Posted on 12/01/2006 2:52:42 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
When you feel compelled repeatedly to chain smoke cigarettes or shoot up heroin because you just can't help yourself, that's called addiction. And some scientists are saying that for many overeaters.
"Food is like a drug," said Anne Kelly, neuroscientist.
Ann Kelly is a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin who has been looking into the brain processes of addiction. Not only to narcotics, but to certain kinds of food.
"I hesitate to say there is such a thing as food addiction but what we have to keep in mind is that food can affect the brain in a very similar way as do addictive drugs," said Kelly.
In her lab, she studies the brains of rats addicted to morphine and other rats whose favorite food is a high fat sugary lard.
"It's sort of like cookie dough." said Kelly.
And the brain scans of the morphine addicted rats when they think they're about to get a fix, LOOK very much like those of the rats conditioned to fatty sweets. when they're about to be FED. Aha, says lawyer John Banzhaf.
"This could be the smoking gun, we could say fat is the next tobacco. Alright how about the legal argument?" said John Banzhaf, law professor.
That's what has lawyers practically salivating. FOOD. could be their new Tobacco.
"If we can change the six major fast food companies so they are providing clear and conspicuous disclosure on their menus of fat and calories and they're providing appropriate health warnings, we will have a dramatic impact on the overall problem of obesity and it will happen immediately," said Banzhaf.
But some, including Dr. Elizabeth Whelan of the American Council for Science and Health, don't like where all this seems to be headed.
"When you say a food is addictive, what you're really saying is that the obese person is a victim and you know that's I think abandoning individual responsibility." said Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, American Council for Science and Health.
I've have to bookmark this. I'm on the way out the door for a Wendy's triple stacker with cheese and bacon.
The tobacco lobbyists wanted the tobacco companies to pay out millions? I'm confused by your statement. Can you please explain?
I wouldn't mind paying more taxes if it deprived the government of a conflict of interest in this important public health problem.
Again, I'm a bit confused. (Maybe I need a nap.) Are you agreeing with me that you'd rather have government stay out of it? If so, why would that result in more taxes?
I don't want the government collecting taxes from cigarettes if that means that the government has a good reason to keep cigarettes sales up. If we didn't collect taxes from cigarettes, we would have to make up the revenue from something else. Sales taxes or income taxes say. So our taxes would go up if cigarette taxes went away. A purely hypothetical situation of course, no one will reduce taxes on cigarettes.
Exactly. So if the price of cigarettes actually forces people to stop in large numbers, the government will have to go after something else to replace the revenue. (They probably already have in some places.)
They don't think about that at all. I guess they presume that the government will just do without those tax revenues when everyone quits smoking.
Yeah, right.
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