Food Addiction Obesity And Disorders Of Overeating

This book is written for providers of broad training backgrounds, and aims to help those who care for people with EDs, overweight and obesity provide evidence-based care. The goal of the book is to provide these providers with a straightforward resource summarizing the current standard of care. However, it goes further by also introducing the concept of food addiction (FA) as a model to understand some forms of overeating. This book discusses the pros and cons of embracing FA and reviews the evidence for and against the validity and utility of FA. By doing so, the chapters convey a “middle ground” approach to help people with obesity, BED, and bulimia nervosa plus FA symptomatology who also want to lose weight. The text discusses FA by reviewing several of the main ongoing controversies associated with the construct. It reviews both the clinical and neuroscientific evidence that some individuals’ eating behavior mirrors that seen in substance use disorders (SUD), such as how their relationship with food appears to be “addictive”. Chapters also discuss how many of the mechanisms known to underlie SUDs appear to drive overeating in animal models and humans. Finally, the text argues that the similarities between the brain mechanisms of addictive disorders and overeating behavior has the potential to open up new avenues for current treatment and treatment development. Food Addiction, Obesity and Disorders of Overeating: An Evidence-Based Assessment and Clinical Guide is suited for both medical and mental health practitioners, including physicians in primary care or psychiatry, nurses, psychologists, social workers, medical students and medical residents. It could also be utilized by researchers in obesity and ED fields, stimulating ideas for future research and study design.

Can certain foods hijack the brain in ways similar to drugs and alcohol, and is this effect sufficiently strong to contribute to major diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, and hence constitute a public health menace? Terms like "chocoholic" and "food addict" are part of popular lore, some popular diet books discuss the concept of addiction, and there are food addiction programs with names like Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous. Clinicians who work with patients often hear the language of addiction when individuals speak of irresistible cravings, withdrawal symptoms when starting a diet, and increasing intake of palatable foods over time. But what does science show, and how strong is the evidence that food and addiction is a real and important phenomenon? Food and Addiction: A Comprehensive Handbook brings scientific order to the issue of food and addiction, spanning multiple disciplines to create the foundation for what is a rapidly advancing field and to highlight needed advances in science and public policy. The book assembles leading scientists and policy makers from fields such as nutrition, addiction, psychology, epidemiology, and public health to explore and analyze the scientific evidence for the addictive properties of food. It provides complete and comprehensive coverage of all subjects pertinent to food and addiction, from basic background information on topics such as food intake, metabolism, and environmental risk factors for obesity, to diagnostic criteria for food addiction, the evolutionary and developmental bases of eating addictions, and behavioral and pharmacologic interventions, to the clinical, public health, and legal and policy implications of recognizing the validity of food addiction. Each chapter reviews the available science and notes needed scientific advances in the field.

There is a growing view that certain foods, particularly those high in refined sugars and fats, may be addictive and that some forms of obesity may be treated as food addictions. This is supported by an expanding body of evidence from animal studies, human neuroscience, and brain imaging. Obese and overweight individuals also display patterns of eating behavior that resemble the ways in which addicted individuals consume drugs. Scientific and clinical questions remain: Is addiction a valid explanation of excess weight? Is food addiction a behavioural (i.e., eating) or substance (i.e., sugar) addiction, or a complex interaction of both? Should obesity be treated as a food addiction? Should we distinguish food addiction from other forms of disordered eating like Binge Eating Disorder? It is also unclear what impact food addiction explanations might have on the way in which we think about or treat people who are overweight: What impact will a food addiction diagnosis have on individuals’ internalised weight-bias, stigma, and self-efficacy? Should some foods be regulated like other addictive commodities (i.e., alcohol and tobacco), whose advertising and sale is restricted, or like certain foods, which are taxed? This Special Issue addresses questions raised by the concept of food addiction.

Compulsive Eating Behavior and Food Addiction: Emerging Pathological Constructs is the first book of its kind to emphasize food addiction as an addictive disorder. This book focuses on the preclinical aspects of food addiction research, shifting the focus towards a more complex behavioral expression of pathological feeding and combining it with current research on neurobiological substrates. This book will become an invaluable reference for researchers in food addiction and compulsive eating constructs. Compulsive eating behavior is a pathological form of feeding that phenotypically and neurobiologically resembles the compulsive-like behaviors associated with both drug abuse and behavioral addictions. Compulsive eating behavior, including Binge Eating Disorder (BED), certain forms of obesity, and ‘food addiction’ affect an estimated 70 million individuals worldwide. Synthesizes clinical and preclinical perspectives on addictive eating behavior Identifies how food addiction is similar and/or different from other addictions Focuses on the underlying neurobiological mechanisms Provides information on therapeutic interventions for patients with food addiction

Featuring an honest account of the author's own struggles with food, "Anatomy of a Food Addiction" helps readers understand binge eating and plan a recovery through exercises, self-tests, and an examination of family issues. Illustrations.

The CDC has reported that obesity is second only to tobacco as the leading cause of associative deaths in America. Can both be types of substance abuse? A decade ago, scientists hypothesized that loss of control over eating—which results in obesity—may be a form of addictive behavior. Using direct evidence gathered by the nation’s leading experts, Eating Disorders, Overeating, and Pathological Attachment to Food: Independent or Addictive Disorders? examines the relationship between overeating and addiction. In this text, you’ll find case studies, tables, figures, and analyses supporting the hypothesis that there are important similarities between highly desirable foods and the classic addictive substances. Researchers have only recently come to a consensus that obesity is a disease, but the debate continues as to whether it is related to depression, personality disorders, or addictions. In Eating Disorders, Overeating, and Pathological Attachment to Food, you will gain new insight on: the social and environmental factors related to eating disorders problem drinking and eating disorders from a gendered perspective in a college student population possible neural interconnections between eating messengers and targets for drugs of abuse neuroimaging studies on somatosensory cortex changes and hypothalamus reward responses weight gain following supervised abstinence from drugs and alcohol With overeating and obesity on the rise, Eating Disorders, Overeating, and Pathological Attachment to Food offers new hope in the quest to help patients and clients successfully conquer their eating disorders and/or substance addictions without substituting one for another. This book is a step forward for concerted research toward a better understanding of cravings, which can lead to new therapeutic options more suited toward eating disorders and drug addiction.

Drawing on her experience in addictions treatment, and on many personal stories of addiction and recovery, Dr. Vera Tarman offers practical advice for people struggling with problems of overeating, binge eating, anorexia, and bulimia. Food Junkies is a friendly and informative guide on the road to food serenity.

Are you a food addict? Do you gain more weight than you lose after every diet? Can one cookie destroy all your good intentions? Do you eat when you are disappointed, tense or anxious? Since its publication, Food Addiction has become a primary resource for food addicts and compulsive eaters. Now it is updated and presented in a revised and expanded edition, with a new chapter on relapse. For a food addict, relapse is an ever present danger which begins in the mind before reaching for that cupcake or other trigger food. Here food addiction is defined, trigger foods are identified and consequences of food addiction are revealed. A lifetime eating plan demonstrating how to stick with a healthful food plan for the long term is also provided. "For some people, foods can be as addictive as alcohol," Kay Sheppard explains. "Gummy bears and marshmallow chicks can be vicious killers whose effects can lead to depression, irritability and even suicide. The terrible truth is that for certain individuals, refined carbohydrates can trigger the addictive process. This book is an effort to help you understand and solve the problems of compulsive eating."