Was there any doubt about food addiction?

Wall Street Journal scribe Kevin Helliker reported on a new study suggesting that people who struggle to say no to chocolate, french fries or other junk food suffer from something more insidious than lack of willpower: They may actually have an addiction. While not a surprise to the readers of this blog, using a high-tech scan to observe the brains of pathological eaters versus normal eaters, the Archives of General Psychiatry study found that showing a milkshake to the abnormal group was akin to dangling a cold beer in front of an alcoholic. Subjects who scored high on the Yale Food Addiction Scale had addict-like neural responses to food during an MRI.

The study suggests that food addicts could benefit from a checklist akin to those that exist for measuring alcoholism and drug addiction. The publishing of the study comes at a time when American psychiatry is wrestling with whether to regard pathological eating as an addiction akin to alcoholism.

Steve - we have frequently mentioned how sugar addiction is akin to drug addiction. Certain fatty foods have a similar effect as well. While most experts claim that lifestyle and dietary changes cannot help this type of addiction, we disagree. When balancing the body biochemically, especially by addressing nutrient deficiencies and removing detrimental food triggers, food addiction can be ameliorated.

Another story making the rounds in media concerns how people use the organic label on food packaging to make them feel better about consuming food that is still high in sugary carbohydrates. Remember that what we like to call "natural junk" is still junk, albeit with less chemicals. While we would still have you choose organic junk ten times out of ten over conventional junk, please do not use it as an excuse to consume it in copious amounts.