Food Addiction

Abstract

It sounds like you are asking if food is just another substance to which people might become addicted.When it comes to the facts about food addiction, the simple answer is? it?s complicated. Why? Well, not only can the boundaries of normal and disordered eating [2] be difficult to untangle, but the concept of ?addiction? can be tricky to nail down, too. In a substance use disorder ? a ?classic? addiction [3] to something such as drugs or alcohol ? a health care provider would evaluate whether a person?s behavior met several criteria of addiction before diagnosing her/him. When it comes to trying to hammer out what ?food addiction? really means, most researchers have found that there?s not quite enough evidence yet that an addiction to food falls into the same diagnostic category as classic substance use disorders. Long story short, the biggest difference between the two is that a drug addiction is a diagnosable condition whereas food addiction is not. However, this doesn?t mean that a person who is troubled by a compulsion to eat is on their own without any help! Working with a health care provider to pinpoint potential underlying reasons for an overwhelming desire to eat, or trying out different ways to restructure eating habits [4] could help.