in body image and eating disorders and obesity

and I am the Executive Director of Wellspring. Hi my name is Nicole Avena

I am a PhD neuroscientist and

author and expert in the fields of diet, nutrition and addiction.

I am an assistant professor of pharmacology at the Ichan School of Medicine

at Mount Sinai

in New York City and I also do work with Wellspring Camps in a

consulting role.

So according to you a recent survey conducted we found that 92% of

Americans believe that food can be an addictive substance

and even further more 66% percent of them said

that it could possibly take up to two weeks to recover

from a sugar or food addiction

and feel better from that so given those findings and what we know about addiction

we know that to recover from an addiction that

incredible support and commitment and consistency is necessary

oftentimes behavioral therapy and intervention is necessary and sometimes

medical intervention

is necessary. It is remiss to say

that folks suffering from a food addiction could be

cured or helped or relieved by just

asking them to eat less and move more and

just go to the gym and and eat fewer calories. We know that this is a complex

issue and a complex problem that is

incredibly more complicated than that.

Certainly food addiction is a concept that the scientific community has been

studying for many years now

and this is something that we've seen scientific evidence for not only in

terms of

evidence of addiction like behaviors that can emerge in response to eating

highly palatable foods but also more importantly

there's significant evidence that there's changes in the brain

that are associated with chronic overeating that resemble what you

would see

during an addiction like state, so there's certainly a significant amount

of research

that is being conducted and continues to be going

on that is looking at this area of food addiction

and I think we're at the point now where we're at beginning to be able to ask

questions about

what does this mean for treatment and it certainly does mean that we need to

revamp

and reconsider some of the approaches that we traditionally use to treat

overeating and obesity

It may work for some people but it may not work for others and so

adopting an

addiction model and considering that with respect to treatment really opens

the door

and can give the potential to help many different people who are suffering

from overeating.

So a lot experiments have been conducted

both in our laboratory and also in other laboratories throughout the country that

have been asking the question of how can foods act like drugs of abuse in

terms of what happens in the brain

and so one of the things that we've learned is that when

we consume food it's reinforcing and it feels good.

And as a result that releases a neurochemical in the brain called

dopamine. Now typically when we eat a food for the very first time

that dopamine release occurs but it has more to do with the novelty of the

food

and so we want to be careful to remember that very first time we eat

new food

we need to pay attention so that dopamine signal loss to pay attention

so once we've consumed a food a few different times we know that it's

safe

doughnuts release dopamine in response to eating it because

we don't have to necessarily worry about that food causing us to be sick or to

get

ill from consuming it anymore there's no more

of a threat really in terms of survival and so the dopamine release

tends to attenuate or lessen with repeated exposures

Now on the other hand, drugs of abuse release dopamine every time they're

administered so every time someone administers nicotine, cocaine, morphine

pretty much any drug releases dopamine that's one of the hallmarks of drug

use

What's interesting though is that science has shown us that

when laboratory animals over consume sugar

it acts more like what you see with a drug

that every time the animals were eating sugar it's releasing dopamine

and so in many ways this pattern of release looks more like what you'd

expect to see with a drug and less like what you would expect

typically see with a food. There's been lots of clinical studies that have

gone on to

expand on this area of research showing changes in the brain that are

consistent with

alterations in addiction areas is in humans as well

and so it seems that the dopamine systems are perturbed

by overconsumption of sugar and highly palatable foods.

And its preservation occurs in a way that is similar to what you'd see with

an addiction to drugs.

So from our survey results we found that 40%

of adults ages 18 to 34

did not feel like their parents set

a good example or or gave them good guidelines for being healthy with

food consumption. We thought that was really interesting and

wondered if

the emerging science specific to that age group 18-34

that is something has changed to

perhaps prevent people from being able to provide guidelines or is it

the guidelines or

example I should say

has changed over the years in what parents are doing with food.

Yeah I think that particular age range

falls within the range I'm just outside at that age range so I feel like I can

relate to the participants in many ways

in that the guidelines that were provided

to adults in terms of healthy eating and what we should be feeding our children

really haven't been very good. We're only now

recently seeing serious discussion in my opinion about changing the food intake

guidelines about making changes to

you know how much recommended sugar is consumed each day

and we're also seeing you know some discussion and debate about changes in

nutrition labels, making nutrition information

nutrition facts label more apparent and more obvious so that people can

understand it better.

So I I think that you know by no fault of the parents of those

individuals between the ages 18 and 34 I

do believe that there just hasn't been a lot of good information provided

for parents to educate children about healthy eating practices.

I also think that you know we live in a culture now in which

mom and dad often both work there's many opportunities

you know for us to just simply grab something quick

or eating out and so cooking at home and taking the time to prepare

meals at home often falls to the wayside

and I think that the sort of long-term ramifications of that

haven't necessarily been taken very seriously until recently where we're now

seeing

issues related to obesity and more importantly I think it's issues related

to behavior change

and so when children are exposed to

certain types of eating practices that they

receive from their family life at home it's hard to break those habits later in

life.

So if you grow up drinking soda and having dessert every single night, it

becomes a way of life

that becomes the norm and so it's difficult to make those changes once you

become an adult. You start to have medical problems that are

potentially related to those behaviors. Right.

I think now we're starting to see a bit of a change in tide in that

you know we're starting to see recommendations being made by the World

Health Organization for instance to

change the recommended amount of sugar intake that children should be having

and it's a drastic reduction. It's much less than what

is currently being consumed much less

of what's presently available so I think that

over time we should see some additional changes and hopefully with the next

generation

they won't necessarily feel the way that this particular one does.

I want to take the time to thank Dr. Avena for her time today and the incredible

work

that you do in the research field and research realm

that really changes and guides a lot of the treatment that is out there.

Without researchers like you, we

we wouldn't be able to advance and to tailor the treatment in the way

that we need to. Without the research

in the findings in the science we wouldn't be able to provide

the effective treatment outcomes that that we're able to provide

based on based on that research and based on your findings and I just

wanted to thank you for hanging out with me today and for anyone who's

watching or listening I hope this provides more information about the

the problems that we're facing with food and the struggles that people

can have with food

and why they might be struggling and let you know that

Wellspring is a program that's out there to help and to provide the treatment

necessary

to get you on your way to a healthier lifestyle.

As a final thought I would say that there is evidence that

food addiction is real and this is something that can be affecting

adults and children and young adults as well

and I think that it's important for people to realize that

by taking an addiction approach to the addiction

process in terms of the treatment there is

evidence that it can be effective and people who have struggled with obesity

and overeating for many years

may find that looking at their problem through an addiction lens

can be the way to finally achieve whatever their goals are for healthy eating

and this isn't necessarily something that can be done alone and I think we know

from

looking at the history of addiction to other substances like drugs and alcohol

it's not easy it's not something that people often can do by themselves and so

finding the right resources and the right groups that can assist you

with your goals is the way to go.