The interesting thing here is we literally NEED food for survival. We do not need cocaine to survive…although I thought I needed it when I was addicted to it a long time ago.
Food consists of more than just processed foods full of refined sugars. We can survive on foods that don’t trigger addiction pathways - should we want to. On the other hand excess sugar intake is related to massive social and public health costs - including diabetes, mental illness, and early mortality - so it is reasonable to put it in its own category.
Although which activities we get addicted to isn’t really my concern here. It’s the ignorance and double standards that worry me most.
A person with a crippling addiction to sugar is going to look like a morbidly obese person. A person with a crippling addiction to heroin is going to look like that homeless person you’re picturing. But the obese person can have sugar delivered to their door on a daily basis, and the drug addict has to do some sketch shit to maintain their addiction.
Most people are far further down the scale than either of those two obvious examples, and may be indistinguishable from someone who isn’t actively addicted to something. Though, the 40% obesity rate night have something to do with that.
That sounds like a big stretch…
These two studies [1] [2] put it above cocaine, and I’m sure more could be found if one was so inclined.
The interesting thing here is we literally NEED food for survival. We do not need cocaine to survive…although I thought I needed it when I was addicted to it a long time ago.
Food consists of more than just processed foods full of refined sugars. We can survive on foods that don’t trigger addiction pathways - should we want to. On the other hand excess sugar intake is related to massive social and public health costs - including diabetes, mental illness, and early mortality - so it is reasonable to put it in its own category.
Although which activities we get addicted to isn’t really my concern here. It’s the ignorance and double standards that worry me most.
A person with a crippling addiction to sugar is going to look like a morbidly obese person. A person with a crippling addiction to heroin is going to look like that homeless person you’re picturing. But the obese person can have sugar delivered to their door on a daily basis, and the drug addict has to do some sketch shit to maintain their addiction.
Most people are far further down the scale than either of those two obvious examples, and may be indistinguishable from someone who isn’t actively addicted to something. Though, the 40% obesity rate night have something to do with that.