You pace up the stairs, toss your school bag on the couch and head over to the pantry. The door creaks open, and you grab a fresh, crinkly bag of potato chips. You thrust the bag open, hearing the faint pop of the seal breaking, and smell the savory, deliciousness of the the chips burrowed within. You head back over to the couch, grab the remote and flick on the TV. 60 Minutes pops up and starts to talk about the obesity rates in the world. It then it shows pictures and video clips of obese children, barely being able to walk.

You glare down at the bag of chips in disgust and listen to the T.V some more to hear the scientist that one of the news reporters is interviewing say, “The government should strictly regulate the purchase and consumption of sugary or junky foods from all people under the age of 18.”

The effect of sugar on your brain and body is like that of a narcotic - addictive and destructive: consuming great amounts can lead to dependence on it leading to an unhealthy lifestyle. According to a 2012 article in the journal Nature, sugar is a toxic substance that should be regulated like tobacco, alcohol, and drugs. To examine the effects that sugar can have on us, substance-abuse researchers have performed brain scans on subjects eating something sweet. The scan results have come out to resemble the mind of an drug addict(Webmd). That’s correct: the same image of a repetitive drug user! The studies showed that when a person is tasting sugar, the brain sparks up in the same regions and places as it would in an alcoholic with a bottle of liquor. The chemical in your brain called dopamine spikes and reinforces the desire to have more. Here’s more. Over time, as you eat more and more, your dopamine levels will spike, but will then your mood or so-called stress level, will decrease and get lower than before you binged on whatever you had to eat. Your body will then crave more food, and then the process will repeat over and over until you start to gain excessive pounds.

Consuming these terrible products can also lead into or develop Metabolic Syndrome: Body hormones(insulin) are out of whack, and your body begins to miss use carbs(starts to build up as fat), leading to the person being hungry constantly. Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of many things, but is mainly your body not being able to process foods or not being able to process the right foods, leading into excessive weight gain(MayoClinic). In a healthy and normal persons body, their pancreas will sense the sugar and release insulin(Wikipedia). This causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to absorb glucose from the blood, storing it as energy for later use. This chain of reactions is normal and good(Wikipedia). The negative “charge” with this occurrence, happens when you consume too much sugar at once. After doing so, your insulin levels spike, and as stated in the first paragraph, the brain acts the same way as a drug addict. So, after the “sugar addicts” levels have gone back down to below their past state, they’ll have the crave to eat more to get their insulin levels back up. This effect does not trigger your “reward-center” in your brain, meaning that you are more likely to consume more calories.

Sugar has a horrid effect on your muscles that can injure your body in the process of doing things, or even potentially put an end to physical activities that you enjoy doing. According to an article posted on tumblr by Unwind Myotherapy, “Sugar contains no fibre, minerals, proteins, fats, and no enzymes. It is an “empty” form of energy.” Therefore, sugar is a unhelpful and useless energy. The unnatural sugar that we put in our bodies is quickly digested and is absorbed into our bloodstream, causing pH levels(measures how acidic or basic a substance is) to change, causing blood to become more acidic. A body’s natural reaction to this is to gather other minerals, such as magnesium and calcium, to help “defend” our blood. The calcium is withdrawn from our bones. And the magnesium is absorbed from both our bones and muscles(Unwind Myotherapy). As you might know, calcium is a critical mineral for bone strength. So, with the departure of the calcium from our bones, scientists have proven that over time, with the constant withdrawal of the calcium from our bones, and could even become weak and even shrink! Magnesium, on the other hand, is a very important mineral for lots of our metabolic processes, including muscle contraction(Unwind Myotherapy). Magnesium reduction can eventually lead to muscle tension, muscle cramps, and nervous tension. These symptoms and problems could completely cause you to be unfit for your physical activity.

So there you are, back on the couch with your hand at a stand still burrowed within the bag. You look back up at the T.V screen and see the same repulsive interview clip of an utterly obese kid with candy wrappers and empty chip bags scattered around him. The camera shifts over, full onto the boy. The interviewer holds out the microphone and the boy says, “But I eat this stuff to help relieve me from my day at school and other things...” Then the newsman pops back onto the screen and says to the boy, “Having a little junk food every once in a while isn’t bad, but it’s when you start to eat it every day in large, excess amounts when it starts to have a negative effect on your body...” You start to agree with what the man is saying, and read the side captioning on the screen, “When you get home from a hard and stressful day of work or school, would you rather be snacking on a fresh bag of Lays, or be plopping grapes or other fruit and healthy foods into your mouth?“  You look down at the bag of chips sitting in your lap. Then you continue to read, “People are most likely to choose the bag of Lays, this being because it tastes better would easier satisfy you compared to the grapes effect on your mood.” You put the facts together and come to the conclusion; when people continuously choose the Bag of Lays or the junky food option, that is what starts to lead to Obesity. You remove your hand from the bag and walk over to the trash. You open the trash and release the bag into the trash, while at the same time letting go of your current eating habits. You take a deep breath, and pace back over to the couch and sit down, realizing what you just did might literally save your life someday.

Find a different way to satisfy your cravings or emotions with natural and fun ways to end your stress or boredom. Maybe try a favorite hobby or sport. Just think of it this way; trying this junk food even just once is similar to just trying “one” puff of weed or cigs. You might think that you’ll never go back, but sugar is just as much of a drug as weed. It’s got a mind of its own. Just remember to ask yourself, “What am I really going to reach for...?”