Healthy Food Chart

The notion of "food addiction" is somewhat controversial.  Clearly there are many compulsive over-eaters and people who abuse food.  However, the classic definition of "addiction" also involves a specific physiological response to the addictive substance.

This is not just a matter of semantics. If you can be addicted to food in the same way that you can be addicted to heroin, it might change the way we look at treatment of obesity.

In a commentary for the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Valerie Taylor and her co-authors make the case that people can develop a true addiction to food or to specific components of foods. They point out several similarities between patterns of food abuse and drug abuse, including:

• tolerance, in which more and more of the substance is needed to produce pleasurable feelings
• withdrawal symptoms when the substance is removed
• evidence that certain foods stimulate the mesolimbic pathways that are stimulated by addictive drugs
• a high rate of relapse to abusive behavior

In regard to rising rates of obesity, the authors note "recent developments in food technologies have allowed the creation and modification of certain foods to artificially enhance their rewarding properties (i.e., their palatability)."

Taylor and her co-authors point out that some people appear to be genetically predisposed to addictive and/or compulsive behaviors and that, unlike drugs, food is cheap, legal, and socially acceptable.

"The concept of addiction does not negate the role of free will and personal choice," write the authors, but they add that "the current “blame” mentality that is often applied to individuals with obesity needs to be re-examined."

What do you think? What role does food addition play in obesity? Would screening obese patients for evidence of addictive or compulsive disorders and more extensive use of drugs such as those used to treat other addictions improve our success rate in the fight against obesity?

Get the headlines and highlights from the Nutrition Data blog delivered right to your email inbox. Our free newsletter goes out twice a month. Sign up here.