The relationship between drug use, food neophobia and food addiction

Abstract

Drug use is associated with eating behaviour. Students with past history of broad drug use ate more in a laboratory snack and reported an elevated desire to eat. In an attempt to find potential mediating psychological variables, exploratory research revealed that high impulsivity is linked to both higher pleasantness of eating foods and consuming alcohol and higher frequency of alcohol use. Those with broader drug use, higher drug consumption, and high enjoyment of intoxication also rated the pleasantness of the taste of foods lower in a questionnaire study. Drug use was not associated with emotional or external eating and dietary restraint (DEBQ). In the present study, a possible link of drug use to food addiction and food neophobia was investigated. Seventy-nine university students (65% women)were administered the FoodNeophobia Scale (FNS), the Food Attitude Survey (FAS), the Yale Food Addiction Scale, Core Alcohol and Drug Survey, and appetite measures. Height and weight were also measured to compute BMI (ranged 18–40). Analyses revealed that breadth of drug use was correlated with lower food neophobia (FNS and FAS), low finickiness (FAS), and low general neophobia. Higher alcohol consumption was also associated with both low food and general neophobia. Food addiction was not related to drug use and BMI was correlated only with food addiction. In multiple regression, wider breadth of drug use emerged as the primary predictor of low neophobia. Low food neophobia and higher drug use have been associated with sensation seeking and it is proposed that it underlies the relationships observed in the present study.