British Medical Journal this month, found that your inability to put down the ice cream, chips and candy may have less to do with your self-control and more to do with the addictive quality of ultra-processed foods or UPFs.
“The combination of refined carbohydrates and fats often found in UPFs seems to have a supra-additive effect on brain reward systems, above either macronutrient alone, which may increase the addictive potential of these foods,” the study said.
Trying to quit smoking is hard.
When I was smoking, I never forgot to buy a pack.
I have however, forgotten that thing of donuts I wanted, or the ice cream I like. I do it multiple times a month.
This is some serious bullshit.
Not the same thing but I’ve been on a sunflower seed kick the past few weeks. Eating them most of the day while I’m working almost everyday.
Today I finished a bag and guess what I didn’t do? Leave work, walk 2 miles in a thunderstorm and spend my last couple bucks on a bag of sunflower seeds.
At a low point I’ve walked around neighborhoods looking for ashtrays on porches to dig through and find an old stale cig with maybe a puff or two left. I would never dig through a trash can hoping for a few left over seeds.
I think anything can be addictiveto a degree but comparing ice cream to cigarettes, let alone heroin, is absolutely wild to me.