Why we love fair food so much
Vendors at the Oklahoma State Fair sure know what entices fairgoers’ tongues. What is it that makes us start salivating at the thought of a corn dog, double-fried candies, a turkey leg dripping in juice, or a monstrous burger served on a doughnut? A look at the science behind our fair food cravings offers some insight.
“Part of it goes back to our natural instincts,” said Dianne Brown, a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator.
These foods hit us right where our taste buds live, satisfying our innate love of sweet, salty and fatty foods. But overindulging is a learned behavior, we can’t completely blame on biology.
Nutrition experts say it is OK to celebrate the fair with your favorite foods, but practice moderation.
“The fair’s food row can be fun for everybody, if you go in with a plan,” Brown said.
For the last five years Brown has taught classes and counseled patients at Harold Hamm Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City.
Brown said there are three factors that make eating yummy fair food so pleasurable.
First, there is the sensation of eating the food. This includes what it tastes like, smells like, and how it feels in your mouth. These factors all combine to create the sensation that your brain associates with a great food or drink.
“When we see food, our eyes are the first to feast on the food,” Brown said. “That sets things into motion. Hormones in our gut are released that let us know we’re hungry and stimulate our appetite.”
Energy-dense or rich foods also stimulate the brain’s opioid centers. This center releases dopamine and pleasures neurotransmitters — leading us to want these foods.
“Those chemicals tell us, ‘This was pleasing,’” Brown said.
As we taste these foods, our mouths convince our brains that it is getting nutrition. Receptors in your mouth and stomach tell your brain about the mixture of proteins, fats, carbohydrates in a food item and how filling that food may be for the body.
The second factor is the macronutrient makeup of the food — the blend of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that it contains. In the case of fair food, vendors are looking for the perfect combination of salt, sugar and fat that excites your brain and gets you coming back for more.
The third factor is a courtesy of evolution — humans favor food with lots of calories. The body wants energy-dense foods in case nature deals us lean times.
“Fats are a very concentrated source of calories,” Brown explained. “Things that are sweet on our tongue let us know the food is ripened and not spoiled. We are programmed to like sweet foods, even salty foods, because basic body functioning relies on sodium.”
In some cases, the attraction to rich foods is the anticipation of experiencing pleasure. This is a learned behavior, Brown explained.
“Sometimes the mouth feel can be very tantalizing,” she said. “We like a variety of textures rolling around our tongue and teeth.”
Think of fluffy funnel cakes, or savory sausages at the fair.
Other social and physical factors make us crave foods with the sugar, salt, and fat. The HALT principle has proved useful in mental health treatments and refers to being hungry, angry, lonely and tired.
These feelings make us vulnerable to behaviors like bingeing on unhealthy foods. Obviously, when we’re hungry, we should eat. But when hunger is combined with emotions, we can lose control.
Food provides comfort. There are the memories of ice cream sundaes from our childhood, and of course, the annual family outing to the fair.
“We associate these delicious sugary and fatty foods with a good time,” Brown explained.
All these factors play a role in making fair foods hard to resist. And that’s where people struggle to find balance.
“Too much of a good thing is too much of a good thing. When our eyes are feasting we tend to over eat,” Brown said.
Balance is the key, she said. It’s also a challenge for many Oklahomans. While one corn dog at the fair does not make a dietitian nervous, a junk food habit will.
Fat from a person’s diet is eventually metabolized by the liver and other tissues. If the amount of fat exceeds what the body requires, it is stored in the body as fatty tissue.
Greasy foods typically contain elevated levels of one or more dietary fats contributing to elevated blood levels of total cholesterol and LDL, or “bad” cholesterol. High cholesterol causes fat deposits to obstruct blood flow through arteries, increasing the risk of heart disease.
Dietitians and other health professionals who work with patients with diabetes or prediabetes are concerned about nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a progressive complex of liver disease, which starts with fat accumulation in the liver. The disease is strongly associated with metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.
Likewise, an abundance of sugar may cause your liver to become resistant to insulin, which helps turn sugar in the bloodstream into energy. This means the body can’t control blood sugar levels efficiently, which can lead to type 2 diabetes. Patients with a family history of diabetes are especially at risk.
If you’re otherwise eating right and exercise regularly, a trip to the fair will not cause long-term problems.
“Drink water, walk, take time eating the food, share it and enjoy the company you’re with,” Brown said.
Harold Hamm Diabetes Center is this year’s exclusive sponsor of the fair’s food row. The center invites fairgoers to prevent diabetes as an act of love. Education and awareness are key elements.
While at the fair, take a selfie at the stand-in photo board at the north entrance to food row. Post your photos to Harold Hamm Diabetes Center’s Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram profiles. The fair runs from Sept. 13-23.
For more about Harold Hamm Diabetes Center’s fair campaign, visit www.HaroldHamm.org/ Fair. Online, you can enter to win an air fryer, blender, or multicooker — ideal for healthy food preparation at home. Submit your entry by Sunday, Sept. 23.