"They're putting stuff in our food ..."

"Luna" wrote in message
...
In article Ar7Bd.3967$Tf5.3913@lakeread03, "marengo" marengo@ cox.net
wrote:

"MusicGroove2000" wrote in message

snip
|| I've heard alleged by others: namely, that US food growers and
|| manufacturers are adding (knowingly, I assume) substances in their
|| products which themselves may largely account for the upsurge in
|| serious obesity in the USA.

Oh, please!

My pet peeve nowadays is that so many people want to find a third party
to
blame for their bad habits, poor life choices and lack of self control.
Blame cancer on the cigarette manufacturers, not on the smokers. Blame
MacDonalds for the scalding suffered from driving with hot coffee
balanced
between their legs. Blame obesity on the food manufacturers, not on
the
eater.

There is no grand conspiracy to make you addicted to food; this is a
ridicuous excuse to justify lack of self-control and to shift the onus
away
from the eater where it squarely belongs.


Hmm. I don't think there is a grand conspiracy. I think there are a lot
of little conspiracies, and it's nothing new. Coca-Cola used to contain
cocaine, remember?

Food manufacturers want to sell food, so they do what they can to make it
taste better, like adding sugar, salt, and fat. I think sugar (and its
cousins, like HFC) is especially addictive in highly-concentrated
quantities. Just look at little kids who drink nothing but fruit juice
all
day. They get wired, they get a high from it, then they crash. And if the
juice is taken away, they go through withdrawals. If you could show me
that the same thing happens with artificially sweetened drinks, like that
Fruit 2-0 stuff, then I might change my mind about sugary fruit drinks
being addictive.

That being said, we're all grown-ups, and we have to make our own
decisions. Recognizing that some foods are addictive isn't an excuse any
more than recognizing that some drugs are addictive. If anything, it
should be a strong motivation to avoid those substances.

True. If you recognize these things but yet continue to partake, then
you're really putting your head in a hole. And of course, people do so.


I recently quit smoking. I still get urges to smoke sometimes, and in the
first week they were quite strong urges. These cravings were not caused
by
a lack of self-control. They were caused by withdrawals from an addictive
substance, in this case nicotine. My choice lay in what to DO about the
cravings.

Right. Giving in is showing the lack of self-control.


If I didn't know that cigarettes were addictive (as many people didn't
when
cigarettes were first introduced) I would probably still be smoking, as I
wouldn't recognize my cravings as coming from a physical addiction. The
feeling of "I want a cigarette" would be in the same category as "I want
to
go to a movie," a want that I would consider to be perfectly within my
control. Once you know that a want is NOT coming entirely from your own
volition, that this want is being caused by an addiction, it gets kind of
scary. It's like the addiction is an outside, alien thing with power over
you, and when you realize it you want it _gone_.

That's why I think identifying certain foods as addictive is beneficial.

It is. Or identifying foods that you are weak for, for then you know to
avoid them.

You can mentally seperate the addiction from your "self" and when you
crave
junk food you can say "I don't really want that, it's the addiction
talking."

Well, I'm not sure if it matters so much as to whether it's addiction
talking or what, but if you have issues with that, it's best to avoid it no
matter what the cause...

In the end, though, I think it makes sense to do whatever works for you. So
if recognition of something being an addiction is what makes your world
work, go with it.

JC Der Koenig wrote:

"The Queen of Cans and Jars" wrote in message
...

i know how and when to use upper case letters.


Sure you do.

i DonT KnOW what YoUr TAlkING aboUT!

Roger Zoul wrote:

I thought you enjoyed people jumping all on your ****.

i don't think i ever said any such thing, did i? it doesn't bother me,
but it isn't a source of endless joy or anything. i understand why it
happens, and i don't have a problem dealing with it.

"Brevity is the soul of wit." --William Shakespeare

In news:6_fBd.37631$Cl3.17928@fed1read03,
Bunky42 stated
| JC Der Koenig wrote:
|| "The Queen of Cans and Jars" wrote in message
|| ...
||
||| i know how and when to use upper case letters.
|||
||
||
|| Sure you do.
||
||
| You just can't write more than ten words in a post.

"The Queen of Cans and Jars" wrote in message
. ..
Roger Zoul wrote:

I thought you enjoyed people jumping all on your ****.

i don't think i ever said any such thing, did i?

no...I was just jumping in your ****, queenie!

it doesn't bother me,
but it isn't a source of endless joy or anything. i understand why it
happens, and i don't have a problem dealing with it.

I hear ya...

"The Queen of Cans and Jars" wrote in message
...
JC Der Koenig wrote:

"The Queen of Cans and Jars" wrote in message
...

i know how and when to use upper case letters.


Sure you do.

i DonT KnOW what YoUr TAlkING aboUT!


Ok, Bunky.

: I believe something similar to that.

I have some more for you: The SAT scores went down after organized prayer
was removed from the high schools! Teenagers started falling asleep during
Tuesday morning classes when Monday Night Football started being aired on
TV! Reading MAD magazine causes teens talk back to their parents! After
the automatic transmission was introduce the number of auto accidents went
up!

I could go on and on. Everything is a conspiracy!

Pat in TX

JC Der Koenig wrote:
"The Queen of Cans and Jars" wrote in message
...

JC Der Koenig wrote:


"The Queen of Cans and Jars" wrote in message
news:1gpnh8j.12rq0n018vih34N%dhrravr@ohatzhapu. bet...

i know how and when to use upper case letters.


Sure you do.

i DonT KnOW what YoUr TAlkING aboUT!



Ok, Bunky.


Ok, JC.

: Try to look at it like an economist. Suppose that you were in a food
: business, selling branded packaged food. Suppose further that you had
: a choice, of being able to add whatever you could to make the food
: addicting.

Main Entry: ad·dic·tion
Pronunciation: &-'dik-sh&n, a-
Function: noun
1 : the quality or state of being addicted addiction to reading
2 : compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin,
nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined
physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent compulsive use
of a substance known by the user to be harmful



:
: Would you, as a rational decision maker, seize that opportunity to
: make your food more addictive and increase your sales?

Wrong! Individual food choices simply by having sugar or MSG in them are
NOT addictive. It is a choice because you perhaps like the taste, but
"addictive" ? No. Even something that IS mildly addictive like caffeine,
is easily withdrawn from. It doesn't even take an entire day to not want
caffeine anymore, and, its "persistent compulsive use" is NOT harmful. You
are throwing around the word "addictive" far too lightly.


:
: Would you expect that competitors who do this, would end up squeezing
: competitotrs who do not do it, out of business?

See above. If I do not eat chocolate (which I love), I am not harmed. In
fact, I haven't had chocolate for a year and a half now. I haven't had
alcohol for that same amount of time. Heroine is addictive: Pop Tarts simply
have sugar in them and taste good so people buy them because they LIKE
eating Pop Tarts.

Pat in TX

"Pat" wrote in message
...

: Try to look at it like an economist. Suppose that you were in a food
: business, selling branded packaged food. Suppose further that you had
: a choice, of being able to add whatever you could to make the food
: addicting.

Main Entry: ad·dic·tion
Pronunciation: &-'dik-sh&n, a-
Function: noun
1 : the quality or state of being addicted addiction to reading
2 : compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin,
nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined
physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent compulsive
use
of a substance known by the user to be harmful



:
: Would you, as a rational decision maker, seize that opportunity to
: make your food more addictive and increase your sales?

Wrong! Individual food choices simply by having sugar or MSG in them are
NOT addictive. It is a choice because you perhaps like the taste, but
"addictive" ? No. Even something that IS mildly addictive like caffeine,
is easily withdrawn from. It doesn't even take an entire day to not want
caffeine anymore, and, its "persistent compulsive use" is NOT harmful. You
are throwing around the word "addictive" far too lightly.

I suppose that the word "addiction" may be too strong in this sense. I
do believe though, that food manufacturers purposely design products to
satisfy our "pleasure seeking" nature. This may not be addictive, but would
be a sought after component of food which would appear to mimmick addiction
by desiring good or sweet tasting foods above more bland flavoured ones.




:
: Would you expect that competitors who do this, would end up squeezing
: competitotrs who do not do it, out of business?

See above. If I do not eat chocolate (which I love), I am not harmed. In
fact, I haven't had chocolate for a year and a half now. I haven't had
alcohol for that same amount of time. Heroine is addictive: Pop Tarts
simply
have sugar in them and taste good so people buy them because they LIKE
eating Pop Tarts.

You are correct. The concept of "addiction" is sometimes confused with
the "want to do something". Ig is Russian and I can see how some words that
are used commonly and in the wrong sense by a lot of people would make him
believe that is the proper term to use since it is freely used by others.
Haha. I still can't get over how so many people come here to "loose"
weight. It's one of the most common mistakes.


Pat in TX