Addicted to Food? It Could Be Your Parent’s Fault



Recent studies suggest that your parents' drinking patterns may have an impact on your risk of developing a food addiction.

A recent University of Michigan study found that people with an alcoholic parent are more likely to show symptoms of food addiction.

These foods, which include ice cream, chocolate, pizza, and fries, have excessively high concentrations of refined carbohydrates and lipids that may lead to addiction in some people.

Researchers at the University of Michigan wanted to know if having an alcoholic parent, who is a major risk factor for addiction, increased the likelihood of developing an addiction to highly processed foods.

This clinically serious addiction to highly processed foods, characterized by a loss of control over consumption, strong cravings, and an unwillingness to cut back despite unpleasant effects, appears to affect as many as 1 in 5 persons.

According to Lindzey Hoover, a graduate student in psychology at the University of Michigan and the study's lead author, "people who have a family history of addiction may be at greater risk for developing a problematic relationship with highly processed foods, which is really challenging in a food environment where these foods are cheap, accessible, and heavily marketed."

The study found that those with food addiction were also more likely to experience personal issues with alcohol, cannabis, tobacco, and vaping. However, addictive behaviors did not stop with food.

The main causes of avoidable death in the modern world are diets that are dominated by foods that have been heavily processed and an excessive consumption of addictive substances. According to this study, interventions are required to simultaneously decrease addictive food and drug usage.

Hoover noted that it may be crucial to take into account public health strategies that have lessened the harm of other addictive chemicals, such as banning marketing to children.

Co-occurrence of food addiction, obesity, problematic substance use, and parental history of problematic alcohol use, Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 25 July 2022, L. V. Hoover, H. P. Yu, J. R. Cummings, S. G. Ferguson, and A. N. Gearhardt.

By UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

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