Food addiction and obesity: do macronutrients matter?

An article published in April 2012 by the Nature Reviews Neuroscience (Ziauddeen et al., 2012) calls for cautiousness in applying the addiction model to obesity. This scrupulous review described the highly consequential results from B. Hoebel's lab concerning binge-like eating behaviors of rats (Avena et al., 2008, 2009; Bocarsly et al., 2011). Referring to these results, Ziauddeen and colleagues concluded that the binge behaviors relate to the palatability of the foods independently of their macronutrient composition. Earlier, also basing on the works of Hoebel and colleagues, I have been able to draw quite a different conclusion – fat per se, although highly palatable, is not as addictive as carbohydrates and is not obesogenic (Zilberter, 2011). In yet another paper (Peters, 2012), A. Peters interpreted results of Avena et al. (2008) as a proof that “sugar addiction” fails causing obesity. Here, I take a closer look at the Hoebel's model of addiction (Avena et al., 2008, 2009; Berner et al., 2009; Avena, 2010; Avena and Gold, 2011; Bocarsly et al., 2011) while keeping in mind the role of macronutrients.