Posted under Food Addiction

Fatty Foods as Addictive as Cocaine?

Fatty foods don’t just affect your heart and your waistline; they also affect your brain, according to a recent study in the journal Nature Neuroscience. Scientists led by Paul Kenny, Ph.D., from Scripps Research Institute in Florida, found similar addictive responses in the brain between eating fatty processed foods and taking heroin or cocaine. Continue Reading

Posted under Food Addiction

Symptoms of Food Addiction

Food addiction is defined as any disorder that is characterized by a food obsession. This disorder can take one of several forms. Anorexia, bulimia and compulsive eating are all related to food addiction. The person suffering from a food addiction is frequently obsessed with how much they have eaten, their body weight and body image. Continue Reading

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Emotional Eating

Many people are emotional eaters in some sense of the term. However, there is a more serious sort of emotional eating that can be considered a form of eating disorder. For some people, eating is their default mechanism for dealing with a range of emotions from joy to anxiety or boredom. Continue Reading

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Carrie Fisher Overcomes Another Hurdle: Achieving a 50-Pound Weight Loss

It’s great to see the multi-talented Carrie Fisher back on the scene again. Not that the actress, author, motivational speaker, celebrity spokesperson has been totally missing in action. It’s just that she feels and looks so much better now that she’s lost 50 pounds in nine months on the Jenny Craig Program. Continue Reading

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New Product To Stop Sugar Craving Addiction

No doubt there are days when all of us have a craving for something sweet. While indulging in our so-called “sweet tooth” isn’t generally a problem for the vast majority of Americans, there are millions of us who really can’t afford to give into our sugar craving addition.

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Food Addiction Symptoms Similar to Those of Drug Addiction

A research team from York University in Toronto will soon be presenting study results which compare food addiction to drug addiction and alcoholism. The team, led by Dr Caroline Davis, was particularly interested in discovering biological and psychological risk factors which could be relevant in the treatment of obesity. Dr Davis believes that her research will facilitate identification of obesity subsets and thereby give forward momentum toward development of more personalized obesity treatment.

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Binge Eating at Restaurants

Binge eaters are generally supposed to keep their habits private. They are imagined crouched in a corner of the house, gobbling bags of chips or candy and then hiding the evidence. The reality, however, is often much more refined and is perceived as normal. Continue Reading

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Consistent Neural Activity among Food Addicts

Researchers have long suspected that those addicted to foods may share some biological factors with those who have addictions to substances like tobacco, drugs or alcohol. One similarity that food addiction shares with substance addiction is that generally obese people are unable to sustain long-term weight loss. Just as in substance dependence, food addicts tend to relapse and regain the weight.

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Study Finds Dopamine Levels Increase at Sight, Smell of Food in Binge Eaters

A new study has discovered that in binge eaters, just the sight or smell of favorite foods triggers a sharp increase in dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is associated with reward and motivation. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory performed brain imaging studies, which suggest that the dopamine increase may play a role in binge eating. This could reveal a difference between obese individuals and compulsive overeaters.

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Alcohol Treatment Drug Could Help Compulsive Eaters

A drug that has been successful in decreasing alcohol cravings in addicts could also help people who are addicted to food. Researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center found that ezlopitant decreased consumption of sweetened water in rodents, which suggests a link between the neurochemical pathways of addiction and compulsive eating.

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