Liu, Y., von Deneen, K. M., Kobeissy, F. H., & Gold, M. S. (2010). Food Addiction and Obesity: Evidence from Bench to Bedside. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 42
(2), 133–145. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2010.10400686
From the research article’s abstract: “Obesity has become a major health problem and epidemic. However, much of the current debate has been fractious and etiologies of obesity have been attributed to eating behavior or fast food, personality issues, depression, addiction, or genetics. One of the interesting new hypotheses for epidemic obesity is food addiction, which is associated with both substance-related disorder and eating disorder. Accumulating evidences have shown that there are many shared neural and hormonal pathways as well as distinct differences that may help researchers find why certain individuals overeat and become obese. Functional neuroimaging studies have further revealed that good or great smelling, looking, tasting, and reinforcing food has characteristics similar to that of drugs of abuse. Many of the brain changes reported for hedonic eating and obesity are also seen in various forms of addictions.