Dr. Kimber Stanhope

source of carbs.

It's certainly not addictive in the way cocaine is addictive.

However, they are similar in both

You eat it that first time, your reward center is going to be activated.

But in the case of drugs, the award center is saying, oh, this is really bad for me.

Let's not respond.

Therefore, the drug-addicted person keeps escalating their dose to get back to getting a reward out of their drug.

Sugar isn't like that as much as, yes, the reward goes down when you consume, let's say, the donut the first time.

But what we think is going on is our food has become so palatable that

We are completely overriding the homeostatic controls on food intake.

What's a homeostatic control?

It is basically your appetite being shut off when you have consumed enough calories.

But when you have hyperpalatable food, you are getting reactions that we call hedonic reactions.

You're eating for the pleasure of eating.

You're eating because the food is causing such a great sensation of reward.

And it's not accidental.

Our food processors do test after test after test to come up with the formulation of fat, sugar, and salt that produces the most people, taste testers, saying, this one's the best.

Our bodies are not able to adapt to the amount of sugar that we're consuming, and it's making us so sick.

Ah, high fructose corn syrup actually has a similar effect to obesity as fuel to a fire.

Pure oil.