Food Addiction: Applying Substance Use Disorder Criteria and Characteristics to Identify Instances of Addictive-Like Eating

Drugs of abuse exert powerful effects on the brain's reward system, a system that has evolved to reinforce adaptive behaviors such as feeding. In some instances, intake of such substances can lead to addiction. Given that drugs of abuse are operating on the same neural pathways that evolved to enforce feeding, it has been suggested that a state of addictive-like eating is also possible. It is hypothesized that "food addiction" can develop when highly palatable foods, such as those high in fat and sugar, hyperstimulate the reward pathways. There is clinical and preclinical evidence that certain instances of compulsive overeating have striking behavioral and neurobiological similarities with substance abuse disorder. It is possible that compulsive eating could, in turn, lead to obesity, which is a leading cause of preventable death globally. This chapter explores the validity of a food addiction diagnosis using diagnostic criteria for substance use disorder and reviews behavioral and neurochemical evidence from the animal and clinical literature supporting the construct of food addiction.