Engineered for Addiction

Why everyday pleasures now ensnare us— and how to get free

JANO TANTONGCO When we think of addiction, gritty images of drug use, gambling, or self-destructive binging on guilty pleasures all come to mind. However, as our culture has grown increasingly commodified, addiction has gone from a fringe affliction almost-invisible, everyday condition. As pleasure-seeking is taken to new heights, it becomes harder to imagine the days of analog culture before endless scrolling and apps built to satisfy any desire on demand.

In our secularized culture, there are few limits on pursuing pleasure. The assumption is that maximizing the quantity and quality of pleasure will boost human happiness. When we consider that, despite the explosion of material culture, many of us are increasingly depressed and anxious, it begs the question of whether we’re on the right path.

Most people won’t admit they have issues with impulse control when it comes to apparently innocuous pleasures. It’s relatively easy to pinpoint the problems with chemical addictions. Alcohol, drugs, and tobacco are obvious in their addictive potential and how they can ruin lives.

What about the less apparent addictive behaviors?

Recent data shows that Americans spend an average of four hours per day on mobile devices, and roughly 70 percent of that time is spent on social, photo, and video apps such as Facebook and YouTube. The top three pornography sites in the world receive a combined 5.8 billion website hits each month. Almost 60 percent of the calories that Americans consume come from ultra-processed foods.

The oft-heard expression regarding managing addiction is “all things in moderation.” But when “all things” are engineered and marketed for maximum addictive potential, is this the best approach? Behavioral addictions can more easily fly under the radar when it comes to these “softer” substances. Is it really different from external substances when the drug is internal— like the neurotransmitter dopamine?

When ‘More’ Becomes ‘Never Enough’

Dr. Daniel Lieberman, a clinical professor at George Washington University, discusses the role of dopamine in behavior and addiction in his book “The Molecule of More.”

“There are few things that feel better than getting a hit of dopamine. It’s what we feel when we’re about to eat a wonderful meal, or we get some good win a competition. And motivates us to get it again again,” he told The Epoch The double-edged sword of dopamine, according to Lieberman,

toward behavior that will support survival. Dopamine also propels us to maximize future resources.

“It’s looking out for our genes, getting them to survive and reproduce,” he said. “Dopamine is about making the future better, but its role is very, very specific. It’s only focused on the future. It does not process things that occur in the present moment. And so as soon as something goes from the future, the present dopamine shuts down.”

The capacity for addiction today lies in the disconnect between our hardwired biology and so- called supernormal stimuli: modern consumer products and services such as processed food, social media, and pornography that act on these reward pathways to trigger powerful consumptive urges. “Once an activity triggers dopamine once, it becomes sticky, and eventually we can lose control over our behavior,” Lieberman said. “Now, the people who write code for social media, they know this. In fact, they hire psychologists who are experts in compulsive behavior in order to try to trigger compulsive behaviors in their customers. You know, most of these things that we use in maladaptive ways don’t cost us anything.”

But, as the saying goes, “If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product.”

But not all of these addictive products are free—or optional. Among these supernormal stimuli is something we simply can’t go without: food.

We Are What We (Over)Eat

When Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Moss began his investigation into the food industry, he was asked by a British tabloid reporter if he thought processed food was as addictive as hard drugs.

“It seemed totally ludicrous to me to compare Twinkies with cocaine,” Moss told The Epoch Times.

In his first book, “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us,” published in 2013, he uncovered how the food industry manufactured its products for maximum “bliss.”

“They use chemists to manipulate the formulas to make them as attractive as possible. They use experimental psychologists to get in our heads and figure out what emotional buttons to push in us that will get us to eat even when we’re not hungry,” Moss said. “They use lots of strategic marketing in the grocery store in order to get us to sort of drop our guard and shop impulsively rather than stick to a shopping list, which again, is another symptom of a substance being addictive.”

And yet, he says he initially avoided using the term “addiction” to describe what was happening. But, as he continued his investigations and published his 2021 follow-up book, “Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions,” he concluded that dependence on processed food could indeed become a fullblown addiction. And, in some instances, it can be even more insidious than drugs.

A foundational component of addictions is how they can become implanted in our memory. Moss pointed out that while memories tethered to drugs typically take root in our teenage years, food-related memories form in our earliest years. This is why corporations such as Coca-Cola Co. weave together marketing narratives around the ballpark and the dinner table.

“The memories begin earlier, and they get associated with joyful moments in our life, more than drug memories or tobacco memories,” he said.

Another aspect that can make processed food as, or even more, addicting than drugs is the speed at which we can consume them. Moss said that Nora Volkow, on Drug Abuse, discovered that one thing that made cocaine so addictive was how fast it reached the brain. Moss noted that this is why addicts will make the jump from snorting cocaine to smoking crack, since the latter hits the brain much faster.

“[Processed foods] are packaged to allow us to rip open those packages really fast and get to the food without delay, which is exciting to the brain. And then the very refined nature of the salt, sugar, fat, which has the ability to reach the brain much quicker,” Moss said.

He concluded that food corporations exploit our instinctual drives related to food in order to make their products irresistible to the average consumer.

Knocking Out Addiction

Ed Latimore, a former professional boxer turned content creator and best-selling author, battled alcohol pornography his 20s. public housing in Pittsburgh, he struggled with poverty,

Activities and foods that trigger the release of dopamine can become difficult to resist.

Social media companies hire psychologists to help create compulsive behavior in users.

High-calorie junk foods can trigger a maladaptive release of dopamine.

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