Might as Well Face It You’re Addicted to…Food?

I was talking with a friend at the gym a couple of months ago. We were discussing how easy it seemed for carbohydrates (carbs, starch, sweets) to work their way back into your diet no matter how diligently you try to exclude them. Almost simultaneously we both described carbohydrates as being “addictive”.

I decided to do a bit of research to find out if food, particularly carbohydrates can be “addictive”. That is, can exposure to carbohydrate induce someone to change their behavior and eat increasing amounts of carbohydrate even though the person has determined that a) they do not want to eat excessive amounts of carbohydrate and b) that doing so is bad for their health.

Well as it turns out there have been experiments done with rats to evaluate exactly this question. And the results are surprising.

In a 2007 Avena, N.M., Rada, P., Hoebel B.G., wrote a paper entitled “Evidence for sugar addiction: Behavioral and neurochemical effects of intermittent, excessive sugar intake”. The experimental question was whether or not sugar can be a substance of abuse and lead to a natural form of addiction.

“Food addiction” seems plausible because brain pathways that evolved to respond to natural rewards are also activated by addictive drugs. Sugar is noteworthy as a substance because it releases opioids (that occur naturally in the body) and the neurotransmitter dopamine and thus might be expected to have addictive potential. Their paper summarizes evidence of sugar dependence in an animal model (the rat).

Four components of addiction were analyzed: “bingeing,” “withdrawal,” “craving” and “cross-sensitization”. Each was demonstrated behaviorally with sugar bingeing as the trigger. These behaviors caused virtually the same neurochemical changes in the brain that also occur with addictive drugs. These brain modifications include changes in dopamine and opioid receptor binding, increase of naturally occurring opioids, and dopamine and acetylcholine release in certain parts of the brain.

The evidence supports the hypothesis that under certain circumstances rats can become sugar dependent (addicted).

Now, granted, this was a study done in rats. But, it has been duplicated. It is not a great leap of faith to suggest that the same type of food addiction can occur in humans. The implications are huge in view the epidemic of obesity and obesity-associated diseases (diabetes, heart disease, hypertension).

So, the next time you find yourself reaching for that dough nut or bag of chips stop for a minute and think. Is this just a one off event or are you addicted to food?

[Credit: Title is a paraphrase of a line from “Addicted to Love” by Robert Palmer
© 1985]
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