Nutrition and Addiction

It is clear that, in one sense, we are all addicted to food. Without it we suffer
a protracted period of withdrawal characterised by behavioural changes,
craving for the substance, affective disturbances and ultimately, if the
withdrawal is not treated, death. We anticipate the rewarding properties of
food; we acquire it, ingest it and enjoy it, but crucially, unlike true addicts,
we also inhibit this process wilfully or automatically so that at some point
we stop eating, our appetites satiated.