Food Addiction is receiving a widespread attention from many researchers nowadays. Recently, this trait has been correlated with obesity development. However, there is still debate either on food addiction itself as a trait or the connection to other problems e.g obesity. Any opinions?
It depends on how you define addiction. If you mean only those things that cause biochemical withdrawal symptoms when they are removed (a narrow but popular definition), then most food products don't fit in that definition. However, if you consider the broader definition of addition - repeatedly doing something even though it may cause harm, then food addition is a valid concept.
Some people have narrowly defined food addition as "binge eating", but that is quite a narrow definition. Assuming you agree with the definition of repeatedly doing something although it may cause harm, then "Food addition" could range from binge eating to constant eating to overeating certain foods to craving and eating only the same narrow set of foods over and over. Each of those can be destructive behaviors but result in different consequences from bulimia to obesity to chronic malnutrition.
The following are some scenarios of "food addition" - people may agree with some and disagree with others.
A obese person who overeats at every meal.
A vegetarian who only eats salads.
A "cookie monster" who just can't stop eating cookies until the whole bag or batch is gone.
A pregnant woman with pica.
A binge eater who then throws up after eating.
I can think of many other scenarios, but what is key here are 2 things we have to remember.
1) These are all disorders that can be dealt with through various means including education or intervention with therapy, drugs, surgery.
2) Each of them represents a unique individual with a unique set of physiological and psychological differences that must be considered in order for the so-called "addiction" to be modified or stopped.
We also have to be careful that we don't label things we don't agree with as "addiction". For example, I frequently hear people talk about how bad a "diet soda addiction" is. This is an example of "I don't LIKE what you are doing so I will give it a negative label". Drinking diet soda is not an addiction, most science shows no harm from drinking low calorie soft drinks. Many people believe overindulgence in diet soft drinks may be harmful, but generally there is no evidence that shows they are in and of themselves harmful. Thus, drinking diet soft drinks does not meet the definition of an addiction.
I work in a hospital as a registered dietitian. I searched the diagnoses and procedural codes which medical providers and hospitals use to bill insurance carriers for payment. There are only things like "morbid obesity due to excess calorie intake". I saw nothing in the medical data for "food addiction". So, even if a doctor or another clincian felt the patient had a food addiction, they couldn't list it as such in their diagnosis code for billing purposes. If you can't bill for it, you don't get reimbursed for it. I think this is one of the reasons the medical community isn't using "food addiction" as a term.
Dear Sir..
Food should not be an addiction like smoking. Some Islamic scholars said that even one meal in a day was enough to live.. Otherwise, obesity is inevitable.
Thank you for your response. If you have any other Islamic teachings related to this subject, I would be very interested. I'm trying to expand my knowledge of how religious views may affect food intake and nutrition.
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