[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.
Havnt we learned anything from past anti-drug campaigns?!
I can easily go a month with out chips. Now I feel I can easily kick heroin.
I had surgery few weeks back and was in a lot of pain. On the OR table, the surgeon was not ready yet but I asked the anesthesiologist to shoot up like 20% of anesthesia while we wait. He laughed and complied. Seriously, I was in heaven waiting for the surgeon to scrub in. I had no pain, no troubles, felt happy and loved, nice warm feeling of pure joy, Iwas at peace with everything. If that is what herion feels like, I totally understand the addiction.
Should have asked for a hand full of chips
I have my boundaries you sick junkie! We all know once you had chips, there is no going back.
Once you pop you can’t stop.
Betcha can’t eat just one!
… You know, maybe they are on to something.
Just my thought: I might try some heroin, after all I can avoid chips and ice cream for months without problem.
Try heroine, the lowcal treat!
Just because it’s as addictive to some doesn’t mean as addictive to you. I’d imagine genetics and personal life experience such as which your used to using as a vice would sway how addictive one or the other was
deleted by creator
Just the opposite for me and candy… 3 days is my max.
That’s some bs here. Been snacking for dinner all my life. Few months ago started a diet and dropped all those things. I never had shivers or flue like withdrawal symptoms like with meds.
I miss the taste but I had no problems at all, just show character and stay on target. I lost 10kg on 3 months just by quitting snacks.
I once was unvoluntary addicted to valium because I took it a long time for back muscles relax. If you want to wean of that, that’s addiction with daily vomiting for weeks. That is hell, it makes quitting sugar mean nothing.
Edit: just to clarify where I came from. My breakfast before work was kinder bueno, franchipan cookies and redbull… every day
Doubt. If true I’m going to judge smokers a lot more harshly, because apparently I’ve gotten over addictions that were just as bad.
And you don’t see people doing random sex acts in the alley for some candy.
…usually
Idk man. Sometimes I just really want a Snickers.
I’ve never had heroin, but I have smoked a handful of cigarettes, eaten chips and ice cream. Everyone is different, but I would say that the claim that they are equally as addictive is absurdly false.
Quitting nicotine is easy! I’ve done it dozens of times.
Boy, that was super easy, in fact now that I know how easy it is to quit I’m just going to buy some more cigarettes, because I’m not ready to quit quite yet.
It’s because I like them, not because I’m addicted…
What do you mean they’re related?
I tried to get hooked on nicotine, didn’t do shit except making my head hurt. I’m back to candy and chips.
I guarantee you that the person who wrote the title has never done heroin.
Not only is this a stupid and false thing to say, but it’s dangerous. There’s no good reason to make people think that heroin is just as easy to deal with as ice cream and candy. The person who wrote that shit should be sued.
As an ex-smoker this reeks of bullshit.
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.
Christ on a shitstick. Fuck outta here with this pointless crap.
I love when people say “like heroin” who’ve obviously never done heroin.
Fine, chips and ice cream are like scrapbooking.
Oh it’s a contest?
Not so much a contest as dispelling misinformation. Wouldn’t want someone to try heroin because they think it’s no worse addiction than chips and ice cream. Pretty irresponsible to suggest otherwise.
Sugar addict here. It’s true for me. I’ve been able to quit alcohol, cigarettes and weed mostly painlessly. But I cannot quit sugar. I’ve tried so many times but the withdrawals are unbearable. I’m constantly craving it and I become very angry and irrational without it. I cannot think about anything else.
mainlines some ice cream
oh fuck yeah, that’s the stuff
I’m weird then.
I can binge a whole tub of ice cream or a whole bag of chips, and then go for months at a time before even thinking about getting chips or Ice cream, having scratched the itch.
TIL heroin is not as addictive as I thought.
Chris van Tulleken, a doctor and the author of Ultra-Processed People told the Guardian that while food itself is not addictive, “UPF is not really food. The purpose of food is to provide nourishment. UPF’s primary purpose is profit and financial growth."
This just in, ice cream not food.
People saying deliberately exaggerated bullshit like this really makes them lose any sense of credibility.
I sure hope he doesn’t think avocado farmers (and the undocumented migrant workers they underpay to harvest them) do it for any other reason than profit.
Things that make you feel good are additive for similar reasons.
So what commenters are saying is that food isn’t addictive, but they’re also not noticing how obese the American population is.
There are a fuck ton more people addicted to shite food than to any drug.
