• Question: Why do we eat junk food even though we know its bad for us ?????

    Asked by cheesepuff to Pete, Rebecca, SallyB, Sally, Sian on 16 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sally Fenton

      Sally Fenton answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I wish I knew the answer to this question because then I would be able to stop myself eating it (and i would probably be a lot thinner!) .I think a lot of it is to do with psychological reasons….and how we attach certain foods to certain emotion. I know that my friend Heather Mckee in the Sodium zone on “im a scientist” is doing alot of research about this sort of thing…if you ask her she will be able to tell you some interesting stuff 🙂

    • Photo: Sally Barber

      Sally Barber answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      There is an evolutionary theory behind this… It is thought that as humans are genetically programmed to prefer fatty foods and to store fat. This used to be advantageous because energy could be stored as fat in our bodies during times when there was an abundance of food and then this stored energy was available to keep us alive during times of famine. Now of course food is abundent, especially Junk food, and our genes have not really changed over time. That is why we eat junk food even though we know it is bad for us. We do have a choice to override our preference to junk food and chose healthier foods instead.

    • Photo: Rebecca Randell

      Rebecca Randell answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Because it tastes nice and it full of things that makes us crave it such as sugar!!! Junk food is also one of those naughty pleasures we all deserve it every so often it just needs to be eaten in moderation.

    • Photo: Peter Styring

      Peter Styring answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      It’s due to the addictive properties of the fats. Things just don’t taste the same if you remove the fats. Unfortunately, the ones that have the highest flavours are also the worst for us! The same with salt. This used to be used as a preservative but is now a flavour enhancer. It’s a cheap way to make rubbish food edible!

    • Photo: Sian Lawson

      Sian Lawson answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I think that it’s partly the addictive properties of fat, and partly an endorphin response due to associating the fat & sugar combination with pleasure. A lot of work goes into getting just the right combination of fat and sugar to stimulate you to keep eating it.

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