Is Food Addiction Real?
“I’m addicted to sugar!” “Once I start eating chips, I can’t stop.” “If I keep candy in the house, I’ll eat it all!” You’ve probably heard these statements or statements like them before. You’ve probably also seen the headlines saying that sugar lights up the same part of the brain as drugs like cocaine. But is it possible to be addicted to food? This is a complex and controversial topic, so buckle up!
What is Addiction?
Before diving into the research behind the theory of food addiction, it’s important to understand the definition of addiction. The American Society of Addiction Medicine defines addiction as “a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences. People with addiction use substances or engage in behaviours that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences.” (1)
There are certainly parts of this definition that describe some people’s relationship with food. I’ve had many clients tell me that they have strong compulsions to eat certain foods. But as we’ll soon see, this may not be due to a true “food addiction” so much as an expected response to food restriction.
The Theory Behind Food Addiction
While the concept of food addiction isn’t agreed upon in the scientific community, there are some compelling theories about it. Pathways in our brain have evolved to motivate and reinforce behaviours that keep us alive, and these same systems also underlie substance-seeking and using behaviours.
One of the main arguments for the concept of food addiction is the changes in brain chemistry that we see in response to highly palatable food (like sugar). Studies in rats have found that intermittent, excessive glucose intake caused increased activation of dopamine and opioid receptors (2). In other words, the consumption of sugar stimulated feelings of reward in the brain.
Another argument for the concept of food addiction is that sugar and drugs light up the same areas of the brain on PET scans (3). While it’s true that studies have found that cocaine and sugar both activate the same part of the brain, they’ve also found that music activates that part of the brain as well (4). I don’t know about you, but I’ve never heard of someone being told they have a “music addiction.”
The Role of Dieting and Restriction in Eating Behaviours
To date, most of the research about food addiction has been conducted in studies looking at the effect of sugar consumption on mice or rats. A literature review conducted in 2016 found that there was little evidence to support sugar addiction in humans. They found that evidence from the animal literature showed that addiction-like behaviours such as bingeing occurred only in the context of intermittent access to sugar (5).
In other words? Restriction led to bingeing.
So, if restriction leads to bingeing and preoccupation with food, is it truly an addiction? Or is it simply a normal and expected response to restriction?
Putting it all Together
From a physiological standpoint, it’s hard to say whether food addiction is a real phenomenon. It’s important to acknowledge that food and drugs are very different. After all, we need food to survive, while drugs are not inherently necessary for survival (however, repeated use of drugs can create neural pathways that convince the body that drugs are necessary for survival).
Another important point to remember is that part of the definition of addiction includes the concept of “risky use”. This is where weight stigma and medicalized fatphobia come into play. Eating is only risky if you equate being heavier with being less healthy. Now the “fat = unhealthy” debate is a post for another day, but studies show that it’s possible to remain healthy at a higher body weight and that Health at Every Size® approaches can lead to improved metabolic outcomes independent of weight loss (6).
There’s also the question of whether some of the health issues associated with higher weights are a result of medical weight stigma and lack of adequate medical care for people in larger bodies. A review published in 2017 found that weight stigma was associated with diabetes risk, cortisol level, eating disturbances, depression, and anxiety (7). This highlights the need to increase awareness about the health consequences of weight stigma.
From an emotional standpoint, it’s very possible to feel like you’re addicted to food, especially if you feel a lack of control around certain foods. Eating behaviours can cause serious distress for many people. I don’t want this post to invalidate anything you’re feeling regarding your relationship with food. But for many people, thinking of food as an addiction can bring up feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness. If you view an obsession with food as a normal response to restriction, it may feel more manageable. This may help you interrupt the cycle of restricting and binge eating.
How Can I Overcome My Obsession with Food?
1. Eat enough food during the day
Have you ever skipped a meal, only to find yourself ravenous and stuffing your face the next time you eat? A surefire way to feel out of control around food is to not eat enough of it. This triggers cravings (because, as we know, food is essential for survival, so it makes sense that our bodies will come up with ways to make us eat more). One of these ways is by giving our body a high pleasure response to food (especially energy-dense food). This can make it difficult to stop eating once you start if you’ve been depriving yourself.
An essential part of healing your relationship with food is making sure you’re eating enough throughout the day. If you struggle with regular meals, try setting an alarm to remind you to eat regularly throughout the day. Try to include foods that help you feel full, as well as foods that help you feel emotionally satisfied.
2. Practice food neutrality
I’m here to tell you something – food is not inherently good or bad. You’re not a good person for eating “healthy” foods or a bad person for eating “unhealthy” foods. Food is not moral. While it’s true that an apple is more nutrient-dense than a bar of chocolate, this doesn’t make the apple better than the chocolate bar. By practicing food neutrality, you remove the allure of certain foods as being “treat” foods and instead treat all foods as morally equal. This may help reduce your obsession because they’re no longer “off-limits” (remember, restriction can lead to cravings).
3. Give yourself unconditional permission to eat
This principle comes straight from the Intuitive Eating framework. The idea of letting yourself consume whatever you want and as much or little as you want can feel really scary. People’s first thought is often “If I give myself unconditional permission to eat, won’t I go completely wild and eat everything in sight?”
Well, maybe (at least at first). But luckily, it usually doesn’t last. This is called habituation. If you do something repeatedly, you get less pleasure from it over time. Think about the last time you made a meal in bulk. On the first day of eating it, it probably tasted pretty good. But by day 5 of eating the same thing, you were probably sick of it.
The same thing can be said of hyper-palatable foods or foods that people typically restrict. If you’re restricting something, you aren’t giving yourself the chance to “get used to it”, so when you do have it, you lose control. By allowing yourself unconditional permission to eat, you start to allow yourself to habituate to foods you’d previously been avoiding.
I’ve seen clients experience this firsthand. I remember one client telling me that she ate M&Ms with every meal for about a week. After a week, she started to get sick of them, and they no longer held the same control over her. This is a perfect example of habituation. It’s hard to say how long it will take to habituate to a food, but for many people, it shouldn’t take more than a few weeks.
The Takeaway
Overall, it remains to be determined whether food addiction is a real phenomenon. While studies in rats do show that sugar produces similar effects in the brain as drugs like cocaine, these studies have not been replicated in humans. Furthermore, although PET imaging shows that both sugar and cocaine activate the reward centre of the brain, so does music – so is the activation of this centre truly a sign of addiction, or simply a sign of pleasure? What the studies in rats do show is that food-seeking behaviours increase in the context of restriction. This begs the question – is it really a food addiction or is it simply a normal and expected response to food restriction?
If you’re feeling frustrated with your relationship with food, and like you might be addicted to it, I want you to know that I see you. Your feelings are valid, but the lack of control you feel around food isn’t due to a lack of willpower – it’s likely because you’ve been restricting this food. By giving yourself unconditional permission to eat and removing the labels of “good” and “bad” from foods, you may find that foods that previously held some form of control over you no longer have that power.
