Back by Popular Demand: A Narrative Review on the History of Food Addiction Research

Abstract

In recent years, the concept of food addiction has gained more and more popularity. This approach acknowledges the apparent parallels between substance use disorders and overeating of highly palatable, high-caloric foods. Part of this discussion includes that "hyperpalatable" foods may have an addictive potential because of increased potency due to certain nutrients or additives. Although this idea seems to be relatively new, research on food addiction actually encompasses several decades, a fact that often remains unrecognized. Scientific use of the term addiction in reference to chocolate even dates back to the 19th century. In the 20th century, food addiction research underwent several paradigm shifts, which include changing foci on anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, obesity, or binge eating disorder. Thus, the purpose of this review is to describe the history and state of the art of food addiction research and to demonstrate its development and refinement of definitions and methodologies.

Keywords: anorexia; binge eating; bulimia; chocolate; food addiction; obesity; substance dependence.

Figure 1

Number of scientific publications on food addiction in the years 1990-2014. Values represent the number of hits based on a Web of Science search conducted for each year separately, using the search term “food addiction” and selecting “topic” (which searches the title, abstract, and keywords within a record).

Figure 2

Some focus areas with selected references in the history of food addiction research.