Researchers discovered that processed foods can be as addictive as crack and heroin.

Do you ever get a late-night craving for a hot, steamy piece of pizza? The cheesy goodness is just a phone call away. The pizza will be in your mouth in less than an hour. You place the order and anxiously wait for the pie to be delivered to your doorstep.

According to Pacific Ridge, if you’ve experienced these cravings, it’s likely that you’re not alone. A new study has outlined the habit-forming nature of cheese and many other processed foods, paralleling these products with drug addiction.

The Study

Researchers compiled a list of addictive foods ranked on how likely they are to be habit-forming.

Researchers at the University of Michigan, including psychologists Erica Schulte and Ashley Gearhardt, and neuroscientist Nicole Avena from the New York Obesity Research Center of Columbia University provided a list of 35 different foods and ranked the level of addictive characteristics associated with consumption.

The study found that “highly processed foods … may share characteristics with drugs of abuse (e.g., high dose, rapid rate of absorption) … [and] appear to be particularly associated with ‘food addiction.'”

The list included chocolate as the top contender, followed by ice cream, french fries, pizza and cookies. Snack food favorites like cake, fried chicken, soda, cheese, pretzels and bacon made it to the top 20.

According to the data, processed foods are more addictive than non-processed foods because they are higher in fat and glycemic load.

There is one shocking part of evidence behind processed food addiction. When a person eats a lot of highly processed foods with high sugar and fat content, the brain’s dopamine receptors are stimulated in a way that is similar to drugs entering the body.

Processed vs. Natural Foods

Food is not addictive in its natural state but becomes habit-forming after fats and sugars have been added.
Image: Best Raw Organic

Natural foods are not addictive until they become processed. Grapes become addictive when they are processed into wine while poppies gain their addictive properties only after they are made into opium.

“Processing appears to be an essential distinguishing factor for whether a food is associated with behavioral indicators of addictive-like eating,” the researchers write. “Highly processed foods are altered to be particularly rewarding through the addition of fats and/or refined carbohydrates (like white flour and sugar).”

The Effects Of Food Addiction

Food addiction is associated with obesity, diabetes, heart issues and other health problems.
Image: iVillage

Symptoms of “food addiction” include loss of control over consumption, continued use despite negative consequences and inability to stop even if one wants to make a change. As with drug addicts, these behaviors are linked to increased impulsivity and emotional reactivity.

Also, researchers found neurological similarities in reward systems that occur in both food and drug addiction. Food addicts receive increased neurological rewards in response to food cues.

Biology, neuroscience and psychology experts have linked obesity to dependence on food. Researchers will continue to investigate how addiction influences eating disorders and behaviors.

Scientists predict that more than 85 percent of American adults will be overweight by the year 2030. While the cost to treat obesity-related diseases currently eats up 10 percent of national health care budget, experts project it will increase to 15 percent in the next 15 years.

The study illustrates that a large portion of the population — about 1/3 who are overweight or obese — are not so different from those who are addicted to serious substances like heroin and crack.

The post The Link Between Processed Foods And Addiction appeared first on Citizens Report.

Australian researchers used data from the Global Burden of Disease Project to determine the most serious risk factors that can lead to premature death.

A 23-year study shows that smoking, high blood pressure and poor diet are major causes of premature death in the U.S.

The Australian study illustrates global trends related to changing risk factors that lead to early death. Identifying these factors can help policymakers discover threats to population health in order to find solutions to prevent premature death.

The Study

When researchers begun the study in 1990, the major risk factors contributed to 25 million deaths worldwide.  The number increased to almost 31 million deaths during the last year of data collection.
Image: Kent News

The study, published in The Lancet, was conducted by researchers at the University of Washington and the University of Melbourne. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it “evaluates how much of the burden of disease observed in a given year can be attributed to past exposure to a risk.”

The researchers collaborated with an international consortium working on the Global Burden of Disease Project, providing a systematic analysis of the data collected.

The study took place from 1990 to 2013 in 188 countries. Researchers measured 79 risk factors that contributed to millions of deaths throughout the 23-year study, including behavioral, environmental, occupational, metabolic and clustered risks.

In 1990, these factors contributed to 25 million deaths. In 2013, the factors had killed almost 31 million people globally.

Previously, the major risk factors included unwashed hands, child and maternal malnutrition, and unsafe water and sanitation. By 2013, smoking, poor diet and high blood pressure have become the most prominent risk factors.

In Australia, the main risk factor is high blood pressure, followed by smoking and high body mass index. In men, the biggest growing risk factor is drug use. In women, the decrease in health is caused by diabetes-related illness, with a 68 percent increase since 1990. Diabetes-related illnesses and high body mass index as a cause of death has increased from 35 percent to 47 percent throughout the study.

Global Risk Factors

Data comes from the Global Burden of Disease Study, a comprehensive research project that assesses mortality and disability from illnesses, injuries, and risk factors.
Image: Enki Village

The top risk factors worldwide include:

• High body mass index is the main risk in the Middle East and Latin America.
• Household air pollution is a most serious health risk in South and Southeast Asia.
• Unsafe water and childhood malnutrition is the biggest risk in India.
• Alcohol use is the second major risk in Russia.
• Smoking causes the most damage in developed countries such as the United Kingdom.
• Child malnutrition, unsafe water, lack of sanitation, unsafe sex, and alcohol use are prominent health risks throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
• Child malnutrition is a global issue, accounting for one in five deaths of children under five-years-old.
• Unsafe sex is a worldwide risk, causing 82 percent of HIV/AIDS deaths and 94 percent of HIV/AIDS deaths in 15 to 19 year olds in 2013. The global burden of unsafe sex increased in 1990 and hit a high point in 2005.

In 2013, the highest number of deaths in the U.S. for both sexes include: 

“There’s great potential to improve health by avoiding certain risks like smoking and poor diet as well as tackling environmental risks like air pollution,” according to Dr. Christopher Murray, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) Director.

Murray believes that it is the responsibility of policymakers to enact progressive laws to prevent premature death.

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