POTATO CHIPS

We have posts on this blog about being a  "Junk Food Addict" and potato chips fall into the category of junk food. There are also several posts on this blog about "Couch Potato Calories" and potato chips fall into that category, too. Let's have a little post now about potato chips. We all know there are many different kinds and flavors of potato chips on the market today but for this post let's say we are just talking about the general potato chip (my favorite 😟).

• 1-oz of potato chips has around 150 calories
• 1-oz of potato chips has around 10 grams of fat and 3 of those are saturated (bad) fat.
• The average potato chip is deep-fried and usually not in a healthy oil.
• The average potato chip has too much salt.
• If you eat just 1-ounce of potato chips a day, 3 times a week, within a year you will have consumed roughly 23,400 calories in potato chips. That translates to a 7-pound weight gain per year, just from chips. And really now, let's be honest here, are you going to eat only 1-ounce of chips 3 times a week? Most of us eat more than that at a time.
• In addition to weight gain, the fat, salt, carbs, etc are just not conducive to good health!

So, what can you do to cut back on or totally eliminate these chips from your diet? Replace them with a healthier food!  Try rice cakes or popcorn cakes. Dry roasted edamame is also a good choice. Nuts are healthy if they are not coated in sugar, etc. But beware of the calorie count in the nuts you choose. And if you want to really go healthy, replace chips with fresh veggies such as carrot sticks, etc.

ARE YOU A JUNK FOOD ADDICT? PART II

 This is a continuation of yesterday's post regarding junk food addiction.

So, you wonder how food could be like cocaine?  Think about this:

Think about these foods (and many others), stuffed crust pizza, double-fudge ice cream, French fries, over-sized pastries, etc and what makes them so enjoyable - sugar, fat, etc. These ingredients stoke the brain's reward center the way whole, fresh foods in their natural state do not.  Ashley Gearhardt, a food addiction researcher and assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, has said, "These foods are engineered for you to crave and eat compulsively. Compared to, say, a piece of fruit, the sugar in jelly beans is more pure and potent, and it hits your system faster because there's no fiber and other ingredients to slow it down." Gearhardt continued by saying, "When you punch up the reward and speed (it's absorption by the body), it becomes so powerful it hijacks the (brain's) reward system.

A key driver of the reward system is the neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopamine is released in the brain when we experience something pleasurable such as food, sex, and drugs. Dopamine is a reward that makes the body want to do it again. But when the reward system gets pinged so repeatedly, it gets so overstimulated that it starts to automatically dial back the response. And thus begins the vicious cycle. When the body doesn't feel as big a reward, called tolerance, you consume greater amounts in search of the reward.

Be aware and don't allow your body to become addicted to junk food!

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ARE YOU A JUNK FOOD ADDICT?

A gallup poll in 2011 showed that Americans were 20% heavier than they were in 1991. I realize it is now 2024 but I wonder how much that number has changed in the past few years. The experts say that food addiction may be the biggest culprit in this increase! Research suggests that highly processed, calorie-dense treats may actually be both physically and psychologically addicting and may lead to some of the same changes in the brain as do heroin and cocaine! Paul Kenney, Ph.D., an associate professor of molecular therapeutics at Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida stated the following, "We tend to look at obesity as a lack of willpower - that if you'd just put down the cheeseburger and go for a run, you'd be fine." He continued by saying, "It is not that simple. There's a population of overweight people who have problems with highly palatable food, so called 'junk food,' the way others do with gambling or crack cocaine."

It is important to note that not every overweight person is a food addict nor are all food addicts overweight. Many food addicts control their weight with excessive exercise, purging, etc. Food addiction is not measured by body size but by behavior.

Dr. Kimberly Dennis, medical director for Timberline Knolls, a residential treatment center for eating disorders and addiction (in Illinois) said this, "Food addicts lose control when they eat because their brains react on a neurochemical level either to their relationship with food - habitually eating when something unpleasant happens - or substances in the food itself. It is very different from the sedentary person who just eats too many chips."

Tomorrow's post will deal with how food can be equal to crack cocaine.

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