Is food habit real?
Food addiction remains a controversial topic in the scientific community. The idea is driven partly by concerns surrounding the increasing rates of obesity in america and elsewhere on the planet. In this Honest Nutrition feature, we describe what the science says and address the question: Is food habit real?
Food addiction is an idea that researchers use to spell it out compulsive eating habits in humans, which may resemble addiction-like behaviors.
Research indicatesTrusted Source that some individuals may be much more likely than others to see addiction to palatable foods - meaning foods that are saturated in fat and sugar.
Other studiesTrusted Source advise that those that may experience food addiction exhibit “seeking” behaviors, as well as other symptoms and cravings similar to the ones that people typically experience within a substance use disorder.
There is absolutely no universally accepted clinical definitionTrusted Source of “food addiction,” and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) does not list it as a condition. However, researchers have discovered some behaviors connected with this concept. Included in these are:
- compulsive overeating, even in the absenceTrusted Way to obtain hunger
- cravingsTrusted Source for high fat and sugary foods
- difficulty in controlling diet
- binge eatingTrusted Source and disordered eating patterns
What do we know about food addiction?
Publications from 2009Trusted Source, 2011Trusted Source, 2016, 2018Trusted Source, and 2019Trusted Source, amongst others, have highlighted that palatable foods - and even foods on the whole - stimulate the same elements of the mind and share the same neuronal activities as illicit substances.
The hippocampus, caudate, and insula are three brain regions that researchers have pinpointed as being implicated in this relationship.
For example, foods and illicit substances both cause the release of the hormones, such as dopamine, and endogenous opioidsTrusted Source that your body naturally produces.
These hormones are a area of the “reward systemTrusted Source” - or the mesolimbic circuit - in the brain, which is responsible for motivation, want, desire, and cravings.
Some studies even advise that it's the anticipationTrusted Way to obtain food rather than the consumption itself that may trigger food addiction - a “seeking” behavior that persons with substance use disorder often display.
In theory, you'll be able to clarify this behavior by the phenomenon of incentive sensitizationTrusted Source, which posits that it's easy for a person to want something whether or not they do not enjoy it, given that it stimulates the pleasure centers within their brain.
For example, persons may crave a sugary beverage since it makes them feel great due to the release of dopamine instead of because they genuinely enjoy drinking that beverage.
Despite the fact that the DSM-5 does not list food dependency as a condition, researchers have referred to both the DSM-4 and DSM-5, plus the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS)Trusted Source, when studying this phenomenon.
Actually, researchers developed the YFAS based on information in the DSM-4 about the symptoms and associated behaviors of substance use disorders. The YFAS contains 25 self-reported questions that may help identifyTrusted Source food addiction.
The idea of food habit has drawn a whole lot of interest in the scientific community, with some proposing it as a potential underlying contributorTrusted Source to obesity and others seeing it as an indicator of having excess bodyweight.
Whichever way this association may lie, a 2017 reviewTrusted Source cites evidence that behaviors associated with food dependency occur at notably higher levels in people seeking bariatric or weight loss surgeries.
Why is this idea controversial?
Regardless of the existing research, food habit remains a controversial topic in the scientific community due to inconclusiveTrusted Source evidence from numerous studies.
Here are several of the related controversies:
1. The mind on food vs. drugs: An essential distinction
Many reports that argue that food craving is a real phenomenon give attention to the similaritiesTrusted Source between food craving and cravings for illicit drugs.
However, the concept of food craving raises the important question: If foods may become addictive, are they harmful to us?
Although both foods and drugs stimulate the reward system and pleasure center in the mind, foods usually do not exertTrusted Source the same pharmacological effect as drugs.
Also, persons consume foods very regularly and in complex combinations. This makes quantification difficult and blurs the line between use and misuse.
2. Which nutrient may be the drug?
It's not only difficult to classify the misuse of foods, but researchers have not yet determined which nutrient or combination of nutrients causes food addiction.
StudiesTrusted Source in rats have discovered that a diet high in fat and sugar - as many processed food items are - can induce addiction-like behaviors.
Some believe that the occurrence of sugar in the gut may beTrusted Source the causative nutrient, but this remains unproven.
More rigorous, long-term studies in humans are necessary to pinpoint any problematic nutrients.
3. Obesity, palatable foods, and food addiction
Some studies advise that food addiction is a plausible cause of obesity, and the meals dependency model even emphasizes carrying excess fat or having obesity among the clinical criteria.
Some researchers have also associated food habit with certain eating disorders, particularly bingeing disorder (BED)Trusted Source.
However, one reviewTrusted Source highlighted a substantial amount of people with BED do not have obesity and that a lot of people with obesity usually do not experience disordered eating or food dependency symptoms.
This brings the power of YFAS to diagnose food craving into question, plus some researchers suggestTrusted Source that scale simply identifies eating disorders rather than an addiction.
Furthermore, palatability isn't necessarily a factor in overconsumption and obesity, as one reviewTrusted Source reported that a good nonpalatable food - meaning the one which is not saturated in fat or sugar - may become the subject of food craving.
4. Yo-yo dieting as the cause of food addiction?
Many weight loss strategies have low success ratesTrusted Source, and popular weight loss diets can be quite restrictive.
Although nutrition deprivation is not necessaryTrusted Source to cause food cravings and overconsumption, switching between various diets and regularly restricting food potentially causes food addiction behaviors.
Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com
