5 per cent of the population ‘food addicts,’ Canadian study finds

[Catty1]

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/c...724/story.html

One in 20 Canadians is a food addict, suggests new Canadian research believed to be the first attempt to measure the prevalence of “food addiction” in a general population.Researchers from Newfoundland’s Memorial University say that seven per cent of women in their study, and three per cent of males — five per cent of the population overall — met diagnostic criteria for food addiction, described by senior author Guang Sun as “compulsive overeating in harmful and unhealthy ways.”
The team used a measure known as the Yale Food Addiction Scale to assess symptoms of food addiction in 652 adults from Newfoundland and Labrador. The scale asks people how often they engage in certain eating habits, such as, “I eat to the point where I feel physically ill,” “I find myself constantly eating certain foods” and “I need to eat more and more to get the feeling I want.”
The concept of food addiction is highly controversial. Some see it as a way of “pathologizing” normal human behaviours and removing personal accountability from people. “It isn’t my fault I’m overweight. I have a food addiction.”
But the Memorial team says there is mounting evidence that some foods may activate the brain’s reward system in vulnerable people in ways similar to cocaine or alcohol.

Read more at the link.

I don't know what the stats are in the U.S.A. and other places, but you can take a quiz here to see it this may apply to you: http://www.oa.org/newcomers/is-oa-for-you/

[Karen]

The link you posted is for the OverEaters Anonymous group, not anything about being a "food addict" according to that study.

The study is also weirdly worded - are we not all, as living beings, food addicts? We need it to live ...

[Catty1]

The Overeaters Anonymous link has questions that can indicate a food addiction; they are similar to the questions that A.A. has for a person to determine if they are alcoholic.

Several of the questions in the first list are echoed in the part of the article I quoted.

“compulsive overeating in harmful and unhealthy ways.” The team used a measure known as the Yale Food Addiction Scale to assess symptoms of food addiction in 652 adults from Newfoundland and Labrador. The scale asks people how often they engage in certain eating habits, such as, “I eat to the point where I feel physically ill,” “I find myself constantly eating certain foods” and “I need to eat more and more to get the feeling I want.”

The behaviours quoted there are, IMO, not the same as getting good nutrition. I have kept 45+ lbs off through the 12-Step recovery program. With the mental obsession removed, I can choose to eat healthily and well and even "normally", like non-addictive people.

However, there are certain types of foods I need to stay away from; they 'trigger' me as the first drink of alcohol would trigger an alcoholic. Most food addicts find that these are refined sugars and carbohydrates.

[cassiesmom]

I find myself eating certain foods even when I'm not hungry - often; I have spent a LOT of time dealing with negative feelings from over-eating; and my behavior with respect to food and eating causes significant distress. I think I eat for reasons other than hunger very often. I tried giving up fast food for Lent and I almost made it. I didn't eat it most of the days and I found that when I did, I craved it more the next few days. Right now I'm just trying to not eat anything that can be handed out a drive-up window. If I go to McDonald's intending to buy a salad - it doesn't happen. So I am just better off not even going there, literally. This article helps reinforce to me that I need to do something other than eat to respond to motivations other than physical hunger. Thank you for this!