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According to a 2006 Statistics Canada study, Trends in Adult Obesity, the prevalence of obesity in Canada is on the rise and the number of Canadian adults carrying ‘excess weight’ has increased considerably. The percentage of obese adults in Canada grew from approximately 14% in 1970-72 to 23% in 2004. But even more frightening was the hefty leap from 9% to 24% in cases of childhood obesity.

The good news is, unlike our neighbours to the south, a 2004 StatsCan report, Overview of Canadian Habits, suggests caloric intake among Canadians as a whole has decreased slightly compared to a 1970-72 National Health and Welfare StatsCan report. This, of course, begs the question: if the average caloric intake is under control, why are Canadians getting fatter?

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Obesity currently touches roughly 25% of Canadians; this (not so) small minority is tipping the average statistical balance. And while the 2004 StatsCan study did conclude Canadians, as a whole, are cautious about fast food trends, the current trend toward frozen, pre-packaged, prepared foods could very well lead us to the same crisis now facing the U.S. Out of every dollar Canadians spent on food in 2001, 30 cents goes towards a restaurant meal while another 31 cents is spent on frozen, pre-cooked foods.  ‘Other’ foods including soft drinks, salad dressing, sugar/syrups/preserves, beer, alcohol, oils and fat represent an incredible two-thirds of our caloric intake. Why is so much of our food laden with such heavy and intense ingredients?  Have our taste buds changed or are the people marketing our food up to something?

The theory of ‘oral-sensory, self-stimulation’ was first coined by Gerard P. Smith, a scientist at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Unaware of the consequences at the time, Smith’s discovery would provide fast food chains and corporate food giants with the very knowledge necessary to turn their food from something the public enjoyed to something the masses needed.

The notion of oral-sensory, self-stimulation is this: eating stimulating, rewarding food will make you crave more stimulating, rewarding food.  Sound simple? Try reading former head of the FDA Dr. David Kessler’s medical jargon filled explanation of the psychological underpinnings of what motivates a person’s ‘reward system’ in his book, The End of Overeating. The reward system, to give Kessler’s explanation a go, is an anticipatory perception which fuels an individual’s drive for stimulating reward; the reward is not food, but rather, the sugar, fat and salt the food is made up of. These ‘hyper palatable foods’ stimulate the brain to release dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with the brain’s pleasure center. Over time, a habit forms which imprints a dopamine pathway within the brain’s neurocircuitry; when the food is eaten and the reward satisfied, the brain releases opioids, which bring emotional reprieve. This reprieve is temporary, as the dopamine and opioids work together the next time the brain is triggered by hunger, a specific memory or simply by driving past a fast food outlet. Kessler concludes our present socio-economic environment is turning about 85% percent of the population into “conditioned hyper eaters”, a condition in which our palates seek constant salient, stimulation, also resulting in insatiable appetites.

Fast food chains and corporate food giants do not rely on cooks or classically trained chefs to create their latest products; instead, they head to New Jersey. Along the New Jersey turnpike runs an industrial corridor lined with chemical plants and research and development labs in an area referred to as ‘the flavour corridor’. This $1.5 billion dollar flavour industry, exposed by Eric Schlosser in his investigative and compelling book, Fast Food Nation, sheds some light on how armies of scientists produce everything from flavoured milk shakes to French fries and ‘beef flavoured’ hamburgers. These flavour firms develop, refine and process food products for all of the major fast food chains and food corporations, until the end result becomes an item good enough to ‘get you hooked’ – a motto Kessler asserts is used by many industry insiders. Nothing is left to chance: color, texture, mouth-feel and olfactory properties are refined to ensure maximum ‘consumer likeability’.

Stir in some seductive marketing and aggressive advertising campaigns targeting everything from your health to affordability to this blend of excessive of sugar, fat and salt, and what you have is a recipe for addiction. {w}

i am spartacus: anthology I - 2009

 

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