Is fast food addicting?

In your opinion do you think it is?

 

Taco Bell had me for awhile. If you're afraid you're addicted, walk in next time and watch how they make your food

 

Yeah I do think it is. >.>

 

Speaking from personal experience, no.

 

It's the smell that gets me. I can be thinking of a nice meal the missus could make me at home tonight and then I'll drive past a KFC and be all excited MAN THAT SMELLS GOOD! The food itself is generally pretty tasty and I guess that's addictive.
Why bother making something you might not like when fast food will nail it every time?
I know I need to get of the stuff though, I'll often have stomach aches the next day from all the... whatever is in it.

 

I know it is, and studies have shown that it is. I myself was addicted to fast food for a number of years, to the point I was eating it at least five days a week back in the early to mid 2000s.

Just consider the vast money that backs the food industry and the scientists it employs to create all these flavor enhancers that are added to foods to literally make them more addicting than they already are. Fast food is already high in things which trigger the pleasure centers of the brain (fat, salt, sugar, etc.) and are highly palatable yet lacking in nutrients.

 

And it all tastes so good it's like you know damn well you can't just get one burger. Nah nah, I need another tasty burger to satisfy myself.
And I wouldn't be surprised if addictitives were used if that's even real.

 

Yup, all fast food employs one of two flavor trinities that go straight to the brain;
fat, starch, salt or replace salt with sugar.

Anything that can trigger a pleasure response in a mammal has the potential for at the very least psychological addiction.

 

In the movie "Super Size Me" after about a week or so, if he didn't eat McDonalds food, he literally had withdrawal like symptoms that would subside after taking a few bites of a burger and fries. That was even confirmed by the doctors following his experiment.

 

Does anyone remember if the guy in Super Size Me ever went to Mcdonalds again?

 

I don't eat fast food anymore but I still crave it sometimes, so I would say it is addictive

 

Another thing is that (and this can be said about all junk food), aside from being addicting and hyper-palatable, it's designed to create spikes and dips in blood sugar, making people always hungry. So they're addicted to these foods which they're constantly hungry for, which keeps the food industry growing and leads to a population that is increasingly unhealthy as a result.

 

I haven't had a bite of fast food in years either, but it would take some real will power for me to not eat a Big Mac if it was placed in front of me.

 

I think it's intentionally addictive. There is no other way to explain what they do with their food. It's terrible. I'm not saying it tastes bad because I would love to have a burger from a certain fast food place right now but I don't eat that kind of stuff...ever...(dammit!!) But that's my way of avoiding it. It's cold turkey for me. No food from places like that at all.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cpdb78pWl4"]The Science of Addictive Food - YouTube

 

ok good so i am not the only one who thinks its addicting. i get MAJOR fucken cravings for fast food like every day. i can go a few days without it but then i start like.. withdrawing from it lol. its probably not funny cuz im sure its making me really unhealthy.
im actually on my way to get taco bell right now. havent been there in years.

for the people who stopped eating it how did you do it???

and thank you for all the responses

 

I guess you just realize how bad it is, then you weigh the options in your head and decide you're just not going to eat it anymore. That's pretty much the case with me. The longer you go without eating that stuff, the less you crave it. I almost never crave bad food anymore unless it's in front of me, but even then will power will kick in and I don't succumb to the urge. I've worked too hard to get to where I am in terms of my physical health to go back to my old habits. Five minutes of pleasure isn't worth feeling tired and shitty all the time (not to mention looking like crap).

 

we only have McDonalds and Subway, I'm not a fan of either one. I do like a Wendy's on occasion but it's an hour away, MMmm and Taco Del Mar is good but again an hour away. And when I'm in Seattle there are so many great places to eat I can't see getting fast food.
So I guess I'm not addicted

 

It's been about 6 months or so since I completely eliminated gluten from my diet.
Feel much better and I realized the other night that I haven't used the microwave for cooking anything in all that time. It has forced me to be hyper vigilant about ingredients and I simply don't trust fast food places.
The only exception is Carl's and that is only because they have the best grade of patties out of all their peers and have offered a carb/gluten free rendition of their sandwiches for a long time.


But overall I now prefer to cook everything myself.

 

This is actually pretty spot-on for me. It's just not a big deal after a while and one day you wonder why you ever ate that stuff.