slimvictor
Bluelight Crew
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Mark Hyman, MDPracticing physician
Posted: October 16, 2010 09:04 AM
Our government and food industry both encourage more "personal responsibility" when it comes to battling the obesity epidemic and its associated diseases. They say people should exercise more self-control, make better choices, avoid overeating, and reduce their intake of sugar-sweetened drinks and processed food. We are led to believe that there is no good food or bad food, that it's all a matter of balance. This sounds good in theory, except for one thing...
New discoveries in science prove that industrially processed, sugar-, fat- and salt-laden food -- food that is made in a plant rather than grown on a plant, as Michael Pollan would say -- is biologically addictive.
Imagine a foot-high pile of broccoli, or a giant bowl of apple slices. Do you know anyone who would binge broccoli or apples? On other hand, imagine a mountain of potato chips or a whole bag of cookies, or a pint of ice cream. Those are easy to imagining vanishing in an unconscious, reptilian brain eating frenzy. Broccoli is not addictive, but cookies, chips, or soda absolutely can become addictive drugs.
The "just say no" approach to drug addiction hasn't fared to well, and it won't work for our industrial food addiction, either. Tell a cocaine or heroin addict or an alcoholic to "just say no" after that first snort, shot, or drink. It's not that simple. There are specific biological mechanisms that drive addictive behavior. Nobody chooses to be a heroin addict, cokehead, or drunk. Nobody chooses to be fat, either. The behaviors arise out of primitive neurochemical reward centers in the brain that override normal willpower and overwhelm our ordinary biological signals that control hunger.
Consider:
Why do cigarette smokers continue to smoke even though they know smoking will give them cancer and heart disease?
Why do less than 20 percent of alcoholics successfully quit drinking?
Why do most addicts continue to use cocaine and heroin despite their lives being destroyed?
Why does quitting caffeine lead to irritability and headaches?
It is because these substances are all biologically addictive.
Why is it so hard for obese people to lose weight despite the social stigma and health consequences such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and even cancer, even though they have an intense desire to lose weight? It is not because they want to be fat. It is because certain types of food are addictive.
Food made of sugar, fat, and salt can be addictive. Especially when combined in secret ways that the food industry will not share or make public. We are biologically wired to crave these foods and eat as much of them as possible. We all know about cravings, but what does the science tell us about food and addiction, and what are the legal and policy implications if a certain food is, in fact, addictive?
The Science and Nature of Food Addiction
Let's examine the research and the similarities between high-sugar, energy-dense, fatty and salty processed and junk food and cocaine, heroin, and nicotine. We'll start by reviewing the diagnostic criteria for substance dependence or addiction found in the bible of psychiatric diagnosis, the DSM-IV, and look at how that relates to food addiction:
Substance is taken in larger amount and for longer period than intended (a classic symptom in people who habitually overeat).
Persistent desire or repeated unsuccessful attempts to quit. (Consider the repeated attempts at diet so many overweight people go through.)
Much time/activity is spent to obtain, use, or recover. (Those repeated attempts to lose weight take time.)
Important social, occupational, or recreational activities given up or reduced. (I see this in many patients who are overweight or obese.)
Use continues despite knowledge of adverse consequences (e.g., failure to fulfill role obligation, use when physically hazardous). (Anyone who is sick and fat wants to lose weight, but without help few are capable of making the dietary changes that would lead to this outcome.)
Tolerance (marked increase in amount; marked decrease in effect). (In other words you have to keep eating more and more just to feel "normal" or not experience withdrawal.)
Characteristic withdrawal symptoms; substance taken to relieve withdrawal. (Many people undergo a "healing crisis" that has many of the same symptoms as withdrawal when removing certain foods from their diet.)
Continued at
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/food-addiction-could-it-e_b_764863.html
Posted: October 16, 2010 09:04 AM
Our government and food industry both encourage more "personal responsibility" when it comes to battling the obesity epidemic and its associated diseases. They say people should exercise more self-control, make better choices, avoid overeating, and reduce their intake of sugar-sweetened drinks and processed food. We are led to believe that there is no good food or bad food, that it's all a matter of balance. This sounds good in theory, except for one thing...
New discoveries in science prove that industrially processed, sugar-, fat- and salt-laden food -- food that is made in a plant rather than grown on a plant, as Michael Pollan would say -- is biologically addictive.
Imagine a foot-high pile of broccoli, or a giant bowl of apple slices. Do you know anyone who would binge broccoli or apples? On other hand, imagine a mountain of potato chips or a whole bag of cookies, or a pint of ice cream. Those are easy to imagining vanishing in an unconscious, reptilian brain eating frenzy. Broccoli is not addictive, but cookies, chips, or soda absolutely can become addictive drugs.
The "just say no" approach to drug addiction hasn't fared to well, and it won't work for our industrial food addiction, either. Tell a cocaine or heroin addict or an alcoholic to "just say no" after that first snort, shot, or drink. It's not that simple. There are specific biological mechanisms that drive addictive behavior. Nobody chooses to be a heroin addict, cokehead, or drunk. Nobody chooses to be fat, either. The behaviors arise out of primitive neurochemical reward centers in the brain that override normal willpower and overwhelm our ordinary biological signals that control hunger.
Consider:
Why do cigarette smokers continue to smoke even though they know smoking will give them cancer and heart disease?
Why do less than 20 percent of alcoholics successfully quit drinking?
Why do most addicts continue to use cocaine and heroin despite their lives being destroyed?
Why does quitting caffeine lead to irritability and headaches?
It is because these substances are all biologically addictive.
Why is it so hard for obese people to lose weight despite the social stigma and health consequences such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and even cancer, even though they have an intense desire to lose weight? It is not because they want to be fat. It is because certain types of food are addictive.
Food made of sugar, fat, and salt can be addictive. Especially when combined in secret ways that the food industry will not share or make public. We are biologically wired to crave these foods and eat as much of them as possible. We all know about cravings, but what does the science tell us about food and addiction, and what are the legal and policy implications if a certain food is, in fact, addictive?
The Science and Nature of Food Addiction
Let's examine the research and the similarities between high-sugar, energy-dense, fatty and salty processed and junk food and cocaine, heroin, and nicotine. We'll start by reviewing the diagnostic criteria for substance dependence or addiction found in the bible of psychiatric diagnosis, the DSM-IV, and look at how that relates to food addiction:
Substance is taken in larger amount and for longer period than intended (a classic symptom in people who habitually overeat).
Persistent desire or repeated unsuccessful attempts to quit. (Consider the repeated attempts at diet so many overweight people go through.)
Much time/activity is spent to obtain, use, or recover. (Those repeated attempts to lose weight take time.)
Important social, occupational, or recreational activities given up or reduced. (I see this in many patients who are overweight or obese.)
Use continues despite knowledge of adverse consequences (e.g., failure to fulfill role obligation, use when physically hazardous). (Anyone who is sick and fat wants to lose weight, but without help few are capable of making the dietary changes that would lead to this outcome.)
Tolerance (marked increase in amount; marked decrease in effect). (In other words you have to keep eating more and more just to feel "normal" or not experience withdrawal.)
Characteristic withdrawal symptoms; substance taken to relieve withdrawal. (Many people undergo a "healing crisis" that has many of the same symptoms as withdrawal when removing certain foods from their diet.)
Continued at
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/food-addiction-could-it-e_b_764863.html