Junk food for me is when corporate manufacturers create combinations of fat, sugar and salt that are so tasty many people cannot stop eating them even when full. Junk food is that food designed to make you want to eat more of it.

You know that addictive feeling when you begin munching on that first whatever and just can’t say no, when your body, once started, just doesn’t know how to stop. Does that help to account for the significant changes in Australian's weight over the last 20 to 30 years?

David Kessler, the author of The End of Overeating, says yes because our food is bloated or layered with fat, sugar, and salt,that stimulate intake so that people will come back for more.

Kessler argues that we need to understand how the cycle of consumption works: we get cued; our brains get activated; we get aroused; our attention gets focused; our attention gets locked in; we consume. It's a momentary pleasure, but it's ephemeral. We get cued again every time we reach for and eat foods. It's going straight into the neural circuits. We'll do it again and again.

Our brains are being hijacked by all the food cues:

The business plan of the modern American food company is to put their product on every corner, make it emotionally irresistible, make it entertaining, and make it socially acceptable to eat at any time. In fact, it's a food carnival. Who wouldn't want to get on the ride? We published this article called "Deconstructing the Vanilla Milkshake." What do you think it is in the vanilla milkshake that drives consumption? Sugar is the main driver, but when you study it closely, it's not any one ingredient. If I give you a package of sugar and say, "Go have a good time," you're going to look at me like I'm crazy. But add fat to that sugar, add texture, add temperature, add color, add mouth appeal. Then add the emotional gloss of advertising. Then add the social factor--you can do it with your friends, blow off steam, reduce stress. The food industry will say, "We're just giving the consumers what they want." But what do we end up with? A great public health epidemic.

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