Is Food Addiction Real?

Dr Rob Lustig discusses whether it’s really possible to become addicted to food, and if it is, does that change how we view those who struggle in their relationship with food?

In our conversation, Rob argues that the phrase "food addiction" is a misnomer, and that the real issue is food additive addiction. He says all the medical evidence suggests that two additives drive this - sugar and caffeine. And while foodstuffs such as fat and salt may make our food more palatable or enticing, they are not in themselves addictive.

In a staggering figure, Rob reveals there are 600,000 foods in the American food supply and 74% of these contain sugar. Over half of all sugar in the US diet is found in processed foods. And frequently where America leads, the rest of the world follows...

This is the first podcast of three that I am doing in conjunction with the  International Food addiction Consensus conference being held in London on the 17th May. Each  will feature a different speaker from the conference.

The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com

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