JEDDAH, 6 December 2006 — It’s a basic fact that food is a necessity of life. But according to some researchers certain types of food can be unnecessary and even physically addictive.
With obesity rising in the Kingdom and new fast food chains opening daily, is it really possible that Saudi Arabia could be a country of fast-food junkies?
Research done by Bartley Hoebel, a psychologist at Princeton University, shows that it’s possible for people to become addicted to the types of fatty and sugary foods served by the many chain restaurants that populate the Saudi urban landscape.
Studies conducted on rats given a 25 percent diet of sugar or fat show that the diets activate opioids, agents that bind to nervous system receptors that result in the release of the pleasure hormone dopamine, the same hormone released (albeit in larger quantities) by the use of narcotic drugs. The rats even exhibited junkie-like withdrawal symptoms when the sugar and fat levels were reduced, such as shaking and twitches.
“The brain is getting addicted to its own opioids as it would to morphine or heroin,” said Hoebel. “Drugs give a bigger effect but it’s the same process.”
Meanwhile at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, neuroscientist Ann Kelley’s research provides yet another piece of the puzzle: Kelley found that the release of opioids in the brain communicates to the brain to keep on eating, just as a narcotic drug might “wire” the brain to encourage consumption.
So what does the research mean to consumers in the Kingdom? Plenty, according to Global Research Information Inc., which found that the number of fast-food establishments grew by 45 percent in Saudi Arabia last year. Sales in 2005 grew by 57 percent, to SR20 billion ($5.3 billion).
Alaa Abdulmalik Labban, a 20-year-old Saudi student at the Training College of Nutrition in Jeddah, told Arab News that this type of research is very important to the Kingdom because it provides insight into one of the reasons why fast food is so popular.
“Also, in our studies at the college we are taught about portion sizes. I know it’s not healthy to ‘super-size’ your portions, which is quickly becoming a trademark of fast food restaurants everywhere,” Labban said, referring to the menu option offered at many fast food restaurants where customers can increase their portions for a nominal price increase.
And it seems many in the Kingdom are “super-sizing” themselves to bad health.
Latest Ministry of Health statistics show that Saudi obesity is on the rise: 52 percent of Saudi men are clinically obese, while the same can be said of 66 percent of Saudi women, 19 percent of adolescents and 15 percent of preschoolers.
Diabetes, another food born condition, is also quickly becoming endemic in the Saudi population.
The Kingdom’s fast-food explosion may also be due to its demography; 58 percent of the population is under the age of 17, and youths are more likely to use fast-food restaurants as hangout places to grab a quick meal late at night.
Emelio Jacinto, a general manager of Hardee’s in Jeddah, said the issue isn’t access to fast food, but rather self-control. “I don’t think it is fair for doctors to say that fast food is harmful or addictive,” he said. “Food is like anything: too much can be harmful, but in moderation it’s fine. I feel that customers should simply control themselves.”
Some consumers think it could be possible that sugary and fatty foods can be addictive.
“I’ve seen a lot of people stopping in cafés and waiting outside restaurants to be the first customers of the morning,” said Noura Indijani, a Saudi accounting student at King Abdul Aziz University. “This research could provide the reason why people keep coming back to the same restaurant day after day as they gain more and more weight.”
It isn’t just Saudi waistlines that continue to expand. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, the number of clinically obese adults increased by a third between 1995 and 2000, to 300 million.
The question remains: Who’s to blame, the consumer or the addiction?
