Tag: addiction
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Scientists Question Food-Addiction Model for Obesity
A recent opinion piece published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience has questioned efforts to conceptualize obesity and overeating “as a food addiction accompanied by corresponding brain changes,” in the process raising concerns about the rush to adopt this model as a foundation for clinical and policy recommendations. Hisham Ziauddeen, et al., “Obesity and the brain: how…
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Study Likens Ice Cream Consumption to Drug Addiction
A recent study has claimed that frequent ice cream consumption parallels “the tolerance observed in drug addiction” by reducing “activation in reward-related brain regions (e.g., striatum).” Kyle Burger and Eric Stice, “Frequency ice cream consumption is associated with reduced striatal response to receipt of an ice cream-based milkshake,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, March 2012.…
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Glenn Lammi, “Food Lawsuits Claiming ‘Addiction’ Coming to a Courtroom Near You?,” Legal Pulse, December 6, 2011
Glenn Lammi, chief counsel for the Washington Legal Foundation’s Legal Studies Division, has published an article suggesting that if “regulation-by-litigation practitioners” can convince the public and policymakers that “certain foods or substances in foods are ‘addictive,’” lawsuits against food companies are sure to follow. Lammi discusses a November 27 “60 Minutes” report in which a…
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Are Cupcakes as Addictive as Cocaine?
According to Bloomberg reporters Robert Langreth and Duane Stanford, as researchers publish more studies suggesting that processed foods and sugary drinks have drug-like effects on the brain, “the science of addiction could become a game changer for the $1 trillion food and beverage industries.” In their November 2, 2011, article “Fatty Foods Addictive Like Cocaine…
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Rudd Center Study Compares Compulsive Eating with Substance Addiction
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has published a study that reportedly compares addictive eating behavior in both obese and lean women to substance dependence. Ashley Gearhardt, et al., “Neural Correlates of Food Addiction,” Archives of General Psychiatry, April 2011. According to an April 4, 2011, press release, researchers assessed the addictive…
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Denise Mann, “Can You Get Hooked on Diet Soda?,” Health.com, February 25, 2011
“Diet soda isn’t as addictive as drugs like nicotine, but something about it seems to make some people psychologically—and even physically—dependent on it,” opens this Health.com article on individuals who drink more than the average amount of diet soda per day. According to journalist Denise Mann, some diet soft drink aficionados imbibe anywhere from four…
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Study Compares Overeating to Drug Addiction
A recent study has reportedly likened overeating to a drug addiction, concluding that rats given access to high-fat food exhibited a neurochemical dependency similar to the “reward homeostasis induced by cocaine or heroin.” Paul Johnson and Paul Kenny, “Dopamine D2 Receptors in Addiction-Like Reward Dysfunction and Compulsive Eating in Obese Rats,” Nature Neuroscience, March 28,…
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Welsh Researcher Questions Evidence for Sugar Addiction
A recent study has reportedly questioned the current availability of scientific literature establishing evidence for physical sugar addiction in humans. David Benton, “The plausibility of sugar addiction and its role in obesity and eating disorders,” Clinical Nutrition, January 2010. David Benton, a psychology professor with the University of Swansea in Wales, apparently reviewed previous research…