Food addiction--it REALLY DOES EXIST!!!

It's bad but it could be worse. Drug addicts go to jail.

"Have you ever heard of Hedonic eating" Hmmm thanks for the tip. I will definitely research it.

Dieting and food craving. A descriptive, quasi-prospective study
Anna Massey, Andrew J. Hill,
Academic Unit of Psychiatry & Behavioural Sciences, Institute of Health Research, School of Medicine, University of Leeds, 101 Clarendon Road, Leeds LS2 9LJ, UK
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2012.01.020, How to Cite or Link Using DOI
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Abstract
Evidence linking food restriction and food craving is equivocal. This study investigated whether dieting was associated with a greater frequency of food craving. Dieting to lose weight was distinguished from watching so as not to gain weight. Participants were 129 women (mean age = 41 yrs): 52 were currently dieting to lose weight, 40 were watching their weight, and 37 were non-dieters. They completed a food craving record after every food craving, a food diary, and a daily mood assessment over 7-days. Of the 393 craving incidents recorded, dieters experienced significantly more food cravings than non-dieters, with watchers intermediate. Chocolate was the most craved food (37% of cravings) but neither the types of food, the proportion of cravings leading to eating (∼70%), the situations in which cravings occurred, nor the time since the last eating episode differed between groups. Compared with non-dieters, dieters experienced stronger cravings that were more difficult to resist, and for foods they were restricting eating. Watchers showed similarities in experience both to dieters (low hunger) and non-dieters (lower craving intensity). These results support an association between dieting and food craving, the usefulness of distinguishing dieting to lose weight and watching, and suggest a need for further experimental investigation of actual food restriction on food craving experiences.

Highlights
► Women dieting to lose weight reported more food craving episodes than non-dieters. ► Women currently watching their weight were intermediate in food craving frequency. ► Mood state around craving did not distinguish dieters and non-dieters. ► Dieter’s food cravings were more likely for foods they reported restricting eating.

Craving is not addiction.
Food Craving and Food “Addiction”: A Critical Review of the Evidence From a Biopsychosocial Perspective
Peter J Rogersa, , Hendrik J Smita
a Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TN, UK

Although certain commonalities exist between eating and drug use (mood effects, external cue-control of appetites, reinforcement, etc.), it is argued that the vast majority of cases of (self-reported) food craving and food “addiction” should not be viewed as addictive behavior. An explanation is proposed that instead gives a prominent role to the psychological processes of ambivalence and attribution, operating together with normal mechanisms of appetite control, the hedonic effects of certain foods, and socially and culturally determined perceptions of appropriate intakes and uses of those foods. Ambivalence (e.g., “nice but naughty”) about foods such as chocolate arises from the attitude that it is highly palatable but should be eaten with restraint. Attempts to restrict intake, however, cause the desire for chocolate to become more salient, an experience that is then labelled as a craving. This, together with a need to provide a reason for why resisting eating chocolate is difficult and sometimes fails, can, in turn, lead the individual to an explanation in terms of addiction (e.g., “chocoholism”). Moreishness (“causing a desire for more”) occurs during, rather than preceding, an eating episode, and is experienced when the eater attempts to limit consumption before appetite for the food has been sated.

It will take support groups, clinics and websites such as MFP reaching out to those that are hiding their addiction.

It does not exist. Where do you get this information?

Plus now the truth is finally emerging (as it did some decades ago about tobacco) that processed foods are truly physically addictive, in the same way as chemical stimulants like cocaine, for example. The latest research indicates that the way some processed foods are formulated, they stimulate the same part of the brain that cocaine, tobacco and other drugs.

I find this latest research amazing, as I think many of us blame ourselves as addicts, like in Overeaters Anonymous saying we are powerless over food and yet ironically the food has been designed in labs to be addictive. I wonder at times if some of us are just more sensitive to some of the food formulations, but when one looks at the epidemic of obesity, it looks quite prevalent.

Surely if food created in labs was made to be "addictive" alot more people would be addicted to it. Not all obese people are addicted to food. Some are just greedy.....like me