Evidence for Food Dependency/Addiction
Flora is feeling hungry, but she just ate. She walks around trying to forget about the urge to pick up a donut or a random snack from the cupboard. Flora can’t get the food out of her mind. She feels like the food is calling her from the kitchen saying, “Eat me, eat me!” Flora gets up and makes her way to the food. She picks up granola bar, and opens it. The granola bar tastes wonderful and she is content, but then the bar was gone, and a few minutes later she wants another. She feels like she can’t stop eating even after she has eaten a meal. Flora asks why she can’t stop eating. She wonders if she could be addicted, so she turns to the computer and she looks up food addiction. Flora finds that is
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One teaspoon of sugar is equal to 4 grams. That means in one can there are 44 grams of sugar. If a can of soda is consumed by a child everyday, that child would be consuming 132 grams of sugar in just one week (Jeffrey). This is an alarming statistic about the common hyperpalatable foods that Americans eat everyday, and what these foods can contain. Some more examples of hyperpalatable foods are granola bars, breads, and donuts (Jeffrey L. Fortuna Dr.p.H). The amount of sugar that was in the can of soda and compare that to the results of the rat experiment. The results say there were neural changes of elevated self-stimulation, striatal D2 dopamine receptors lowered, and a dopamine decrease (Ziauddeen). Dopamine or otherwise known as DA D2 is a neurotransmitter or a chemical. This chemical transmits signals in the brain between nerve cells or neurons. When something happy happens unexpectedly in a person 's life, neurons activate and transmit very few make dopamine. This means in order to feel happy, addicts need the dopamine that is released (“What is dopamine”). This compared to a methamphetamine user experiment, “Methamphetamine abusers had a significantly lower level of D2 receptor availability than comparison subjects... D2 receptor availability was associated with metabolic rate in the orbitofrontal cortex in abusers and in comparison subjects,” (Volkow). In addition using drugs like meth or more commonly cocain over time the brain produces less
Throughout the articles, each one discussed the author’s perspective on food industries. Two articles argued whether the food companies should be blamed for the health epidemics or it should be a personal responsibility for consumers. While others discussed how food industries manipulate consumers into buying more of their food. Along the same lines, all the articles mentioned how the health epidemic is increasing and who must be fault for the growth. As well as finding a solution and who should help. Although the articles emphasize how obesity rate has grown, the public seems to blame food companies for manipulating consumers and others insist it is a consumer’s personal responsibility.
The main question: Consider the common themes and differences between the two health psychology issues chosen.
The addictive properties of cocaine are a dopamine D2-receptor researchers “indicate that these dopaminergic neural systems play an important part in rewarding effects” (Miller, Gold, Smith, 1997, p.64).
The addiction I chose to write about this week is a food addiction/compulsive eating. A food addiction is obsessive-compulsive relationship people have with food. Eating food is both vital and important in our everyday lives to give our bodies the nutrients, vitamins and calories that it needs. “Compulsive overeating, also referred to as food addiction, is characterized by an obsessive-compulsive relationship to food” (Karim, 2012, p. 7, para. 2). When people overeat, they engage in episodes of uncontrolled eating and will often find themselves consuming so much food just to feel comfortably full. Compulsive overeaters usually eat even if they are not hungry. People who have a food addiction have excessive thoughts about food that consumes
Children’s health and wellness expert Dr. Alan Greene discusses this likeness of sugar to a drug in-depth in his Healthline.com article Is Sugar an Addictive Drug. “Evidence is mounting that too much added sugar could lead to true addiction. Added sugar is not the sugar naturally found in foods, but the amped up levels added to many processed foods. Medical addiction changes brain chemistry to cause binging, craving, withdrawal symptoms, and sensitization. Excess added sugar can do just that, through changes in the same pathways as addiction to amphetamines or alcohol. Sugar addiction could be an even harder habit to break, according to recent evidence about how added sugar affects our stress hormones.” Though the quantity and variety of food avaliable to us today is for the most part a good thing, it is having and will continue to have dire consequences for the
This can be associated with a concept named “sugar addiction”. It seems it’s hard to connect “sugar” with “addiction”, because we eat sugar every day, and we tend to connect “addiction” to something that sounds more “chemical” like drugs. But some researches show that “sugar addiction” really exists. According to the research of Avena, Rada and Hoebel (2008), sugar can be a kind of addiction material. It is found that sugar can make human body to release opioids and dopamine, which are two kinds of substances that are considered as addictable. This article summarizes the evidence of sugar dependence in an animal model, and the evidence supports the hypothesis that rats can become sugar addicted under certain circumstances. Also, the research of Wideman, Nadzam and Murphy (2005) indicates the effects of sugar addiction, withdrawal and relapse are similar to the effects of drugs addiction. From the researches about the mechanism of being addicted to sugar, we can see that it’s possible to let a man become addicted to
The individual presents with a history of purging after eating a large meal which appears to meet the criteria for an eating disorder because she needs help due to the purging getting out of control. She knows it is bad for her health, stating that her esophagus is going to rot and her teeth will fall out. This tendency to purge after a meal started in college when she saw the treat of the “freshman 15” and became concerned about keeping her body image. She began thinking about being careful about her eating habits. After throwing up and feeling better after a long night out drinking, she began to
Andrea Simpson presents with symptoms that align closely with Binge-Eating Disorder (307.51). According to the DSM-5, Andrea meets all of the diagnostic criteria for BED and the disordered eating is not associated with the compensatory behavior of anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. She experiences recurrent episodes of binge eating that are characterized by inappropriate amounts of food—several eggs, toast, and juice for breakfast or many bowls of cereal, a few sandwiches with whole sleeves of cookies, chips, and cheese for lunch. Andrea claims she did not feel out of control when deciding to eat, as she thought she could stop when she was finished. This, however, did not happen, and Andrea spends much of her time fighting urges to eat. She
This showed that sugar and sweetness can prompt reward and cravings in the brain that are comparable in magnitude to those prompted by addictive drugs. Purpose: To inform my audience of sugar’s effects on our bodies. Importance to Audience: Obesity, heart disease, type two diabetes, and metabolic syndrome
A neurotic food science student, Serena, puts a lot of effort to maintain her weight: exercising regularly, buying and eating healthful food, cooking by herself and counting calories. Although she is determined to keep her body in shape, she sometimes does binge eating to deal with stress. But afterwards, she feels guilty and miserable, so she vomits food to control her weight. One day, she gets an ability to visualize nutrition content in any food. Serena feels privileged, but since she can always visualize nutrition content, she becomes more paranoid about food. One day, Serena’s sister comes back home after a business trip. This triggers Serena to release her bottled-up emotions. To seek for help, she gets mental health counseling and starts
Imagine looking at two individuals, one is obese and the other is average weight but exhibiting obvious venous drug injection punctures in his/her arm. Which most one of the two would you say is “unhealthy”? While many people would probably consider the obese person as somewhat okay, in contrast they would probably argue that the drug addict is in much needed immediate help. According to our societal acceptances, obesity is welcomed as opposed to drug use behaviors. Therefore in this paper, I will focus my discussion on the comparison of the dopamine reward pathway amongst obese individuals and drug addicts, as well as the controversial arguments whether or not obesity should be considered a disease.
Society has very different ways of viewing personalities and changes in people, and has believed that the label given as a norm is a valid way of describing someone or something even without solid proof. This, however, I strongly believe is not the case for addiction because if addiction were labeled as a disease then we must be overlooking the gap in the argument of disease or the term “disease” must be redefined. Addiction should not be considered an illness, as it is only a group of behaviors.
As addictions become more of a reality, and more widespread throughout today’s world, it is crucial for everyone to have a better understanding of what addictions are and how they affect the ones who are addicted. Not only that, it is also important to understand how addictions affect the loved ones of those who are addicted. In understanding addiction, Joseph Fracella (2007) gives a great definition of addiction by stating that "addictions are repetitive behaviors in the face of negative consequences, the desire to continue something you know is bad for you”
Activation of the dopaminergic system results in release of dopamine from presynaptic neurons into the synaptic cleft, which subsequently binds to receptors on postsynaptic neurons (36). This elicits changes in the post-synaptic neuron followed by dopamine transporters removing dopamine from the synapses, restoring it in the presynaptic vesicles for future use (37). Under normal conditions, an increased dopamine signalling within the reward system produces pleasure (17). Drugs of abuse hyperactivates the reward system, which triggers an abrupt and greater increase of dopamine signalling (38). This produces an intense sensations which enhances drug-seeking behaviours (38). With repeated and continued abuse of drugs, the brain responds to the
A second diagnosis for Kathie is Mild Binge Eating Disorder (BED) (F50.8). BED is characterized by recurrent episodes of binge eating in which the client eats a large amount of food in a two-hour period that most people would consume in a similar situation. There is sense of lack of control over the eating. The binge episodes one to three times a week for three months. The client must meet three of the five criteria listed in the DSM-V for BED which include eating more rapidly than normal, feeling uncomfortably full after binge eating (BE), eating when not hungry, feeling embarrassed, and feeling guilty, disgusted, or depressed after the binge eating episode. Additionally, there is a feeling of marked distress over the binge eating episode. There are no compensatory behaviors such as vomiting, using laxatives, medications or excessive exercise (APA, 2013). Kathie has been secretly struggling with an eating disorder (ED) for the last six months. She has meets 3 of the 5 criteria listed in the DSM-V including eating excessively until she feels uncomfortably full. After binge eating, she feels ashamed and helpless, which makes her more depressed. She feels a loss of control over her eating. She eats alone and feels guilty after binge