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The Researchers
Establishing the robust and credible nature of the field is aided by reviewing the researchers who are engaged in creating new knowledge in the field of food addiction. Allan Brandt, PhD, of the faculty of the Department of History and Science of Harvard College, in writing about the process by which tobacco was found to cause lung cancer, states that “the conclusion, to be received as authoritative, must ultimately rest on the collective expertise, status, and independence of those reviewing and negotiating over the available data.” As described below, a number of prominent experts have come forward to publish and present in the field of food addiction.
The most prominent researcher is Nora Volkov, PhD who is Director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health. She conducted research at Brookhaven Institute before joining NIDA and continues to publish with Brookhaven researcher, Gene-Jack Wang.. She has researched, published and presented on brain imaging research that shows that neuroanatomy of, and neurological responses to food abuse are very similar those for drugs of abuse.
Dr. Gold is Chief of the McKnight Brain Institute and chairman of the Psychiatry Department at the University of Florida. He and his staff have published a review article on the extensive overlap between drug and food neuropathways in response to ingestion (Kalra 2004), the overlap between visual cueing for drugs and food (Liu 2004), and the crossover from drugs to food in drug recovery. (Kleiner 2004, Hodgkins (2004) He has presented on food addiction at the American Society of Addiction Medicine and at the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.
The McKnight Brain Institute website lists this research project that links overeating with drinking problems in the laboratory of Yijun Liu. “Approaches to the real timing of brain-hormone interaction, e.g., an fMRI model of hypothalamic function in the control of feeding behavior (for the further study of obesity, diabetes, drinking and gambling problems, and eating disorders in humans.”
Another prominent researcher and presenter is Kelly Brownell, PhD, Chair of the Department of Psychology at Yale University and Director of the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. Dr. Brownell convened a conference on food and addiction at the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity in July, 2007.
Gene-Jack Wang, PhD, of the Brookhaven National Laboratories, National Institutes of Health also presents regularly at food addiction symposiums. His work showed that the structure in dopamine field of the obese are similar to those of methamphetamine abusers. Recent publications from Brookhaven include the finding that pharmaceutical addiction treatment works for weight loss. The laboratory also developed the finding that dopamine fields in the obese resemble those of methamphetamine abusers. From the Laboratory’s webpage, “At Brookhaven's Center for Imaging and Neuroscience, researchers have studied the effects of drugs of abuse on the human brain. In the early 1990's Brookhaven scientists were the first to report that people addicted to cocaine, alcohol and heroin have reduced activity of their brain dopamine system, indicating an under-stimulated reward system. This finding has also been shown to apply to methamphetamine abusers as well as people suffering from obesity. Research at Brookhaven has suggested new approaches to treating addiction, the world's foremost public health problem.”
Bartley Hoebel, PhD, of Princeton has published and presented on sucrose addiction in rats since 1983. In perhaps his most important finding, rats were addicted to sugar and exhibited withdrawal symptoms similar to those for morphine.
This quote is from the Princeton University website:
“Sugar Addiction. Recent research is focused on the laboratory's mounting evidence for sugar dependency. Rats that binge on sugar develop signs of addiction, such as bingeing, sensitization, withdrawal and craving-like behavior. The researchers conclude that mild addiction is natural in that very sweet foods can lead to dependency under some conditions. Sugar triggers the production of the opioids. Dopamine tends to initiate food seeking, while opioids can prolong the meal. “We think that is a key to the addiction process,” Hoebel says. “The brain is getting addicted to its own opioids as it would to morphine or heroin. Drugs give a bigger effect, but it is essentially the same process.”
Marian Hetherington is faculty at the Psychology Department at the University of Liverpool and has edited an academic book on Food Cravings and Addiction. She publishes with Martin Yeomans, PhD of the University of Sussex.
Ernest P. Noble, PhD, is from the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, and the Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA USA. He has published extensive on findings related to the gene anomalies regulating dopamine receptors that occurin both the obese and in drug addicts. (Noble 1994, 1994, 2000, 2000, 2003)
Jeff Strnad’s research is spread across the fields of taxation, public finance, finance, and empirical analysis. He has published leading works on the taxation of financial instruments. Professor Strnad is an innovative teacher of quantitative methods, creating original courses in empirical analysis and game theory. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1997, he was a professor of law and economics at the California Institute of Technology and the John B. Milliken Professor of Taxation at the University of Southern California Law Center.
Kenny J. Simansky is from the Drexel University School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology. This quote is from the University’s webpage, Laboratory of Kenny J. Simansky, PhD.
The nucleus accumbens and associated circuitry mediates reward and this system is relevant for understanding affective states in normal function and disease. The nucleus accumbens (NAC) is segregated into two components (shell and core) that coordinate the processing of motivational properties of natural rewards (e.g., sweet-tasting substances) and drugs of abuse with the motor responses to obtain and consume these rewards. A newly-funded program (NIDDK) is studying the neurochemical mechanisms within this circuitry that underlies environmental control of behavior involved in seeking food and drugs (i.e., craving). As part of this project, we are investigating mechanisms implicated in the actions of drugs that affect eating and that treat depression, anxiety and schizophrenia. This project is in collaboration with Drs. Aloyo, Romano and Harvey in this department. (Drexel University School of Medicine 2008)
Jennifer Nasser, PhD, RD is also from Drexel University in the Department of Bioscience & Biotechnology. The Drexel University website offers this description of her interests.
Research interests of Jennifer Nasser, PhD, RD. Assistant Professor My clinical research focuses on dopamine-mediated mechanisms of food intake regulation in humans and its impact on metabolic homeostasis, especially as it applies to obesity, eating disorders and aging. Non-invasive methods of assessing brain dopamine in humans and nutritional and dietary interventions for neurophysiological disorders and drug-induced obesity are also under development.
From this list of prominent researchers, it would appear that food addiction has captured and held the attention of major figures and has met Brandt’s standard for the caliber of individual who needs to be involved in order to derive a consensus on the existence and importance of food addiction.