As the food lovers say, “Food is life” and most of the time, people tend to explore and hunt for new cafés and restaurant in town searching for new delicacies. At times, other people get so satisfied with the food they tried and end up getting addicted to that certain type of food.
According to some food experts and neuroscientists, being addicted to food is like the same thing with being a drug addict. You uncontrollably take in food without even noticing that you become so into it. Also, you have this feeling of satisfaction once you eat that certain kind of food. Same with drug addicts, they feel so high and really satisfied without seeing the bad side of what they are actually doing. Some research says that up to 20% of people may suffer from having an addictive-like eating behavior that may lead to a very serious problem in the long run. This percentage is even higher among obese people. People who are actually addicted with food cannot control their food consumption. However, people don’t just get addicted easily with food. Most of the time, there are some foods that are more likely to cause symptoms of addiction compared to others.
Researchers from the University of Michigan conducted a research and ask more than 500 participants and they based their research from Yale Food Addiction scale and rank 35 different kinds of foods. Here are the examples of addictive foods according to research.
1. Chocolate
2. Cookies
3. Ice cream
4. Chips (e.g. Cheetos)
5. French Fries
6. Pizza
7. Cake
8. Cheeseburgers
9. Soda (even non-fat soda)
10. Bacon
11. Fried Chicken
12. Popcorn (Mostly buttered)
13. Steak
14. Gummy Candy
15. Muffins
Based from their research these foods can be really addicting especially when you eat these foods frequently. Most of the time, the reasons of the people who were asked about these is that, they usually eat these especially in times of stress. After reading through the findings and results of the survey they found out that people or participants of the said survey shows addictive-like eating habits with processed foods and higher fats such as pizza and chips. Processed foods are usually made to be hyper-palatable. Hyper-palatable are foods with lots of fat, sugar and salt and usually they are irresistibly appealing. Hyper-palatable foods are suspected to be the main cause in over eating, being addicted to it and most of the time leads to obesity that is a really serious problem when it comes to health issues. They also contain high calories that cause major blood sugar imbalances. These are factors that causes and individual to have food cravings.
However, the major contributor for being addicted to food is our brain. The brain actually has a reward center, which lights up and releases dopamine and other good chemicals when we eat. This reward center, according to psychologists, explains why most of the time we enjoy eating. It makes sure that we eat enough to satisfy ourselves. Eating foods that are processed, high in sodium and sugar releases high amounts of feel-good chemicals and yields a more powerful “reward” in the brain and makes it seek for more reward by causing cravings, this can lead to a vicious cycle called food addiction.
As we all know, food will always be a part of every human being. We need them for us to have energy to use in our daily lives. But we should always remember to be cautious on what we eat because health will always be our wealth. To know more about the right foods and things to do, you can visit and get a discount at Bright line eating discount and learn about the person who developed a way to fight food addiction. She is a neuroscientist Susan Pierce Thompson, PhD, who is also a self-proclaimed food addict before and wanted to help individuals with this kind of eating habit. Also, to learn more about some less addicting foods you can visit good housekeeping for you to be educated about what to eat more.
Always remember, when you’re hungry you can eat but when you feel like you’re full but you still have cravings, stop. What’s good in life is that we have the freedom to choose whatever we like but always keep in mind to choose wisely especially when it comes to the foods that we take every day.