Food addiction: does it really exist?

Research suggests that sugar and fat may be addictive – but the findings are controversial. Which foods do you find hardest to resist, and have you experienced withdrawal symptoms?In pictures: super unhealthy fast foodWe seem to be addicted to everything these days: phones, sex, shopping … and junk food. There is, of course, a vast difference between serious clinical addiction and figure-of-speech addiction ("I'm totally addicted to sherbet lemons at the moment"). Of course we need food to live, but can we become dependent on certain unhealthy foods in the same way that we can on drugs?Rats can't resist junk foodAbout a decade ago, a group of American psychiatrists studying obesity decided to look into whether some people's anecdotal claims of food addiction could be proven. They devised a series of studies in which rats were offered highly palatable sugary or fatty food (they had the option of their regular healthy food, too, but that didn't get a look-in). Nicole Avena was one of the researchers: "We found signs of tolerance, withdrawal, craving and measurable changes in neural chemicals such as dopamine and opioid release," she says. In short, it looked very much as though the animals were addicted to a drug, even tolerating "foot shock" (running over an electric grid) to get their fix.Today, the food addiction model is still relatively young and controversial. However, says Avena, "additional studies have been conducted that validate these initial findings. And there'...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Nutrition theguardian.com Blogposts Health & wellbeing Food drink Features Life and style Science Source Type: news