The PUFAS Made Me Do It

[Runenight201]

Of course, it was the carbs in the potatoes and the saturated fat in the cheese that made her fat, and not the disgustingly high amount of toxic, fried PUFAS found in McDonalds fries and her home cooked potatoes.

 

[somuch4food]

PUFAs are addictive. I think that is what makes processed food difficult to give up for many people.

From personal experience, PUFAs lead to symptoms of OCD and ADD.

She has a mental disorder, no sane person would throw up from smelling broccoli.

 

[Runenight201]

I think fried PUFAS makes them way more addictive. I couldn’t imagine putting vegetable oil in my potatoes to be appetizing (although I haven’t tried it to be fair), but McDonald’s fries are very tasty.

 

[somuch4food]

PUFAs certainly aren't tasty on their own, but their effects on the brain can make anything seem addictive/better than they really are.

 

[lvysaur]

PUFAs are addictive. I think that is what makes processed food difficult to give up for many people.

PUFAs are addictive, but fat in general is also addictive. Sugar and milk and fruit are the exact opposite of addictive.

Starch and meat are somewhere in between. Gelatinous meat is also less addictive than muscle meat. Red meat is also less addictive than fish and chicken, in my opinion.

Contrary to what you might see on reddit, nobody has an addiction to sugar. People have addiction to sugary snacks that contain fat, but very few people are addicted to drinking soda. It's one of the easiest things to give up, from what I've seen.

 

[Ulysses]

Contrary to what you might see on reddit, nobody has an addiction to sugar. People have addiction to sugary snacks that contain fat, but very few people are addicted to drinking soda. It's one of the easiest things to give up, from what I've seen.

+1. When my personal acquaintances talk about “sugar” they are almost always thinking of cake, cookies, brownies, etc. Fat content increases the reward of the food, but is tasteless, so people associate that reward with the sweetness, and think sugar is the problem.

 

[lvysaur]

so people associate that reward with the sweetness, and think sugar is the problem.

I think it's more that fat things are more addicting than sweet things, so most people would rather blame the sweet things. Because nobody actually wants to do what is necessary.

Like how an addict would blame his conditions on anything else other than their drug habit. Or how people blame the poor, rather than the rich, but that's another story :^)

 

[Cirion]

What if the food "addiction" is actually the body indicating a deficiency? Unfortunately, by meeting a sugar/fat deficiency through PUFA laden foods instead of SFA laden foods, you cause more damage, which makes the body more deficient (in a sense) even though it is gaining weight, causing even more cravings/addiction, a vicious cycle.

 

[Mufasa]

I asked my local organic place for french fries (who uses high MUFA sunflower oil) if they had ever tried coconut oil. To my suprise they did, but they found out that they got less clients, which they thought was because the fries didnt smell so much anymore to the walking people coming by.

 

[Cirion]

Well let me clarify on what I mean in more detail. The thing I have noticed is that addiction in general is a symptom that crops up when your metabolism is compromised (I know this all too well, coming from a background of depressed metabolism and being susceptible to addiction, and coming from a family of addicts, one uncle in particular who has severe addiction problems and of course also health problems). I suspect it's likely the high serotonin/estrogen that is causing it. This is not to give them a free pass of course, but it's good to be aware of, and if I ever start to feel addictive tendencies crop up I know its generally because I have some underlying problems going on to fix. This addiction can take its form in any thing not just food (also alcohol, porn, excessive video game playing / TV watching (to the detriment of a social life), etc...)

 

[Runenight201]

I think it's more that fat things are more addicting than sweet things, so most people would rather blame the sweet things. Because nobody actually wants to do what is necessary.

Like how an addict would blame his conditions on anything else other than their drug habit. Or how people blame the poor, rather than the rich, but that's another story :^)

I’m not sure if it’s either or, but the combination of the two. I mean there’s no doubt that sugar is dopaminergic, and since most addicts stay addicted because they need to keep up their dopamine levels upto stay happy (well i think everyone does lol, but addicts draw it from a usually unhealthy source). However, just sugar on its own quickly becomes too dopaminergic, like an addict smoking too much crack, and then negative effects are felt. The fat help blunts the dopaminergic response through slowing digestion, extending the duration of the high .

Eating a stick of butter or a half cup of sugar on its own would make me feel awful, combine the two and add cinnamon, and I’d be drinking that syrup all day.

What if the food "addiction" is actually the body indicating a deficiency? Unfortunately, by meeting a sugar/fat deficiency through PUFA laden foods instead of SFA laden foods, you cause more damage, which makes the body more deficient (in a sense) even though it is gaining weight, causing even more cravings/addiction, a vicious cycle.

I think the addiction is a desire to feel better, and a fatty, sugary meal is guaranteed to provide that. However, if it is nutritionally devoid, it will make them feel better but by overloading energy without the necessary nutrients to properly partition the fuel towards beneficial channels such as mitochondrial respiration, hormone/steroid production, etc...and so fat is stored and metabolism decreases along with an increase in negative hormones.

In my own personal experience, anytime I receive a hunger signal, it’s because I need calories, and a lot of it. Any type of food will do in terms of attenuating the hunger signal, but certainly some foods are healthier than others. Whenever I feel off, such as light-headed, nauseous, add, brain foggy, my body is usually unbalanced, in terms of over consumption of a specific macronutrient and/or underconsumption of certain micronutrients. The more varied my diet becomes and the more I pay attention to my cravings, the less off I’ve been feeling, and making my own mineral waters with magnesium (and i want to add potassium iodide too) helps a lot with this also.

 

[Mufasa]

I think true addiction is more about doing and keep doings things that actually dont make you feel good.

You could see that as long term, such as not feeling good because it makes you loose your wife or job, but if you ask a drugs addict, if he really enjoy the drug experience when doing it (short term) then he usually will say that he doesnt enjoy it (anymore).

I think the same is true for the more modern phone, porn, game, internet addiction etc. Do those game addicts really look happy when gaming? They usually scream half of the night because of frustration.

My theory is that addiction defined in this way, goes hand in hand with serotonin. Serotonin blinds us for how we actually feel while doing something, and we are not looking for things that are truly enjoyable, such as intimate sex, being with friends, being truly passionate, mindfulness etc.

Haidut posted a study about serotonin inhibits delayed discounting, and leads to futile patients. Well if I look at how much patient a drugs addict on the other side of the streets has, I believe it. Hours of searching for money in the rain to get high for a couple of minutes.

 

[Cirion]

Serotonin really screws with your brain in a bad way, again, I know this first hand and I hate how it makes me feel. This is one of the things that drove me to finding RP. I know my brother is VERY high in serotonin because when we play games together he has a very short fuse and blows up at me for small things when we're doing co-op games together, to the point where I don't even want to play games with him anymore because he gets way too angry at them and it reduces my enjoyment as well. And yet he continues to have a chronic addiction to games (I do to some degree still as well but not nearly like I used to). Its an escape from reality not necessarily a means to have fun, because life looks really bleak when your metabolism is compromised. And yeah, I'm completely passion-less when I'm in a high serotonin state. It's not a nice place to be.