Abstract
Increased obesity rates, an evolving food supply and the overconsumption of energy dense foods has led to an increase in research exploring addictive eating behaviours. This study aimed to investigate food addiction in a sample of Australian adults using the revised Yale Food Addiction Survey (YFAS) 2.0 tool and how it is associated with dietary intake, personality traits and mental health issues. Australian adults were invited to complete an online survey that collected information including: demographics, dietary intake, depression, anxiety, stress and personality dimensions including impulsivity, sensation seeking, hopelessness and anxiety sensitivity. A total of 1344 individuals were recruited with the samples comprising 75.7% female, mean age 39.8 ± 13.1 years (range 18–91 years) and body mass index BMI 27.7 ± 9.5. Food addiction was identified in 22.2% of participants using the YFAS 2.0 tool, which classified the severity of food addiction as “mild” in 0.7% of cases, “moderate” in 2.6% and “severe” in 18.9% of cases. Predictors of severe food addiction were female gender (odds ratio (OR) 3.65 95% CI 1.86–7.11) and higher levels of soft drink OR 1.36 (1.07–1.72), confectionary consumption and anxiety sensitivity 1.16 (1.07–1.26). Overall people with “severe” (OR 13.2, 5.8–29.8) or extremely severe depressive symptoms (OR 15.6, range 7.1–34.3) had the highest odds of having severe food addiction. The only variable that reduced the odds of having severe food addiction was vegetable intake. The current study highlights that addictive food behaviours are associated with a complex pattern of poor dietary choices and a clustering with mental health issues, particularly depression.
Highlights
There has been a resurgence of interest in the potential addictive aspects of overeating [1]
The aim of this study was to investigate food addiction in a sample of Australian adults using the revised Yale Food Addiction Survey (YFAS) 2.0 tool and how it is associated with dietary intake, personality traits and mental health issues
This study aimed to investigate food addiction in a sample of Australian adults, whether this varied by age group and gender, and how food addiction was associated with a range of mental health and personality variables
Summary
There has been a resurgence of interest in the potential addictive aspects of overeating [1]. This has largely been driven by increasing rates of obesity and the need to improve our current understanding of how to best treat obesity and address the obesogenic food environment (e.g., food marketing, advertising), prompting the over-consumption of readily available food [2,3]. Population consumption of energy-dense nutrient-poor foods exceeds national recommendations comprising approximately. While relatively few studies on food addiction in humans have been conducted to Nutrients 2017, 9, 285; doi:10.3390/nu9030285 www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients. Food addiction in adults is associated with elevated body mass index (BMI) [10] and increased visceral adiposity [11]. The concept of food addiction remains a controversial topic, as there is no consensus definition of addictive-like eating in humans
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