Food Addiction Beliefs Drive Support for Obesity-Related Initiatives

New research reportedly suggests that belief in food addiction translates
into support for obesity-related policies, “even when accounting for the
significant associations of age, gender and political party.” Erica Schulte,
et al., “Belief in Food Addiction and Obesity-Related Policy Support,”
PLoS One, January 2016. Relying on the responses of 200 individuals
recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk to answer questions about
belief in food addiction and support for 13 obesity-related initiatives,
researchers reported that “belief in food addiction and political party
both had moderate effect sizes for predicting support for obesity-related
policy.”

“Historically, the identification of a substance as addictive shifts public
perceptions in a manner that increases support for public policies that
aim to reduce the negative impact of the substance (e.g., restrictions
on marketing, taxation),” the study’s authors noted. “For example, the
identification of nicotine as addictive, rather than habit forming, was one
of the defining moments that shifted public attitudes about cigarettes and
led to the development of new tobacco-focused policies.”

The study thus speculates that when presented with evidence supporting
a food addiction model, the public will increasingly adopt a more
favorable stance toward obesity-related initiatives. As it concludes,
“Participants who agreed that certain foods can be addictive were more
likely to endorse support for policies that aim to reduce obesity (e.g.,
fruit/vegetable subsidies, limiting the size of sugar-sweetened beverages…
Though applying an addiction, or ‘brain disease’ framework to
drugs and behaviors has yielded mixed results on stigma, the current
findings suggest that belief in an addiction model of obesity is associated
with support for public policies that aim to reduce obesity.”

Issue 592