Addiction to food, drugs similar in the brain
When these women saw pictures of a chocolate milk shake made with Häagen-Dazs ice cream, they displayed increased activity in the same regions of the brain that fire when people who are dependent on drugs or alcohol experience cravings. When presented with the same milk shake, women who don't feel addicted to food showed comparatively less activity in those regions.Women whose relationship to food resembles dependence or addiction -- those who often lose control and eat more than they'd planned, for example -- appear to anticipate food in much the same way that drug addicts anticipate a fix, according to the study, which used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans.(Health.com) -- Ice cream and other tasty, high-calorie foods would seem to have little in common with cocaine, but in some people's brains they can elicit cravings and trigger responses similar to those caused by addictive drugs, a new study suggests.
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