How much food do you “see” on this plate? The “Deprivation Effect” that contributes to drug addiction also occurs with food, particularly carbohydrate. It all starts rather innocently: we need nutrients to survive so we have a dopamine drive and opioid reward system to keep us eating what we need. If we did not have a brain that responds positively to eating things we need, we would have no clue what to eat. However, if the things we like are concentrated into treats and we eat that instead of natural unprocessed foods, we end up getting used to a lot more calories than the body was designed for.
There are many barriers to healthy eating in our environment, such as social pressures and a low availability of convenient healthy foods. There are also many barriers within ourselves, such as habit and low expectations of one’s ability to improve. Food addiction, whether it is to sugar, fats, or eating in general, can be one of the most powerful internal barriers. Addiction stems from changes in nerve signaling in the emotion portion of our brain. We start off “liking” something, which escalates to “cravings”, and ultimately to an excessive (meaning life-interfering) dependence.
To “like” something means that your reward response is stimulated in your brain in response to whatever it is that you like. Things that stimulate a large reward response can induce addiction. Some analgesics (things that reduce pain) function in part by inducing this same reward response. Sucrose (table sugar), glucose and low-calorie sweeteners have been shown to reduce pain in newborn infants as effectively as being held and breastfed by their mothers. Specifically, during blood draw, 31% fewer newborns cried if they were being breastfed and those who did cry cried for a 33% shorter duration compared to newborns using a pacifier during non-maternal holding [Phillips RM et al., Ambul Pediatr 5 (2005) 359]. If we measure how much babies ‘like’ something by how much their crying is reduced, we enter the world ‘liking’ sweet tastes as much as we do our own mothers…
To “like” something means that your reward response is stimulated in your brain in response to whatever it is that you like. Things that stimulate a large reward response can induce addiction. Some analgesics (things that reduce pain) function in part by inducing this same reward response. Sucrose (table sugar), glucose and low-calorie sweeteners have been shown to reduce pain in newborn infants as effectively as being held and breastfed by their mothers. Specifically, during blood draw, 31% fewer newborns cried if they were being breastfed and those who did cry cried for a 33% shorter duration compared to newborns using a pacifier during non-maternal holding [Phillips RM et al., Ambul Pediatr 5 (2005) 359]. If we measure how much babies ‘like’ something by how much their crying is reduced, we enter the world ‘liking’ sweet tastes as much as we do our own mothers…
