Another Reason to Avoid Highly Processed Food: Addictive Eating
For many people, it’s not easy to just have one slice of pizza or one piece of chocolate. And French fries? Forget it.
Researchers may have figured out why. Highly processed foods have been linked to addictive eating.
At the top of the list are some of the biggest culprits you’d expect: pizza, chocolate, French fries, ice cream, cookies and chips.
The study comes as 69 percent of the adult population in the United States is overweight. Thirty-five percent of adults over the age of 20 are obese. Knowing which foods can spur addictive-like eating could help people trying to lose weight.
Previous studies in animals have found that highly processed foods, or foods with added fat or refined carbohydrates (like white flour and sugar), may be capable of triggering addictive-like eating behavior. Clinical studies in humans have observed that some individuals meet the criteria for substance dependence when the substance is food.
Although highly processed foods are generally known to be highly tasty and preferred, it has been unknown whether these types of foods can elicit addiction-like responses in humans, nor is it known which specific foods produce these responses, said Ashley Gearhardt, U-M assistant professor of psychology.
Unprocessed foods, with no added fat or refined carbohydrates like brown rice and salmon, were not associated with addictive-like eating behavior.
Individuals with symptoms of food addiction or with higher body mass indexes reported greater problems with highly processed foods, suggesting some may be particularly sensitive to the possible “rewarding” properties of these foods, said Erica Schulte, a U-M psychology doctoral student and the study’s lead author.
“If properties of some foods are associated with addictive eating for some people, this may impact nutrition guidelines, as well as public policy initiatives such as marketing these foods to children,” Schulte said.
Nicole Avena, assistant professor of pharmacology and systems therapeutics at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and a co-author on the study, explained the significance of the findings.
“This is a first step towards identifying specific foods, and properties of foods, which can trigger this addictive response,” she said. “This could help change the way we approach obesity treatment. It may not be a simple matter of ‘cutting back’ on certain foods, but rather, adopting methods used to curtail smoking, drinking and drug use.”
Future research should examine whether addictive foods are capable of triggering changes in brain circuitry and behavior like drugs of abuse, the researchers said.
Source: University of Michigan
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