The term was coined in the 1950s, but 50 years later, most researchers and clinicians were still loath to put the words “food” and “addiction” together, out of fear for their credibility and showers of derision. Dr. David Kessler, the former US Food and Drug Administration chief who wrote the seminal “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite” in 2009, wrote of “conditional hypereating,” which some interpreted as “saying it without saying it.” Scientific papers in the mid-2010s (Hebebrand, et. al., 2014; Schulte et. al, 2017, among others) referred to “Food Addiction,” with quotation marks that denoted a half-step toward reality. The quotes are gone now as a robust body of scientific research burgeons.
Food expresses culture and love, sometimes fills in for companionship and entertainment, can distract from and relieve emotional longing, all of which can be said of other substances. Not all who drink alcohol, for example, become alcoholics. According to data derived from the Yale Food Addiction Scale, the percentage of eaters who develop food addiction (roughly 15 percent) closely parallels the percentage of alcohol drinkers who become alcoholics. One difference is that unlike alcohol, everyone must eat to survive.
“Everyone knows” that the way to lose weight is to eat all foods in moderation and count calories. Many nutritionists often seek to ease new clients’ fears by assuring they can teach them to eat their most troublesome foods in safety. Compare that to the overwhelmingly accepted treatment of alcoholics and drug addicts that emphasizes not moderation but abstinence from triggering substances. Surgical intervention, meanwhile, may be a good choice for those dangerously overweight, but can hardly be considered a long-term solution if one’s disordered eating results even partially from food addiction.
But in the US, this will not happen until the American Psychiatric Association includes food addiction among the substance-use disorders in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. The diagnostic standard elsewhere in the world is the International Classification of Diseases maintained by the World Health Organization. Without these recognitions, the number of treatment slots available and access to them by people of ordinary means are severely curtailed.
The institute works with allies in the scientific community, and advocates through social media and other communications channels. Future goals include establishing and providing access to continuing-education modules that inform health and dietary practitioners; legislation to label hyper-processed food ingredients, just as alcohol and gambling advertisements come with warnings; fund genetic and epidemiological research; and organize and maintain a scientific advisory board to help guide initiatives not yet conceived.
We are already a nexus for information; our board includes a groundbreaking nutritionist, representatives of a couple of treatment centers, a neuroscientist, and others. We host content from treatment centers and others spreading the word about Food Addiction. We have an ever-growing library on the science of Food Addiction. We have a mailing list of 1400 people and entities interested in knowing more about Food Addiction. As we add connections with treatment providers, educators, nutritionists, researchers, and others, that list will grow.
To efficiently pursue these goals, the institute needs a paid executive director and other staff to oversee its efforts, but lacks the funding for such positions. The institute has enjoyed the support of one loyal benefactor and has benefitted from a handful of fundraising challenges. It seeks to broaden its base of supporters, not only among individuals but via charitable grants, whose applications typically require the attention of a paid staffer.
This document relies heavily on two scientific review articles underpinned by hundreds of citations of peer-reviewed science:
“Ultraprocessed Food Addiction: An Epidemic?” by Erica M. LaFata, the Center for Weight, Eating, And Lifestyle Science, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA; and Ashley N. Gearhardt, professor of psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, published in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, November 2022.
“Is food addictive? A Review of the Science,” by Ashley N. Gearhardt, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; and Erica M. Schulte, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, published in the Annual Review of Nutrition, June 2021.
