Transcript Food Addiction: Alternate State of Consciousness?

Megan Curran, Stephanie Solso
Kevin Nazario, Matt Sugihara
 Food


Addiction vs. Overeating: (Stephanie)
What is food addiction?
What is the difference between desires to overeat
and literal addiction to food?
 Food
Addiction in comparison to other
neurological addictions (Megan and Kevin)
 Psychological Factors (Matt)
 Is food addiction actually an alternate state of
consciousness ? (All of us)
 Compulsive
overeating with episodes of
uncontrolled eating or binging.
 Eating more quickly than normal
 Eating past the point of being uncomfortably
full
 Eating when you are not hungry
 Spending excessive amounts of time and
thought focused on food
 Secretly planning or fantasize about eating
alone
 Normally begins in childhood
High Cholesterol
o Diabetes
o Heart Disease
o Hypertension
o Clinical Depression
o Kidney Disease
o Arthritis
o Bone Deterioration
o Stoke
o
Food Addiction can
also lead to obesity,
but obesity does not
necessarily mean
food addiction!
 Desire
to overeat is often based upon
cravings for specific types of food, not
insatiable want to eat
 Food addiction is a constant desire, not only
when you are hungry
Based upon community surveys, it is estimated
that ~2-5% of Americans suffer from food
addiction
Overeating
Taking the Drug
Obesity
Side Effects of the Drug
(reproducible in other ways)
Food Addiction
Actual Addiction to the Drug –
Constant need for
 Many
of these studies
involve the dopamine
system, one of the two
main reward systems of
the brain
 Dopamine provides a
stronger, more
immediate pleasure,
whereas serotonin
provides a general
feeling of happiness
 Sight,
smell, and taste of food (mainly
sight/smell)
 Food stimulation produces increase in
extracellular dopamine in dorsal striatum
 Dopamine system in dorsal striatum plays a role
in food motivation
 Based on subjects’ self reported favorite foods
 Correlation between the increase in dopamine
from food stimulation and the changes in self
reports of hunger and desire for food
Drug Addiction
Obese
DA D2 (Dopamine Receptors)
In the brains of controls, drug
abusers, and obese subjects
Control
Addicted
*Note*
We realize that this image is of
obese subjects, not someone
necessarily addicted to food.
The study glazes over this fact
and there needs to be more
studies on this*
Enhanced activity in oral
somatosensory cortex in obese
patients
 PET
scans taken from lean and obese
subjects at a rest state (no food present or
expectation of food)
 Higher metabolic activity found in bilateral
parietal somatosensory cortex. The specific
areas matches the mapping of the mouth,
lips and tongue involved for taste perception
 Higher activity thought to mean higher
sensitivity to palatability (taste)
 Inference that this could lead to overconsumption due to reward sensitivity
 Withdrawal
 Cravings
 Depression
 Fantasizing

about food
Dependency
 Is
food addiction an alternate state of
consciousness?
 Is addiction, in general, an alternate state of
consciousness?
 Do you think that this is a serious form of
addiction as compared to drugs considering
we must eat to survive?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Do you think about your weight constantly ?
Do you eat differently in private than with
other people?
Do you eat to escape from your feeling?
Do you eat when you are not hungry?
Have you ever stolen other people’s food?
Have you ever hid food to make sure you have
“enough?”
Do you frequently feel shamed or guilty about
what you have eaten?
Do you feel hopeless about your relationship
with food?

"Enhanced resting activity of the oral somatosensory cortex in obese subjects" (GeneJack Wang, Nora D. Volkow, Christoph Felder, Joanna S. Fowler, Alejandro V. Levy,
Naomi R. Pappas, Christopher T.Wong,Wei Zhu and Noelwah Netusil), Neuroreport (July
2, 2002) 13: 1151.

Markus, A. (2005). Neurobiology of obesity. Nature neuroscience, 8(5), 551.

Mc Cann, Scott. (2007). What is food addiction? Retrieved May 28, 2007 from,
http://www.anonymityone.com/faq195.htm

New food-addiction link found. (2002) Retrieved May 28, 2007 from,
http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2002/bnlpr052002.htm

Scientists find link between dopamine and obesity. (2001) Retrieved May 28, 2007
from, http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2001/bnlpr020101.htm

Sheppard, K. (1993). Food addiction : The body knows: Revised & expanded edition
HCI.

Sugar addiction. (2003) Retrieved May 28, 2007 from,
http://www.sfn.org/index.cfm?pagename=brainBriefings_sugarAddiction

The neurobiology of drug addiction - section IV: The action of cocaine. (n.d.)
Retrieved May 28, 2007 from,
http://www.nida.nih.gov/pubs/teaching/Teaching2/Teaching5.html

Volkow, N. D., & Wise, R. A. (2005). How can drug addiction help us understand
obesity? [Electronic version]. Nature neuroscience, 8(5), 555-560.

Wang, Gene-Jack Volkow, Nora D Felder, Christoph Fowler, Joanna S Levy, Alejandro V
Pappas, Naomi R Wong, Christopher T Zhu, Wei Netusil,Noelwah. (2002). Enhanced
resting activity of the oral somatosensory cortex in obese subjects. Neuroreport, 13(9),
1151.