We’ve been talking a lot lately about whether Halloween relates to drinking alcohol and sugar addictions. We might as well discuss other conditions that might relate to the holiday: overeating and food addictions. Heavens knows I worry about eating too much, especially too much candy. Although I make better food and eating choices than I once did, I’m still not the epitome of healthy food choices, either.
Like discussions about sugar addiction, people wonder if overeating can be truly an addiction. A number of studies indicate that some people might in fact be addicted to food. These studies performed brain scans on rats who ate large amounts of high-fat food. Researchers found that large amounts of certain food triggered the release of dopamine, a chemical that makes people feel good.
In other studies, researchers performed brain scans on obese people as well as people addicted to alcohol or cocaine. Researchers found that all three groups of people had low levels of dopamine receptors in their brains, which means they needed more of their substances of choice (food, alcohol, or cocaine) to produce the feel-good effects of dopamine.
This last study seems to be one of the classic indicators of addiction. People who abuse drugs and alcohol are so accustomed to larger and larger amounts of drugs and alcohol that their bodies and brains become used to the effects of the substances. The abusers use more and more so they can feel something.
It appears, then, that food might affect people in the same way. Like with alcohol and drug abuse, researchers are also trying to determine what role, if any, genetics plays in overeating and food addiction. Like drug and alcohol abuse, researchers realize that they still have so much to learn about overeating and food addiction.
As depressing as this might sound, it isn’t a hopeless situation. There is a help. Groups such as Overeaters Anonymous (OA) offer meetings and support for people with a number of eating-related conditions. Many drug and alcohol treatment centers offer treatments that address eating conditions such as anorexia or bulimia, because such conditions often accompany drug or alcohol abuse. These options show the increasing recognition of food-related conditions and the growing number of tools to treat them.
