Are You Addicted to Food?

By Lisa Collier Cool
Apr 21, 201

Do you feel powerless when faced with chocolate? Could cravings for potato chips or pizza be similar to what alcoholics feel when they need a drink?

The addiction scenario in the brains of alcoholics and drug addicts is pretty well understood, but the notion that food cravings, compulsive eating and even obesity could be tied to the same type of brain activity remains controversial.

The latest evidence suggesting that food addiction really does exist comes from a small study at Yale that has gotten major league attention. The tantalizing results suggest that an addictive process is in play in the brain when some people come face to face with certain foods.

Identifying the Addicts

First, the Yale researchers recruited 48 young women and gave them a two-year old test, the Yale Food Addiction Scale that asks about reactions to certain foods such as specific sweets (including ice cream, chocolate, cookies cake); starches (including white bread, pasta and rice); salty foods (chips, pretzels and crackers); fatty foods (pizza, hamburgers, steak and French fries); and sugary drinks including soda. It also asks about broccoli and apples, but hardly anyone has a problem with healthy fruits and vegetables. 

Based on the women’s responses the researchers were able to separate out those who scored in the addictive eating range.

Eating disorders 101: Get the facts.

What Happens in the Brain?

Next, all the women were given MRIs to observe how the brain responds to images of a chocolate milkshake and one of a tasteless solution. The women who scored highest on the food addiction questionnaires showed greater activity in brain regions associated with reward when they saw the chocolate milkshake. When the women actually got to drink the milkshake, the researchers saw the same kind of brain action that occurs in alcoholics and drug addicts when their cravings are satisfied.

Can Food Addiction Make You Fat?

Maybe so. Some experts think that food addiction may underlie the ongoing obesity epidemic, prompting many people to overeat sweets, starches and high fat foods. But in the Yale study, although the women participating ranged in size from slim to obese, there was no correlation between a women’s body mass index (BMI), a measure of body fat based on height and weight, and how she scored on the Food Addiction Scale. However, study leader Ashley Gearhardt, a doctoral student in clinical psychology, notes that BMI reflects genetics, physical activities and metabolism and says that some people may be eating in a food addictive manner but also crash dieting or exercising compulsively to keep weight off.

Learn how to identify the symptoms of binge eating and how to get treated.

What Underlies Addiction?

Gearhardt says that food addicts eat to cope with negative emotions and can consume “shocking” amounts of food. “We see people who will eat up to 10,000 calories in a sitting and also really significant binges.” Another tip-off: chronically overeating all day long, much as a chain smoker constantly puffs on cigarettes. A constant preoccupation with food also may suggest addiction, says Gearhardt.

She explains that those who score high on the food-addiction scale report that they need to eat more and more food to get the emotional satisfaction they experienced in the past. 

The Most Addictive Foods

The Yale researchers suggest that the food addicts most commonly crave are highly processed, such as ice cream that contains sugar and fat. Chocolate and French fries can also cause an addict to lose control. “It makes scientific sense,” says Gearhardt. Some foods are naturally high in sugar and some are naturally high in fat (like an avocado) but, says Gearhardt the combination of sweet and fat doesn’t occur in nature. “Food addiction seems to be the result of food processing that combines sugar and fat and then adds chemicals and, sometimes, caffeine or flavor enhancers to produce foods that are so different than what we’ve evolved to consume,” she explains.

Makes perfect sense to me!

Absolutely addicted.  I also have an addiction-prone personality.

Good post...something to "chew" on...

So, if a person is addicted to food.  Is WLS a good option for them?  I feel like I am addicted to food.    I am so excited for my surgery but am also scared that this "addiction"  will get in my way of success (the same way it always has).

Advice/opinions???

Stephanie

For me THIS surgery has been a God send because I was BLESSED with instant NO hunger.  I just don't get hungry (that's physical hunger NOT head hunger) and food just doesn't always illicite that PASSION that it once did.  Not everyone is so fortunate in THAT aspect.

It's also limited the amount I can eat = good and bad because sometimes I want to STUFF.

Unfortunately for carbs my limit is still almost unlimited =(

It's up to YOU how far you can take this gift.  WLS is just to tool to HELP you but it's still up to YOU to choose the right foods and portion control it helps but there are ways around it.

Ms Shell

 It wont get in your way. Before surgery I was addicted to food, I had a bottomless pit for a stomach. Since the surgery it's been totally different. Of course I think about food, but when it comes down to it, I'm not hungry.

"When the women actually got to drink the milkshake, the researchers saw the same kind of brain action that occurs in alcoholics and drug addicts when their cravings are satisfied."

I love these studies that show this. People seem hesitant to believe that someone can become addicted to food in the same way someone can be an alcoholic, but I have to say that I am a believer. I have felt out of control of my cravings in the past and unable to stop overeating despite an intense desire to do so and success in other areas of my life requiring great discipline.

Before my surgery I was binging daily. I never dared to count the calories I was consuming, but could it have reached 10,000 calories in one sitting as mentioned in the article? Uhh...it probably could have come pretty close. I would also overeat all day long. A constant preoccupation with food? Probably still guilty on that one. 

I have been so lucky that by some magical force my VSG took my hunger and cravings (for now) and I am able to stay on my eating plan (although I still have trouble cutting out nuts and full fat cheese), but I am seeking therapy and studying the much beloved Thin Commandments because I can lose this weight, but I will always be someone who is vulnerable to sugar.

Lindsey

My surgeon put in mental health request for me, due to the fact that I told him I do allow myself a few bites of icecream every 1-2 weeks just so I dont feel like I  am being deprived.. apparently that makes me addicted, I dont know I actually went to my first appointment this morning so we will see :)

The other thing is that you cannot quit eating like an alcoholic can quit drinking.  I wonder how many alcoholics could stay sober if they had to take a shot 3 times a day for the rest of their lives?