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Diet Doctor Podcast · July 18, 2022 · 45m
Food Addiction — Is It Real, and How Do You Treat It?
Addiction medicine specialist Dr. Vera Tarman explains food addiction — how ultra-processed foods hijack the same dopamine reward pathways as drugs, why moderation doesn't work for food addicts, and how abstinence from trigger foods enables recovery.
Canon
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Tarman: food addiction demonstrates the hedonic treadmill in its purest form. Each exposure to hyper-palatable food desensitizes the dopamine system, requiring more food or more intense food to achieve the same pleasure — exactly like drug tolerance.
Highlights
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Food addiction activates the same dopamine pathways as drugs — ultra-processed food is engineered to be addictive
Tarman: neuroimaging studies show that ultra-processed food activates the same mesolimbic dopamine pathways as cocaine and heroin. For susceptible individuals (estimated 5-10% of the population), moderation is as impossible as 'moderate' alcoholism.