How many times have you made a joke about it? “Oh, I’m addicted to chocolate,” you laugh to the barista as you add your daily brownie to your morning coffee order. “Once I start, I just can’t stop,” you say, rolling your eyes, as you crunch your way through a mountain of crisps at the pub. And yet, that compulsion to eat things you know aren’t good for you isn’t really funny at all.
Deep down you know that scoffing a family sized chocolate bar in front of the TV or eating an entire takeout pizza by yourself makes you feel not just guilty, but sluggish and ill. In the long-term, eating like this can lead to a raft of major health conditions, including fatty liver disease, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. And, in the short-term, it can cause low mood, anxiety, brain fog, concentration problems and sleep issues.
It truly is no joke. So why can’t we stop? Why can’t we just put the cake down! Behaviour like this used to be called greedy or simply lacking in willpower – but now experts like me think it’s something else altogether. “Food addiction” is a compulsive relationship with food often shaped at our mother’s knee in our earliest years.
A recent research paper estimated that at least ten per cent of the UK adult population could have an addictive relationship with food. The truth is, humans aren’t designed to cope with modern food. There wasn’t a Tesco Metro outside our Stone Age cave, after all.
Our ancestors didn’t h.