Compulsive Eating Behavior and Food Addiction

Emerging Pathological Constructs

Pietro Cottone,Catherine F Moore,Valentina Sabino,George F. Koob

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780128163832
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Neuropsychology
• Index: Psychology

Compulsive Eating Behavior and Food Addiction: Emerging Pathological Constructs is the first book of its kind to emphasize food addiction as an addictive disorder. This book focuses on the preclinical aspects of food addiction research, shifting the focus towards a more complex behavioral expression of pathological feeding and combining it with current research on neurobiological substrates. This book will become an invaluable reference for researchers in food addiction and compulsive eating constructs.

Compulsive eating behavior is a pathological form of feeding that phenotypically and neurobiologically resembles the compulsive-like behaviors associated with both drug abuse and behavioral addictions. Compulsive eating behavior, including Binge Eating Disorder (BED), certain forms of obesity, and 'food addiction' affect an estimated 70 million individuals worldwide.

• Synthesizes clinical and preclinical perspectives on addictive eating behavior
• Identifies how food addiction is similar and/or different from other addictions
• Focuses on the underlying neurobiological mechanisms
• Provides information on therapeutic interventions for patients with food addiction

Chapter 1

A history of “food addiction”

Adrian Meule Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

Abstract

It seems widely accepted that research on “food addiction” is a new field that emerged in the 21st century because of the obesity pandemic. This chapter will demonstrate that this concept is not new at all. Food was mentioned along with addiction as early as the 19th century. The term “eating addiction” to describe patients with binge eating was first used in the 1930s. The term “food addiction” was first used in the 1950s. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, different addiction perspectives on chocolate consumption, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and obesity were lively discussed. Thus, research on “food addiction” encompasses a long history with recurring themes that receive renewed interest in recent years.

Keywords

Anorexia nervosa; Binge eating; Bulimia nervosa; Eating addiction; Food addiction; Obesity

A chocolate inebriate has appeared. His addiction has been for three years, and his general health is much impaired, principally the digestion. His only thought night and day is how to get chocolate.

The Quarterly Journal of Inebriety, Volume 12, Issue 4, October 1890 (p. 392)

Introduction

Concepts of diseases and mental disorders are not set in stone. References to drink madness can be found in ancient civilizations and terms such as drunkenness, intemperance, inebriety, dipsomania, or alcoholism were used in the 18th and 19th centuries to describe substance-related addictive disorders (White, 2000). While the fourth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) distinguished between substance abuse and substance dependence (American Psychiatric Association, 1994), this distinction has been repealed in its fifth revision. The DSM-5 now lists several substance use disorders and, for the first time, a non–substance-related addiction: gambling disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

Similar dynamics can be found in the field of eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa was the first eating disorder included in DSM-I in 1952 and appeared along pica and rumination in DSM-II in 1968 (Dell’Osso et al., 2016). Bulimia nervosa was added to the DSM-III in 1980. The DSM-IV yet again involved some slight changes in the categorization of eating disorders and now—in addition to changes made to the diagnostic criteria for anorexia and bulimia nervosa—the DSM-5 lists pica, rumination disorder, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and other specified eating disorders (e.g., night eating syndrome).

In the light of high prevalence rates of obesity in the past decades, there is an increased interest if certain foods may have an addiction potential and if obese individuals—or at least a subgroup of them—can be considered “food-addicted.” In fact, it seems widely accepted that “food addiction” is a relatively new idea that was conceived in the past 20 years to explain the rising obesity prevalence (Davis, Edge, & Gold, 2014; Yau, Gottlieb, Krasna, & Potenza, 2014). Yet, is this alleged “new disorder” really a new concept in an attempt to explain why nowadays so many people are obese? This chapter will demonstrate that the concept of “food addiction” actually has a long history and did not arise from the obesity pandemic.

References to addiction in relation to food in the 19th century

In the scientific literature, references to addiction in relation to food have been made as early as the late 19th century. In the first journal of addiction medicine—the Journal of Inebriety (1876–1914)—food was routinely mentioned (Davis & Carter, 2014; Weiner & White, 2007). When describing “diseased cravings,” for example, Clouston (1890) referred to the stimulating effects of, craving for, and dependence on both food and alcohol (Table 1.1). Similarly, Crothers (1890a) cautions against some stimulating foods when describing how diseases in children with “alcoholic ancestors” should be treated (Table 1.1). Finally, a case of a “chocolate inebriate” is mentioned in the journal (Crothers, 1890b), describing his persistent craving for and preoccupation with chocolate as an addiction (Table 1.1).

A description of eating disorders in 1932

Mosche Wulff was a Soviet-Israeli physician and psychoanalyst who lived from 1878 to 1971. In 1932, he published an article in German in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis (Fig. 1.1), in which he describes case studies of five of his patients (Wulff, 1932). I refer interested readers to an article by Stunkard (1990) that provides a short biographical note on Moshe Wulff along with an English translation of some excerpts of his article. In a nutshell, Wulff's case studies include the description of binge eating, including precedent food craving and subsequent feelings of guilt as well as aspects of emotional eating (eating more in response to negative affect, eating less when in a positive mood) and restrained eating (periods of restriction between eating binges). Importantly, he calls the symptomatology of all five cases “eating addiction” (German: Esssucht) throughout the article and provides an explanation for using this term at the end (Table 1.1).

“Food addiction” in the 1950s

Following up on Wulff's observations, Hamburger (1951) noted the apparent parallels between recurrent binge eating episodes and gambling or drinking: “it is this eating pattern that most readily invites the label ‘addictive’” (Table 1.1). The American physician Theron Randolph (1906–95) first used the term “food addiction” in the scientific literature in 1956 (Table 1.1). In contrast to modern views that associate addiction with the consumption of highly processed foods (Ifland et al., 2015; Schulte, Avena, & Gearhardt, 2015), however, he noted that “most often involved are corn, wheat, coffee, milk, eggs, potatoes, and other frequently eaten foods” (Randolph, 1956, p. 221). Although “food addiction” did not appear in other scientific articles around this time, famous psychiatrist Albe...