Food addiction is similar to substance dependence, according to researchers at Yale University’s Rudd Center for Obesity Research and Policy.
By using chocolate milkshakes and water, researchers found that addictions to food and drugs resulted in similar activity in the brain, according to a Yale study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
The study included 48 women with an average age of 21 who ranged from lean to obese. Researchers used an MRI to record brain activity as the women were shown pictures of chocolate shakes and a glass of water. Then, the women drank a shake and a solution that tasted like saliva. Again, the MRI recorded brain activity.
As was expected, the chocolate shake activated parts of the brain associated with anticipation and craving among women with symptoms of food addiction.
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What they did not expect was that, once the women tasted the shake, the parts of their brain that should signal them to slow down showed decreased activity, essentially encouraging them to seek more chocolate shake.
Ashley Gearhardt, a doctoral student a Yale, said the findings suggest that certain triggers, such as advertisements for food, have not just a psychological, but also a physiological, effect on certain people.
"You may think it's going to be the best thing you ever tasted but it doesn't meet expectations. That's maybe why they eat more," she said in a news release.
Gearhardt hopes this will lead to acceptance that food addiction is a disease and lead to more effective ways for people to lose weight.
"We beat ourselves up in this society: 'This is my fault,'" Gearhardt said. "When we finally decided to see alcohol having the potential to cause an addictive process, we stopped blaming people and started helping people."
Researchers do acknowledge several shortcomings in the results, including its small sample size and that only women were used.
