High-fat, high-sugar foods called more addictive than drugs, alcohol
4/11/2013Fighting cravings for chocolate chip cookies and potato chips is difficult because the high calorie snacks carry an addiction that can be stronger than cocaine and alcohol, Dr. Pam Peeke, nutrition and fitness expert, said Wednesday at a community leaders program.
Dr. Peeke, a physician and author of a new book The Hunger Fix, said new studies on food addictions have found the brain’s reward system behaves much in the same way to high-fat, high-sugar foods as it does to drugs and alcohol.
She was the keynote speaker Wednesday at Mercy Health Partners’ “Is Your Workforce Fit for Duty?”
The breakfast program at the Pinnacle in Maumee aimed to motivate community leaders in healthy lifestyles for their organizations.
Dr. Peeke, who is assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, and is board certified in internal medicine, also is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Body for Life for Women, Fit to Live, and Fight Fat after Forty.
Her new book sets the recovery path for people battling food addictions to overcome their cravings with a replacement of healthy eating habits.