Causes of food addiction?

[newleaf]

I would like to know more about food addiction. What causes this problem? Is it because of dopamine, as suggested by some studies? Or could the causes be emotional? Does anybody know about it?

[ginni]

Most assuredly, overeating is a disease of addiction, just like drugs and alcohol, food addiction has all the progressive physiological and psychological maladies affecting the heath, social and economic qualities of life of the addicted.

OBESITY:
First, we need to look at how wide spread obesity is and how it may affect our lives. According to the American Obesity Association "Obesity is a disease that affects nearly one-third of the adult American population (approximately 60 million). The number of overweight and obese Americans has continued to increase since 1960, a trend that is not slowing. Today, 64.5 percent of adult Americans (about 127 million) are categorized as being overweight or obese. Each year, obesity causes at least 300,000 [premature] deaths in the U.S., and healthcare costs of American adults with obesity amount to approximately $100 billion"

The prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing worldwide at an alarming rate in both developing and developed countries. Environmental and behavioral changes brought about by economic development, modernization, and urbanization have been linked to the rise in global obesity. Obesity is increasing in children and adults, and true health consequences may become fully apparent in the near future.
A Rand Corporation study released in January 2004 found links between the increase in obesity and reported disabilities. Their study found a 39.4% increase in the number of people between the ages of 30 and 49 years who were unable to care for themselves do to obesity. Muscle-skeletal problems (such as chronic back pain), which are linked to obesity, are one of the nation’s leading causes of disability, along with mental illness such as schizophrenia.