Disordered Eating and the Brain

Le résumé fourni par la source

Abstract Food addiction remains a popular yet controversial construct, which proposes that overeating and obesity arise from the consumption of “addictive” foods. This model rests on the assumption that foods, or their constituent macronutrients, elicit pharmacological effects on the brain analogous to those produced by addictive drugs. However, there has been no critical examination of whether the key pharmacological characteristics of addictive substances truly extend to food. In this chapter, we consider if two proposed addictive components of food, sugar and dietary fat, recapitulate the pharmacological properties of drugs, such as their impact on mesolimbic dopamine release. We find no convincing evidence to support the classification of sugar or dietary fats as addictive substances, particularly as addictive-like consumption in animals arises from orosensory effects alone. We caution against the implementation of food addiction as an explanation for disordered eating.

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