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Quitting junk food produces similar withdrawal-type symptoms as drug addiction:
If you plan to try and quit junk food, expect to suffer similar withdrawal-type symptoms—at least during the initial week—like addicts experience when they attempt to quit using drugs.
A new study by University of Michigan is believed to be the first of its kind to evaluate withdrawal symptoms people incur when they stop devouring highly processed foods, such as pastries, French fries and pizza.
Previous studies have focused on sugar withdrawal among animals and the literature regarding humans offered only anecdotal evidence, said Erica Schulte, the study's lead author and U-M psychology doctoral candidate.
What all researchers can agree upon is that the addictive qualities of tobacco, drugs or alcohol affect the brain similarly and cutting back can lead to negative side effects that can make it difficult to reduce intake. Anxiety, headaches, irritability and depression are some of those outcomes.
Understanding whether withdrawal may also occur with highly processed foods was an essential next step in evaluating whether these foods might be capable of triggering similar addictive processes.
Abstract: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666318306196 (DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2018.09.013
Pizza is not junk food! It's also not a pie.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @03:58PM
Yep, one of the primary routes via which smoking is addictive is to spike your blood sugar and then crash it when you abstain. The crash is also why so many people eat more and gain weight later.