September 20, 2021 — The concept of food addiction holds strong sway in popular culture. You can find tips for overcoming it. WebMD will tell you how to diagnose and treat it. Psychiatrist Anna Lembke has a book to sell you. In Dopamine Nation, she describes the source of addictive behaviors linked to food, phones, and sex. It was […]
July 11, 2021 — We depend upon food for both life and pleasure. But that dependence can go awry in many different ways. One way is captured by the popular concept of food addiction. Though it is controversial, some consensus holds that addictive eating behaviors are very real. People who are living with this problem will tell you just […]
January 3, 2021 — Food addiction is a concept that sticks to the popular psyche. Yet it remains scientifically controversial. True believers will tell you that eating addictive food “lights up” parts of the brain involved in addiction. But then, just about anything that brings a person pleasure does that. So this is not an especially persuasive argument to […]
November 11, 2019 — Once you pop, you can’t stop! This tagline for the launch of Pringles chips captures the essence of dietary fears about hyper-palatable foods. Does hyper-palatability drive the risk of obesity linked to ultra-processed foods? Sometimes policy makers give this supposition, though unproven, the status of a fact. But it needs more study. And if we’re […]
April 1, 2019 — A broad coalition of health, nutrition, environmental, and animal rights activists are creating quite a stir today with an ambitious new policy proposal. The Lean New Deal aims to stop the obesity syndemic in its tracks. At the same time, it will erase the problem of climate change if fully implemented. This is the product […]
March 20, 2019 — Scientists at the University of California at San Francisco have discovered that tobacco companies once owned food and beverage companies. Philip-Morris bought General Foods in 1985 and then Kraft in 1988. This arrangement lasted until 2007 when Philip-Morris sold all of its ownership of Kraft and the old General Foods brands. RJ Reynolds acquired Pacific […]
November 13, 2018 — Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Mark Twain understood this bit of wisdom. Thus we felt his influence at a session yesterday on food addiction at ObesityWeek 2018 in Nashville. Sandwiched between three scientists, we enjoyed an engaging presentation by a journalist with a good story to tell. It’s […]
April 14, 2018 — Is there any objective difference between the pleasure we feel in viewing Monet’s paintings or eating M&Ms? Perhaps this seems like an odd question. But it’s the subject of intense scientific controversy. And it’s relevant to our thinking about food. Hungry for Pleasure Julia Christensen started this scientific scuffle last year by publishing a provocative […]
November 19, 2017 — The Huffington Post asks if African Americans are “On a Sugar High?” That’s how they open a story about rising rates of diabetes. Health reporters offer advice for coming down from a sugar high. Tax cuts “Could Cause a Sugar High,” says Reuters. Oh, great! This buzz phrase connecting sugar, euphoria, and hyperactivity is so potent […]
July 2, 2017 — In the New York Times Friday, psychiatrist Richard Friedman tells us that cookies and meth have a great deal in common. He’s taking up a popular, simple explanation for obesity: Contemporary humans did not experience a sudden collapse in self-control. What happened is that cheap, calorie-dense foods that are highly rewarding to your brain are […]
