Food Addiction and Obesity

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Food addiction and obesity

Addictive drugs like nicotine and cocaine and heroin, all can rewire the brain to crave the satisfaction that these agents produce. The desire becomes so strong that it starts to take over the body and it no longer becomes for pleasure and it becomes a need for your body. Now likewise, some people argue that some foods have the same power and effects on people that drugs do, where some of these foods can alter the brain in a way that is resets the appetite and satisfaction threshold in a way that it’s out of reach, meaning a person can never have enough. The obesity levels these days semi-dangerous, so some doctors have conducted an experiment that tested the effects of some foods on the brain, where they took 12 obese men after they consumed two milkshakes, whit the same amount of calories, protein, fat and carbohydrates, and they were equally sweet. (Sifferlin 2013) On the other hand one milkshake had much higher glycemic index from the carbohydrates. After the a few hours the blood sugar levels went down leaving the men hungry again. But after they ate the region of the brain that is related to addictive drugs and behaviors was triggered. In this paper food addiction is discussed and shown that it is a real problem that further critical analysis and experiments should be conducted on such issue.

Unreasonable food consumption and its relation to obesity and binge eating illustrate clinical and public health worries. A large amount of the research has found a variety of similarities in between excess food consumption and addiction. In humans, obesity and addiction have been both linked down to neural markers. Finally, many of behavioral indicators of addiction also appear to be common in problema...

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..., Masheb, R. M., Morgan, P. T., Crosby, R. D., & Grilo, C. M. (2012). Anexamination of the food addiction construct in obese patients with binge eating disorder. International Journal Of Eating Disorders, 45(5), 657- 663. doi:10.1002/eat.20957

Yijun, L., von Deneen, K. M., Kobeissy, F. H., & Gold, M. S. (2010). Addiction and Obesity:Evidence from Bench to Bedside. Journal Of Psychoactive Drugs, 42(2), 133-145.

Joranby, L., Pineda, K., & Gold, M. S. (2005). Addiction to Food and Brain Reward Systems. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 12(2-3), 201-217. doi:10.1080/10720160500203765

Sifferlin, A. (2013, June 28). What Milk Shakes Teach Us About Food Addiction | TIME.com. Retrieved from http://healthland.time.com/2013/06/27/what-milk-shakes-t each-us-about-food-addiction/

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