Feed Me More Junk

What is it that makes junk food so hard to resist?

What a simple question this is! And yet there’s layer upon layer of reasons why it’s so hard to refuse a doughnut, a crème caramel or that second helping of chocolate pudding. And then it’s a lot to do with the way we live and our society, too. Not to mention that different nations have totally different habits and ways of thinking. But, basically, we can’t help ourselves – and it’s a reason that goes back millions of years.

Way back before the days when your therapist was on your speed dial – when primitive Man lived in caves and hunted and killed his food without needing any counselling at all – the question never arose. But there were berries, roots, fruits and grains growing wild, and the first clue appears here; some were bitter and tasted bad. But, at the same time, wild bees and their honey was seen as a gift from the gods. Sweet and bitter: keep that in mind . . .

And then fast-forward a couple of million years – because nothing really changed that much until after the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century. Then steam-power led to electricity and a new age of science was born, leading to chemical and biological engineering and mass-production techniques. And, in spite of a couple of hundred years of all this going on, also keep in mind that the first domestic refrigerators didn’t become affordable until as recently as the 1940s. In other words, the key to the rise of junk food lies after World War Two.

Before there was a choice, everyone in the (First) World ate fresh food. And, yes, of course there was the side-line seduction of cakes and biscuits and sweets and candy and sticky buns. But, just like prehistoric man or the ancient Romans, these were a one-off treat that pleasantly supplemented an otherwise healthy diet. But after the end of World War Two, things started to change – all life-style restrictions were lifted, there was an atmosphere of new beginnings, the quality of life improved hugely and, with full-time employment on the rise, eating patterns began to change

Looking at this from an anthropologist’s point of view, you could confidently say that suddenly, for the first time in the history of Man, everyone had an unrestricted choice of what to eat and how to eat it. The essential, basic foods for subsistence survival – the genetic longings that had become encoded into our DNA over the millennia for salt, sugar and fat – were no longer imperative. We could head home after a long day at work and pick up a drive-thru burger. We could sprawl on the couch to watch a Saturday football game on TV and stuff ourselves with salty popcorn or a donut or two, followed later by a defrosted ready-made TV dinner. Cooking was a bore, but eating had never been so easy.

That’s the sociology finished with. But we still can’t escape our genetic conditioning. Due to Man’s multi-million-year struggle for emergence, scientists have recently discovered that some parts of our brains are stimulated by tastes and oral textures. Certain consistencies, such as those of cream or butter, trigger the pleasure centres. The same holds true for the thickness of gravy or the grittiness of nuts. Researchers now believe humans evolved ways to detect the textures of energy-dense foods, such as fats and sugars, so that they could gobble them down in case supplies became scarce.

And then we have to come back to sociology again, and particularly the power of today’s mass-media and advertising. When was the last time you saw a TV advert for celery? In 2017, the USA fast food industry spent $6.6 billion to advertise unhealthy fast-food and junk products. A consumer survey in 2018 listed the reasons for eating fast food: “it’s quick; it’s easy; it tastes good; it’s cheap; I’m a busy person”. And to enhance the whole junk-food thing, the multinational-franchises that are marketing all this have added artificial colours to make it look better, and artificial additives to boost the flavour.

It’s a fact that America leads, and the rest of the world eventually follows. Which is why the new generation in the USA is fanatical about lifestyle, diet and health – closely followed by the United Kingdom and Europe. But Thailand is perhaps 20 years behind the rest of the world. And now analysts have shown that the current generation of affluent Thais perceive it as a badge of status for the family to head off to the nearest mall to dine at KFC instead of cooking fresh food at home as their parents still do.

Junk is junk; it doesn’t matter whether it’s old cars or food. But it takes a hard learning curve to realise that easier, quicker and faster food is not the answer. Life is all about achieving balance – and that includes our diet – no matter what you see on TV, please don’t feed us junk!

 

Rob De Wet