It has been suggested that the taste, texture, and/or convenience of these foods could be responsible for their behavioral effects. The specific components of processed food that may trigger addictive behaviors are still not defined. This structure has a role in regulating dopaminergic reward activity.īased on the mouse models and their responses to junk food, the study authors concluded, “alterations in NAc function similar to those that are known to underlie drug addiction might also contribute to junk food addiction. It is located anterior to the caudate head, and posterior to the prefrontal cortex. The NAc is part of the mesolimbic pathway. Motivational responses are mediated in part by NAcAMPAR transmission. Junk food consumption increased activation of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) AMPA receptor (AMPAR). Orginsky and colleagues 3 used a mouse model to simulate human junk food addiction. Some of the physiological routes that meditate food addiction are similar to the biochemical pathways that mediate drug addiction. There may be another mechanism to food addiction than traditional definitions of food enjoyment. This inconsistency in finding a correlation between subjective enjoyment of processed foods and their addiction liability (even when the same researchers carried out different studies) suggests that positive experiences associated with these foods may only be partially responsible for their addictive qualities. These same processed foods were also rated high on scales of liking, pleasure, and craving. Schulte and colleagues 2 concluded that highly processed foods were associated with an indicator of addictive eating defined as loss of control.
Another research study, performed by the same investigators at the University of Michigan, examined the association of different foods with abuse liability. This divergence between food enjoyment and food addiction is not consistent, however. However, it is worth mentioning that the study participants did not report enjoying these addictive foods. 1 The investigators reported that processed foods were rated as having a high abuse liability when compared with foods that were not highly processed. An article published in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, describes a research study from the University of Michigan that examined characteristics of highly processed food that lead to food addiction. Identifying the addictive components of certain foods could potentially help guide patients to recognize them and to guard against consuming products that may lead to unhealthy food addiction.įood addiction is not necessarily the same as liking a particular type of food or wanting to seek it out. Because foods also generate abuse potential, studies that assess food addiction attempt to measure and quantify the abuse liability of various foods. The term abuse liability is often used to describe the addictive potential of drugs. In fact, some people experience addictive intake of junk food despite describing them as unhealthy, and even unappetizing.
There is a wide variation in the types of foods that stimulate an addictive response-these items include sweets (eg, chocolate and ice cream) salty carbohydrates (eg, potato chips) and prepared products that contain more than one distinctly discernible element (eg, pizza).ĭespite a desire to avoid eating addictive foods, many people find themselves unable to restrain from their consumption.
It is often believed that the addictive quality of processed foods could be related to their preparation method, but the specific biochemical components of processed foods that induce addiction have not yet been identified. These foods have been associated with physiological stimulation of the same neurobiological reward response in the brain as that of drug addiction. Processed foods, also described as “junk-food,” are often reported to be highly addictive in humans-leading to behavioral effects such as overeating, eating compulsions, and loss of control.
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