A food psychology test conducted at the University of Luxembourg reveals food addiction exists and food addicts (those addicted to food) lack psychological inhibition.
The study confirms the addicts are easily and more stimulated even by pictures of food, and women with weight issues were more impulsive than their average counterparts.
According to the lead researcher Claus Voegele, Professor of Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Luxembourg:
All addictions are similar in that the sufferer craves to excess the feel-good buzz they receive from chemical neurotransmitters produced when they eat, gamble, smoke, have sex or take drugs,
The food-related psychology test was conducted by asking participants to click as fast as possible on pictures of either food items or non-food items on the randomly flashed photos – of fatty or sweet food items such as a burger, cake and pizza and non-food items like a sock, a mug, a shoe – on the computer screens of the subjects.
Women with weight issues reported that the test made them crave for food.
This suggests that some people may have an instinctive, psychological predisposition to binge eating,” Voegele said.
Voegele concludes “People may over-eat to comfort themselves, because they are bored or just out of habit”
Reference: Frontiers in Psychology