For Jonah, 29, Friday night pizza is a ritual. Every weekend, he makes a detour before returning home to pick up his four-cheese bacon supplement. “I know it’s greasy, salty and generally not very good for your health, but it marks the end of the working week”, he justifies himself. If the aeronautical engineer claims to pay attention to the composition of his meals during the week, he ” be loose “ the weekend with prepared meals, often very high in calories. This is called “junk food”, or junk food in English.
Appeared in the 1980s, this appellation brings together “Ultra-processed foods with low nutritional value and high in fat, sugar and salt”, explains Pamela Nesslany, nutritionist and member of the Ramsay Health Foundation. Not to mention the presence of additives, which allow better preservation of food.
In France, it is estimated that 36% of the calories ingested by adults and 46% of those ingested by children come from these ultra-processed foods, according to an information report from the Social Affairs Commission published in June 2022. , golden and crispy fries, donuts covered with a film of sugar or even lasagna sold in supermarkets… Imagining them can make your mouth water. But consumed in large quantities, this type of food is considered bad for your health: it is the cause of chronic pathologies such as heart failure, hypertension, diabetes or obesity. Why then do we continue to eat it?
The Reward Circuit
The first explanation is physiological: our body demands rich foods. “We like junk food because a diet with fat and sugar is essential for the proper functioning of our metabolism”, explains Jean-Michel Lecerf, head of the nutrition department at the Institut Pasteur in Lille. A fuel needed to help the body grow, develop properly, make cells or even regulate its temperature. “If we were only attracted to foods composed of water and fiber, such as turnips or rutabagas, our organism would suffer”he adds.
But our appetite for these dishes is also explained by their high palatability, that is to say the pleasant sensation they provide when eaten. “When a very sweet or rich food is ingested, neurotransmitters will be stimulatedemphasizes Jean-Michel Lecerf, and the reward circuit will be activated. It is the same mechanism that comes into play during drug consumption, for example. » Thus, beyond our stomach or our mouth, the pleasure of eating “badly” is also played out in the brain. “Once in the body, sweet foods activate the reward circuitry. The experience is judged pleasant by the brain and it will release dopamine., says Dr. Pamela Nesslany. Also called the hormone of immediate pleasure, dopamine will tell the brain that eating a certain type of food is pleasant, and will seek to repeat the experience. A mechanism that explains why we tend to turn to this type of junk food when we are sad, tired or anxious and need comfort.
The influence of economic and social factors
That said, this notion of pleasure “mainly aimed at the middle and upper classes”tempers Philippe Cardon, lecturer in sociology, co-author of Food sociology (1). “The further down the social scale you go, the more ultra-processed products are part of the daily diet”, he argues. A phenomenon that can be explained by the price of these foods, which are often inexpensive, but also by a lack of food education.
Jean-Michel Lecerf also points to the influence of our lifestyles in the consumption of junk food. Non-fixed schedules, long travel times, absence of a canteen at the workplace contribute to what he calls “food destructuring”. “We take fewer seated and structured meals, with a starter, a main course and a dessert. Today, we have more and more meals without benchmarks, without codes, we eat what we have on hand, a packet of crisps can serve as a meal replacement”, he remarks. So many psycho-sociological, economic or even cultural determinants that push us towards junk food.
The marketing of the manufacturers in question
And that’s without taking into account the role of industrial groups. On city streets or on our screens, advertising incentives are everywhere. Pauline, an 18-year-old from Grenoble, believes she eats a balanced diet. With parents who cook a lot and who have their own vegetable garden, the one who has just won her baccalaureate says: “During my study breaks, I ‘scrolled’ on the networks and I kept coming across advertisements for fast food restaurants. » Results, “When I went out, I ate anything, kebabs or tacos with friends, big chocolate muffins”she enumerates, grimacing.
“It is also the marketing of manufacturers that must be reviewed. In some fast food restaurants, games are associated with children’s menus and in supermarkets, products with low nutritional value are often put forward., deplores Manon Soggiu, head of public affairs at the French Diabetic Federation, which campaigns for advertisements for this type of food to be banned during youth programs on television. In 2020, a UFC-Que Choisir study also showed that 90% of food advertisements aimed at children promoted these products.
However, there is no need to sound the alarm if this rich food is consumed consciously. “It’s part of the extras. Eating a decent sized burger once a month is no problem”, Judge Jean-Michel Lecerf. The important thing, insist nutritionists, is that the diet is varied. Pamela Nesslany abounds: “In a balanced diet, there is balance. Constraining yourself or eliminating pleasure foods, which often correspond to so-called junk foods, is not the solution. » It can even have a boomerang effect. “If we remove a category of food, it can create frustration which, after a while, will be difficult to manage and can lead to compulsions”she explains.
She advises to have fun when you feel like it, without abusing the quantities, and to bring food “considered healthy” in daily meals. All without restriction, because “It is listening to and respecting these sensations that will allow the body to maintain a stable weight”.
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Junk food and health in numbers
In France, more than 50% of processed foods and prepared meals consumed by adults come from industrial production, and only a third is “homemade”, according to the INCA3 study by the National Food Safety Agency (Anses), carried out over 8 years. For children aged 0 to 17, the consumption of food from industrial production reaches 70%, against 20% of “homemade”.
The study also looks at the “weight status” of the French. It indicates that 13% of children are overweight, a figure that increases when it comes to adults. 34% are overweight and 17% are obese. If the prevalence of overweight is not significantly different, the rate of obese adults increased by 5 points compared to the previous study.
Worldwide, junk food is associated with one in five deaths, according to the review The Lancet. That’s about 11 million deaths, compared to about 8 million tobacco-related deaths and about 8.5 million hypertension-related deaths.