Active Low-Carber Forums - View Single Post - Is being overweight a sign of an addiction like any other?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glendora

Addictions don't work in reverse. They don't wait until availability to take hold of the human physiology and psyche.

I’ve read this at least 5 times and it still makes no sense to me.

Quote:

As to the study on the rats above, are those symptoms of withdrawal, or are they symptoms of insulin flooding followed by a downward plummet? Isn't that physical? Isn't that what causes overweight...our bodies needing to be rebalanced after insulin has been rocketed up and then down? Feeling our levels go down again, we rush for more food, and instinct tells us to make that the most easily processed food available. It's an imbalance--a very very real one--but I'm not sure it's an addiction.

I wasn’t talking about insulin, I was talking about dopamine.

”Activation of the brain’s dopamine motivation circuits is distinct from the role the brain chemical plays when people actually eat, and may be similar to what addicts experience when craving drugs. Scientists have done extensive research showing that addictive drugs increase the levels of dopamine in the brain, and that addicts have fewer dopamine receptors than non-addicts. Last year, in an effort to understand the relationship of the dopamine system to obesity, they found that obese individuals also had fewer dopamine receptors than normal control subjects.”

http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2002/bnlpr052002.htm

Quote:

Now, when you stop sugar, you do crave. OH BOY do you crave. But is that due to addiction? Just because the symptoms are like withdrawal, doesn't mean it actually is withdrawal. It's my belief that the symptoms come because we suddenly don't have the source of fuel our bodies are used to getting, and the body takes a few days to accept this fact and switch over to burning fat instead of glucose. In the few days before this happens, we're shaky, irritable and headache-ey...which makes sense since we're not burning glucose but we're not burning fat yet either; we're in effect "starving" for those few days. And what do we crave? What ANY body would crave during times of starvation--the food that will go IMMEDIATELY to our bloodstream. That only makes sense. I don't think that's psychological at all. It's very real, very physical and the very normal response of a healthy body looking to save itself.

“Obese people have fewer receptors for dopamine, a neurotransmitter that helps produce feelings of satisfaction and pleasure. Scientists have done extensive research showing that dopamine plays an important role in drug addiction. Among other things, they¹ve found that addictive drugs increase the level of dopamine in the brain, and that addicts have fewer dopamine receptors than normal subjects.”

http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2001/bnlpr020101.htm

“One of the neurotransmitters playing a major role in addiction is dopamine. Many of the concepts that apply to dopamine apply to other neurotransmitters as well. As a chemical messenger, dopamine is similar to adrenaline. Dopamine affects brain processes that control movement, emotional response, and ability to experience pleasure and pain. “

http://www.utexas.edu/research/asrec/dopamine.html

”Sugar addiction is more than a trite expression people use to describe their sweet tooth. A pattern of fasting and overloading on sugary foods may foster dependence, according to a study published in Obesity Research.”

http://cms.psychologytoday.com/arti...124-000002.html

So yes, it’s real withdrawal, not just your body switching fuels. Sugar is an addictive substance, that’s a scientific fact. If you want to make it up as you go along, ignore scientific research, and the way the human brain functions, more power to you. I choose to base what I believe in on substantiated evidence, not opinionated malarkey. And in case you didn't know this, physical and emotional responses both come from neurotransmitters in the brain. You can't separate the two unless you’re talking about decisions based on emotion or reason, in which case, reason would be the healthy psychological choice. There are just some things that aren’t up for debate, like the fact that we have neurotransmitters and receptors that fire whether we choose to acknowledge this reality or not.