ReviewNature reviews. Endocrinology2017
Food addiction and obesity: unnecessary medicalization of hedonic overeating.
Review in Nature reviews. Endocrinology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Obesity has limited behavioural overlap with addiction and psychiatric phenotypes.Nature human behaviour · 2020Pooled it
- Food-Related Impulsivity in Obesity and Binge Eating Disorder-A Systematic Update of the Evidence.Nutrients · 2017Pooled it
- Cultural and Sex-Related Differences in Free-Word Associations with "Sweets": A Multinational Online Study.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Neurobiological Consequences of High-Fat High-Sugar Diets on the Mesocorticolimbic System: a Narrative Review.Current nutrition reports · 2026Review
- Addiction spectrum disorder: a conceptual framework for comprehensive understanding of addictive disorders.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Defining Hyperphagia for Improved Diagnosis and Management of MC4R Pathway-Associated Disease: A Roundtable Summary.Current obesity reports · 2025Review
- Mediating role of exercise in the relationship between body dissatisfaction and overeating using structural equation modeling.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Similarities and Differences in Diagnostic Scales.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Article
- Abstinence-based treatment of comorbid eating disorders and ultra-processed food addiction.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Contribution of hypothalamic orexin (hypocretin) circuits to pathologies of motivation.British journal of pharmacology · 2024Review
- Validity of the Addiction-like Eating Behavior Scale among Patients with Compulsive Eating.Nutrients · 2024Article
- 1-Deoxynojirimycin containing Morus alba leaf-based food modulates the gut microbiome and expression of genes related to obesity.BMC veterinary research · 2024Article
- Relationship Between BMI, Self-Rated Depression, and Food Addiction-A Cross-Sectional Study of Adults in Postpandemic Poland.Depression and anxiety · 2024Article
- Metabolic interactions between organs in overweight and obesity using total-body positron emission tomography.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2024Article
- Sex Differences in the Relationship between Chronotype and Eating Behaviour: A Focus on Binge Eating and Food Addiction.Nutrients · 2023Article
- Exploring Psychological Constructs in People Receiving Treatment for Addictive Eating Behaviours: "I Hate Loving Food as Much as I Do".Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Regulator of G-Protein Signalling 9: A New Candidate Gene for Sweet Food Liking?Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Factors increasing the risk for food addiction in Ecuadorian students.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Linking drug and food addiction: an overview of the shared neural circuits and behavioral phenotype.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2023Review
- Signaling pathways in obesity: mechanisms and therapeutic interventions.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The concept of addiction is loaded with connotations and is often used for its political as much as its medical utility. The scientific case for 'food addiction' as a clinical phenotype currently rests on its association with generic diagnostic criteria for substance-related disorders being applied to everyday foods and eating-related problems. This has fused the concept of obesity with addiction regardless of whether it fits the definition. The hedonic, or reward, system can account for the ingestion of foods and drugs, confirming that they share neural substrates that differentiate liking and wanting. These are normal processes that are recruited for natural homeostatic behaviours and can explain the phenomenon of hedonic overeating as a consequence of human motivation pushed to extremes by an obesogenic environment. Food addiction constitutes a medicalization of common eating behaviours, taking on the properties of a disease. The use of this medical language has implications for the way in which society views overeating and obesity.
Indexed as
Identifiers
28549063What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.