Miércoles 06/12/2023
PHOTO: Kyaw Tun
Text: Anna Nagygyörgy, Viktória Farkas y Alejandra Misiolek
When thinking about addictions, people usually think about alcohol, drugs, coffee, or other substances – but rarely about food addiction. Yet, this is quite common in today’s society and could lead to many difficulties for individuals dealing with it. In this blog, we are going to clarify what food addiction is, what happens in the brain when it is occurring, and what makes it different from binge eating.
Addiction is a well-known term, but food addiction is not officially recognized among addictions. Unlike substances such as drugs and alcohol, foods that can potentially be addictive also contain nutritional or caloric value for the body.
Because foods not only have pleasure value but also nutritive value, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact substances that cause food addiction. For these reasons, the disorder has not been officially recognized and it is still widely debated.
How can we define food addiction?
Food addiction is characterized by the excessive consumption of energy-dense, tasty, and processed foods (also called palatable foods) with characteristics and effects on our brains similar to substance use disorders. What are these types of food? For example sweets, like ice cream, chocolate, cake, white bread, pasta or rice, also salty snacks like chips and crackers and fatty foods like hamburgers, pizza or french fries. So to sum it up, foods that are high in sugar, energy and fat.
The most common approach to define food addiction is the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) (1). This scale assesses the seven core symptoms of addiction applied to food, which are the following:
- decreased control over consumption: for example not being able to stop when eating a cake and eating a whole cake in one sitting
- a persistent desire for certain foods or repeated unsuccessful attempts to quit eating certain foods or excessive amounts of it
- withdrawal: for example, tiredness, increased irritability, sadness, and a craving for processed foods like sweets, snacks, or fatty foods
- tolerance: a certain amount of these foods won’t be enough, so we start eating more to have the pleasurable effect
- consumption of large amounts of food or over a longer period than intended
- spending much time obtaining food, like shopping for food for hours
- giving up other important activities, like meeting up with friends or doing our hobbies because of food addiction
- notable negative consequences of overeating
What happens in the brain during food addiction?
These previously mentioned symptoms are very similar to the symptoms of substance addictions and there is a reason for that. Interestingly, there is a similar rewarding effect happening in the brain during the consumption of certain foods as during substance use (2).
The main drivers of food addiction are usually ultra-processed foods – which have characteristics like high amounts of energy, sugar, and fat. These foods may lead to excessive consumption since they are changing the dopaminergic system in the brain – which modulates a behavior similar to drug addiction. The effect of eating these types of food has such a rewarding effect that it makes the individuals want to eat more to get the same pleasurable effect. After a certain point, food intake stops being motivated by the body’s actual needs and the purpose of eating will be to avoid withdrawal symptoms (like increased irritability or sadness).
Food addiction is not the same as binge eating
There are a lot of similarities between food addiction and binge eating, for example eating even after the hunger is gone. Another example could be that for a little while after eating, the person gets in a better mood. Furthermore, there is the feeling of distention after eating in both cases and also that they are trying to quit but failing at it. Although there are a lot of similar factors that can be present at the same time in both food addiction and binge eating, they are distinct from each other. A recent article (3) clarified the differences between food addiction and binge eating disorder, which are the following:
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As we can see, food can mean many things, apart from being a source of pleasure and nutrients, it can be addictive and cause people to overeat ignoring our body’s signals of hunger and satiety. Sometimes we can be confused by certain behaviors and classify them as food addiction or bingeing. Although they are not the same thing, there can also be a certain overlap between these two. What is important is that both cause certain suffering and may contribute to weight gain and problems with health. If certain behavior causes suffering and affects our daily functioning, regardless if it is a food addiction or bingeing, it should be taken seriously and a person should receive professional help.
Food can be tricky as it is part of our daily normal behavior and when certain behavior becomes harmful is sometimes a fine line. But if behavior is causing a person suffering, we should look underneath the symptoms and attend to the emotions and difficulties that are causing it without labeling or judging. We would always start with an exploration of the difficulties in an empathic and safe space to create a plan to help a person, step by step, deal with problematic eating habits and the regulation of emotions. Thus we encourage the exploration of personal characteristics and to seek help in these situations.
Sources:
- Kalon, E., Hong, J. Y., Tobin, C., & Schulte, T. (2016). Psychological and Neurobiological Correlates of Food Addiction. International review of neurobiology, 129, 85–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.irn.2016.06.003