Shedding Light on Food Addictions

Everyone knows that drugs can be addictive-they mimic or stimulate the production of brain chemicals that cause feelings of pleasure. So is it a stretch to think that food might produce the same addictive effects? The possibility of food addiction would certainly help explain why, despite so much attention to the obesity epidemic, many people fail to change their eating behavior. Many people describe their eating problems "like an alcohol or drug addiction", citing symptoms of craving or withdrawal with regard to food.

The "food addiction" theory is still in its infancy, additional research will certainly help fill in the knowledge gaps so that we can better understand how certain foods may trigger problematic eating behavior. However, new research offers growing support for the idea that excess food intake can be linked to addictive behaviors such as lack of success when attempts are made to reduce intake, or continued use regardless of negative fallout. Additionally, the brain appears to respond to highly palatable foods in a similar way as it does to drugs. These observations have led researchers to postulate that certain foods or ingredients added to foods might trigger the addictive process in susceptible people.

In a review published in 2009 in the Journal of Addictive Medicine, the authors reported considerable evidence suggesting that some foods may trigger an addictive process. For example, research shows that alcohol and high fat sweets can cause endogenous opiates (substances that can have narcotic effects) to be released in the brain, and animal studies have linked sugar intake with behavioral indicators of dependence. Furthermore, the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, a non-profit research and public policy organization, reported striking similarities in use and withdrawal symptom patterns of sugar and of classic drugs of abuse, and reciprocal relationships among food and other substances (e.g., people tend to gain weight when they stop smoking or drinking). It appears that food and classic addictive substances compete for the same brain pathways.

The Rudd Center created the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) which is a scale designed to identify signs of addiction exhibited towards certain types of high sugar or high fat foods. The YFAS was found to be valid, reliable, and even predicted binge eating behavior among 353 young adults. This indicates that the scale might be a sound tool for studying food addiction in future research. These results were published in the journal Appetite in 2008.

In conclusion, the research to date is leaning heavily toward the theory that high sugar or high fat foods have addictive tendencies in susceptible people. More research is needed to confirm. What better way to use our research dollars?