Food Addiction in Adolescents and Young Adults
Compulsive overeating, also referred to as food addiction, is characterized by an obsessive/compulsive relationship with food. Experiments in animals and humans show that, for some teenagers and young adults, the same reward and pleasure centers of the brain that are triggered by addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin are also activated by food, especially foods that are rich in sugar, fat, and salt. These foods are categorized as palatable foods.
Similar to addictive drugs, highly palatable foods trigger "feel good" brain chemicals such as dopamine. Once an individual experiences the pleasure associated with increased dopamine transmission in the brain's reward pathway from eating the palatable foods they will often times feel the immediate need to eat again. Troubled teenagers and young adults suffering from a compulsive overeating disorder engage in frequent episodes of uncontrolled eating, also known as binge eating. During these episodes the individual begins consuming these palatable foods past the point of being comfortably full.
Bulimia is sometimes confused with compulsive overeating. Unlike troubled teenagers and young adults struggling with bulimia, compulsive overeaters do not attempt to compensate for their bingeing with purging behaviors such as fasting, laxative use, and vomiting. Scientists believe that food addiction is a major contribution to obesity in teenagers and young adults. Compulsive overeating for long periods of time may cause serious medical conditions including high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, major depression, and so on.