Obesity Is Not Like Being "Addicted to Food"

Credit: Image courtesy of Aalto UniversityIs it possible to be “addicted” to food, much like an addiction to substances (e.g., alcohol, cocaine, opiates) or behaviors (gambling, shopping, Facebook)? An extensive and growing literature uses this terminology in the context of the “obesity epidemic”, and looks for the root genetic and neurobiological causes (Carlier et al., 2015; Volkow & Bailer, 2015).Fig. 1 (Meule, 2015). Number of scientific publications on food addiction (1990-2014). Web of Science search term “food addiction”. Figure 1 might lead you to believe that the term “food addiction” was invented in the late 2000s by NIDA. But this term is not new at all, as Adrian Meule (2015) explained in his historical overview, Back by Popular Demand: A Narrative Review on the History of Food Addiction Research. Dr. Theron G. Randolph wrote about food addiction in 1956 (he also wrote about food allergies).Fig. 2 (Meule, 2015). History of food addiction research.Thus, the concept of food addiction predates the documented rise in obesity in the US, which really took off in the late 80s to late 90s (as shown below).1 Prevalence of Obesity in the United States, 1960-2012 1960-62 1971-74 1976-80 1988-89 1999-2000 12.80% 14.10% 14.50% 22.50% 30.50% 2007-08 2011-12 33.80% 34.90% Sources: Flegal et al. 1998, 2002, 2010; Ogden et al. 2014One problem with the “food addiction” c...
Source: The Neurocritic - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Source Type: blogs