Is It Food Addiction of Cocaine Abuse?
New York Times Bestseller The Hunger Fix Dr. Pam Peeke uses the latest neuroscience to explain how, with repeated exposure coupled with life stresses, any food can become a “False Fix” and ensnare you in a vicious cycle of food obsession, overeating, and addiction. Indeed, she shows that dopamine rushes in the body can work exactly the same way with food as with drugs like cocaine. Here is exactly how she described it
What they’ve shown is that the prefrontal cortex actually shows organic damage to the orbital frontal part of the brain with someone who is just full-on addicted. They’ve done comparisons of brains in people who are cocaine abusers and those who are food addicted, according to the Yale Food Addiction Scale. What they found is that the brains are indistinguishable. You cannot tell the cocaine abusers from the food addicted because the damage is exactly the same. When people say “It’s psychology. For God’s sake, rein it in. It’s just one cupcake,” it demeans the entire experience of food addiction. That cookie triggers the entire domino effect in the rewards system. Your prefrontal cortex is so damaged that it can’t stand up to this hijacked rewards system and say “Wait a minute, what are we doing here?”
