Food and Abuse

Abstract

(from the chapter) The overwhelming interest in modem society in eating beyond lhat which is required for energy balance suggest that it is no longer only for survival. Alternative approaches are needed to combat this expensive, deadly personal, and public health disease. Reframing the obesity issue from the addiction perspective may encourage the development of novel human and animal laboratory paradigms, which would provide mechanistic insight into how individuals can become dependent on food. Public health approaches, environmental modifications, global initiatives, corporate and individual responsibilities must come together in a joint effort to address these food and diet diseases of modern times. Exclusive focus on personal responsibilities to the exclusion of corporate responsibilities in the case of tobacco probably accounted for decades of delayed policy changes and drug related interventions. Taxations, limits on access and marketing and legal actions by the state attorney generals in the USA are public health imperatives that helped curb the burden of tobacco health concerns in the USA. Such policies focused on changing the availability, costs, and the attributes of tobacco products have resulted in significant public health gains and perhaps the greatest public health victory of the 20'" century. Similar evidence-based policy interventions will help to curb the epidemic of food related disorders-one of the greatest public health challenges of the current times. But the most important consequence of such changes will be the changes that individuals undertake in their behavior and choices. At this epoch of medical development, much of the incremental improvement in our quality of life and life span is likely to come from behavioral changes. Food abuse and obesity are prime targets for change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)