High Calorie Foods May Be Addictive

Chances are you have already heard about this study, but even if you did, it is important enough to repeat. A new study has found that high-fat foods may be addictive, in the same way that cocaine and heroine are addictive. While at first that may not seem terribly surprising, once you understand the biochemistry of it, it really should be.

Drugs like cocaine and heroine cause addiction by down-regulating dopamine receptors. This leads to a reduction in pleasure from the drug, and requires more of the drug to be taken to get the same amount of pleasure. The researchers found the same thing was true of unhealthy foods.

Researchers from Scripps Research Institute studied the effects of unhealthy foods on rats over a 40-day period. Three groups of rats were randomly assigned to either a normal diet, a high-fat diet consisting of bacon, sausage, cheesecake, frosting, and other fattening, high-calorie foods to which they had access one hour per day, and the same a high fat diet to which they had access 23 hours per day. Each of the mice had electrodes implanted in their brains, which allowed the researchers to determine any changes that occurred in the brain.

Not surprisingly the rats with the near-continuous access to the unhealthy foods quickly grew obese. The researchers also noted a change in the brain. The dopamine D2 receptors were down-regulated, which means that the obese rats had to eat increasingly more food to get the same level of pleasure. This exact same mechanism has been seen in cocaine and heroine addiction. These rats began to eat compulsively, even in the face of pain. The researchers placed the food on a metal plate that delivered electrical shocks to the rats' feet if they approached the food. The obese rats continued to feed. The other two groups, who did not show the addiction, were frightened away from the food and did not feed. Ignoring punishment is a behavior that has been demonstrated in drug addiction.

While this "food addiction" has not been demonstrated in humans, anyone who has tried to alter their diet by eliminating unhealthy items knows just how hard it can be. Additionally, the idea of "comfort foods," which are typically high in fat and calories, adds credence to the idea that food stimulates dopamine receptors in humans.

While Whole Health does not offer any diet products that may help break a theoretical food addiction, we do offer a number of diet aids. The most promising of these may be our new LeptiFit Leptin Enhancing Formula. LeptiFit works by reducing Leptin resistance and increasing satiety. Learn more about LeptiFit and our other weight loss products.

1. Johnson, P. M. and P. J. Kenny (2010). "Dopamine D2 receptors in addiction-like reward dysfunction and compulsive eating in obese rats." Nat Neurosci.