Are you addicted to food?

By: 60 Minutes Overtime Staff
Topics: Overtime Original

Could obesity be a brain disorder? Is compulsive overeating similar to drug addiction?

In conjunction with Brookhaven National Laboratory, addiction researcher Nora Volkow has been using brain imaging to study the nature of addiction. This week, she told Morley Safer that her research suggests that drugs and food manipulate the brain in many of the same ways.

Volkow said that compulsive eaters crave food with more intense desire than the average person, but when they get their hands on a bite, it's rarely as satisfying as they expect it to be. That may be the reason why people keep eating well past the point of fullness or pleasure.

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by dolphinlovers10 May 7, 2012 7:55 PM EDT: If it's a 'brain thing', how do you deal with it? Is it related to dopamine deprivation? Is there any way to alter this situation?; Reply to this comment

by dolphinlovers10 May 7, 2012 7:52 PM EDT

If it's a 'brain thing', how do you deal with it? Is it related to dopamine deprivation? Is there any way to alter this situation?

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by dolphinlovers10 May 7, 2012 8:13 PM EDT: Since my question, I read the Facebook Live Chat with Dr. Volkow and found many fascinating questions and remarks about dealing with this. Good job, 60 Minutes and Dr. Volkow. Thank you!

by Food_Addicts_in_Recovery May 3, 2012 11:39 AM EDT

Are you having trouble controlling the way you eat? Many of us with this problem have found help in Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA). FA is a program based on the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. The program offers help and recovery to those whose connection with food can be understood as a form of addiction. There are no dues or fees and the meetings include no weigh-ins. Membership is international and includes men and women, adolescents, and the elderly. All are welcome.

People who find help in FA vary greatly. Some of us have been diagnosed as morbidly obese while others are undereaters. Among us are those who were severely bulimic, who have harmed themselves with compulsive exercise, or whose quality of life was impaired by constant obsession with food or weight. We tend to be people who, in the long-term, have failed at every solution we tried, including therapy, support groups, diets, fasting, exercise, and in-patient treatment programs.

Some of our members have been in continuous recovery (maintaining a stable, healthy weight and enjoying freedom from obsession with food, weight, bingeing, or bulimia) for over twenty-five years. Members with five to ten years of recovery are increasingly common.

FA has over 350 meetings throughout the United States in large and small cities such as Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Charlotte, Grand Rapids, Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, Austin, and Washington, D.C. Internationally, FA currently has groups in England, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Australia. If you would like more information about FA, please check out our website. If there aren't any meetings in your area, you can contact the office, where someone will help you.

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by bertie_bertie May 14, 2012 4:11 PM EDT: I am a member of FA and it has changed my life. I had cravings for flour and sugar that were out of this world! I know FA has been around for a long time and I am glad that people are starting to recognize food addiction because it is so hard to tell someone that I react to pastries and ice cream like an alcoholic reacts to alcohol - they don't get it! But now that I haven't had flour and sugar in awhile, I don't physically crave it anymore. Sometimes it looks really good when I see it, but if I can distract myself, then I forget about it. Oh, and I'm a size 6, have tons of energy, eat a ton of healthy food and people are always saying how "tiny" I am! LOL. I didn't use to be!


by ImproveYourGroove May 2, 2012 12:34 PM EDT: Kudos to CBS for talking about this. Food addiction is real. As a health practitioner, many of our clients have true addiction to certain food. In fact, we are doing a 1-hour virtual class about this very issue, along with REAL solutions to overcome it. http://improveyourgroove.com/groovy-guide-to-conquering-cravings/; Reply to this comment


by MZelsman May 1, 2012 10:50 AM EDT: It's great that Dr. Nora Volkow is bringing food addiction research to the mainstream. Addiction, whether it be to food, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, work, etc., really IS a disease as much as is cancer, diabetes, or any other life-threatening disease. Kudos to both Mr. Safer and Dr. Volkow for telling this important story.; Reply to this comment

by SarahBOhio April 30, 2012 3:22 PM EDT

Personally I think if people would slow down and enjoy their food, maybe they wouldn't eat so much. Seems like everyone is in a rush, gobbling down whatever they can find in a hurry. Before you know it you've consumed twice what you really need.

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by vallyeinars May 11, 2012 9:34 AM EDT: If you had listened carefully to what dr. Volkow was saying than you would have heard her say that food addicts dont feel the enjoyment of the food they are eating. Thats why they keep eating and cannot stop. They constantly think of food and what their next meal is going to be, its an obsession. Of course we need to give ourselves the time to sit down and enjoy our food, but if you are a food addict, its very much impossible.


by liveloveforgod April 30, 2012 10:40 AM EDT: 10,000 people have reversed food addition by learning and healing the root cause which is usually emotional abuse.

Just google SPIRIT HAPPY FOOD ADDICTION; Reply to this comment


by Lono37 April 30, 2012 12:35 AM EDT: Should be "Brookhaven National Laboratory," not "Brookhaven University."; Reply to this comment


by m.lorberg April 29, 2012 7:58 PM EDT: Shame on you Maury for taking a political swipe during a very important piece. I 'ass-u-me' you knew better. Nancy Reagan's "Just say no" campaign was NEVER aimed at practicing addicts. It was aimed at those who HADN'T tried a drug. Much like Johnny Carson's thinking that marijuana should not be legalized, because like alcohol, there may be a percentage of people who would become addicted. I would expect such an approach from a partisan like Lesley, but not from you. It was beneath you.; Reply to this comment

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