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Iesha Perales English 1010 April 1, 2014

Addicted to Food
Beck, Melinda. "Eating to Live or Living to Eat?." Wall Street Journal. 13 Jul. 2010: D.1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. The brain can be overpowered to the idea of sweet, or fatty foods. The reward system of the brain is activated and pushes out the cues from the stomach which is trying to tell us that we need to stop eating and to digest what weve already taken in. The idea of we should eat to live, not live to eat has been around since Socrates. But with brain scanning technology we can now see the difference between hedonic versus homeostatic eating. Beil, Laura. The Snack-Food Trap. Newsweek 160.19 (2012): 44-47. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Apr. 2014. People that are overweight and unhealthy need to start looking at themselves as people who need to get over addiction. The food that makes us gain unnecessary weight is what are brains begin to get addicted to. Because of this we need to look at how addiction can be treated. Berridge, Kent C., and Terry E. Robinson. "The Mind of an Addicted Brain: Neural Sensitization of Wanting..." Current Directions in Psychological Science. June 1995: 71-76. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.

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Kent wrote about in his paper that addiction is caused by a want of a thing rather than the thing itself. The idea of the satisfaction the drug or food could bring is enough to get the dopamine and serotonin centers in the brain to go into overdrive and make you want it. This is what addiction is. The unnecessary wanting of some item, be it drugs, alcohol, or food, this is a neurological event. Dougan, Alphonse. "Eating Habits and Time." Fountain No. 49. Jan.-March 2005: 42-44. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. Dougan writes about how people should limit their food and consciously decide what and when we should eat. But he does address the fact that food does release certain hormones in the brain that stimulate us with feel good emotions. Fargen, Jessica. "Food Addiction Support Groups Growing in Popularity." Boston Herald (Boston, MA). 08 Aug. 2010: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. Support groups for food addiction have been on the rise as the rate of obesity increases. It helps people come out and come to terms with how this happened. Sugar and flour are considered the most addictive and thus the members are to stay abstinent from these foods. Gionta, Daria. "Food Addiction." American Health. Jan./Feb. 1995: 52+. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. This author relates the idea of food addiction to that of alcoholism that goes from pleasure to addiction as time progresses. They think about doing and hide what they are doing from others so not to alert people of their need. Then go and stuff themselves

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quickly with large amounts of food until they feel uncomfortably full. Using food as a coping mechanism for extreme feelings of either happiness or sadness. Helliker, Kevin. Food May Be Addicting for Some. Wall Street Journal. 05 Apr. 2011: D.4. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 30 Mar. 2014 Helliker states that some pathological eaters are akin to alcoholics that in if you dangle a milkshake you will get the same brain scans as if you had dangled a cold beer in front of an alcoholic. Its not just about the weight, so solving the weight issue isnt going to stop someone with an eating addiction. Jayson, Sharon. "From Brain to Mouth: The Psychology of Obesity." USA TODAY. 02 Aug. 2012: B.5. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. Obesity is linked strongly to psychology. Those with high BMI tend to partner with similar weight, and then their children get taught their eating habits. Food addiction is suggested to be a contributor to obesity, although it is still not recognized completely as a either a disease or an addiction. Kirkey, Sharon. "'Powerful' Food Like a Drug for Overeaters: Experts." CanWest News Don Mills, Ontario, Canada. 07 Mar. 2010: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. Humans have been hardwired to eat and eat as much as possible, this was necessary before we had refrigerators and had easy to get food packed with fat and sugar. Food companies have learned how to make food addictive to us. Lim, Dennis. Food & Addiction: Can Some Foods Hijack the Brain. (Cover Story). Nutrition Action Health Letter 39.4 (2012): 3-7. Academic Research Premier. Web. 1 Apr. 2014.

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Dopamine is necessary for our survival. It rewards us for an act that is necessary to live. Thus an animal with no dopamine transmitters will die because it has no reason to eat. Overweight individuals have less dopamine receptors than that of a person who has a healthy weight. Less dopamine is actually released in people who are overweight. This make it so that the brain wants the reward even more because they are never completely satisfied. Suwanski, Rich. "Food Addiction Seen As Powerful Eating Disorder." Owensboro MessengerInquirer (Owensboro, KY). 05 Apr. 2010: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 01 Apr. 2014. Suwanski stated in his paper that people use food as a way to deal with some kind of discord in their life. We need food to survive but we also use food to celebrate or when we are sad to go along with our emotions. People begin to binge on food to help refill emotions, but the same with any addiction, there is a sense of guilt after the act itself is done. Venuto, Tom. "Is Junk Food As Addictive As Heroin?." McClatchy - Tribune Business News. 03 Nov. 2009: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. intermittent bingeing and deprivation changes that. Based on the observed behavioral and neurochemical similarities between the effects of intermittent sugar access and drugs of abuse, we suggest that sugar, as common as it is, nonetheless meets the criteria for a substance of abuse and may be "addictive" for some individuals when consumed in a 'binge-like' manner. With this there in scientific evidence that food can be addictive. The solution is how we respond to this need.