Cravings and eating without real hunger but out of pure appetite - everyone has probably been through this at some point. Sounds kind of like an addiction, right? But can you really be addicted to food and which foods are potential triggers for uncontrolled eating?
A survey from Yale University provides information about the common foods that trigger cravings and has listed the extent of the addictive potential on a scale.
When food becomes an addiction – is that even possible?
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It seems paradoxical that something you need to survive (and we're talking about calories and nutrients) can supposedly become addictive. And the term “food addiction,” or what it describes, is also quite controversial among experts. Can you be addicted to food?
Binge eating is not officially considered a disease, but there are scientists who are of the opinion that sugar, for example, can have the same effect on the brain as hard drugs. This opinion is also expressed by cardiologist James H. O'Keefe and cardiovascular researcher James J. DiNicolantonio: “Sugar consumption has similar effects to cocaine and alters mood, possibly through its ability to produce reward and pleasure, which leads to the pursuit of sugar”. The two experts from Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas base their opinion on the results of a study conducted on rats. They found that the rodents preferred sugar to cocaine.
Nevertheless, the effects of sugar and the craving for sweets cannot be compared with those of drugsa withdrawalwould never have the same effect. But tolerance for sweetness is changing. Accordingly, people get used to the respective amounts and the body demands more and more of it over time - a vicious circle that many people fall into today.
Addicted to Food – These foods can cause food addiction
Dr. Ashley N. Gearhardt and some of her colleagues developed a special scale. These were intended to provide the people surveyed with a basis for describing the severity of their food addiction for different foods. Two studies were carried out with 120 students in the first and almost 400 participants in the second. Surprisingly, the results differed.
The students clearly chose chocolate as the most addictive food, mentioned by one in four, followed by ice cream, chips and pizza. The ever-popular chips found themselves in sixth place, while the final spots were surprisingly taken by water, cucumber, broccoli and beans. The conclusion of this study was: “As hypothesized, highly processed foods (containing added fat and/or refined carbohydrates) appeared to be most strongly associated with behavioral indicators of addictive eating.”
In the second study, pizza again came in first place, but was closely followed by chocolate and then chips, cookies, ice cream and fries. For these study participants, apples, beans, carrots and cucumbers had the lowest addictive potential in last place. “In summary, the current study found that highly processed foods with added amounts of fat and/or refined carbohydrates (e.g., sugar, white flour) were most likely to be associated with behavioral indicators of addictive eating.”
If you take both studies together, chocolate addiction seems to be associated with a particularly high risk, but fast food addiction (fries, cheeseburgers, pizza) should not be underestimated either.
The study by James H. O'Keefe and James J. DiNicolantonio; dieLists of all the addictive foods from the studies
