Summary

• Obesity and binge eating are on the rise. One possible reason is food addiction.
• Factors such as: maternal diet, culture, easy access to potentially addictive food (i.e., fast food & manufactured food), genetics, lack of exercise and developmental issues may all play a role in this trend.
• Society has now reached a point where it is considered normal to be overweight and it is accepted as a norm that a person will gain weight throughout his life.
• Our culture provides easy access to high calorie, highly palatable food while our lives often minimize the amount of caloric expenditure.
• These foods are highly advertised leading to desires for these foods.
• Genetics has also been suggested to be involved in food addiction through thrifty genes, as well as predisposing to addictive behaviors.
• The environment within the uterus and subsequent exposure to calorie dense food is also postulated to play a role in the development of food addiction.
• Thus, there is no one cause of food addiction, but is likely multifactorial.
• As it stands, obesity and binge eating behaviors will continue to be a threat to global health.
• As such, it is perhaps time to reevaluate the current food environment from many aspects while taking into consideration both the individual’s perspective and society as a whole.
• Societal measures may, in fact, be required at this time as dysfunctional eating behaviors affect not only the current generation, but also its offspring due to the effects that consuming certain highly palatable foods may have on the developing brain in utero.

GO TO TEST on Genetic, Cultural, and Environmental Factors in Obesity, Food Addiction, and Binge Eating.