Evidence For Food Dependency And Addiction - 1040 Words

Evidence for Food Dependency/Addiction Flora is feeling hungry, but she just ate. She walks around trying to forget about the urge to pick up a donut or a random snack from the cupboard. Flora can’t get the food out of her mind. She feels like the food is calling her from the kitchen saying, â€Å"Eat me, eat me!† Flora gets up and makes her way to the food. She picks up granola bar, and opens it. The granola bar tastes wonderful and she is content, but then the bar was gone, and a few minutes later she wants another. She feels like she can’t stop eating even after she has eaten a meal. Flora asks why she can’t stop eating. She wonders if she could be addicted, so she turns to the computer and she looks up food addiction. Flora finds that is†¦show more content†¦One teaspoon of sugar is equal to 4 grams. That means in one can there are 44 grams of sugar. If a can of soda is consumed by a child everyday, that child would be consuming 132 grams of sugar in just one week (Jeffrey). This i s an alarming statistic about the common hyperpalatable foods that Americans eat everyday, and what these foods can contain. Some more examples of hyperpalatable foods are granola bars, breads, and donuts (Jeffrey L. Fortuna Dr.p.H). The amount of sugar that was in the can of soda and compare that to the results of the rat experiment. The results say there were neural changes of elevated self-stimulation, striatal D2 dopamine receptors lowered, and a dopamine decrease (Ziauddeen). Dopamine or otherwise known as DA D2 is a neurotransmitter or a chemical. This chemical transmits signals in the brain between nerve cells or neurons. When something happy happens unexpectedly in a person s life, neurons activate and transmit very few make dopamine. This means in order to feel happy, addicts need the dopamine that is released (â€Å"What is dopamine†). This compared to a methamphetamine user experiment, â€Å"Methamphetamine abusers had a significantly lower level of D2 receptor av ailability than comparison subjects... D2 receptor availability was associated with metabolic rate in the orbitofrontal cortex in abusers and in comparison subjects,† (Volkow). In addition using drugs like meth or more commonly cocain over time the brain produces less