Obese people addicted to eating, says study

PEOPLE can become addicted to eating for its own sake, rather than feeling compelled to consume certain types of foods such as those high in sugar or fat, Scottish research suggests.

Researchers believe mental health has a stronger link rather than fatty foods. Picture: TSPL

An international team of scientists, including researchers from Edinburgh and Aberdeen universities, found no strong evidence for people being addicted to the chemical substances in certain foods.

The researchers said that the brain did not respond to nutrients in the same way as it does to addictive drugs such as heroin.

Instead, they argued that people can develop a psychological compulsion to eat, driven by the positive feelings that the brain associates with eating.

The scientists said this was a behavioural disorder and could be categorised alongside conditions like gambling addiction.

They called for the focus on tackling obesity to be moved from food towards the individual’s relationship with eating.

In Scotland, more than one in four adults are considered obese, with some of the highest rates of obesity in the world.

Obesity is linked to many diseases and decreases life expectancy. The total cost to Scottish society of obesity in 2007-8 was estimated to be in excess of £457 million, with the figure likely to have risen substantially since then.

In recent years, much attention has been focused on the composition of foods, including efforts to reduce sugar, salt and fat contents, as well as accessibility to junk food.

The new study, for which researchers examined the published scientific evidence for food addiction as a substance-based addiction, moves the attention away from blaming food to looking at the mental health links to over-eating.

The researchers, writing in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, said that the current classification of mental disorders, which does not permit a formal diagnosis of eating addiction, could be redrawn. But they said that more research was needed.

Dr John Menzies, research fellow at Edinburgh University’s Centre for Integrative Physiology, said: “People try to find rational explanations for being overweight and it is easy to blame food.

“Certain individuals do have an addictive-like relationship with particular foods.

“More avenues for treatment may open up if we think about this condition as a behavioural addiction rather than a substance-based addiction.”

However, Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum and Child Growth Foundation, said he disagreed with the review.

“The chief medical officer for England has said that research will show that sugar is addictive and I believe it to be so,” he said.

“Eating can be addictive, but to exclude sugar in the face of all the evidence I think is wrong.”