Does Consumer Awareness of Food Addiction Affect Eating Behavior?

Raising concerns about how the media portrays the concept of food
addiction, a new study questions whether endorsement of this model
“may cause people to perceive a lack of control over eating which could
promote unhealthy dietary behaviors.” Charlotte Hardman, et al., “‘Food
Addiction is Real’: The effects of exposure to this message on self-diagnosed
food addiction and eating behavior,” Appetite, April 2015.

To explore this hypothesis, researchers with the University of Liverpool
and University of Bristol directed 60 study participants to read fake new
articles describing food addiction as either a “myth” or “real.” The study
then used a disguised taste test to measure consumption of “indulgent”
and “non-indulgent” snack foods (potato chips, cookies, breadsticks and
grapes), in addition to asking participants if they perceived themselves as
food addicts.

The results evidently showed that “the proportion of self-diagnosed
addicts more than doubled (57%) when participants were exposed to
information that food addiction is real, relative to participants who were
informed that food addiction is a myth.” The study also reported that
mean intake of food did not increase after exposure to food addiction
messages, although “the variability in food intake was significantly
greater in the Real condition relative to the Myth condition.”

“Our study contributes to a more general debate around whether
acceptance of the food addiction model is helpful or counterproductive,”
conclude the authors. “On the one hand, the belief that food is addictive
may offer some solace to individuals who are struggling with eating
and weight … However, the alternative argument is that public health
messages which imply a lack of personal control over eating may
undermine beneficial self-regulatory processes, such as health-focused
dieting, and result in high-calorie food choices.”

Issue 562