Recent evidence from scientists has shown that eating "fast food" can be addictive in much the same way as using controlled substances can be. According to researchers, "fast food" such as hamburgers, processed sugar, and a wide range of deep fried foods can trigger a dependency in the brain that perpetuates a habit of further use. It is a view that is increasingly supported by scientists who see a co-dependency between people's decisions and environmental influences (including the wide availability of "fast food") that have structural effects on human development. The proposed conclusions contend that the brains of overeaters experience chemical changes in response to unbalanced diets with a high content of processed sugar, salt, and saturated fats.

In time and in some cases, if people continue a pattern of consumption containing too much unhealthy food, their intake of this food will initiate changes in the brain that elevate the minimum level of ingestion the brain needs for satiation. Moreover, since high consumption of "fast foods" stimulates opiates in the brain (substances which act as natural pain relievers), large, recurrent doses of "fast food" can mimic the effects of opiates, albeit in a less intense form. Scientists raising rats on a diet of twenty-five percent sugar found that upon suddenly eliminating glucose from the rats' food supply, the animals experienced all the symptoms of withdrawal attributed to reducing traditional addictive opiates, including shivering and chattering teeth. Later, by treating rats with drugs that block opiate receptors, scientists were able to lower the amount of dopamine in the nucleus acumen of rats' brains, an area linked with the dynamics of reward. Such neurochemistry can be seen in heroin addicts coping with withdrawal. By this reasoning, obesity, like other addictions, can be viewed as a disease beyond the control of those afflicted by it.

This has brought lawyers to argue that civil society has a responsibility to regulate food and educate people about the abuse of "unhealthy foods" in a way that is comparable to society's control of opiates and narcotics. Corporations that target this vulnerability in human beings can then be held liable for the sicknesses that result from the poor eating habits overwhelming their customers. Still, some scientists scoff at the lengths to which their colleagues seek to separate the decision making process from people's behavior. For these researchers, the distinction between a habit and an addiction is not quantitative but qualitative. Their consensus is that individuals can still moderate their behavior to control the effects of what they eat on their systems.

1. The passage seems to suggest that scientists who see a co-dependence between people's decisions and environmental influences would affirm that

(A) human decision-making has unconscious, chemical influences
(B) human beings have a responsibility to control their surroundings
(C) overeaters are not responsible for their behavior and their eating disorders
(D) obesity is a public health crisis
(E) overeaters continue to eat because they are unable to overcome the difficulties of withdrawal


2. Lawyers defending corporations against the findings of researchers on the effects of "fast food" would likely argue that:

Indicate all that apply.

A. obesity is a pre-existing condition in individuals
B. the distinction between a habit and an addiction is "not quantitative but qualitative"
C. corporations were not aware that "fast food" caused chemical dependency because the science confirming it is so new


3. By labeling obesity as a disease, the scientists in the passage seek to point out that

(A) the obese need to obey a strict diet
(B) the obese are more vulnerable to the health hazards of chronic consumption of "fast food" than those who are not obese
(C) obesity is a condition that targets those with a genetic precondition to it
(D) obesity is a result of factors that cannot be understood solely as the results of the behavior of individuals
(E) obesity exists in an individual whether or not they overeat


4. Some scientists in the passage who dispute the conclusions of their colleagues who link obesity with chemical factors find fault with their colleagues'

(A) findings
(B) expertise
(C) assumptions
(D) methodology
(E) comparisons between data


5. Select the sentence in the III paragraph that illustrates dissenting scientists' objection to the assumption that addictive behavior has nothing to do with behavior and choices and is dependent only on chemical imbalances in the brain.




6. From the passage, the role of dopamine in the rats' brain seems to

(A) reduce food intake
(B) block opiates
(C) replace opiates when they are blocked
(D) punish rats when opiates are received
(E) instruct the rat to eat more


7. As presented in the passage, lawyers who would seek to take "fast food" restaurants to court for damaging public health would agree with which of the following?

(A) The government is not knowledgeable enough to safeguard public health.
(B) Corporations are responsible for the consequences of their products.
(C) The responsibility to determine what a good product is should be determined by the market.
(D) People who suffer from obesity are victims of governmental incompetence.
(E) People should take responsibility for their own diets.