Food Addiction Beliefs Amongst the Lay Public: What Are the Consequences for Eating Behaviour?
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PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The current paper reviews recent research on perceptions of food addiction in the lay public. It also examines the potential consequences of such beliefs for eating behaviour. RECENT FINDINGS: to be 'food addicts', and these individuals demonstrate increased patterns of aberrant eating. However, there is also initial experimental evidence to suggest that believing oneself to be a food addict leads to short-term food restriction. SUMMARY: To reconcile these findings, a self-perpetuating relationship between food addiction beliefs and aberrant eating is proposed. Specifically, in the short term, food addiction beliefs may encourage individuals to avoid certain foods. However, attempts at restriction may eventually lead to increased cravings and disinhibition, thus reinforcing perceptions of oneself as a food addict. These possibilities merit scrutiny in future research.
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Identifying certain foods as addictive may encourage collective efforts to avoid them and is associated with support for policies to curb their use.
“Identifying certain foods to be addictive may encourage collective efforts to avoid them [231] and is associated with support for policies to curb their use [232] similar to how public health officials addressed Big Tobacco.”
From Food Addiction and Psychosocial Adversity: Biological Embedding, Contextual Factors, and Public Health Implications (2020) · cites this paper as [231]
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- Authors
- Ruddock, H. K., & Hardman, C. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Liverpool (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Ruddock, Helen K.
- Venue
- Current Addiction Reports
- Published
- 2017-05-10
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 110-115
- ISSN
- 2196-2952 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5435771
- OpenAlex
- W2613561303
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 3
- FWCI
- 0.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Current Addiction Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Liverpool
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Gambling Behavior and Treatments
- Keywords
- food addiction, lay public perceptions, eating behaviour, dietary restriction, food cravings, disinhibition, self-perception
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