Food Addiction

Back in 2006 my very first client asked me if I could do anything for weight loss, and since then I have been asked that question about 15 times a week.  Clearly, there was a big demand for bioresonance to tackle this issue but my problem was this.
When I help someone to stop smoking, drinking or taking drugs it is on the understanding that they are going to stop completely, never ever have another cigarette, beer or whatever again.  I couldn’t really ask people to do that with food; after all, we all have to eat.
Then, in the summer of 2010 I came across an exciting new piece of research.  Neuroscientists at Princeton University in America had discovered that foods high in sugar, fat and salt, as most junk foods are-can alter your brain chemistry in the same way as highly addictive drugs such as cocaine and heroin.  Thus creating a (junk) food addict. (see ‘Junkie Foods’ for more info)
I realised that this information was something I could work with. In the same way as I created my programmes to end substance addiction, I now had the beginnings of an idea to deal with food addiction, or rather, the sugars, salts and fats in food that people crave and become addicted to.
The SuperDetox brain went into action and I spent the best part of three months researching, talking to experts, poring over the evidence and trying to create the perfect formula and protocol to combat this problem.
I realised that by approaching this problem in the same way as I developed the programmes for cigarette, drug and alcohol addiction, I could find a real solution without the need for drastic diets to a problem that was affecting so many people.  My goal was to find a way to combat this addiction in a way that would be pleasant, relaxing, stress free and easy for my clients, just like the clients on  my other addiction programmes do.

I tried several different variations until I was happy with the finished product and then I tried it out on my first ‘guinea pig’ me!

 

Preparing for Therapy

During our first phone call I will tell you more about the therapy and ask you about the problems you have been experiencing with food, this will enable me to decide which formula and protocol will work best with you.

We will discuss a course of action leading up to the session based on your individual situation.  Don’t worry, this is never anything drastic, it may involve, increasing your water uptake, being sure not to fill your supermarket trolley with enough junk food for a month when your appointment is in two days, choosing a time and day best suited for you etc.

It is a good idea for you to keep a food and mood diary to give us both a clear idea of how foods are affecting you.  Keep a record of what you eat and how it makes you feel.  You do not have to show this to me, if you would prefer to keep it private, but it will help if you have an understanding of the effect food has on you.

If you are following a diet, keep to that until your appointment, and we will discuss the best way forward then.  Don’t think that you have to have one last binge before the session; you won’t feel like one afterwards, you won’t feel as if you are missing out on anything, and if having a binge makes you feel bad about yourself, it is not worth it.  Instead focus on how lovely you are going to feel free of your food addiction.

Do explore my website and find out more about bioresonance, read the wonderful stories that my clients have downloaded and imagine yourself after the session, free of your habit. Pay particular attention to the ‘Junkie Food’ article, this explains the addiction better than I ever could, think about how your habit developed and think about life after the session.  Yes, I will be able to help you break your addiction, and clients report that they are now able to eat small portions of previous trigger foods without it leading to a binge, however they are aware, as you should be that regular consumption of junk foods, will lead you back to the addiction.  This is not to say that you can never eat sugar, salts or fats again, simply that these substances in large and regular quantities will change the way your brain chemistry works and you are in danger of becoming addicted again.

What happens on the day?

Try to chose at time and day when you relaxed and do not have any other pressing appointments.  I would like you to eat as you usually do, it is important that you do not arrive at the session hungry, this is especially important if your appointment is running close to your usual mealtime.   I may ask you to bring along a favourite food for use in the session e.g chocolate, crisps, bread etc 

On the day of the appointment, try to drink only water, and be prepared to drink water during and after the session, this is to help flush out toxins.  If you have difficulty drinking water please discuss this with me during our phone consultation and I may be able to help.

You will have two sets of bands attached to your wrists and ankles through which the Bioresonance equipment scans and balances you. 



You will then receive the Bioresonance patterns and I will tell you more about how bioresonance ends food addiction, we will have a chat about your previous food patterns and plan for the future.

You will find the treatment very relaxing, (you may even fall asleep).  During the session, you don’t really feel anything, no buzzing, vibrations or needles etc, but you will feel very relaxed.  A client once described it as the best massage he had ever had without being touched.

It takes up to two hours after which you will feel a clear difference in yourself, free of the cravings, free of the thoughts that drove you to addiction..

You will have your own e-Pendant, charged with your own particular resonance patterns, please wear this or keep it close to your body and the bioresonance will continue to work long after I have gone.  You also have a progress chart, to record your journey.

After Therapy

Do not drink alcohol, tea or coffee for 24 hours after treatment.
Drink only water !!!

You are detoxing and so you need water to help the body flush out the toxins from your body.  If you drink something else your body will stop doing what we have asked it to do and be diverted into having to deal with the new substance you have introduced into your body.  Make the most of this treatment and you will get the best from it.

Eat as normal but try to avoid red meat and having a heavy meal.

A sauna or a Turkish bath will aid the body in eliminating toxins.

You will find that you are no longer craving the foods that you once did, eat consciously and make conscious decisions about what you are going to eat.  Don’t reach for the pizza menu, just because that’s what you used to do on a Saturday night.  Be aware that food addiction builds up due to high exposure to foods high in sugar, salt and fats.  This does not mean that you will have to avoid these food groups for the rest of your life, but as you will no longer be craving the foods that made you addicted it makes sense not to eat them.  You will probably find that you have a desire for healthy foods, listen to your body and feed it the nourishment it needs and deserves.  Make respecting your body your highest priority and learn to love it and yourself.  This is a new beginning for you, free of the ties that bound you, so enjoy it! 

I will discuss the way forward with you during and after the session, each person is different and has different concerns and goals, we will find a route that will help and suit you.  There is nothing difficult about life after the Food Addiction session, the golden rule is simply, be sensible. And it really is that easy.  Oh, and don’t forget to read ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne.

I look forward to helping you soon

 

The cost of the Food Addiction session is £200 at the clinic and £250 for a home visit.*
Home visits get booked far in advance; you may find a sooner date for your appointment at the clinic.

*Home visits available within a 100 mile radius of Manchester.

Avril’s Story

As Victoria had helped my Son, Husband, Nephew and two friends stop smoking with her Bioresonance method, when I heard that she was now dealing with food addictions I didn’t hesitate to call her.   Now, I had tried eliminating foods before and had found it so hard, so of course I was sceptical that this was going to be another one of those torture regimes, but I kept an open mind, after all she had helped every one else break their awful habit of smoking.

My life has been a constant round of diets, I have tried everything, I have done every diet there is.  I have cut out complete food groups, I have done the liquid diets three times, had massive weight loss, and the minute I came off them, it all came back again with a vengeance. I’ve tried hypnosis,    I’ve tortured myself with denial of foods, you name it I have tried it, and I promise you I did not do these diets half heartedly, I really did put so much effort it them.  I have never found a solution and as my weight has yo-yo’d for   many years it has resulted in being diagnosed by my GP as being borderline type two diabetes.
The worst thing is when you are binging. and your weight is going up and down, you never know what is going to fit you in the morning. 

In my wardrobe I seem to have everything from a size 12 to an 18, and it is such a performance to get dressed every morning.   Its so soul destroying, its like “what is going to fit me this week,?”  I was constantly out shopping, buying bigger and bigger, and then smaller and smaller, and its awful having to go through that all the time.

The day came for my appointment with Victoria, I didn’t know what to expect but I was hopeful and excited and kept a very open mind and just let Victoria lead me, I felt reassured by her confidence and optimistic attitude.  She ran the programme on me and explained what she was doing and how it all works, we also talked about my dieting history and she gave loads of really sensible advice and encouragement.  During the session, I felt relaxed, and could feel a change in the way I felt after about half an hour.  I had eaten my husbands home made granola for breakfast and Victoria told me that I might have intolerance to oats and did some work on that problem.  My stomach had been distended and after she had done her stuff, the swelling had gone down and the big bump had gone, I looked a different shape!

After, the session I felt so different, relaxed and as if a change had taken place in me, both physically and mentally,  I trusted Victoria, but of course I still had my doubts and was sceptical that anything could ever end this cycle of misery.  Still, I felt so good, I was glad I had had it anyway.

Victoria, told me I had responded very well, and with a big smile, promised me that
‘Now we just have to see what happens next’,
The most amazing thing is, since that day, I haven’t needed to binge. I haven’t had to argue with myself once. I haven’t had to white knuckle it. I haven’t had to pick up the phone to a friend to beg them to talk me out of wanting to eat. I haven’t had to stay up till the middle of the night bingeing and making myself ill.

It’s been completely natural; it’s as if the cravings have just been waved away. Even though I kept an emergency supply of low fat treats in case I did get desperate,   I am pleased to say I haven’t needed, or had one binge. Despite the snacks were readily available in my kitchen cupboard, they were no longer calling to me every second of the day and night, or even at all!
I was at a coffee house with my husband and I actually asked him if he would like to share a scone with me, which we did.  Now anyone that knows me knows that AVRIL DOES NOT SHARE FOOD, well I didn’t but I do now!!!  And you know what, it was easy, I enjoyed it, I was satisfied with it and I didn’t feel as if it was going to set me off on a huge binge.

One day, for various reasons I hadn’t eaten very big meals and late on I was hungry, I was terrified that this was going to lead to you know what.  But no, I had a small meal that assuaged my hunger and I was fine.  Victoria praised me and said that was exactly the right thing to do, that I shouldn’t allow myself to get hungry like that, it was just my body giving me a message and that I should listen and act on it. 

At a friends house, she had a huge box of chocolates, I had two, they were delicious, but enough.  Again, no desire to jump in the whole tin to gorge myself silly. Controlled eating, with no effort. 

I feel calm, I am going to bed much earlier and I am sleeping better, friends and family comment on how different I seem.  Food was controlling my life, and now I am in control of my food, I am in control of my life.   Its such a relief to no longer be constantly thinking about the next fix, I really was eating ALL day, mostly in secret but always, always  eating.  Now I have three meals a day and I’m  fine, I’m  happy, I’m at peace. I feel normal. . All the foods I used to binge on don’t even appeal to me.  I have been out for meals in fabulous restaurants and haven’t even been bothered by the sweet trolley.  It’s been easy to choose great, healthy food.  Instead of craving for junk my body has been telling me to eat well.  The weight is starting to move, I tried on a pair of trousers last night that were a 14 and they fastened, the last time I wore them was probably 18 months ago, Victoria has stressed that this is not a ‘diet’ or a ‘weight loss programme’ its an end to food addiction.   Well, its 40 days after my session, I feel as if I have kicked the habit, and I suppose if I am not consuming all those empty calories any more, then I am going to lose weight, so that is an added bonus.

I would also like to thank you Victoria for all your support, I am so grateful to you for all your help and fantastic daily back up.  I could never have done it on my own.

Joy’s Story

I had heard about Victoria from a friend she had seen.My friend and I had shared a long dieting history together, with all the ups and downs that come with it, but she told me that after the session with Victoria she felt like a changed woman, both physically and mentally, her cravings had disappeared and she was eating normally, something she had never experienced before. And something I had never seen in her. My reaction was ‘I want that’ I briefly met Victoria and was of course sceptical but where dieting is concerned I would try most things.  I booked an appointment.

Victoria came to my home, explained about bioresonance and her food addiction programme, set me up on the system  and we chatted about my eating habits and I told her that I never felt full and I always wanted more, constantly thinking about food, and having to deny myself so much.

A particular favourite is apples and I have been known to eat two or three at a time, and its unheard of for me to ever leave any food.  Shortly after the session commenced Victoria seemed to see something on her screen and suggested I ate an apple, as she wanted to see how I responded to it now.  I began to eat it,   unbelievably, I could only eat half.  I was astonished!   I knew something had taken place, never ever had that happened before.  Apples were usually a trigger food for me and one bite would always lead to a binge, not this time.

And this is actually the half of the apple I left uneaten, I was so shocked as it’s unheard of for me to leave food, yet I did, here is the proof. Since the session I am able to eat for instance, half an orange when normally I would eat three, I enjoy it and its fine, I have no guilt, just pleasure.  I’m not craving sweet food, I used to be in agony looking at the sweet trolley and thinking about sugary foods then   having to deny myself, but I am not even bothered, not thinking about it. A weight has been lifted from me and I am able to think happy thoughts, not food thoughts.  I am still hungry for my three meals a day, which Victoria says is quite right, that this is a normal response to hunger, that it is a good sign and that I should listen to my body and respond appropriately, by eating three sensible meals, which I am doing, it’s marvellous. It’s so lovely not having to deny myself anything, but not bingeing, or thinking about bingeing I am just eating a balanced diet.  I am eating like a normal person, much smaller portions, and I feel satisfied and I am not craving for something else which is a miracle.  I feel a great relief. I had a cappuccino with chocolate for the first time in years, and I thought ‘I can have this’ and it didn’t set the craving off. It’s lovely. I am so looking forward to going to a wedding on Sunday because I know I will be able to have the meal and know I will be satisfied and happy, consequently I will be able to enjoy the occasion instead of worrying.   I am also going to wear a favourite dress which I am thrilled about it.

I just can’t thank you enough Victoria, you are amazing, and you have changed my life.  Thank you.

JOY  MANCHESTER

Pat’s Story

I visited SuperDetox on  8/10/2010    , The reason was that I felt that I was addicted to bread and found it incredibly hard to go through a day without , toast in the morning  sandwich lunch and maybe 1 piece with dinner , probably consuming up to half a loaf a day.  I always felt as if I was craving the carbs in bread and it would always be on my mind, nagging away, begging to fill the void.   Whilst I didn't for see a life without bread I certainly wanted to eat a lot less and maybe feel better for it, Victoria told me she was sure she could help.

Victoria explained that this was not a diet, or a weight loss system, but a programme to end addiction to certain foods.  She told me that there is now compelling evidence that foods high in sugar, fat and salt-as most junk foods are-can alter your brain chemistry in the same way as highly addictive drugs such as cocaine and heroin.  This made total sense to me,  I always felt that it was an addiction, that  I felt compelled to eat all day, that  I was constantly thinking about food, always wanting my fix, but never able to fill the void, no matter how much I consumed.

I felt differently immediately after the session, Victoria asked me if I fancied a sandwich, and for the first time I could not summon up the usual desire  that I felt  once I began to think about it.  I found that I no longer felt I had to have bread, indeed I barely even thought about it.  I found myself automatically making different choices for meals, its as if my body has been guiding me to healthier options, like soup and fruit.  Best of all I have never felt that I have had to deny myself anything because I have not been craving.   I have made these choices easily.

It has been much easier to cut out bread than I ever thought possible, thank you Victoria.

Patricia Eagle
Wilmslow

Shelly's Story

I own a Beauty Salon in North Manchester.  a few weeks ago a regular client of mine came in and I noticed that she seemed different, in a very positive way.  She took me to one side and told me that Victoria had been to see her and given her the food addiction bioresonance therapy, and that it had changed her whole life.

She knew how distressed I was with my eating disorder and how the bingeing and the fact that I always felt like I was eating the last meal of my life, was ruining everything I did.  To the point that I was depressed about it.  I had tried dieting but the reason that didn’t work was because it was making me more obsessed with food. I had to write out menus for the day, and it made me more obsessed with food, and more depressed always thinking about   what I could and couldn’t eat.
  So, she gave me Victoria’s phone number, and told me ‘whatever she has done to me she has completely calmed me down and got rid of the obsession with food’.
I decided to give Victoria a bell, we had a chat and I made a plan.. I cancelled my operation for a gastric sleeve, and went to the Canaries for a week, I decided to go on holiday and eat what I wanted and then on my first day back I would meet with Victoria.

I was very open minded, not sure what was going to happen but quite excited after all I had seen the change in my friend.
At the beginning of the session Victoria asked me to think about my favourite food and I began to get strong cravings and was getting agitated, she told me not to worry, that she would soon get rid of that nasty feeling. I began to feel very relaxed and forgot all about it.
  Then I had this wave of niceness come all over me, it felt like seventh heaven it was a relaxing feeling like I had never known before.  As if a great weight had been lifted off me.

The session took about two hours and I felt so lovely.  Before I knew it Victoria was asking me to think about food again, to summon up those cravings, but I couldn’t, it was like a distant memory, I really couldn’t get those old familiar feelings up no matter how it tried, I was astonished, I couldn’t get my head round what had happened.  They had been my constant companion for years, the nagging in my head, the anxiety of needing a fix. But they had just gone, disappeared; no matter how I tried they had disappeared. Like trying to remember a dream, those thoughts  just seemed farther and father away.

Well since then which is now three weeks later, my obsession and desire to binge has completely disappeared, I no longer have controlling thoughts about food. I am normal, I am eating three regular meals a day, I don’t feel like I am denying myself anything.  I have been out for a curry and shared a tikka masala with my Dad, which completely satisfied me. Prior to the bioresonance session I would have had a starter and three mains with rice and chips to share with my dad, and believe me we would eat the lot.  Even the waiter in the restaurant was shocked when I didn’t give my regular order.

I used to want everything on the menu, and now I am satisfied with a normal meal.
To tell you the truth I couldn’t care less if I never went out for another meal again.

Instead of constantly eating all day, I just have three regular meals and don’t feel as if I want to pick between meals.
The obsession has now gone and I am three weeks down the line, happy relaxed and with a completely different attitude to food.
There is one last thing I would like to do.  When I had my session with Victoria I was open minded but still sceptical of course, and afterwards, cos I didn’t quite understand what had happened I still continued with a few bad habits, like sugar in my tea and enjoying something sweet, (despite the sweet tooth, I still managed to lose half a stone in the first week and my weight has continued to fall), now really I should have stopped that, but even though I am still eating sugar I am not craving it. I find I am  having a couple of chunks of chocolate and then leaving the rest without any effort.    However, I would like to get rid of my ‘sweet tooth’ and I am now aware of how the addiction to sugars is created by  having it regularly, just like a drug addict builds up a tolerance to drugs, so a sugar addict builds up a tolerance to sugar.   

So I am seeing Victoria again next week to sort that out. Now I know what to expect I feel better prepared to cut out sugar on a daily basis and 100% confident in the bioresonance therapy and Victoria.

I have also changed my way of shopping and am determined that my children will not be repeating my mistakes.   Its so easy to buy bulk offers and large sizes of junk food, but no more.  I am going to save my children from the life of misery that I had with my old relationship with food.

I would like to say a huge big massive thank you, words cant explain how grateful I feel to you Victoria,  cos you have  given me peace of mind and its so liberating, for the first time in years I feel free.

Shelly Floyd
Prestwich

Junkie food: Tastes your brain can’t resist

Is that cupcake an innocent indulgence? Or your next hit? We’re finding that a sweet tooth makes you just as much an addict as snorting cocaine

SETTLED on the sofa watching the usual rubbish on TV, I notice that predictable, uncontrollable, nightly craving. At first I sit there, fighting it. But the longer I fight, the worse it gets. After 20 minutes, I can’t concentrate on anything, I feel anxious, and start fidgeting like crazy. Finally, admitting my addiction, I break. I go to the freezer – to my stash of white stuff – and take a hit. Almost instantly, I relax, my brain in a state of bliss as the chemical courses through my veins. Isn’t it amazing what a few scoops of ice cream can do?

Before you dismiss my agitation as mere weakness, consider this: to my brain, sugar is akin to cocaine. There is now compelling evidence that foods high in sugar, fat and salt – as most junk foods are – can alter your brain chemistry in the same way as highly addictive drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

The idea, considered fringe just five years ago, is fast becoming a mainstream view among researchers as new studies in humans confirm initial animal findings, and the biological mechanisms that lead to “junk-food addiction” are being revealed. Some say there is now enough data to warrant government regulation of the fast food industry and public health warnings on products that have harmful levels of sugar and fat. One campaigning lawyer claims there could even be enough evidence to mount a legal fight against the fast food industry for knowingly peddling food that is harmful to our health, echoing the lawsuits against the tobacco industry in the 1980s and 90s.

“We have to educate people about how their brains get hijacked by fat, sugar and salt,” says David Kessler, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration and now a director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, based in Washington DC. With obesity levels rocketing across the world, it is clear that I am not alone in my love of sweet things, but can it really be as bad as drug addiction?

We have to educate people about how their brains get hijacked by fat, sugar and salt
Arguably, it was the weight-loss industry that first introduced the idea to the public, long before there was any scientific evidence for it. For example, in her book Lick the Sugar Habit, published in 1988, the self-confessed “sugarholic” Nancy Appleton offered a checklist to determine whether you, too, are addicted to sugar. Since then, the notion has become commonplace.

In 2001, intrigued by this nascent cultural phenomenon, neuroscientists Nicole Avena, now at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and Bartley Hoebel at Princeton University, together began exploring whether the idea had a biological basis. They started by looking for signs of addiction in animals that had been eating junk food.

Hooked on sugar

Sugar is a key ingredient in most junk food, so they offered rats sugar syrup, similar to the sugar concentration in a typical soda beverage, for about 12 hours each day, alongside regular rat feed and water. After just a month on this diet, the rats developed behaviour and brain changes that Avena and Hoebel claimed were chemically identical to morphine-addicted rats. They binged on the syrup and showed anxious behaviour when it was removed – a sign of withdrawal. There were also changes in the neurotransmitters in the nucleus accumbens, a region associated with reward.

Crucially, the researchers noticed that the rats’ brains released the neurotransmitter dopamine each time they binged on the sugar solution, even after having eaten it for weeks (Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, vol 32, p 20). That’s not normal.
Dopamine drives the pursuit of pleasure – whether it is food, drugs or sex. It is a brain chemical vital for learning, memory, decision-making and sculpting the reward circuitry. You would expect it to be released when they eat a new food, says Avena, but not with one they are habituated to. “That’s one of the hallmarks of drug addiction,” she says. This was the first hard evidence of a biological basis for sugar addiction, and sparked a slew of animal studies.

Those results were among the most exciting news in obesity research in the last 20 years, says Mark Gold, an international authority on addiction research and chairman of the psychiatry department at the University of Florida College of Medicine.
Since Avena and Hoebel’s landmark study, scores of other animal studies have confirmed the findings. But it is recent human studies that have finally tipped the balance of evidence in favour of labelling a love of junk food as a proper addiction.

Addicted brains

Addiction is commonly described as a dulling of the “reward circuits” triggered by the overuse of some drug. This is exactly what happens in the brains of obese individuals, says Gene-Jack Wang, chairman of the medical department at the US Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. In another landmark study published in 2001, he discovered a dopamine deficiency in the striatum of the brains of obese individuals that was virtually identical to those of drug addicts (The Lancet, vol 357, p 354).

In subsequent studies, Wang showed that even when (not obese) individuals are shown their favourite foods, an area of their brain called the orbital frontal cortex – involved in decision-making – experiences a surge of dopamine. The same area is activated when cocaine addicts are shown a bag of white powder. It was a shocking discovery that showed you don’t have to be obese for your brain to exhibit addictive behaviour. “I can tell they want it,” says Wang.
Another critical leap in identifying junk food as addictive was made by Eric Stice, a neuroscientist at the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene. Stice has been trying to predict a person’s propensity to junk food addiction. He has been watching how people’s brains respond when they are fed a brief burst of creamy chocolate milkshake. He then compares the brain activity of lean and obese individuals, to see if it differs.

In an as-yet-unpublished study he found that when fed milkshakes, lean adolescents with obese parents experienced a greater surge of dopamine – indicating a greater sense of satisfaction – than those who had lean parents. Stice suspects that this is where the problem begins. “There are people born for whom eating is just more orgasmic,” he says. It is this innate enjoyment of food that primes certain people to overeat.

There are people born for whom eating is just more orgasmic
Ironically, as they overeat, their reward circuitry dulls, which makes the food less satisfying and motivates them to eat more to compensate. They are essentially chasing the high of earlier heavenly eating experiences. This is precisely what we see with chronic alcohol or substance abuse, says Stice.

Stice has also shown that people with certain variants of the DRD2 and DRD4 genes are endowed with less active dopamine circuits, and as a result have a dulled dopamine response when eating appetising foods. Paradoxically, this places them at greater risk of obesity than a person without those gene variants because it means they have to eat more to get a sufficiently rewarding level of dopamine release (Science, vol 322, p 449; NeuroImage, vol 50, p 1618).
Together, these studies suggest there are two routes to food addiction corresponding to overactive or underactive dopamine systems, respectively: one if you find food more rewarding than the average person, and another if it isn’t rewarding enough.
Of course, fast food is more than just a sugar rush, it is often a rich cocktail of sugars, fats and salt. Neuroscientist Paul Kenny at The Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida, is probing the impact of a junk food diet on rat behaviour and brain chemistry. One of his recent studies showed that these foods trigger the same changes in the brain as those caused by drug addiction in humans.

In animals, as in humans, repeated cocaine or heroin use dulls the brain’s reward system. This leads to heavier use because the memory of a more pleasurable effect spurs the user to take more to get the same feeling, essentially chasing the high.
Kenny wondered whether rats that eat junk food would have a similar response to the cocaine-addicted rats he had already studied. He used three groups of rats. The first was a control group that only had access to standard rat feed. The second group could eat junk food – bacon, sausage, icing and chocolate – for only 1 hour each day with regular rat feed and water available for the rest of the time. The third group had an all-you-can-eat, around-the-clock buffet that included junk food and rat feed. After 40 days, Kenny stopped access to the junk food in both experimental groups. The rats with unlimited access to junk food essentially went on a hunger strike. “It was as if they had become averse to the healthy food,” says Kenny. It took two weeks before the animals began eating as much as those in the control group.

Unlimited access to a powerfully addictive drug like cocaine has a big impact on the brain, says Kenny, so you might expect any addictive effect from food to be much less pronounced. But that is not the case. “Changes happened rapidly and we really saw very, very, striking effects. That’s what surprised me.”

The obese, unlimited junk food rats had dulled reward systems and were compulsive eaters. They would even tolerate electric shocks to their feet designed to deter them from eating junk food when the rat feed was still available shock-free. Cocaine-addicted rats behave the same way towards their drug.

When Kenny examined the brains of the obese rats with the unlimited junk food diet, they too had a dopamine deficiency in their striatum, similar to the obese individuals in Wang’s study in humans. In the rats’ brains, Kenny noticed there was a marked drop in a particular dopamine receptor, called D2. But it wasn’t clear whether this drop affected a rat’s propensity to become addicted to junk food.

To test the relevance of D2 receptors, he artificially reduced their number in the brains of a group of rats and then offered them only junk food for two weeks. The effect was dramatic. Compared to the control group offered the same diet, the reward circuitry in the brains of the modified rats showed a dulled response almost immediately. Unlike normal rats, they gorged on junk food even when eating it was penalised with an electric shock. Crucially, rats with reduced D2 receptors fed only regular rat food did not show the same change in their reward circuitry (Nature Neuroscience, vol 13, p 635). It seems there is an interaction between reduced D2 receptors and consumption of junk food that leads to addiction, says Kenny.
Taken together with Stice and Wang’s results, this suggests that people who from birth have a low number of D2 receptors could also be prone to junk-food addiction. Kenny cautions that more studies in humans are needed before the conclusion can be generalised beyond rats.

Gold says there is plenty of evidence that food and drug addiction are so similar that treatments proven safe and effective for other addictions – such as alcohol, nicotine, cocaine and heroin – should be tested for food addiction too. “The real test of the ‘hedonic eating’ or food addiction hypothesis is if it can yield new and effective treatments,” he says.
What some people claim is now beyond doubt is that junk foods rich in salt, sugar and fat switch on biological mechanisms that are just as powerful, and hard to fight, as drugs of abuse. Given that we regulate drugs because of the harms they can cause, is it time to begin tougher regulation of fast food too?

Junk foods switch on biological mechanisms that are just as hard to fight as recreational drugs
John Banzhaf, a lawyer who teaches public interest law at George Washington University Law School in Washington DC, has been following the research for the last decade. In the 1960s, he won a court ruling that forced radio and TV stations across the US to provide free airtime for anti-smoking messages and played a major role in crafting lawsuits against the tobacco industry. Now he is turning his attention to the fast food industry and its role in fuelling the obesity epidemic.
Banzhaf believes there is now enough research for the US Office of the Surgeon General to issue a report on food addiction, as it did for nicotine addiction in 1988. “The Health Consequences of Smoking: Nicotine Addiction”, a report weighing in at over 600 pages, concluded that cigarettes were addictive, nicotine was the cause, and that the chemical and behavioural processes that define heroine and cocaine addiction were the same for tobacco. “At that point people began to accept it,” Banzhaf says. But he acknowledges this is going to be a tricky fight. “Fast food isn’t a [single] chemical so you can’t meaningfully ask the question ‘Is a triple bacon cheeseburger addictive?’ ” he says. It would have to be something more specific about quantities of sugar, salt and fat.

Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, says that scientists would be likely to agree that low levels of addiction do occur. It is these low levels, Brownell argues, that are of real concern. It is easy to identify obese people who need help with their food addiction, what is more difficult to see is the slim people who are addicted and may eventually become obese because of their addiction. “Long term, that’s what’s effecting public health – it’s the healthy-looking kid who needs three Cokes a day, not the person who already weighs 400 pounds [180 kilograms].”
Signs of things to come can already be seen across the US. For example, trans fats were recently banned in restaurants in New York City and throughout California, and fizzy drinks are being voluntarily taken out of some school vending machines in anticipation of a law that will mandate it.

Unsurprisingly, the food and drink industry is putting up a fight. These foods are only addictive to a “certain subset of consumers who don’t exhibit the discipline required”, says Hank Cardello, a former executive at food companies including Coca Cola and General Mills, and now a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, a think tank based in Washington DC. “People aren’t going to change their behaviour. To me it’s about getting calories off the streets.”
Discounting waste, spoilage and returns, the food available to us today is about 30 per cent higher in calories compared with 1970, says Cardello. He believes tax relief for companies producing low-calorie foods is one way to reduce calories consumed without destroying the companies that sell fast food.
Cardello says food companies don’t design food to be addictive, but admits many products are designed for “high hedonic value”, with carefully balanced combinations of salt, sugar and fat that, experience has shown, induce people to eat more.
Kessler points out that, of course, the ultimate power is in the consumers’ hands. Individuals have a responsibility to protect themselves, he says. I can vouch for the fact that it is possible to break the habit. After two weeks of going cold turkey, I can report I have successfully kicked my ice cream habit. Now, if only I could kick my junk TV addiction…

New Scientist, Bijal Trivedi is a writer based in Washington DC