%0 Journal Article
%T From Passive Overeating to ¡°Food Addiction¡±: A Spectrum of Compulsion and Severity
%A Caroline Davis
%J ISRN Obesity
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/435027
%X A psychobiological dimension of eating behaviour is proposed, which is anchored at the low end by energy intake that is relatively well matched to energy output and is reflected by a stable body mass index (BMI) in the healthy range. Further along the continuum are increasing degrees of overeating (and BMI) characterized by more severe and more compulsive ingestive behaviours. In light of the many similarities between chronic binge eating and drug abuse, several authorities have adopted the perspective that an apparent dependence on highly palatable food¡ªaccompanied by emotional and social distress¡ªcan be best conceptualized as an addiction disorder. Therefore, this review also considers the overlapping symptoms and characteristics of binge eating disorder (BED) and models of food addiction, both in preclinical animal studies and in human research. It also presents this work in the context of the modern and ¡°toxic¡± food environment and therein the ubiquitous triggers for over-consumption. We complete the review by providing evidence that what we have come to call ¡°food addiction¡± may simply be a more acute and pathologically dense form of BED. Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. (Voltaire) 1. Introduction By many accounts, obesity now ranks as one of the greatest and most preventable global threats to public health [1, 2]. Furthermore, as a result of fetal programming, it will likely gather momentum and become a self-perpetuating problem as a form of ¡°inheritance of acquired characteristics¡± from one generation to the next [3¨C5]. Currently, more than half the adult population is described as overweight or obese, (Implied in the terms overweight and obese is an excess in one¡¯s level of adiposity or percentage of body fat, not in other components of the mass that comprises their body weight such as muscle or bone density. In other words, body weight (typically expressed as body mass index (BMI): (weight kg/height metres2)) is typically and conveniently used as a surrogate for adiposity¡ªalthough as an estimate of fatness, it has a considerable margin of error at the individual level.) marking the first time in human evolutionary history that the number of people with excess body weight has surpassed those who are underweight [6, 7]. Indeed, in the United States alone, as many as one in three adult women now have a BMI greater than 30 [8]. Moreover, and on a similar trajectory, estimates of the global prevalence of this condition in children increased from 42% in 1990 to 67% in
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.obesity/2013/435027/