Blog Post 3: Sweet Or Salty?

In my last blog post, I tried my hand at baking for the first time. Although I cannot test how addictive the brownies taste compared to Batch One, since that would require me to bake brownies consistently for my dorm, I instead asked my floormates how they tasted in a general sense. Here are my results: Excited and proud of my culinary masterpiece, I took the steaming tray of brownies out of the oven and placed it on the stove to cool. With the scent of freshly baked peanut butter brownies filling the room, several of my floormates came out to investigate. Cutting the brownie brick into small bite-sized squares, I gave each person a piece. “Try one!” I said. “They’re for my English project.”

My friends, floormates, and I all bit into the brownies at the same time. I then asked everyone for their honest opinion of the brownies. Roughly half the group (mostly my friends) said they tasted perfect and loved the extra peanut butter flavor, and the other half (mostly my floormates) thought the peanut butter concealed the sugar taste and believed I should add more sugar to the brownies. Personally, I thought the brownies tasted perfect. But that may just be because I love peanut butter. Next I asked them, “Now that you ate a brownie, do you feel the urge to have a second helping? Or at least, more of an urge than before?” Most people stopped for a moment, thought about it, and replied something along the lines of “Actually, yes I do feel like having another. They’re so good! (Even if it could have been sweeter). Can I?” Handing them another brownie piece, I smiled. Remembering my research in my first blog post, which stated that a sign of physical craving is feeling an increased urge to have a food after just eating that food, I made a mental note that my floormates’ reactions to the brownies seemed similar to physical saving signs.

For my second batch of brownies, I wanted to try increasing the fat and sugar in hopes of appealing to the half of people who wished my first batch of brownies (the peanut butter ones) to be sweeter. Using the same recipe as before, I removed the extra scoops of peanut butter. Trying to maintain the same consistency as the original recipe, I doubled the amount of melted butter, tripled the sugar, and added several heaping spoonfuls of hot cocoa mix just for good measure. Mixing my toxic sugary solution in a bowl, I felt slightly guilty about the health and safety of all my floormates, especially considering all the research and warnings I have read about the dangers of sugar. Then again, how much harm can one single batch of extra sugary and fatty brownies do? At least I’m not baking brownies for my floormates every day, right?

Beep, beep! The timer beeped, and I removed my new and improved (though much unhealthier) batch of brownies from the oven. Placing the steaming tray on the stove to cool, I knocked on my floormates’ floor. “Batch two of brownies are ready!” I exclaimed. Again, I cut the brownies into bite sized squares. This time, the pieces were more clean cut because we remembered to spray the tray with cooking oil. Then again, the different ingredients may have also had an effect on the brownies’ ease of cutting and serving in individual squares. The additional butter might have given the brownies a smoother and more slippery, rich texture. Also, the first batch of brownies had peanut butter, which probably gave it a more sticky texture. As a result, the first batch of brownies kept sticking to the pan and knife whereas the second batch cut and separated cleanly.

Like before, my friends, floormates, and I counted down: “Three, two, one--” We bit into the brownies, savoring the taste while comparing it to the peanut butter brownie taste memory. Again, I asked them what their reactions were. This time, the half who originally believed the peanut butter brownies could use more sweeteners and fat absolutely loved my revised baked concoction. On the other hand, those who thought the peanut butter brownies were perfectly sweetened (like myself) found this batch two of brownies much too sugary. How does this make sense though? If sugar and fat make everything taste better, then why would a startling fifty percent of my floormates and friends prefer the less sugary, less fatty brownies with peanut butter. Then it hit me: Salt! Like junk food appeals to our taste buds either with its sugariness, such as donuts, or saltiness, such as potato chips. Both flavours appear equally appealing to our taste buds.

I suppose I already knew this, but now I know for certain: Mostly my friends (along with myself) prefer salty, whereas mostly my floormates prefered sweet. To confirm this observation, we discussed our favourite dessert foods. Sure enough, my friends and I enjoyed a midnight snack of chips, salsa, and perhaps a plate of cheese, crackers, and salami for special occasions. On the other hand, my floormates loved a midnight snack of cookies, cake, and several packs of gushers.

Blog Post 2: Learning To Cook

After researching how sugar and fat can be addicting, I decided to make brownies from scratch. Having never made brownies before, I decided to simply look up a recipe and pretend it was a chemistry lab experiment. There were many different online recipes, so I finally settled on one that was made from scratch and included peanut butter. What could go wrong when there’s peanut butter? I figured this would be a great control recipe to compare with my sweeter version in the next blog post because peanut butter is more salty and should somewhat hide the sweet taste.

Step 1: Getting all the right ingredients. Since my dorm food consisted only of cereal and almonds, I decided to use my meal points and get as many ingredients as I could from the cellar. Unfortunately the cellar does not have a diverse selection of cooking materials; instead, there were plenty of various cookie and brownie pre-made mixes. Gluten free, dairy free, peanut free -- all except for the nothing-free mixes, which were all out. I settled for a bag of white sugar, brown sugar, all purpose flour, and jar of peanut butter. I also added two small shakers filled with salt and pepper to my basket just in case I needed some extra seasoning. There wasn’t any butter, but I found a tub of margarine which would act as a good replacement. After all, fat is fat, right? I scanned the cold section for eggs, but could not find any for some reason. Remembering having seen eggs at the cellar before, I asked the clerk for a carton but unfortunately he said they would not come until the following day. Oh well, I thought. I suppose I already had to get the rest of the ingredients from Safeway, so I will just add eggs to the shopping list.

Step 1.5: Getting extra ingredients not provided by the cellar. After dropping off the cellar ingredients in the Graham kitchen, I headed off to Safeway. Passing through the aisles and aisles of canned and boxed food, I found vanilla extract and semi sweet chocolate chips for baking. Moving on to the refrigerated shelves, I grabbed a small carton of eggs and headed towards the checkout line.

Step 1.75: Oops! I forgot something! As I waited in line to pay, I suddenly remembered that I had nothing to measure ingredients with. Dumping my backpack into my friend’s arms, I raced to the baking aisle and picked up the most affordable set of cups and table/teaspoons. Glancing around one last time to make sure I had everything, I jumped back in line and paid for my basket of materials.

Step 2: Washing dishes? When I got back to the Graham kitchen on my floor, I eagerly began opening all of the ingredients when my friend suddenly stopped me. “Hold on!” he exclaimed. “What are you going to mix everything in? This place is a mess.” Looking around at the piles of dirty dishes cluttered all over the community sink, I realized he was right. So there we were, washing and drying dishes even before the cooking part began.

Step 3: The art of cracking eggs. After washing a large mixing bowl, along with several other miscellaneous dishes that we thought we may need but did not end up using, it was finally time to do some real cooking. Excitedly, I smashed eggs one at a time against the counter, then quickly held it over the bowl. Although I saw my friend shake his head at my unprofessional egg-breaking style, I just kept staring at the cold and gooey egg slime that dripped through my fingers into the bowl. There is something extremely satisfying about hearing eggs crack and plop into a bowl, even if there may be a handful of eggshell bits scattered inside as well.

Step 4: Is it resourcefulness, or just simply laziness? The next ingredient to add was melted butter, but unfortunately it came in a plastic container that was not microwave safe. Also, we needed a way to measure a cup of melted butter without melting my measuring cups. Ideally, a glass measuring beaker would be able to hold butter and be microwaved until there was enough for the recipe, but we did not have one. Safeway is only a block away, but walking all the way back to buy a glass measuring beaker seemed unnecessary; there just had to be a better way. Suddenly, my friend had an idea. Pointing to a small glass cup on the far end of the sink, he said “Wash that.” Confused, I took the cup and began washing. The cup was pretty, decorated with colourful horizontal bands and a few zigzag patterns, but it certainly was not a measuring cup. When I finished scrubbing, my friend measured a cup of water, poured it into the cup, checked the water line, and then dumped the water into the sink. “There,” he said. “Now we have a measuring cup.” Scooping butter into the cup, he filled it roughly a third above the horizontal line marking one cup. I placed the makeshift glass measuring beaker with butter into the microwave, and set it for two minutes. Coincidentally, we scooped exactly the right amount of butter on the first try.

Step 5: Mixing, measuring, and more mixing. The rest of the brownie preparation went fairly smoothly. After mixing the eggs and butter, I measured the dry ingredients into the bowl and then mixed some more. Microwaving a bowl of chocolate chips, we added it with all the other bowl contents and stirred until the clumpy pile turned into a smooth frosting-like mixture. Lastly, my friend added a generous spoonful or two of peanut butter, which made interesting swirling patterns as I mixed. When all the peanut butter spirals disappeared, I added chocolate chips.

Step 6: Baking time! Finally the ingredients were ready to be cooked. I forgot to get cooking oil from the cellar, so we just poured the mixture directly into a tray. Oh well, I thought. The brownies may stick to the tray, but at least they’ll still taste the same.

Step 7: Yum… Though actually I tried the brownies before they were baked. Hopefully the eggs didn’t have salmonella.

Blog Post 1: Craving Sweets

Craving Sweets

Have you ever seen a Cosco cheesecake advertisement on television and felt your mouth water? Imagine that feeling, but with the same to-die-for sensation as the urge for drugs or cigarettes. I recently read “Physical Craving and Food Addiction”, a scientific review paper written by Mark Cheren, Mary Foushi, Ester Helga Gudmundsdotter, Colleen Hillock, Marty Lerner, Michael Prager, Mary Rice, Louisa Walsh, and Philip Werdell. According to the research recorded in this journal, binge eating and consuming sugary substances  may have the same addicting effects on the brain as drugs and alcohol do.

In measuring addictions, Wilson defines physical craving as a sensation much different than simply hunger because the person feels an increased need for food having just eaten, which contradicts the expected feeling of being full after eating a meal. Hoebel expands on this definition by organizing it into three characteristics: (1) An animal used to be rewarded for a certain behavior but still continues that behavior even though there is no longer any reward; (2) After consuming a substance over time, the animal’s appetite and desire for it increases; (3) When a substance is taken away from that animal for a period of time, the animal will take more of the substance than before the period of withdrawal.

During animal testing, Hoebel observed for these three traits of physical craving and found that the laboratory animals given sugar versus those given alcohol and narcotics  shared the same results: (1) The animals continued behaving in ways that previously rewarded them with the substance, even though that reward no longer existed; (2) Over time, the animals needed increasing amounts of the substance to feel satisfied; (3) When the substance was returned to the animals after a period of deprivation, the animals consumed more than they had before deprivation. Furthermore, animals continued craving sugar in the face of punishment, which strengthens the conclusion that sugar can cause physical cravings that may affect brain pathways. Ahmed repeated these laboratory experiments with various substances, and found that even the rats addicted to cocaine preferred sugar and sweetness over drugs.

Researchers looking at human brain imaging observed that dopamine areas in the brain changed due to food binging, which causes an increased appetite and need for the food. In fact, Wang discovered that pictures of food trigger the dopamine areas of food bingers to light up. This reflects the same brain response as when drug addicts see drugs, or even think about drugs.

From a biological perspective, craving occurs when the body produces opioids, which are chemically similar to those found in addictive narcotics such as heroin and morphine. Because opioids are produced through the pattern of sugar/fat  consumption, deprivation, and more sugar/fat consumption, binge eating can create an addiction to certain foods because it mirrors this pattern. As a result, the opioids produced by the body from binge consumption of sugar and fat may affect the brain’s dopamine receptor areas in the same way that morphine and heroin opioids do.

To test the idea that opioids cause physical craving for sugar, Drewnowski experimented with naloxone, an opioid blocker that allows drug and alcohol addicts to feel no craving for their substance. In the experiment, two groups of students were given sweets and their eating patterns were observed. Then one group of students were given naloxone. The group of students who were not given naloxone continued eating the offered sweets, whereas the group given naloxone showed no interest in eating sweets all of a sudden. This shows a relationship between sugar and opioids because the naloxone was able to block physical craving for sweets, just as it has past been proven to block craving for heroin and morphine.

Aside from dopamine, another chemical released by the body that causes addictions is serotonin. Unlike dopamine, which causes addiction by making people feel happy, serotonin is a pain reducing chemical. Processed foods can trigger the body to release serotonin because the insulin used in digestion lowers blood sugar levels. Meanwhile the amino acid tryptophan can travel to the brain, creating a reaction with serotonin.

Overall, it looks as though sugar is just as addicting as other drugs from both an internal level with the opioids, but also on an external level with the animal observations that prove sugar may create physical craving. By looking at the human brain scans of the dopamine area, people addicted to sugar have the same effects as those addicted to other drugs. The reason behind this is that our body creates opioids if we binge eat sugar and replicate the pattern of consuming, depriving, and then consuming again.

Now that I understand the biological effects of fat and sugar on the brain, I plan to experiment with different recipes of brownies and altering the recipe to see which one tastes best to people.

Bibliography

Cheren, Mark, Mary Foushi, Ester H. Gudmundsdotter, Colleen Hillock, Marty Lerner, Michael Prager, Mary Rice, Louisa Walsh, and Philip Werdell. "Physical Craving and Food Addiction." Physical Craving and Food Addiction (2009): n. pag. The Food Addiction Institute PO Box 50126, Sarasota, FL 34232. Web. 22 Jan. 2015. <http://foodaddictioninstitute.org/FAI-DOCS/Physical-Craving-and-Food-Addiction.pdf>.

Welcome To My Blog!

Welcome to my blog, Cooking Up Junk Food. I decided to both research food addictions and then make my own versions of junk food. I hope my research and experimentations with cooking junk food will be both interesting and inspiring.