Food Addiction & Obesity
Overview
What you need to know about Food Addiction:
- Obesity Rates: More than a third of Americans weigh in as obese and a further third weigh in as overweight. Obesity rates are greater than they have ever been before.
- Food Addiction Looks Like Drug Addiction in the Brain: MRI scans show that people addicted to food display brain changes that look very similar to the brain changes seen in drug addicted people. These brain changes help to explain how some people can lose control over their ability to regulate food consumption.
- Social Implications of Food Addiction: If researchers can demonstrate the existence of food addiction legislators may need to consider greater regulation of some of the foods that are known to be most addictive in nature – particularly of marketing practices which encourage children to consume such products.
The Neural Model for Food Addiction
NIDA researchers explain food addiction by showing how overeating can lead to changes in the dopamine pathways of the brain, and showing how these changes alter our ability to regulate impulses to eat
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Learn to Relax - Stress Makes You Fat!
Chronic stress causes brain changes that lead us to crave comfort foods and to actually strive to increase abdominal fat stores – it’s our unconscious mind working against our best intentions! Learn more about how and why stress leads to weight gain and get some tips on things you can do right now to reduce your stress load.
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The 12 Steps of Overeaters Anonymous
A brief introduction to a 12 steps program for compulsive overeaters
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Evidence Supporting the Idea of Food Addiction
An overview of some of the evidence supporting the still controversial concept of food addiction – evidence from behavioral studies as well as from animal model and neurological research.
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Are You a Food Addict?
Worried about the compulsive nature of your relationship to food? Take this very quick quiz and see if you might meet the diagnosis for food addiction.
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The 10 Causes of Obesity
Are you overweight? You surely know that by eating less and exercising more you’d probably lose weight – but are you aware of the more subtle causes of weight gain – like your sleeping habits, the medications you use and your sex and age? Read on to find out what’s making you fat and get a better sense of what’s needed to lose those extra pounds.
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Beating Obesity Stigma
Is your son or daughter overweight or obese? If so, then you’ve got to be on the lookout for weight-based victimization and do your best to counteract the stigma of obesity with proactive measures in the home and within the family. Here are 7 ways to get started.
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How to Calculate Your BMI Score
Learn how to calculate your BMI Score. Although far from perfect, the Body Mass Index (BMI) score is used to determine what obesity category you fall into.
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Obesity Statistics
Obesity had nearly tripled in the last few decades and if you’re an adult in America today that’s not overweight or obese…you are in a real minority. Read on to see more obesity statistics and to learn more about the consequences and incidence rates of one of America’s greatest health challenges.
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