Nora Wolkow is the world’s foremost authority on addiction. In this talk she talks about food addiction.
Neal Barnard did a great talk that started with “how to magnetize a baby?”
Sugar addicts lose their cravings when they are exposed to naloxone, an opiate antagonist. This suggests that sugar addiction works along the same pathways as heroin. In my experience with my patients, it is just as addictive. Cheese is similarly addictive.
Is it the constant exposure to food stimuli that makes us food addicts and has led to the obesity epidemic? Or is it the types of food that we are exposed to? Or, is it the fact that our foods are engineered to be maximally addictive?
Do you have food addiction? The NY Times has a quiz based on the modified Yale Food Addiction Scale.