Have you ever claimed to be ‘addicted’ to food? Sure, you’ve probably said it anecdotally one time or another – “omg I’m so addicted to those crisps, they are amazing” – but have you ever actually meant it? Have you ever cut a particular food out of your life completely because you believed that you wouldn’t be able to stop eating it if you had it in your house? This article takes a closer look at the theory of food addiction and if there’s any merit behind the claims.
Where has this theory come from?
Food addiction is not proven, it’s just a theory. It originated out of the diet industry due to subjective reports such as people claiming that they are ‘addicted’ to food because they can’t stop eating. These claims then led to a body of research concentrating on the common neural pathways within the brain, such as the dopamine response pathway.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, well recognised as the ‘happiness chemical’ within the brain, which has a ‘reward’ response towards a certain stimulus. The dopamine pathway in the brain has been shown to ‘light up’ in response to consumption of certain foods – similar to what happens in the brains of substance abuse addicts, which is what leads researchers to claim that food addiction is real. However, the meaning of this ‘lighting up’ must be clarified, this pathway signals pleasure, yes, but not addiction. For example, the same response in the brain has been demonstrated when listening to music or being in love, but love addiction is not a thing!
Rat Studies
There are no human studies to prove that food addiction exists, however, ‘sugar addiction’ has been studied in rats.1,2,3 In the early 2000’s, researchers at Princeton University demonstrated that rats overate or ‘binged’ sugar. However, these particular rats had been fasted beforehand, and the control group of rats which had been treated normally, did not overeat in the presence of sugar. Only the food restricted rats showed signs of eating issues, which could be compared to the effects of chronic dieting. This study therefore shows the compensatory mechanisms which happen when food is restricted – it does not prove food addiction.
The Yale Food Addiction Scale
In addition, Yale University developed a Food Addiction Scale,4 which they tested on students. It was found that 11.5% of students met the criteria for ‘food dependence,’ following their answers to the assessment questions. However, when taking a closer look at these questions (as seen in the image below), many of them are describing consequences of food restriction. So, could the ‘food addiction scale’ accidently be measuring the effects of chronic dieting instead?
The Effects of Dieting
The behaviours which are getting blamed on ‘food addiction’ are virtually the same as dieting behaviours. People avoid certain foods (out of a fear of uncontrollable eating), then end up overeating them. Does this sound familiar? Restrictive dieting is associated with a higher risk of eating disorders, as well as reported effects such as ‘overeating.’ This is understandable due to the natural biological survival mechanism of the human body. The body doesn’t recognise food restriction as a diet, it just sees itself as going into starvation mode. Therefore, as a survival mechanism, the brain will release extra signals to make you not stop thinking about food, in order to make you eat (strong cravings). When you ‘give in’ and start eating that food, your body also doesn’t know when it’ll be getting this food again. Thus, it doesn’t want you to stop eating, therefore it’s natural to end up overeating/bingeing. Food is supposed to be rewarding for the survival of our species.
A systematic review of Yale’s Food Addiction Scale has since been released, finding that the scale is clearly associated with eating disorders.5 A major fault of the scale is that there are no exclusion criteria to rule out an underlying disorder such as depression, which could affect someone’s answers to the questions. What’s more, the researchers did not control for dieting, which is problematic as dieting is a huge potential confounder, which is often not written up as one. This is especially relevant, since the highest found ‘symptom’ was ‘unsuccessful attempts to cut-down’ on food – which is an associated effect of dieting.
Case Study
Despite the fact that food addiction has not been proven in science, there are plenty of businesses claiming to help people with this. Whilst doing research for this article, I came across a website (which I don’t recommend)6 which used a checklist style assessment, claiming to measure for ‘food addiction.’ If you answer yes to any of the statements, it claims you may be a ‘food addict.’ Shockingly, I found that these statements are ones which are commonly used in a similar manner to assess for eating disorders or struggling with disordered eating. What was even more shocking was that their ‘solution’ was what looks like a very restrictive diet, involving cutting out flour and sugar altogether (not healthy). This is troubling, considering that further restriction is not a good way to treat symptoms of restriction.
In Conclusion...
When evaluating the evidence, it very much looks like ‘food addiction’ is just another term used for ‘poor relationship with food,’ whether this is an eating disorder, or a history of chronic dieting. Ultimately, being addicted to something (in medical terms) means that your body has a dependence on it, which means that you will experience withdrawal symptoms with an absence of the substance. This is very clearly proven with substances such as alcohol and drugs, however, nobody is getting those kind of withdrawal symptoms from avoiding certain foods. Surely if food was addictive, wouldn’t binge eaters experience more binge episodes when eating trigger foods?
So, is food addiction just a theory – yes! There is no solid evidence that you can truly be addicted to food. It’s very likely that if food is causing distress (or there’s a perceived addiction), help is needed with either a diagnosed eating disorder, or improving the general relationship to food.
Did this article relate to you? Book your FREE discovery call with Hattie now to find out how she can help you heal your relationship with food. Want to read more? Head to the blog for more articles.
References
- Avena, N., Rada, P. and Hoebel, B.G., 2006. Sugar bingeing in rats. Current protocols in neuroscience, 36(1), pp.9-23.
- Avena, N.M., Rada, P. and Hoebel, B.G., 2008. Evidence for sugar addiction: behavioral and neurochemical effects of intermittent, excessive sugar intake. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 32(1), pp.20-39.
- Hoebel, B.G., Avena, N.M., Bocarsly, M.E. and Rada, P., 2009. A behavioral and circuit model based on sugar addiction in rats. Journal of addiction medicine, 3(1), p.33.
- Gearhardt, A.N., Corbin, W.R. and Brownell, K.D., 2009. Preliminary validation of the Yale food addiction scale. Appetite, 52(2), pp.430-436.
- Penzenstadler, L., Soares, C., Karila, L. and Khazaal, Y., 2019. Systematic review of food addiction as measured with the Yale Food Addiction Scale: implications for the food addiction construct. Current neuropharmacology, 17(6), pp.526-538.
- Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous. 2021. Are you a food addict? Available from: Are you a food addict? Take this quiz and see. (foodaddicts.org) (Accessed 22nd October 2021).
