Addictions stimulate similar brain activity. I guess it is just like has been said over the years usually when you are addicted to one type you will sometimes just replace it with a different addiction. Take cigarette smoking for example; how many people do you know that have quit smoking only to take up excessive eating or even excessive exercise habits? So in essence they are giving up one addictive behavior and replacing it with another.
A new study from the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity suggests that a chocolate milkshake and a line of cocaine might not be so different. The study included 48 women with an average age of 21 who ranged from lean to obese. they took a test developed at the Rudd Center to measure food addiction, based on an established test for measuring drug addiction.
With functional magnetic resonant imaging; a brain imaging procedure, the researchers examined brain activity when the subjects were shown, and then drank a chocolate milkshake. The results were compared with subjects brain response to the anticipation and consumption of a tasteless solution.
What they found was that the brains of subjects who scored higher on the food addiction scale exhibited neural activity similar to that seen in drug addicts, with greater activity in brain regions responsible for cravings and less activity in the regions that curb urges. The researchers also found that the brain activity indicative of addiction was found in both lean and obese subjects who scored high in the test for food addiction.
It's also been suggested that certain triggers, such as advertisements for food, have not just a psychological, but a physiological, effect on certain people.
So for those of you that may have an addictive side to you, everything in moderation, don't watch advertisements for food and as long as your at it, get off the couch and get moving.
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