Food Addiction!

In...

...for later.

I'm addicted to food. In fact, I'm so addicted that I'm positive my withdrawal symptoms would be so severe as to cause my death if I tried to quit cold turkey.

I'm addicted to food. In fact, I'm so addicted that I'm positive my withdrawal symptoms would be so severe as to cause my death if I tried to quit cold turkey.

:laugh:

Hungry for Change, which is on Netflix streaming, goes into this topic.

My daughter watched this in school. I'm glad that I taught her critical thinking skills during her homeschooling years so she wasn't gullible enough to believe that film.

You, I like you.

Hungry for Change, which is on Netflix streaming, goes into this topic.

My daughter watched this in school. I'm glad that I taught her critical thinking skills during her homeschooling years so she wasn't gullible enough to believe that film.

This is awesome!

I'm addicted to food. In fact, I'm so addicted that I'm positive my withdrawal symptoms would be so severe as to cause my death if I tried to quit cold turkey.

I'm so tired of this bullsh|t, snark-*kitten* response.

Let me know when a gambling or pornography addict has withdrawal symptoms that cause death, eh?

This will be debated for some time. It's interesting that although the original post mentioned the controversy, and that there are experts in the field supporting BOTH sides of the argument, the OP and others are focusing only on those comments that are against the idea.

Part of the problem/controversy is that many clinicians have differing opinions of what 'addiction' is. Addictive behavior, for example, doesn't have withdrawal symptoms like nicotine does. However, it's certainly physiological when we look at the brains response to the behavior.

Though there are those who argue both sides, research is showing the concept of "food addiction" as a behavioral addiction is certainly supported. Here's some recent articles that review the information we have, and provide some interesting comments for further discussion:

"Refined food addiction: A classic substance use disorder" (J.R. Ifland, H.G. Preuss, et. al.)

"Compulsive overeating as an addiction disorder. A review of theory and evidence" (Caroline Davis, Jacqueline C. Carter)

"Food addiction: true or false?" (Corsica, Joyce A; Pelchat, Marcia L)

"Food Addiction: An Examination of the Diagnostic Criteria for Dependence" (Gearhardt, Ashley N. MS; Corbin, William R. PhD; Brownell, Kelly D. PhD)

"How can drug addiction help us understand obesity?" (Nora D Volkow & Roy A Wise)

"Neurobiology of food addiction" (Blumenthal, Daniel M; Gold, Mark S)

"How Prevalent is 'Food Addiction'?" (Adrian Meule)

"Evidence that ‘food addiction’ is a valid phenotype of obesity" (Caroline Davis, Claire Curtis, Robert D. Levitan, Jacqueline C. Carter, Allan S. Kaplan, James L. Kennedy)

"Neural Correlates of Food Addiction" (Ashley N. Gearhardt, MS, MPhil; Sonja Yokum, PhD; Patrick T. Orr, MS, MPhil; Eric Stice, PhD; William R. Corbin, PhD; Kelly D. Brownell, PhD)

"Preliminary validation of the Yale Food Addiction Scale" (Ashley N. Gearhardt, William R. Corbin, Kelly D. Brownell)

"Exploration of food addiction in pediatric patients: A preliminary investigation" (Lisa J. Merlo, Ph.D., Courtney Klingman, Toree H. Malasanos, M.D., and Janet H. Silverstein, M.D)

Those who don't believe in "food addiction" should review the above, as it is fairly compelling evidence, and may help them understand the psychology better.

For those who believe it's a compulsion - please understand compulsions, by definition, don't trigger the pleasure centers of the brain, and this particular 'compulsion' DOES - reinforcing the idea that it's an addictive behavior, not just a compulsive disorder.

They said junk food. That'll cause a 10 page multiquote semantics hairsplitting sh_tstorm here.

:laugh:

This will be debated for some time. It's interesting that although the original post mentioned the controversy, and that there are experts in the field supporting BOTH sides of the argument, the OP and others are focusing only on those comments that are against the idea.

Part of the problem/controversy is that many clinicians have differing opinions of what 'addiction' is. Addictive behavior, for example, doesn't have withdrawal symptoms like nicotine does. However, it's certainly physiological when we look at the brains response to the behavior.

Though there are those who argue both sides, research is showing the concept of "food addiction" as a behavioral addiction is certainly supported. Here's some recent articles that review the information we have, and provide some interesting comments for further discussion:

"Refined food addiction: A classic substance use disorder" (J.R. Ifland, H.G. Preuss, et. al.)

"Compulsive overeating as an addiction disorder. A review of theory and evidence" (Caroline Davis, Jacqueline C. Carter)

"Food addiction: true or false?" (Corsica, Joyce A; Pelchat, Marcia L)

"Food Addiction: An Examination of the Diagnostic Criteria for Dependence" (Gearhardt, Ashley N. MS; Corbin, William R. PhD; Brownell, Kelly D. PhD)

"How can drug addiction help us understand obesity?" (Nora D Volkow & Roy A Wise)

"Neurobiology of food addiction" (Blumenthal, Daniel M; Gold, Mark S)

"How Prevalent is 'Food Addiction'?" (Adrian Meule)

"Evidence that ‘food addiction’ is a valid phenotype of obesity" (Caroline Davis, Claire Curtis, Robert D. Levitan, Jacqueline C. Carter, Allan S. Kaplan, James L. Kennedy)

"Neural Correlates of Food Addiction" (Ashley N. Gearhardt, MS, MPhil; Sonja Yokum, PhD; Patrick T. Orr, MS, MPhil; Eric Stice, PhD; William R. Corbin, PhD; Kelly D. Brownell, PhD)

"Preliminary validation of the Yale Food Addiction Scale" (Ashley N. Gearhardt, William R. Corbin, Kelly D. Brownell)

"Exploration of food addiction in pediatric patients: A preliminary investigation" (Lisa J. Merlo, Ph.D., Courtney Klingman, Toree H. Malasanos, M.D., and Janet H. Silverstein, M.D)

Those who don't believe in "food addiction" should review the above, as it is fairly compelling evidence, and may help them understand the psychology better.

For those who believe it's a compulsion - please understand compulsions, by definition, don't trigger the pleasure centers of the brain, and this particular 'compulsion' DOES - reinforcing the idea that it's an addictive behavior, not just a compulsive disorder.

Thanks so much!

So what do you think about self diagnosed food or sugar addicts that only seem to have issues with hyper palatable foods? Why are "sugar addicts" not binging on gallons of milk until they are sick for the lactose, why are they told to eat fruit which are full of sugars? Both food and sugar are pretty broad in terms of what they encompass, yet the addicts only focus in a very small subset of food or sugar containing products, why?

As I suggested in the "singling out sugar" thread, gambling was reclassified as an addiction in DSM V because it "activates the reward system in much the same way that a drug does". I would argue that "hyper palatable foods" can do this for certain people, in certain conditions. It should not be a surprise that blueberries are not going to trigger that reward system in the same way that chocolate cake does.