Diet, Craving and Food Addiction (Adult Population)

The CNP Diet, Craving, and Food Addiction Research Category consolidates research exploring the interdependent relationship between dietary intake and the experience of craving. To view each original study on the open internet, click “Original.” To view the CNP-written abstract summary, click “CNP Summary.” While only some of the CNP-written abstract summaries are available below for free, all abstract summaries are available to CNP members through the CNP Library Membership.

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FEATURED CNP RESEARCH SUMMARY

Role of addiction and stress neurobiology on food intake and obesity

This 2018 review presents the multifactorial social, neurobehavioral, and metabolic determinants of food intake that influence obesity risk to promote food craving and excessive food intake. The determinants included rewarding foods that stimulate brain reward motivation and stress circuits to influence eating behaviors, as well as stress hormones that hijack the brain’s emotional (limbic) and motivational (striatal) pathways. Sinha (2018) discusses the impact of high-stress levels and trauma, in addition to metabolic alterations such as higher weight, and altered insulin sensitivity, on self-control processes that regulate emotional, motivational, and visceral homeostatic mechanisms of food intake and obesity risk. Also reviewed was the potentially positive interaction between dynamic effects of neurobehavioral adaptations in metabolic, motivation, and stress neurobiology with food craving, excessive food intake, and weight gain. The author highlights key areas that require future investigation to adequately comprehend and address this growing obesity epidemic.

RESEARCH SUMMARIES

Random access to palatable food stimulates similar addiction-like responses as a fixed schedule, but only a fixed schedule elicits anticipatory activation