Neurobiological Correlates Shared Between Obesity, BED and Food Addiction

The ubiquity of the obesity condition in the United States, Europe and other regions with developed economies will associate to a significant adverse impact on public health. Numerous data indicate that social, behavioral, neuroendocrine, and metabolic factors may encourage compulsive eating behaviors thus increasing the risk of obesity. Several pathological conditions overlap with excess weight. Among the most common, there are binge eating disorder (BED) and food addiction (FA), which share several neurobiological and behavioral aspects with substance addictions. BED has many features in common with addictive behavior, such as loss of control and the need to frequently repeat the dysfunctional pattern despite negative consequences. The food addiction hypothesis assumes that exposure to highly palatable foods alters the reward circuits of the brain, resulting in a behavioral phenotype similar to substance addiction and facilitating dysfunctional eating behaviors, such as binge eating crises. In this review, over 100 publications, researched on MEDLINE from 2000 until march 2021, were included since they evaluate neuroendocrine changes, emotional homeostatic factors and the reward circuit, associating them with exposure to highly palatable foods, loss of control, the way we eat, the increase in impulsiveness and the inability to change eating behavior despite the negative consequences related to overweight and obesity. Finally, understanding the underlying neurobiological circuits of compulsive eating behaviors and food addiction could result in a great therapeutic potential for patients suffering from ailments nutrition and obesity.