‘Food addiction’. What happens in childhood?

Abstract

The term food addiction, which refers to eating behavior involving the overconsumption of specific foods in an addiction-like manner, has been used in the scientific community for decades (Hinkle, Knowles, Fischer, & Stunkard, 1959; Randolph, 1956). However, studies aimed at proving or disproving the validity of this concept remained rare in the 20th century. Mainstream media and scientific attention has dramatically increased in recent years (Davis & Carter, 2009; Gearhardt, Davis, Kuschner, & Brownell, 2011; Moss, 2013). The concept of having an addiction to food parallels diagnostic criteria of substance use disorders (such as addiction to alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, and other substances) and features overconsumption of highly palatable, high-caloric foods (Barry, Clarke, & Petry, 2009; Gearhardt, Corbin, & Brownell, 2009b; Gearhardt, White, & Potenza, 2011). Part of the growing body of research pertaining to food addiction includes the increasing variety and availability of energy dense, nutrient poor foods. These extra/ discretionary foods may have an addictive potential as a result of increased potency due to certain nutrients or additives (Ifland et al., 2009). To date, the media attention and research pertaining to food addiction has been focused in adults. Moreover, food addiction has largely been a self-identified and self-reported condition, which has limitations in regard to the reliability and validity of reporting. Currently, ‘food addiction’ has no formally recognized definition; it is typically described and established according to principles established from the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS). The YFAS was developed in 2009 and is the only tool available to assess symptoms that in combination may resemble an addiction to certain foods. The YFAS is a questionnaire in which individuals self-report their post food consumption emotional state, physical responses, attitudes toward food and eating and potential professional or social implications of addictive food behaviors (Gearhardt, Corbin, & Brownwell, 2009a). The YFAS is based upon substance dependence criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and scales used to assess behavioral addictions such as gambling. In adults, prevalence rates of “food addiction” have been recently systematically reviewed with diagnosis using the YFAS having a weighted mean value of 19.9% ranging between 5.4 and 56.8% with higher values found for females, those classified as overweight or obese and those with binge eating disorder or bulimia nervosa (Meule & Gearhardt, 2014a; Pedram et al., 2013; Pursey, Stanwell, Gearhardt, Collins, & Burrows, 2014). The YFAS has been previously shown to have high internal reliability and convergent validity in adults with other established self-reported eating pathologymeasures (Gearhardt et al., 2009a; Meule & Gearhardt, 2014a). Very few studies have investigated correlates of the YFAS with objective measures such as behavioral tasks or neuroimaging. One previous study included functional brain imaging in female adults only (Gearhardt et al., 2011) while another investigated impulsive reactions in response to food-cues in female students (Meule, Lutz, Vogele, & Kubler, 2012). A few studies examined associations with genetic markers of dopamine or opioid signaling (Davis & Loxton, 2014; Davis et al., 2013) or appetite changes following a methylphenidate challenge (Davis, Levitan, Kaplan, Kennedy, & Carter, 2014). These studies showed that a subgroup of individuals who exhibit ☆ Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest and no funding associated with this paper. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: Tracy.burrow@newcastle.edu.au (T. Burrows).