An international team of scientists has found no strong evidence for people being addicted to the chemical substances in certain foods<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The brain does not respond to nutrients in the same way as it does to addictive drugs such as heroin or cocaine, the researchers say.<\/p>\n Instead, people can develop a psychological compulsion to eat, driven by the positive feelings that the brain associates with eating.<\/p>\n This is a behavioural disorder and could be categorised alongside conditions such as gambling addiction<\/strong>, say scientists at the University of Edinburgh.<\/p>\n They add that the focus on tackling the problem of obesity should be moved from food itself towards the individual’s relationship with eating<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The study, which examined the scientific evidence for food addiction as a substance-based addiction, is published in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews<\/em>.<\/p>\n The researchers also say that the current classification of mental disorders, which does not permit a formal diagnosis of eating addiction, could be redrawn<\/strong>. However, more research would be needed to define a diagnosis, the scientists add.<\/p>\n The work was carried at the Universities of Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Gothenburg, Essen, Utrecht and Santiago de Compostela.<\/p>\n The researchers are involved in the NeuroFAST consortium, which is an EU-funded project studying the neurobiology of eating behaviour, addiction and stress.<\/p>\n Dr John Menzies, Research Fellow in the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Integrative Physiology, said: “People try to find rational explanations for being over-weight and it is easy to blame food.<\/p>\n “Certain individuals do have an addictive-like relationship with particular foods<\/strong> and they can over-eat despite knowing the risks to their health. More avenues for treatment may open up if we think about this condition as a behavioural addiction rather than a substance-based addiction.”<\/p>\n Professor Suzanne Dickson, of the University of Gothenburg and co-ordinator of the NeuroFAST project, added: “There has been a major debate over whether sugar is addictive. There is currently very little evidence to support the idea that any ingredient, food item, additive or combination of ingredients has addictive properties<\/strong>.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the University of Edinburgh media release: People can become addicted to eating for its own sake but not to consuming specific foods such as those high in sugar or… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[353,5,336,338,347,346],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17142,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17132\/revisions\/17142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"diet](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/diet-willpower-junk-food.jpg\")
<\/a>People can become addicted to eating for its own sake but not to consuming specific foods such as those high in sugar or fat<\/strong>, research suggests.<\/p>\n