Week 4 Flashcards
What did the video on food addiction reveal? (2)
Chemicals are being created in labs to make food as irresistible as possible to make you hooked (or addicted) to the reward of the chemicals releasing dopamine and pleasure chemicals in the brain
The food industry is doing this on purpose to compete and make as much money as possible
What is food addiction? (3)
A specific adaptation to one or more regularly consumed foods to which a person is highly sensitive
Produces a pattern of symptoms descriptively similar to those of other addictive substances
Not formally recognized as an addiction but the idea has been around for a long time
What does the general public see as the cause of FA? (2)
Some people think it is about the act of eating
Others believe it is the ingredients that are chemically engineered to make the food impossible to resist and addictive
What are the parallels between FA and SUDs? (5)
There is an addictive substances that books our brains
Individual risk factors like family history, mental illness and biological factors
Environmental risk factors like capitalism and industries pushing the substance for their own benefit
Behavioral symptoms like cravings and continued use in spite of consequences
Neurobiological underpinnings like dopamine theory and loss of control
What is the Yale Food Addiction Study? (2) Why is it limited?
It was created in 2009 (lasting over 10 years) to study the severity of food addiction using a questionnaire
The questionnaire asked about items similar to the DSM 5 SUD criteria
Uses analogistic reasoning by assuming the behavior is already addictive, which means it might not look at other behaviors/causes
What are some of the eating habits the YFAS looks at? (8)
Control of eating
Eating more and longer than expected
Persistent desire/cravings
Failure to stop
Impairment to social/occupational/recreational activities
Use in the face of adverse consequences
Tolerance
Withdrawal
What was the result of the Yale study? (2)
They measured all the criteria and created a food addiction scale to measure FA
They also collected and analyzed studies that used the scale 10 years later to determine a prevalence
According to the YFAS, what is the prevalence of FA? (2) What does this demonstrate? (2)
The more people have other food related problems (obesity, eating disorders), the more likely they are to be diagnosed with FA
This is especially true for eating disorders involving binge eating components
Demonstrates that FA cannot be attributed to just chemically processed foods but also environmental/behavioral factors
This might indicate that it is an ED, not an addiction since it isn’t tied to a single substance
What is anorexia nervosa? (2)
Not eating enough food to a point that you are underweight, resulting in a restriction of energy
Body image concerns are central; they have an intense fear of gaining weight and their weight is inextricably linked to their self worth
There is a disturbance in their perception of their body (they think they are fat when they are underweight)
Focus on dietary and eating restrictions to maintain/fix body weight results to a point that they ignore every other factor in their life
What are the 2 sub types of AN?
Restricting type where they don’t engage in purging behavior and mainly focus on dieting, fasting and exercise
Binge-eating/purging type where they have recurrent episodes of binge eating and purging behavior
What is bulimia nervosa? (3)
Binge-eating episodes where one eats a lot of food in a 2 hour period with a complete lack of control during that time
Compensatory purging after in order to prevent weight gain and counter the effects of what they’ve just done (vomiting, laxatives, etc.)
Self-evaluating is also unduly influenced by body shape and weight
What is binge eating disorder? (4)
Long standing tendency to over eat due to loss of control, especially when they are unhappy, stressed and feeling other strong emotions as it can be a coping method
The over-eating leads to binge eating episodes in phases (they can go months without doing so or do it every day of the week) as it is dependent on what is going on in their life
They will try to diet/restrict after but will relapse eventually
Tends to last for years or even most of one’s life
What is a trans diagnostic model of EDs? (3)
Sees the over-evaluation of body shape and weight and control as the key parts of EDs, with other factors like events and mood playing into the never-ending cycle of binging, purgin and relapsing
All different EDs fit into this model and explains why people diagnosed with one are often diagnosed with others or develop them throughout their illness
Helps explain the connection between behaviors so treatment can address the root of the problem
What similarities are there between addiction and binge eating? (8)
Cravings or urges
Loss of control
Preoccupied with thoughts of the behavior
Use as coping
Denial of severity of the problem
Attempts to keep it secret
Persists in face of adverse effects
Repeated unsuccessful quit attempts
What are the dissimilarities between addiction and binge eating? (4)
Does not involve the consumption of particular foods
Strong drive to avoid the behavior and substance (food)
Fear of the behavior
Could just be co-occurrence
What are the different treatment approaches to FA/ED? (3)
Dependent on the perspective you take
FA perspective would focus on restricting those addictive food
ED perspective would look at treating the roots causes depending on the ED (body image, weight, coping with stress, moderating self-restraint)
What are the two ways of looking at food addiction?
Behavioral addiction to the act of food consumption
Substance addiction to an addictive agent in ultra-processed foods
What are opioids derived from?
Derived from the sap of the opium poppy plant
What is the history of opioid addiction? (3)
Used commonly throughout millenia as a painkiller and for other medicinal purposes like sedation without losing consciousness
Pleasurable effects led to widespread use for non-medicinal purposes in the 19th century
After the publication of Confessions of an English Opium Eater, which raved about the positive experiences taking opium for pleasure, it was destigmatized and brought mainstream in society
What is morphine? (3)
The major active chemical in opium that is 10 times more potent than straight opium
A scientist in 1803 found a process to separate morphine from opium
He named opium after the Greek god of dreams Morpheus due to the blissful dreamlike state it produced
