Food addiction--it REALLY DOES EXIST!!!

You crave it because you're "dieting".
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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.

Neither article provides evidence that food addiction is not real. The first simply provides some evidence that people tend to crave when they're deprived. From my understanding, food addicts crave regardless of whether they are deprived or not.

The second article was simply a review article proposing that craving is not addiction.

I would agree that not all people who crave certain foods are necessarily food addicts, but I suspect that all food addicts are cravers. There is an important distinction there.

I'm not a food addict, but I'm almost certain my sister is. She has struggled with her weight most of her life.

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

What an insensitive comment, not surprising though. And food addicts put themselves in an early grave with morbid obesity if they keep feeding their addiction.

ETA: I luckily...by the grace of god...am not a food addict, but that doesn't give me the right to be insensitive or callous about those who suffer from it.

Do they shake and vomit like heroin addicts? Do they get psychically ill if they do not eat those donuts or cupcakes? Do they steal money out of their dying mothers purse for another cheeseburger fixe? I DON'T THINK SO. Its psychological. ALL in the head.

Uhm . . . aren't we all food addicts??

I peg addiction as any repetitive action that gets in the way of daily living. This is why lots of people can have a beer or smoke a bowl on the weekend while, for me, it sends me straight to powder and needles. No one yet fully understands what makes an addict and what doesn't.

For some people, the act of eating does get in the way of daily living. Many of us have dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors towards food (our weight often proves it). But there are degrees of severity and some people have a much much severe dysfunction than others.

I am not a food addict. But I understand that it is possible.

So smoking a bowl of weed turns you into someone who needs to snort and shoot up?

Anyone questioning that food can be addictive should check out the documentary Hungry for Change. America is a country of convenience. We want quick easy meals and have created companies that cater to that. How can food seriously stay on shelves for months - even years - without going bad? It's all chemically engineered - nothing "natural" about it. We then have marketing and advertising companies that make us think something "low fat" is healthier yet the first few ingredients are sugar based with essentially no nutritional value - empty calories that pile up. I WANT to stop over eating and rid myself of a sugar addiction but it's hard. I think of the minutes, hours and days that I have wasted obsessing about food and get so angry with myself because there are so many other things I could or should have done with that time. People don’t get it. My family doesn’t get it. They don’t understand the internal struggle. It’s so much easier for those that don’t get it to laugh about it and say it’s a matter of will power or we’re just weak. I wish it were that easy. Really.

I am definitely Hungry for Change and hope that the support and understanding of some fellow MFP friends I can finally beat this demon because I have so much more to do with my life (and my amazing family) than obsess about food.

I don't think that just because a food is processed, it automatically becomes an addictive food. People have different reactions to different tastes.

Also, perhaps the reason you obsess over food so much is because you're going about the struggle while relying on "willpower" & being "good"(not eating sugar) or "bad"(eating it). Maybe it's your mindset, thought processes, & conditioning (learning/unlearning certain behaviors in reaction to certain stimuli) that you need to work on.

Its not the food. For me its obsessive compulsiveness. I think about food, and when I get stuck on something I have to eat it. I had to train my brain to deflect when I have a craving. Give yourself 15 min and it goes away.

Let's look at addiction from two views, one approved by the American Psychiatric Association, and the other a result of numerous and continuing neurological studies.

The American Psychiatric Association established three diagnostic criteria for addiction. The first is binging, where an escalated intake of a substance results in: 1) sensitization – responsiveness to a repeatedly presented substance is amplified; and 2) tolerance – more is needed to provide the same effect. The second criterion is withdrawal, where discomfort or distress occurs because the substance is stopped or unavailable. The third criterion is craving, where abstinence enhances motivation to retrieve the substance (Avena et al., 2008).

These are true of food addicts, as so many people here have testified. It's one reason the APA has created a new addiction, Binge Eating Disorder, which will be included in the DSM-5 which will be published in a month.

Further, substance abuse researchers say that the brain adaptions that result from regularly eating so-called hyperpalatable foods – foods that layer salt, fat, and sweet flavors, proven to increase consumption – are likely to be more difficult to change than those from cocaine or alcohol because they involve many more neural pathways. Almost 90 percent of the dopamine receptors in the vental tegmental area (VTA) of the brain are activated in response to food cues.

Brand-new research also shows direct evidence of lasting and fundamental injuries to a part of the brain that helps us regulate our food intake, the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus. Within three days of being placed on a high-fat diet, a rat’s hypothalamus (the area of the brain that responds to the hormones that signal hunger and satiety, pair and maternal bonding and certain social behavior) shows increased inflammation; within a week, researchers see evidence of permanent scarring and neuron injury in an area of the brain crucial for weight control. Brain scans of obese men and women show this exact pattern as well.

Hyperpalatable foods affect and scar EXACTLY the same areas of the brain that cocaine and alcohol do. It's legal and cheap and, yes, different in important ways as manifested in behavior, but that doesn't make it less dangerous to the sufferer. We have to stop treating people like science fair projects when it comes to food and "dieting". The new pioneering research is also helping us to appreciate a holistic and integrative approach to addiction. I was first senior research fellow in the NIH Office of Complementary Medicine. Using food addiction as template, THE HUNGER FIX addiction plan integrates personal empowerment, spirituality, along with whole food nutrition and restorative physical activity. Shame, blame and guilt must be neutralized with compassion, empathy and then the tools of self-empowerment.

Actually, you're wrong there. There is a plethora of research about the mind altering properties of refined sugars. They alter both the dopamine and serotonin pathways in the brain in animal and human studies. You simply need to do a Pubmed search.

I really don't want to get into this again. Really it doesn't matter. I am not saying that food addiction (otherwise known as an eating disorder called Binge Eating Disorder) is not real, and I am not saying that it does not have a profound impact on a person's life or their loved ones. But, it is a scientific fact that food does not have the exact same addictive quality as addictive drugs (especially when you actually take into account that everyone must eat to survive and for pleasure and not everyone develops a life altering addiction from exposure to certain foods). There is nothing awful and horrendous about getting a small boost of serotonin or dopamine due to a nutritional pathway. In same cases it can even be a healthy thing. We need food to survive and keep us happy and also give us some pleasure in moderation. We also need neurotransmitters, and it would never be a good thing to eliminate the production and uptake of those. Of course some people have addictive personalities, or have had life experiences that have led them to a food addiction and for them something that is normal and natural becomes problematic (often in a serious and severe way with very real physical and emotional consequences).

Let's look at addiction from two views, one approved by the American Psychiatric Association, and the other a result of numerous and continuing neurological studies.

The American Psychiatric Association established three diagnostic criteria for addiction. The first is binging, where an escalated intake of a substance results in: 1) sensitization – responsiveness to a repeatedly presented substance is amplified; and 2) tolerance – more is needed to provide the same effect. The second criterion is withdrawal, where discomfort or distress occurs because the substance is stopped or unavailable. The third criterion is craving, where abstinence enhances motivation to retrieve the substance (Avena et al., 2008).

These are true of food addicts, as so many people here have testified. It's one reason the APA has created a new addiction, Binge Eating Disorder, which will be included in the DSM-5 which will be published in a month.

Further, substance abuse researchers say that the brain adaptions that result from regularly eating so-called hyperpalatable foods – foods that layer salt, fat, and sweet flavors, proven to increase consumption – are likely to be more difficult to change than those from cocaine or alcohol because they involve many more neural pathways. Almost 90 percent of the dopamine receptors in the vental tegmental area (VTA) of the brain are activated in response to food cues.

Brand-new research also shows direct evidence of lasting and fundamental injuries to a part of the brain that helps us regulate our food intake, the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus. Within three days of being placed on a high-fat diet, a rat’s hypothalamus (the area of the brain that responds to the hormones that signal hunger and satiety, pair and maternal bonding and certain social behavior) shows increased inflammation; within a week, researchers see evidence of permanent scarring and neuron injury in an area of the brain crucial for weight control. Brain scans of obese men and women show this exact pattern as well.

Hyperpalatable foods affect and scar EXACTLY the same areas of the brain that cocaine and alcohol do. It's legal and cheap and, yes, different in important ways as manifested in behavior, but that doesn't make it less dangerous to the sufferer. We have to stop treating people like science fair projects when it comes to food and "dieting". The new pioneering research is also helping us to appreciate a holistic and integrative approach to addiction. I was first senior research fellow in the NIH Office of Complementary Medicine. Using food addiction as template, THE HUNGER FIX addiction plan integrates personal empowerment, spirituality, along with whole food nutrition and restorative physical activity. Shame, blame and guilt must be neutralized with compassion, empathy and then the tools of self-empowerment.

Just finished reading this book and got a lot from it. Thank you for posting! I've also read a few other books that touch on this information. It is very real and very hard to break because my drug is available everywhere I go, sometimes for free, and if I say no, people will hound me about why I won't eat it.

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.

No, it's not physically addictive in the same way as heroin. I'm not minimizing food addiction. But, the physical addiction is different (especially after decades of physical drug addiction and everything else that it involves and leads to).

I'm not saying that it is not physically or mentally or emotionally addictive (and again that is not something I understand personally), but the physical addiction is just a different type of physical addiction. And the outcomes are just different.

Research on this shows that the wheat we currently use builds the same craving/addiction paths in our brains as heroin does. Now, it may not affect the body the same, but it attacks the mind in the same manner. Cravings, mood swings, etc are still relative and while the after effects are different, it doesn't mean that its not similar in how it works mentally.

There are lots of things that we do that effect "the same parts" of our brains. Our brains are multi-taskers like that, it's part of what is so amazing about our brains, and we use every single part of our brain (contrary to the popular myth that we only use a small percentage of our brain). If we experience brain damage in a part of our brain, our brain can rewire and share other parts of the brain to take over re-learning what we lost. It's incredibly amazing actually. Some people even have parts of their brain that cross and cause similiar reactions to things that are generally unrelated for most people (foot fetishes can be an example of this, sneezing because of sunlight is another). And just because something acts on the same parts of our brain, it does not mean it acts on it in the same pathological way. Some things are good for us (and even essential) in moderation. And perhaps if a person has something dysfunctional going on (a chemical imbalance) they could crave and develop an addiction to something that "treats" it in some way (but also has other major drawbacks to health), that is what is self-medicating.

I grew up in an addicted family. Both parents were abused as young children and were obese using food and junk food to medicate hurt emotions. Dad had diabetes and still had hidden stashes of candy, which my mother would detect on his breath like alcohol, My mother had stashes of candy and would hide in her room reading fiction and pounding back the candy. This went on until she died. Dad dies years later of heart attack related to diabetes.

We kids all learned that food should be a source of guilty hidden pleasure. That we should hide it and hoard it! Hide/Hoard/Binge...

When ever we got spare money it was food we wanted to buy. Outwardly we were taught not to eat junk food. We were the kids whose parents wrote notes to the teachers at school to give us nuts instead of candy for oing wellin class. We ate carob instead of chocolate and were not allowed to trick or treat most years (of course that was partly my dad's paranoia regarding needles in the snickers). Snakcs were generally fruit, and veggies, etc... It was all outward facing and hyper controlling, in the hiddne reality it was JUNK, JUNK and MORE JUNK!

for over 17 years as an adult I mistook thirst for a sweet tooth and fed my sugar addiction with candy instead of drinking water. Sugar causes uric acid, and dehydration hurts the kidneys and prevents them from adequately flushing the uric acid out of your blood. Can you say "Gout?"

Finally, I became aware that I needed to drink more water and eat less candy and that when I had a sweet tooth I was really dehydrated. Anyway those years of self abuse took their toll and I topped out at nearly 380 pounds.

I've been working on losing weight for going on ten years. Every attempt failed in a gout attack from high protein low carb diets or as a result of exercise that caused inflammation of the feet. (Plus tearing down and rebuilding muscle causes uric acid to be released) Or the artificial sweeteners in diet foods would cause my gout to flare up by taking kidney function away to deal with the foreign molecules. Or in my "All Or Nothing" way of thinking I would overdue the exercise and get injured and lose my work out habit while healing from overdoing it. No attempt had ever lasted over 4-6 weeks, and all ended in me crashing and burning and giving up.

My wife and I are terrible enablers of one another's food addiction. She mentions wanting a treat and I am back from the store handing it to her before she can say, "I didn't mean for you to..." And she is so sympathetic that I get away with any excuse.

Finally over the years I became a passionate student of true health and nutrition, an expert on gout, and controlling it with natural means, and a student of the common threads that allow all diets to work. I was slowly piecing together the puzzle so that I could at long last tackle this weight issue and reclaim my health, without it all ending in a blaze of glory. But really my life was on auto pilot in that area because focus wa on money in this down economy I have struggled since 2008.

in 2010 while out of work I decided to finally watch an episode of the Biggest Loser. All I knew about it was it had a rude title! I was not a big TV person and did not subscribe to any TV service nor have a TV antenna so I just always heard radio blurbs and news stories anout it and just thought it sounded like the worst show ever. "Reality TV, ehwww!"

So I find Hulu.com and check out episode 1 os season 1. Hmmn... Interesting! Episode 2... Hmmmm.... Episode 3, And so on. I was so inspired and moved by the stories of real people losing weight, I kept watching. Hulu had season 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and I watched all those seasons over the fall of 2010. When 2011 came along I watched season 11 one episode at a time, and couldn't hardly stand to wait a week between episodes because I was accustomed to seeing them on demand. I was moved by the story of Moses Kinikini a Tongan Family Man who was on there with his daughter. He set the record for the fastest time to lose 100 pounds, and did it in six weeks. As of Season 14 he still holds that record. I was inspired even more because he did it while ordered to bed rest for three of those six weeks. I was inspired because he lost so much weight shadow boxing in bed! I related to his love of family and his determination. I related to him because. he lived in Idaho and I lived in Idaho. Anyway, for whatever reason he struck a cord with me. So much so that I actually wrote him a four page letter asking if I could be his workout partner between when he left the ranch, and the finale. Promising to keep him motivated if he would keep me motivated.

I never mailed it. I didn't want to be some stalker type that sees a guy on TV and then injects himself into that guy's life. So the passion died and I got wrapped up in professional pursuits and left my health on the back burner.

January 1st 2013 I weighed 363#, and I began a journey. The catalyst for this new beginning was a Biggest Loser inspired weight loss contest on a forum I participate in, on another website. I joined the contest as an excuse to begin that long desired journey. I realized that I was part of a team on the online forum and that they were counting on me to make my weekly weigh ins and pull my fair share.

I also realized that I needed even more outside help, I needed a personal Trainer that could help me learn to work out safely, and keep working out even when my gout, was acting up and someone who could really help me learn to work out around existing ankle, knee and shoulder injuries and tendon and muscle tears. A tall order right?

Well, I went trainer shopping... I end up at Apple Athletic Club in Idaho Falls Idaho, and who do I discover is a trainer there? Yep, Moses Kinikini. As serendipity would have it, the guy I knew could help me work safely around injuries was on staff now working as a Personal Trainer! I joined immediately, and prepaid 30 months of membership plus 38 sessions with Moses. Thousands of dollars invested in my health, because I needed there to be NO ESCAPE!

I began with Moses on January 9th 2013, and we took a baseline full health workup. I worked out with Moses three days a week and did my best to get three other workouts in on my own. I learned for the first time in my life to log calories. He got me to start using MFP. The accountability to make appointments, and weigh ins, and the pressure to use my prepaid appointments and not waste them got me through a lot of rough patches where I would have otherwise quit in years gone by. Such as working out even when I was sick, because I didn't want to lose my money. (I have not had a pay check in 8 months! The money we invested can't be replaced, it was a hard decision, made with my wife in careful counsel.) After seven weeks on this program, we did another assesment of my fitness. I had burned 20% of my 105 pounds of body fat, while gaining muscle and water weight! I had burned 24% of my excess body fat, if I wish to achieve "athletic" and even more if I am willing to stop at "fit." Even though at the time the scale showed only a 17 pound loss during that window, I had gone from 46% water weight to 50% (Healthy is 50% to 60%), and gained 2.5 pounds of muscle. So to learn that I was a quarter of the way to athletic in seven weeks time was mind blowing and ohh sooo encouraging!

To have this data was very encouraging and made up for the seeming small loss on the scale. I have continued plugging away. Last week I concluded my last of 38 sessions and 36 workouts with Moses as my one on one trainer. In two weeks we do another full assessment. I have lost so many inches it's sick! I have shirts that used to have the "screamin' buttons syndrome" that are now loose, with room to spare; my pants fall down all the time, I am using the 4th belt hole and will need smaller belts in one more hole, or a leather punch! I swim in my once snug white shirts and ties! and am now down 42 pounds on the scale but am sure that the fat burned well exceeds that number.

And today, before I ever saw this thread, I was marveling that I don't give into cravings any more, and even though I have them, I do not obsess over them and I do not have to FIGHT them anymore. Sometimes I still eat crappy food or make less than optimum choices, but I just log it and move on.

I have had challenges and one week when I fell back into candy binging, even though I ate far less than I used to and even though I ran a deficit that week and should have lost two pounds I gained two instead! So I know I am not free yet. But the progress is incredible and it feels like I have a new lease on my life.

My message is two fold, 1. your progress is likely more than you know, because what shows on the scale may not be the whole story, and 2. making accountability a true part of your life for months on end will change the battle; it will make it easier as new habits replace the old. I am a sugar addict! I t may well be that, that will never change, but if I don't binge on it, day after day, it will get easier. It already has!

My trainer, and MyFitnessPal working together, with my pent up passion for this journey, built over the years, coupled with faith fed by seeing scores of real people make their own changes on the Biggest Loser, has enabled me to change my life. I have never, lost over 20 pounds on any prior attempt. I have never gone more than 4-6 weeks. Today, is day 11 of month 4 in my journey, and I am down over 40 pounds!!!

Failure has been my ever faithful enemy for many years, but failure has been relegated to the history books! I have managed in these 101 days to learn new habits, keep accountable to myself and others via MFP and to get back up when I fall. Just getting back up, after a fall is a priceless lesson! I no longer seek the perfect journey, just the successful one, that daily brings me closer to the goal.