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The Most Addicting Foods We Need To Nix From Our Diet

Being obsessed with your favorite dumpling shop, or constantly craving your mother’s famous chocolate chip cookies are innocent embellishments that are used to prove our love for such special treats. However, some people use these extreme words in all seriousness when describing their need for their favorite foods because they really can’t get enough. By this I mean, they are addicted. 

Food addiction is a controversial topic, with some people not believing that it’s real, while others are convinced of its existence. Recently, researchers are finding that people who consume a lot of processed, high fat, high sugar foods are finding it increasingly harder to stop their consumption of these types of foods, and even experiencing withdrawal type symptoms when they do stop eating them.

A study done by Dr. Nicole Avena of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found that people who eat these highly processed foods do follow classic signs of addiction when it comes to their consumption patterns. In the study, over 500 participants were told to name the foods that are most problematic in their lives. Foods considered hostile to their diet were those that participants ate to the point of feeling sick and fatigued due to overeating. Avena then organized these foods in order from most to least in how addictive they came across to the participants. At the top of the list was, you guessed it, pizza, scoring a 4.01 in a one through seven point scale, with seven being the most addictive and one being the least. Pizza was then followed by chocolate and chips both scoring a 3.73, then cookies following closely with a 3.71 and ice cream scoring a 3.68. The least addictive foods started with cucumbers scoring a 1.53, then carrots, beans, apples and brown rice coming in as the least addictive food scoring a 1.74.

The foods that were the most problematic both on a mental and physical level were all filled with sugar, fat and highly processed. They all also raise blood sugar levels drastically, adding to the distress they cause. When the brain is examined, these foods showed to cause the same chemical changes that drugs and alcohol bring about. Although these brain scans were done on animals, not humans, it isn’t a far stretch to think that the same thing is happening to human brains when they are eating the same foods.

By getting food addiction recognized as an actual disorder, then it will allow for more help to be available for those struggling with food issues. By offering treatment programs for people who can’t control their eating habits, the obesity epidemic may be quelled, or at least curbed. 

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Used under Creative Commons Licensing courtesy of Aaron Yoo

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