How to Resolve Food Addiction and End Cravings

 [Waking Times]: Food addiction, defined as an “eating behavior involving the overconsumption of specific foods in an addiction-like manner,” is a common problem. Using a clinical scale called the Yale Food Addiction Severity Scale (YFAS), which was constructed to match the DSM IV criteria for substance addiction, a January 2022 study found up to 20% of the general population could be diagnosed with food addiction.

Interestingly, research has repeatedly demonstrated that food addiction is virtually indistinguishable from the addiction to drugs. One substance long suspected of addictive potential is sugar. As noted in a November 2019 study, “Excessive sucrose consumption elicits addiction-like craving that may underpin the obesity epidemic.”

Using PET imaging along with beta-opioid and dopamine receptor agonists, the researchers were able to show how sucrose affects the brain chemistry in miniature pigs. Even a single exposure to sucrose produced as much as a 14% drop in carfentanil binding (a beta-opioid receptor agonist) in certain parts of the brain, consistent with opioid release.

In layman terms, sugar consumption triggered the release of natural opioids and dopamine in the animals’ brains, thus lowering the availability of those receptors. Reduced receptor availability is a sign of overstimulation, because when the brain gets overstimulated, it downregulates these receptors to prevent damage.

The drawback of this protective mechanism is that you now need a higher dose of the substance to get the same pleasure response, and this is a key mechanism by which addiction develops....<<<Read More>>>...