14 DAY TRIAL // University of Georgia scientists have determined in a new study that people who have impulsive personalities are more likely than their peers to develop food addiction, as well as the host of medical conditions that stem from this behavior.
Previous researches have already tied this type of behavior to drug and alcohol addiction, but no clear studies existed until now to prove that food addiction develops through a similar mechanism. For the purpose of this study, food addiction was defined as a compulsive eating pattern similar to drug use.
“My lab generally studies alcohol, nicotine and other forms of drug addiction, but we think it’s possible to think about impulsivity, food addiction and obesity using some of the same techniques,” explains the principal investigator for the new study, James MacKillop, PhD, quoted by PsychCentral.
The reason why this study is so important is that it covers nearly one third of the adult population in the US, which statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show are obese. Two thirds of the country is overweight, the same documents show.