The issue of food and addiction has been getting a lot of attention lately following the publication of former FDA Commissioner David Kessler’s book, “The End of Overeating.”
In his book, Dr. Kessler presents compelling evidence that sugar, fat and salt have addictive properties.  He refers to these foods as “hyper-palatable”- that is, they specifically stimulate our appetite to eat more of them.  And the appetite-stimulating effects of sugar, fat and salt are not unique to humans - laboratory rats also prefer these foods and will eat them even when they are not hungry, eventually becoming obese.

Although the scientific community has, for the most part, been wary of talking about food as “addictive”, the evidence has been clear for many years.  For example, it has long been known that lab rats will consistently “work” (press a bar in their cage many times) for a sugar or fat reward.  Furthermore, rats will work harder for sugar than for cocaine! In a 2007 study, rats were shown to prefer sugary water to an injection of cocaine 94% of the time.

Sugar and fat stimulate the same reward centers in the brain that addictive drugs like cocaine do, and they modulate the same brain chemicals.  One of these chemicals is dopamine.  Part of dopamine’s job is to stimulate “food-seeking behavior”.  The way it’s supposed to work is that when we get exposed to a food (see it, smell it, think about it), dopamine levels in the brain go up, which causes our appetite for the food to increase.  When we eat the food, dopamine goes down and everything returns to balance.  But in the presence of Kessler’s “hyper-palatable” foods, this system doesn’t work.  When lab rats are exposed to a high-sugar, high-fat chocolate drink, dopamine goes up but it doesn’t ever come down.  This means that urges to seek and consume food continue unabated even after the animal has eaten.

The food industry is well aware of this and designs foods high in sugar, fat and salt specifically to drive to drive us to eat more of these foods.  One high-level food executive quoted by Kessler stated that it’s well known that “higher sugar, fat and salt make you want to eat more” and another confirmed that the food industry specifically creates foods to be as “desirable” (read: addictive) as possible so people will buy and eat more of them.  Anyone hear an echo of Big Tobacco here?

What’s scary is that we often don’t know when our taste buds (and brains) are being manipulated.  Many seemingly healthy foods, such as a grilled chicken breast at a popular chain restaurant, are actually loaded with sugar, fat and salt to stimulate overeating.  One food industry consultant described a restaurant salad consisting of lettuce with cheese, bacon bits, oily croutons and a cream-based ranch dressing as “fat with a little bit of lettuce” (and don’t forget there’s usually a lot of sugar in the dressing and white-bread croutons as well)!

So, yes, some foods are addictive and “Big Food” is manipulating our tendency to become addicted to sugar, fat and salt in a very knowing way.  To avoid this trap, educate yourself on the ingredients in any food that you don’t prepare yourself, and wean yourself away from refined sugars, fats and overly-salted foods so you can regain control of your appetite!