Assessment of Food Cravings
Joan Ifland, Marianne T. Marcus, Harry G. Preuss in Processed Food Addiction: Foundations, Assessment, and Recovery, 2017
Craving refers to an intense desire to consume a substance. Frequent experiences of craving are a core feature of substance use disorders (Tiffany & Wray, 2012). However, the term craving not only refers to drug-related substances but also to other substances like food or nonalcoholic beverages (Hormes & Rozin, 2010). As food craving refers to an intense desire to consume a particular food, it is this specificity that differentiates food craving from feelings of hunger. A craving for a specific food can be typically only satisfied by consumption of that food, while hunger can be alleviated by consumption of any type of food. Moreover, food cravings can occur in the absence of hunger; i.e., food deprivation is not a necessary condition for the occurrence of food craving. In a study by Pelchat and Schaefer (2000), e.g., participants were instructed to adhere to a monotonous diet (vanilla-flavored, nutritionally complete drinks) for 5 days. In young adults, the number of food cravings were markedly increased during that period, indicating that sensory monotony without nutritional deprivation is sufficient to stimulate food cravings.
Neurology
Gina Johnson, Ian Hill-Smith, Chirag Bakhai in The Minor Illness Manual, 2018
Dietary factors are often suspected but rarely found; searching too hard may divert attention away from more likely factors, such as those mentioned previously. The widespread belief that chocolate is a trigger lacks evidence (Lippi et al., 2014). It is more likely to be a food craving in the prodromal phase. Alcohol does not cause migraine initially but can trigger an attack as its effects wear off. For most people, the attacks seem to be multifactorial, and it is often not possible to identify any one trigger which always causes migraine or, when avoided, stops all attacks. Often there is a buildup of different triggers, with a ‘last straw’ tipping the sufferer over the threshold and resulting in a migraine. Whatever the cause, the final part of the sequence of events leading to symptoms involves the neurotransmitter 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin, 5-HT).
Diagnosis of Addictions
Hanna Pickard, Serge H. Ahmed in The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Science of Addiction, 2019
Craving is also reported as an important symptom among individuals with gambling disorder, persisting months after gambling abstinence (Ladouceur et al. 2007) and a key determinant of relapse in gambling disorder (Smith et al. 2015; Tavares et al. 2005). A recent study showed that craving ratings in participants with gambling disorder increased following gambling cues compared with non-gambling cues; that gambling cues in individuals with gambling disorder increased brain responses in reward-related circuitry; and that this response co-varied with craving intensity (Limbrick-Oldfield et al. 2017). Animal studies have suggested the addictive liability of sugar (Ahmed et al. 2013). Obese subjects with possible food addiction have been shown to report more severe food craving than their non-addicted counterparts (Davis et al. 2011; Meule and Kubler 2012; Fatséas et al. 2015a). Food craving has been suggested to contribute to unsuccessful attempts to reduce calorie intake, and early dropout from obesity treatment programs (Batra et al. 2013). A prospective link between the intensity of food craving and the decrease in dieting success and meeting other criteria for food addiction has been shown (Fatséas et al. 2015a; Meule et al. 2016).
The effect of intestinal glucose load on neural regulation of food craving
Published in Nutritional Neuroscience, 2021
Marion A. Stopyra, Hans-Christoph Friederich, Sebastian Sailer, Sabina Pauen, Martin Bendszus, Wolfgang Herzog, Joe J. Simon
Food craving is characterised by an urge to consume palatable food even in the absence of homeostatic hunger. Previous research has shown that craving is subject to food reward and inhibitory control processes, where top-down regulation strategies are able to counterbalance activations in the mesolimbic reward network to food cues [11]. Distraction from food has been found to be able to lower the appetitive properties of food and subsequently to reduce food cravings [12]. This strategy involes the active engagement of selective attentional deployment and a network of brain regions commonly associated with top-down inhibitory control such as the prefrontal cortex, portions of the cingulate cortex and parietal regions [13–15]. Furthermore, the conscious regulation of food cravings has been associated with robust activation in regions associatead with top-down control and reward evaluation [16]. Further research is necessary to improve our understanding of top-down inhibitory control processes of food craving to develop more effective therapeutic strategies.
Snacking behavior differs between evening and morning chronotype individuals but no differences are observed in overall energy intake, diet quality, or food cravings
Published in Chronobiology International, 2022
Chia-Lun Yang, Robin M. Tucker
The relationships between chronotype and factors known to be associated with weight gain have not been fully investigated in U.S. adults. For example, diet quality, as measured by Healthy Eating Index (HEI), has been shown to be inversely associated with the risk of obesity in U.S. adults (Tande et al. 2010). The HEI assesses the degree to which dietary intake aligns with the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) (Krebs-Smith et al. 2018). Since overall diet quality is related to obesity, it is important to assess its relationship with chronotype to identify possible risk factors for poor diet quality. In addition to diet quality, the relationship between chronotype and food cravings in adults has not been fully characterized. Food craving is a multifaceted phenomenon which represents a person’s desire to consume foods that are deemed to be palatable and is associated with greater likelihood of night eating (Meule et al. 2014) and uncontrolled eating behaviors (Nijs et al. 2007). Studies suggest that the frequency of experiencing food cravings does not differ among chronotypes in university students (Meule et al. 2012) and pregnant women (Teixeira et al. 2020). Given that the previous studies that examine the relationship between chronotype and food cravings only focus on certain populations in Brazil (Meule et al. 2012) and Germany (Teixeira et al. 2020) but not in the U.S., expanding our understanding of these relationships in other populations is warranted.
Is transcranial direct current stimulation an effective modality in reducing food craving? A systematic review and meta-analysis
Published in Nutritional Neuroscience, 2020
Seyed-Ali Mostafavi, Ali Khaleghi, Mohammad Reza Mohammadi, Shahin Akhondzadeh
Overeating or food craving plays an important role in the etiology of overweight and obesity with increasing total energy intake. Meanwhile, numerous efforts have been made to identify the characteristics of food craving and its potential causes. In terms of neurology, imbalance in aspects of the limbic system, which plays an important role in recognition, and the prefrontal cortex that are related to rewards and eating behaviors, are considered as contributing factors to food craving.5 By this mechanism, many scientists have tried to discover new effective therapies to cease food craving and combat obesity.
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