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Food Addiction Institute
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STUDIES

The concept of food addiction attracts much interest in the scientific community. Research is mainly based on the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), a tool developed to assess food addiction. Substance use disorder criteria have been used to develop this scale. The concept of food addiction has not been established to this day although it can be grouped with other EDs such as BED. More research is needed to understand this behavior andthe differences between food addiction and other EDs. The criteria for food addiction should be revisited in light of the concepts currently used to examine behavioral addictions.
Food addiction is an emerging area of both clinical and research interest. The current review discussed several definitional and conceptual categorisations that have been put forth to quantify food addiction. However, the YFAS 2·0 concept predominates the literature. Similarly, evidence shows some similarities of food addiction with established eating disorders, particularly BED. Thus, the current review supports two main areas of contention that warrant much more research; considering food addiction as a substance-related addiction or a behavioural-related addiction and if food addiction is distinct from established eating disorders. Further research is needed to continue to delineate and clarify controversies about similarities and differences in food addiction with other concepts and established disorders.
Systematic review of food addiction as measured with the Yale Food Addiction Scale: implications for the food addiction construct
Penzenstadler L, Soares C, Karila L, Khazaal Y. Systematic review of food addiction as measured with the Yale Food Addiction Scale: implications for the food addiction construct. Curr Neuropharmacol. 2019;17(6):526‐538. https://doi.org/10.2174/1570159X16666181108093520
Systematic review of food addiction as measured with the Yale Food Addiction Scale: implications for the food addiction construct

Sixty publications were included in the analysis. Thirty-three studies examined nonclinical samples and 27 examined clinical samples. All studies used YFAS scoring results to define food addiction. The prevalence of food addiction according to the YFAS varied largely by the studied samples. In general, a higher body mass index and the presence of eating disorders (EDs), especially binge eating disorder (BED), were associated with higher YFAS scores.

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