Junk Food Junkies

Growing up, the fridge and cupboards in my household were different from those of my friend's. Prohibited items included: soda, anything fried, artificial sugar, baked goods from a box, deli sliced American cheese,  sugary cereal... you get the point.

So, time away from home meant time with junk food. When I went to my friend Kacie's house we ate cheese curls and drank red Kool-Aid. At Karin's we had Coke floats and ate salt and vinegar chips. In junior high school, I ordered crinkle cut french fries and a Hostess cupcake for lunch almost every day.

I was never overweight or unhealthy despite my junk food escapades because my eating habits had enough balance; my mother was a health nut and I regularly consumed whole grains, fresh vegetables and fruit juices.

However, according to a new study - my eating habits outside of the home were the equivalent of a developing drug addiction.

Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute recently discovered a relationship between junk food habits and dopamine receptors in the brain. In other words, the more junk food one eats, the better one feels - and the more food it takes to reach that "happy" feeling as time goes on. Very literally, it becomes a junk food addiction.

How does this happen? Well, much like a drug's effect on the brain, high fat/high sugar foods overstimulate the receptors that create reward patterns in the brain. Simply, you feel good - and fast. In order to regulate the spike, the body adapts by reducing the reward receptors sensitivity, making that "feel good" moment harder to obtain. As a result you then eat more of the stimulating food item, just like an addict would seek more of the drug - to feel "normal" again.

Lucky for me, between the ages of ten and seventeen, I wasn't "using" enough to develop a dependency; I regulated any over-stimulation. But the same can't be said for everyone. In 2003, the childhood obesity rate in Massachusetts was at 13.5% according to the NCSL and in 2005 it more than doubled, hitting 28.9%.