Food Porn and the Brain, 2

“Could I become addicted to food porn?” My response to that question is probably. Your brain reward system pushes you toward behaviors that trigger the release of dopamine, adrenalin, or whatever other brain chemicals help you feel better. And you train your brain reward system to a large degree. Food addiction per se, is not yet a recognized medical diagnosis—that may happen sooner than later, however, since food triggers the same brain reward system as drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex, gambling, sugar, and you name it . . .  Using the Yale Food Addiction Scale, University of Michigan researchers ranked foods from ‘most problematic’ to ‘least problematic’ in terms of triggering addictive-like behaviors. They plotted the names of these foods on a scale of 1 (least likely to trigger addictive-like behaviors) to 7 (most likely to trigger addictive-like behaviors). Part 3 tomorrow.