Obesity and Addiction: Theories and Concepts

Obesity and Addiction: Theories and Concepts As a want-to-be conscious eater and as an individual susceptible to diabetes through a prevalent family history, I was intrigued by the article Why One Cream Cake Leads To Another published in The Scientist. It caught my eye to learn that maybe there was a scientific reason behind my cravings of Starkbucks’ Frappucinos and Insomnia’s S’mores Deluxe cookies; and maybe there is a valid and researched explanation as to why, when experience of consuming these particular treats, even when â€Å"full†, is it like a bitter sweet ending? Is this a minor case of a food craving? Is there some biochemical reason as to why one feels they must have much and must have it often? Can it be lack of discipline to keep these things a reoccurring part of my diet even when attempting to make my eating habits cleaner and more nutritious? Why One Cream Cake Leads To Another, begins to answer these questions. A chronic high-fat diet is thought to desensitize the brain to the feeling of satisfaction that one normally gets from a meal, causing a person to overeat in order to achieve the same high again. Newer research however, suggests that this desensitization actually begins in the gut itself, where production of a satiety factor, which normally tells the brain to stop eating, becomes dialed down by the repeated intake of high-fat food. High-fat foods produce an endorphin response in the brain when they hit the taste buds; the gut also sends signals directly to the brain to control our feeding behavior. Mice nourished via gastric feeding tubes, which bypass the mouth, exhibit a surge in dopamine—a neurotransmitter promoting reinforcement in the brain’s reward circuitry—similar to that experienced by those eating normally. This dopamine surge occurs in response to feeding in both mice and humans. But evidence suggests that dopamine signaling in the brain is deficient in obese people. Ivan de Araujo, a professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, has now discovered that obese mice on a chronic high-fat diet also have a muted dopamine response when receiving fatty food via a direct tube to their stomachs. To determine the nature of the dopamine-regulating signal emanating from the gut, Araujo and his team searched for possible candidates. â€Å"When you look at animals chronically exposed to high-fat foods, you see high levels of almost every circulating factor—leptin, insulin, triglycerides, glucose, et cetera,† he said. But one class of signaling molecule is suppressed. Of these, Araujo’s primary candidate was oleoylethanolamide(OEA), food-intake modulators . Not only is the factor produced by intestinal cells in response to food, he said, but during chronic high-fat exposure, â€Å"the suppression levels seemed to somehow match the suppression that we saw in dopamine release.† It is not clear why a chronic high-fat diet suppresses the production of oleoylethanolamide. But once the vicious cycle starts, it is hard to break because the brain is receiving its information subconsciously, said Daniele Piomelli, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, and director of drug discovery and development at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa. â€Å"We eat what we like, and we think we are conscious of what we like, but I think what others are indicating is that there is a deeper, darker side to liking—a side that we’re not aware of,† Piomelli said. â€Å"Because it is an innate drive, you cannot control it.† Put another way, even if you could trick your taste buds into enjoying low-fat yogurt, you’re unlikely to trick your gut. So if eating has much to do with biochemical and people dealing with obesity have a lack thereof, at what point is one addicted to food? Tuomisto, T; Hetherington, Mm; Morris, Mf; Tuomisto, Mt; Turjanmaa, V; Lappalainen, R. (1999) study was to examine similar affective, physiological, and behavioral variables in chocolate addicts and control subjects. Method: Sixteen addicts and 15 control subjects took part in two laboratory experiments in which their heart rate, salivation, and self-reported responses were measured. Results: In the presence of external chocolate cues, chocolate addicts were more aroused, reported greater cravings, experienced more negative affect, and also ate more chocolate than control subjects. Self-report measures on eating attitudes and behavior, body image, and depression confirmed that a relationship exists between chocolate addiction and problem eating. Chocolate addicts showed more aberrant eating behaviors and attitudes than controls, and were also signif icantly more depressed. Discussion: Chocolate addicts may be considered to be a parallel with addicts generally, because they differ from controls in craving for chocolate, eating behavior, and psychopathology (in respect of eating and affect). According to Corwin and Grigson (2009), food addiction is a pervasive, yet controversial, topic that has gained recent attention in both lay media and the scientific literature. The goal of this series of articles is to use a combination of preclinical and clinical data to determine whether foods, like drugs of abuse, can be addictive, the conditions under which the addiction develops, and the underlying neurophysiological substrates. Operational definitions of addiction that have been used in the treatment of human disorders and to guide research in both humans and animals are presented, and an overview of the symposium articles is provided. We propose that specific foods, especially those that are rich in fat and/or sugar, are capable of promoting â€Å"addiction†-like behavior and neuronal change under certain conditions. That is, these foods, although highly palatable, are not addictive per se but become so following a restriction/binge pattern of consumption. Such consumm atory patterns have been associated with increased risk for comorbid conditions such as obesity, early weight gain, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse as well as with relapse and treatment challenges. The topic of food addiction bears study, therefore, to develop fresh approaches to clinical intervention and to advance our understanding of basic mechanisms involved in loss of control. Ifland JR1, Preuss HG, Marcus MT, Rourke KM, Taylor WC, Burau K, Jacobs WS, Kadish W, Manso G. (2009), study found the following: Overeating in industrial societies is a significant problem, linked to an increasing incidence of overweight and obesity, and the resultant adverse health consequences. We advance the hypothesis that a possible explanation for overeating is that processed foods with high concentrations of sugar and other refined sweeteners, refined carbohydrates, fat, salt, and caffeine are addictive substances. Therefore, many people lose control over their ability to regulate their consumption of such foods. The loss of control over these foods could account for the global epidemic of obesity and other metabolic disorders. We assert that overeating can be described as an addiction to refined foods that conforms to the DSM-IV criteria for substance use disorders. To examine the hypothesis, we relied on experience with self-identified refined foods addicts, as well as crit ical reading of the literature on obesity, eating behavior, and drug addiction. Reports by self-identified food addicts illustrate behaviors that conform to the 7 DSM-IV criteria for substance use disorders. The literature also supports use of the DSM-IV criteria to describe overeating as a substance use disorder. The observational and empirical data strengthen the hypothesis that certain refined food consumption behaviors meet the criteria for substance use disorders, not unlike tobacco and alcohol. This hypothesis could lead to a new diagnostic category, as well as therapeutic approaches to changing overeating behaviors. In drug addiction, the transition from casual drug use to dependence has been linked to a shift away from positive reinforcement and toward negative reinforcement. That is, drugs ultimately are relied on to prevent or relieve negative states that otherwise result from abstinence (e.g., withdrawal) or from adverse environmental circumstances (e.g., stress). Recent work has suggested that this dark side shift also is a key in the development of food addiction. Initially, palatable food consumption has both positively reinforcing, pleasurable effects and negatively reinforcing, comforting effects that can acutely normalize organism responses to stress. Repeated, intermittent intake of palatable food may instead amplify brain stress circuitry and downregulate brain reward pathways such that continued intake becomes obligatory to prevent negative emotional states via negative reinforcement. Stress, anxiety and depressed mood have shown high comorbidity with and the potential to trigger bo uts of addiction-like eating behavior in humans. Animal models indicate that repeated, intermittent access to palatable foods can lead to emotional and somatic signs of withdrawal when the food is no longer available, tolerance and dampening of brain reward circuitry, compulsive seeking of palatable food despite potentially aversive consequences, and relapse to palatable food-seeking in response to anxiogenic-like stimuli. The neurocircuitry identified to date in the dark side of food addiction qualitatively resembles that associated with drug and alcohol dependence. The present review summarizes Bart Hoebels groundbreaking conceptual and empirical contributions to understanding the role of the dark side in food addiction along with related work of those that have followed him.  ( Parylak SL1, Koob GF, Zorrilla EP. 2011) So what stands to question, after all this secondary data analysis, is this just another way of demonizing fat? Is food addiction a fact or is it fiction; an excuse built on â€Å"monuments of nothingness?† Must one really hope for another scientific revelation, to overcome bad eating habits? Though many factors go into the food we intake, how much, how often, and how we will or will not obtain enjoyment from it, there are also non-chemical factors. Such as, keep an open and level head about yourself when searching for a food high, it can mean more than your current weight or health, it can mean your life.

Key Ingredients that Engendered the Protestant Reformation Essay

Since the foundations of the Christian faith, the Catholic denomination has consistently been the most powerful and largest church community. The Pope held supreme religious power over the world and eventually held position as an important governmental figure. Throughout the times of the Middle Ages and Renaissance the Roman Catholic Church was the central basis and concern for all people. They forced people to obey their laws and pay sums of money under the threat of possible excommunication if disobedience occurred. The civilians during these time periods were helpless against the church’s power; they could not read or even understand the services or teachings of the Bible, so they were forced to trust the Roman Catholic Church for all knowledge that was shared. However, despite the church’s great religious authority, disputes and lax practices had grown up within the church, but it was not until the invention of the printing press when the followers of the Roman Catholic Church began to recognize such discrepancies. The issues of the sales of indulgences and the elevating power of the Roman Catholic Church lead corruption further into the religious establishment, but due to the invention of the printing press and to the rise of individualism the Protestant Reformation continued to thrive. Before the introduction of indulgences, the Catholic Church practiced the orthodox routine of confessions. The sales of indulgences were created for the sinner to pay their debt out of purgatory, but not to replace the practicing of confessions. The public began rapidly using the sales of indulgences to pardon their sins, rather than attending confessions, but little did they know the profits were going to towards the construction of St. Peter’s Bastille. The sale of indulgences gradually began to be questioned. Were the sales of indulgences in compliance with the scriptures in the Bible? Martin Luther proved and additionally acknowledged that the sales of indulgences were not in scriptural compliance through the postings of his ninety-five theses, and thus revealing a large falsification within the exalted Roman Catholic Church. Beyond the sales of indulgences, no one could argue that the church was not  corrupt. Holding vast wealth, exercising enormous political power and waging war, it was administered by holders of patronage positions that had more interest in lining their pockets that in promoting the welfare of their religious community. The Catholic Church issued a strict set of rules for its followers to obey, but ironically, the church officials were seemingly unable to obey the rubles as well. The celibacy of priests began to be questioned. In Europe, bishops and the clergy often lived like aristocrats, and seemed part of the ruling elite. Corruption was widespread, for example: bishops were not undertaking religious duties, or even not living in their own administrative division. In France, the King rather than the Pope chose people for church positions. These practices for selection of church officials began to resemble the electing of a political figure rather than a church position. The image of the church was beginning to evolve with their power as it began to grow into a governmental house instead of a religious foundation. Unfortunately for the public, the perverse aspects within the church system were not discovered soon enough. It was not until the invention of the printing press that the public could for the first time read their own scriptures of the Bible. Furthermore, the new availability began allowing the readers to form their own religious beliefs and thereafter creating a new sense of individualism. Through the mass production of the Bible from the printing press the church was for the first time opposed by competition through the opinions of the people. They began to realize on their own the false and corrupted practices within the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, a vast majority of the worshipers in the Roman Catholic Church began to convert the teachings of Martin Luther. The public could now see the arguments that Luther made were creditable with scripture to induce them as well. Martin Luther appealed to the masses because he imposed a simple church. He said that the average person could have a relationship with God without going through the religious officials. Luther’s teachings were more applicable to the lifestyles of the common man and in a result the Protestant Reformation was launched. The Catholic Church could not suppress his actions because of the fact that the majority of the public was on his side. Finally, when Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses he was not searching for a way to create a new protestant belief of religion or to begin a famous movement in history, he was simply surfacing his concerns with the Roman Catholic system. To Luther, indulgences were not right because there were no scriptures to back up the ideas. Eventually the public came to agree with him. The Roman Catholic Church most certainly supplied the ingredients to engender the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther simply acted on them and with the help of publication it was a success. But was the move of many from the Catholic to Protestant a long lasting success? No, over a long period of time many people that converted to Protestantism converted back to Catholicism, but despite this, the actions and reforms accomplished during the Protestant Reformation changed and affected many lives then and to come.

Blood and Vengeance Essay

In Sudetics book, Blood and Vengeance, the author portrays a multicultural country whose people were living together more or less peacefully until their dormant ethnic hostilities were awakened and manipulated in a war of aggression. It was a war that was brought on by a few people with a thirst for power and a score to settle which is indicative of the title. It is the tradition of Serbs to demand blood vengeance for past crimes against them and, while there may be readers who consider magnanimity as the noble thing, the Serbs and their culture, in sharp contrast, appear unsympathetic at times. In brief, Sudetic successfully illustrates the macro policy issues with an in-depth view of the Celik family’s experience in Srebrenica. This book is a devastating indictment of the international community for allowing atrocities like this to occur again, after similar incidents which occurred in WWII, Rwanda, Cambodia and Guatemala. It is a firm and definitive account of a tragic chapter in Bosnia’s history. The first section of the book helps explain the root causes of the war in Bosnia and contains a brief yet momentous introduction of the history of Bosnia. Sudetic then introduces the reader to the Celiks (A Bosnian Family). The reader becomes completely enveloped by the tragedy and ordeals that the family endures and it becomes hard not to empathize with them, sharing their deepest emotions and concerns. Central to the theme of this book is Sudetic’s comprehensive account of the atrocities that took place in Srebrenica after the town was overrun by the Bosnian Serb army. Muslim men were taken to different locations to be shot. Those who survived have been able to testify about these heinous atrocities. The Celik family fled from their village of Kusupovici to Srebrenica when the war began. Approximately forty thousand people from neighboring towns sought shelter in Srebrenica which was later taken under siege and was constantly shelled by the Bosnian Serb army. Very few U. N. convoys were allowed to enter Srebrenica in order to deliver food and medical supplies to its refugees. Srebrenica’s people were isolated from the rest of the world for three long years with severe food rations, the lack of electricity, clean water and medical supplies. Hundreds of refugees died from starvation and disease. Blood and Vengeance is virtually a gripping account of unlucky people who were trapped in an ironic â€Å"safe† zone of Srebrenica. The city fell on July 12, 1995 after three years of Serb occupation. The author describes the events as vividly as it was illustrated on television. Bosnian Serb forces summarily executed approximately eight thousand Muslims, an event not witnessed since WWII. The details of the massacre were gruesome including the days leading up to it. It was even more disturbing that the U. N. was completely indifferent to the plight of these people with numerous documents corroborating this. The U. N. maintained that, though they were given the authority for air strikes, they did not because they felt it would exacerbate the conflict. Those Muslims who tried to escape were frequently ambushed by the Bosnian Serb army. The impression a reader gets from this book is probably the most accurate one concerning the war in Bosnia. This war was not the mandate of the people but instead, the cruelty imposed by General Milosevic. It appears that, in this book, it’s the United Nations and Western diplomats that take the blame. In addition to blame put on the U. N. , Sudetic writes of the convenient fallacy that all sides in the Bosnian war were equally guilty of the evils perpetrated there. That was never the case. He also dispenses with the international community’s implication that the corrosive three years was inevitable. In reality, it was deliberately manipulated by nationalist Serb leaders. Sudetic also exposes the moral cowardice & incompetence of the international community. Even though it can be argued that the Serbs were manipulated by the anti-Muslim propaganda monopolizing the media in the former Yugoslavia, it is fair to state that the Muslims had nothing comparable to cloud their judgment. In summary, Blood and Vengeance, is a true account of a family in the Serbian conflict engaged in a political and social context of violence and aggression. There is a balance in the author’s criticism of Muslim and Serb atrocities, and his anger at the failures of politicians and peacekeepers is extremely pronounced. It is a riveting tale of the experiences of the Celik family and to the welfare of each family member as they try to escape the violence. Bibliography: 1. Blood and Vengeance: One Family’s Story of the War in Bosnia, Chuck Sudetic, 1999

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