And What It Tells Us About the Addictive Properties of Fake Food
Years ago when I was a nutritional virgin and life novice, I admit that I consumed my share of Twinkies and similar fare. No, they certainly weren’t ever a mainstay of my diet, but I was like most kids growing up in America at the time—what’s the harm in consuming a tasty treat once in awhile? If it were truly harmful, certainly somebody would have let us know. It was only later that I started to realize that when it comes to health, diet really does matter. As a practicing physician, I’ve had a front row seat in the downward cascade of our collective health as we have migrated to a diet largely based on processed fake food.
The Invention of Fake Food
Twinkies were actually invented in 1930–decades before I was born, by James Alexander Dewar, a baker for the Continental Baking Company. Twinkies are notable because they were one the first fully processed fake foods to become popular in American culture. When you look at the list of ingredients in a Twinkie listed below, you will notice that they contain just about every dietary bad-boy ingredient known to mankind:
Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour [Flour, Reduced Iron, B Vitamins (Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Folic Acid)], Corn Syrup, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Water, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable and/or Animal Shortening (Soybean, Cottonseed and/or Canola Oil, Beef Fat), Whole Eggs, Dextrose. Contains 2% or Less of: Modified Corn Starch, Glucose, Leavenings (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate), Sweet Dairy Whey, Soy Protein Isolate, Calcium and Sodium Caseinate, Salt, Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60, Soy Lecithin, Soy Flour, Cornstarch, Cellulose Gum, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Sorbic Acid (to Retain Freshness), Yellow 5, Red 40.
This was clearly the moon-shot of the Food Industrial Complex—a packaged treat that could last on the shelf for weeks or months without losing its appeal. When this type of fake food first entered our food supply, it was unclear if there would be any adverse health consequences. The same was true for cigarette smoking. When it comes to chronic toxins, it often takes decades for the adverse outcomes to surface. We now know that this type of fake food leads to a long list of metabolic and brain disorders.
Unless you have been living in a cave, you’ve likely heard that The Continental Baking Company is planning to liquidate their operations because of conflicts with several of their unions. Once the word got out, it wasn’t long before people began offering Twinkies on e-Bay and other places for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. People waited in long lines to get their last fix of Twinkies or Ding Dongs. This suggests that there are more than a few junk food addicts out there.
Twinkaholics
What makes this type of food so addictive for some people? Although we aren’t sure, some suggest that this type of “pleasurable” food stimulates the reward centers in our brain, creating an addictive cycle. Eating Twinkies results in a dopamine rush and just like any other addictive substance, over time it takes more of the addictive substance to bring about this pleasure rush. If this is true, I’m surprised that people aren’t snorting or injecting Twinkies!
I have a slightly different perspective. In my opinion, people who eat this type of food are driven by pathological cravings for sweet and starchy foods. All of us have hunger drives and carbohydrate cravings hardwired into our brains, but during our evolutionary history they served a different purpose. Our brain carefully monitors our glucose levels and if they start to drop because we haven’t eaten for a period of time, our brain sends out hunger signals. Because our brain relies mostly on glucose for its energy needs, it doesn’t tolerate dropping levels of glucose very well.
If we don’t respond to these hunger signals in a timely manner, our brain starts to get a little worried. As glucose levels continue to drop from a lack of food, our brain pulls out the big gun—carbohydrates craving signals. Our brain wants us to skip the mastodon steak and go for a low glycemic carbohydrate like tubers, berries or fruit because this is the fastest way to restore glucose levels.
This is Your Brain on Twinkies
There’s only one problem with this scenario—when we evolved we weren’t exposed to sugar, HFCS or high glycemic carbohydrates—the ingredients in Twinkies and similar fare. It is now clear that excessive fructose mainly from sugar and HFCS is driving our current epidemic of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. Once you have insulin resistance—and many individuals living in modern societies qualify, when you eat a high glycemic carbohydrate like white flour or similar fare, you end up with a magnified glucose spike followed by a drop in glucose below normal.
Although your brain didn’t evolve to recognize glucose spikes, it does know what low glucose levels mean—it’s time to eat! Your brain sends out more carbohydrate craving signals and you grab another Twinkie and the whole process is repeated. You respond by eating another Twinkie and you end up with a series of seesaw glucose levels with periodic crashes below normal. Your brain reads these repeated glucose drops as “Hey I’m telling this dude to eat and nothing is happening—there must be a shortage of food. I think I’ll ramp up the hunger and carbohydrate craving signals and just in case there is a famine coming, I’m going to switch the body into a fat storage mode.” You end up with out of control cravings and everything you eat goes to fat storage. Does any of this sound familiar?
We now know that excessive hunger and craving for sweet and starchy foods are the hallmark symptoms of Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. This form of food-induced brain dysfunction is now likely the most common chronic disease in developed countries. People with CARB syndrome are often misdiagnosed as having depression, ADHD, PTSD, eating disorders, bipolar II and similar disorders. For example, people with classic depression always lose their appetite and lose weight. People with CARB syndrome depression have an increased appetite, carbohydrate cravings and weight. They are two different diseases with different treatment modalities.
I agree that Twinkies and similar fare cause neurons to dump out dopamine, norephrine and serotonin in excessive amounts, giving you a type of rush. But this dumping of neurotransmitters is pathological, not physiological, eventually leading to neurons that are depleted of these important chemicals. When this happens you need to consume a whole box of Twinkies before you experience a dollop of dopamine or serotonin. The 22 symptoms of CARB syndrome also reflect low levels of these neurotransmitters.
Thus if you find yourself paying hundreds of dollars for that last box of Twinkies or standing in a long line at your local Hostess outlet to get your last fix of fake food, you may be in more trouble than you think. In my experience, cravings for sweet and starchy foods are always pathological in modern societies and they indicate that you likely already have significant brain dysfunction. So what’s the solution? Twinkies Anonymous? Mandatory jail time for Twinkie addicts? I have a better idea—treat your underlying illness. You really don’t need a healthcare provider to do so; you just need access to high quality information. This web site is dedicated to giving that information.
Alright Already, I’m Hooked—Now what?
Of course the starting point is your diet. Do everything possible to totally eliminate sugar and HFCS from your diet and keep your total fructose intake to below 20-25 grams daily. For more information about the fructose issue, I recommend that you read Richard Johnson’s excellent book “The Sugar Fix”. Drastically reduce your intake of high glycemic carbohydrates, especially from grains. Many people are better off totally eliminating grains from their diet. Increase your intake of healthy fats like coconut oil, olive oil, omega 3 fatty acids and avocados. What I am really describing is what is now commonly referred to as a Paleo or pre-agricultural diet. For more information about this type of diet I recommend reading Robb Wolf’s “The Paleo Solution” or Loren Cordain’s “The Paleo Answer”.
Many Twinkieholics will have a tough time shifting to this type of diet because of their persistent cravings for sweet or starchy foods. One simple thing you can do is to take L-glutamine as a supplement. L-glutamine is an amino acid available in capsules or powder. I recommend taking a minimum of 1,000 mg three times daily on an empty stomach. This will definitely help take the edge off of your carbohydrate cravings. Once you pull away from sweet and starchy foods, your craving will naturally begin to subside. There are also other supplements that help suppress carbohydrate cravings that I discuss in some of my other posts and books, including chromium picolinate, Cinsulin, omega 3 fatty acids and L-tyrosine combined with 5-htp in a ratio of 10 to 1.
Twinkies Made Me Do It
Do you remember the term “Twinkie Defense”? It refers to the trial of Dan White where he was accused of murdering San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in the 70s. White claimed that his diet of Twinkies and similar sugary fare led to his depression, pushing him over the edge. At the time this unique defense was the butt of late-night television jokes, but in light of the above discussion, it is likely that his diet did play a key role in his poor decisions. No, it isn’t an excuse, but it is an explanation. Perhaps it serves as a warning to clean up your diet before you find yourself relying on a “Twinkie Defense” for your poor job performance, divorce or reckless behavior. I certainly hope and pray that you won’t need it for a murder offense.
The Continental Baking Company hopes to sell their products to other companies in the bankruptcy process so someone else will continue to make Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread. I for one hope they will fail. I know–18,000 people will likely lose their jobs in this process, but my hope is that someone will hire them in an industry that produces real food. How about the health food or fitness industries? Perhaps stopping our government from subsidizing the commodities in Twinkies would be a good place to start, shifting the money to the production of real food. After all, I don’t think too many people would feel bad if 18,000 drug dealers lost their jobs. This is especially salient now that we know that there is little difference between the addictive properties of Twinkies and addictive drugs, and junk food likely causes more medical problems in our society than all addictive drugs put together. So farewell Twinkie The Kid—you certainly won’t be missed by this writer.
R.I.P.