Food Addiction

Researchers have a lot to learn still about why some people are obese and others remain thin. One of
the ongoing questions has been whether obese people really suffer from a chemical imbalance, or a
type of "food addiction" that makes them crave food more often, or at least bad foods that put weight on,
or whether it is just a simple environmental issue.

The nature vs. nurture aspect comes in too, since many times a person's environment has a lot to do
with what they grew up learning about food, meaning what foods to eat and what food to stay away from.
But there is another issue that comes into play with this type of addiction.

It's actually called food addiction, and it explores whether or not some people may actually be
"chemically" addicted to certain foods, and whether certain foods actually have an effect on the human
body that is similar to a drug dependency. What do you think? I'll tell you what the research is saying so
far on this controversial idea that food can definitely become an addiction.

The latest research and conclusion on this topic comes from the Brookhaven National Laboratory,
whose finding concluded that obese individual's desire to eat is actually triggered by the same brain
action that trigger's a drug addict's desire to do drugs. The study was done on 7 obese individuals with
a gastric stimulator which sent signals to the stomach that it was full, causing them to eat less acting as
an appetite suppressant.

What they found was that the device, when turned on, not only made the subjects feel actually fuller, but it
also sent signals to the part of the brain that is linked to "emotional eating" and essentially turned this
function off, making the subjects eat less on an emotional need level.

Might this technology some day evolve into something that can be used as an alternative to the very risky
and controversial gastric bypass surgery? Possibly, but there are really no talks on that yet since the
research is still in its infancy and would need a lot more research on the effects on food addiction as
well as gastric stimulation. So what does this imply for surgeries like gastric bypass, which actually
reduce the size of the stomach and the capacity for food intake where health and obesity are taken into
consideration over safety?

Well, it certainly does explain why some people who have had the gastric bypass surgery still gain
weight back. It would possibly be due to the fact that the surgery only really addresses a holding
mechanism for the food, not the emotional ties to eating that often get people in trouble with weight gain
and morbid obesity.

Perhaps those that undergo these types of radical surgeries should also undergo therapy for emotional
eating and a review of their diet? Better yet, they could undergo a complete cleansing of their body
including a colon cleanser as well as a detox diet where only organic and natural foods are allowed, or
some other comparable cleansing diet like the Fat Smash Diet.

I've always been a proponent of therapy, especially when coupled with medical procedures, since many
times patients are just left to go out on their own and figure it out without much guidance. The area of
study may give a whole new meaning to the saying "your eyes were bigger than your stomach", since
much of overeating and compulsive food addictions has to do with visualization and mental strings of
thought and psychological patterns, not simply the need to eat because we are hungry.

Part of food addiction also has to do with our society here in America. Think about it? We treat food like
somewhat of a "blanket" tool for comfort, satisfaction, feelings of security, and realation to feelings of
events such as joy, sadness and celebration. Food is associated with almost everything we do
nowadays - weddings, funerals, birthday parties, Thanksgiving and other holidays where we traditionally
gorge ourselves.