HEALTH MATTERS
FOOD ADDICTION
AND OBESITY
By Kepha Nyanumba
E
ating healthy and losing weight
seems downright impossible
for many people. Despite their
best intentions, they repeatedly find
themselves eating large amounts of
unhealthy foods, despite knowing
that it is causing them harm.
changes that might make it difficult
to resist overeating.
Food addiction is a very serious
problem and one of the main reasons
some people just can’t control
themselves around certain foods, no
matter how hard they try.
Why is it so hard for obese people to
lose weight despite the social stigma
and health consequences such as
high blood pressure, diabetes, heart
disease, arthritis, and even cancer?
A food addiction is a behavioral
addiction that is characterized by
the compulsive over-consumption of
certain foods.
It is usually framed as an emotional
issue, but it is in fact largely a
biochemical problem.
Nobody chooses addiction. These
behaviors arise from primitive
neurochemical reward centers
in the brain that override normal
willpower and, in the case of food
addictions, overwhelm the ordinary
biological signals that control hunger.
Scientists are finding high-fat, highsugar foods can trigger lasting brain
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Furthermore, those changes resemble
what happens in the brain when
someone is addicted to drugs, such
as alcohol.
It is because in the vast majority of
cases, processed foods made of sugar,
fat, and salt are addictive and we
are biologically wired to crave these
foods and eat as much of them as
possible.
Many people use food as a comfort
when feeling down, depressed,
anxious, stressed or angry. Foods
high in sugar, salt, starch and fat can
trigger the brain
with “feel-good”
chemicals.