The Nature of Guilty Pleasures

by Chase Lin

Certain foods are able to elicit this emotional paradox we term “guilty pleasure” so viscerally. Whatever oozy, fatty, richly-flavored food it may be, there exists a battle between the mind and the path to the heart we know of as the stomach. It’s about time we dive into this mental divergence to unravel why particular foods can make us feel so bad and yet so good.

Most of us are familiar with the D word. When it comes to brain chemicals, dopamine always seems to be a trending topic. This neurotransmitter is known to mediate our feelings of pleasure; it is a biological way in which we are rewarded for activities that are necessary for survival, such as eating and sex. This chemical messaging system plays a central role in the brain’s reward circuit, the nucleus accumbens. According to neuroscientist and writer, Alex Korb, guilt and shame activate the nucleus accumbens, which is why these emotions actually make us feel good - at least in the short term. In the same way addiction works, gorging ourselves sends a surplus of dopamine that floods the reward center of our brain. Even though we may consciously register it as negative behavior, our body responds differently.

On a more macro level, we may also be influenced by the societal pressure to eat healthy. Nutritious, plant-based, wholesome meals are analogous to being the Instagram models of food. They set a high standard, may be nice to look at, but they feel out of our reach. We almost hate them - no, not exactly. We want to be them. In an act of defiance towards these feelings of inadequacy, we may be trying to rebel against the weight of the pressure by indulging ourselves. Hence, why we see some people adopt eating unhealthy foods as though it were a personality trait. What if not being able to control ourselves is just an easier pill to swallow than the much more terrifying thought that we might not be good enough?

Or maybe it goes deeper than that. Maybe it’s a psychological imprint from our childhood that we have yet to resolve. As children, your guardians may have configured a tier of forbidden foods that were allowed to you only as a reward for good behavior, similar to how you would use dog treats in obedience training. Unconsciously marked by our past, we may experience lingering shame for eating these foods because we feel as though we have not done what is required of us to deserve it. Does this mean we’re doomed to make bad choices about our diet due to subliminal factors?

Well, no. But perhaps trying to understand the reasoning behind our guilt will help us relax our constant, self-induced stress surrounding what we eat, building a healthier relationship towards food.