TV broadcast: Junk food Regulation

Why junk food is so addictive? because it is delicious you may think. Listen to what the expert has to say  about  it. Go to the next address to see the video.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-19/professor-brownell-predicts-junk-food-regulation/3580266

STEVE CANNANE, PRESENTER: One of the world's leading junk food experts says governments will soon adopt aggressive regulations against unhealthy food manufacturers because of mounting evidence that junk food can trigger addictive eating behaviour.

As a result, he says, some companies could also be vulnerable to legal action for promoting goods with high levels of sugar, fat and salt.

Yale University's Kelly Brownell is in Australia to discuss the latest research with Australian governments and public health officials.

Margot O'Neill has the story.

MARGOT O'NEILL, REPORTER: When American film-maker Morgan Spurlock first started gorging on junk food in the documentary Super Size Me, he threw up.

But after 30 days, he said he only felt well when he ate fast food. The rest of the time he complained of feeling depressed and irritable.

MORGAN SPURLOCK, DOCUMENTARY MAKER (Excerpt from Super Size Me): I just feel really depressed, you know, for no reason. I mean, things are going great. I've had a good day.

MARGOT O'NEILL: Were these classic withdrawal symptoms?

Kelly Brownell from Yale University's Rudd Food Policy and Obesity Center says scientific research is nearing the point of linking junk food to addiction.

KELLY BROWNELL, YALE UNIVERSITY: There's more and more research suggesting that an addictive process does in fact take place and I think this will change the world debate on food and the behaviour of the food industry, because all of a sudden they're going to have to be accountable for intentional manipulation of ingredients that work on the brain like this.

There might be serious government restrictions on what could be sold to or marketed to children. It really could change things a lot.

MARGOT O'NEILL: Experiments have shown that rats exhibit withdrawal symptoms from junk food. In one experiment rats were prepared to withstand electric shocks to eat junk foot rather than go back to a regular diet. In another experiment rats habituated to both cocaine and sugar were given a choice between the two. 90 per cent chose sugar just about every time.

KELLY BROWNELL: There's studies using laboratory animals and also studies using brain imaging techniques with humans that show a very powerful effect of things like sugar on the brain. It looks very much like classic substances of abuse like heroin and nicotine and alcohol for example. The effect isn't as strong, but it's there.

MARGOT O'NEILL: Experts say it all goes back to our ancestors. Our brains are wired to crave high-energy food because our ancestors were geared for binge eating so they could withstand the lean times. Fats and sugars were biologically prized nutrients because they were so scarce. The problem these days is there's not exactly a shortage of calories on offer.

RUSSELL KEAST, DEAKIN UNIVERSITY: The food environment's changed dramatically over the past 50 years, and arguably we could say that change has been greater in the last 50 years than any other time in our - in known history.

MARGOT O'NEILL: At Deakin University, Dr Russell Keast's research has shown how eating a high fat diet can reduce the feeling of fullness and stimulated the need to eat even more, another hallmark of addiction.

RUSSELL KEAST: We really need to figure out how to activate these fullness mechanisms or these satiety mechanisms in foods to stop the overconsumption.

MARGOT O'NEILL: The highly engineered taste sensation of manufactured food is also to blame.

KELLY BROWNELL: We've become accustomed to this explosion of sensation when we eat a food. The companies are working with scientists now who are doing brain imaging research to find out how the brain can be triggered in the most effective way to want certain foods or to respond to advertisements for those foods.

The major question is: what does this all mean? Where do we go with this? Well I think the implications could be tremendous.

For example, could the industry be held legally liable and financially culpable for intentionally manipulating ingredients that are making people sick if these ingredients hijack the brain?

MARGOT O'NEILL: Russell Keast remains cautious about comparing overconsumption of junk food to drug addiction. He also worries that the fight against the worldwide obesity epidemic could fail if food companies aren't part of the solution.

RUSSELL KEAST: The food companies really are doing exactly what they should be doing and that is producing foods which we like, and there would be great consumer backlash if those appetite compounds - you know, the fats, salts and sugars - were dramatically removed from foods. We've got to enjoy our food.

KELLY BROWNELL: The whole food system has become perverted. We - what used to be natural foods are now a concoction of chemicals with a list a mile long of ingredients. All these things, we don't know how these things work on the brain. We don't know whether they're all safe, but yet they're put into foods with abandon. And some people have even asked whether certain foods like a sugared beverage or a Twinkie or a chip should even be considered a food.

MARGOT O'NEILL: Kelly Brownell says industry makes too much money from unhealthy foods to switch voluntarily, that fat taxes and marketing constraints are needed. One study in the UK found that it could cost more than $13 billion in lost food sales if UK adults returned to 1980 body weight levels by losing about eight kilogram each simply by reducing their calorie intake.

KELLY BROWNELL: The industry hasn't responded at all to this because I don't believe they see it as a threat yet, which is a big mistake. I think it's a tremendous threat to them.

MARGOT O'NEILL: The Australian Food and Grocery Council was asked to comment, but declined.

Margot O'Neill, Lateline.