New York Times Blog Offers “Food Addiction” Quiz

“Are you a food addict?,” asks a September 20, 2012, New York Times “Well”
blog post featuring a “food addiction” quiz . Citing several food studies
allegedly suggesting “that food and drug addiction have much in common,
particularly in the way that both disrupt the parts of the brain involved in
pleasure and self-control,” columnist Tara Parker-Pope offers a shortened
version of the Yale Food Addiction Scale created by researchers at Yale
University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. The quiz asks readers
to respond to such questions such as, “I find myself consuming certain foods
even though I am no longer hungry” and “I keep consuming the same types
or amounts of food despite significant emotional and/or physical problems
related to my eating.” Based on the inputted responses, the applet then
provides a food addiction score ranging from “not addicted” to “possible food
addiction” indicating that “you may meet the criteria for food addiction as
defined by the Yale Food Addiction Scale.”