Pepino, M. Y., Stein, R. I., Eagon, J. C., & Klein, S. (2014). Bariatric surgery-induced weight loss causes remission of food addiction in extreme obesity. Obesity, 22
(8), 1792–1798. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.20797
From the research article’s abstract: “Objective: To test the hypotheses that bariatric surgery-induced weight loss: 1 induces remission of food addiction (FA), and 2 normalizes other eating behaviors associated with FA. Methods: Forty-four obese subjects (BMI= 48 ± 8 kg/m2) were studied before and after ∼20% weight loss induced by bariatric surgery (25 Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, 11 laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding, and eight sleeve gastrectomy). We assessed: 1 FA (Yale Food Addiction Scale), 2 food cravings (Food Craving Inventory), and 3 restrictive, emotional and external eating behaviors (Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire). Results: FA was identified in 32% of subjects before surgery. Compared with non-FA subjects, those with FA craved foods more frequently, and had higher scores for emotional and external eating behaviors (all P-values <0.01; all Cohen’s d >0.8). Surgery-induced weight loss resulted in remission of FA in 93% of FA subjects; no new cases of FA developed after surgery.