People with an impulsive personality may be more likely to have a food addiction, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Georgia.
The study found that people exhibiting impulsive behavior weren’t necessarily overweight, but impulsivity was linked to a compulsive relationship with food and, as a result, less healthy weight.
Food addiction has been compared to addictive drug use. Studies have linked the dopamine release that occurs after tasting delicious food to the dopamine release that happens when people consume other addictive substances.
Impulsive behavior involves several personality traits. Two of these traits —known as negative urgency and lack of perseverance —were particularly associated with food addiction and high BMI during the study.
Negative urgency is characterized by the tendency to behave impulsively when experiencing negative emotions. For some, that means drinking alcohol or doing drugs. For others, it could mean eating to feel better.
Lack of perseverance is when a person has a hard time completing hard or boring tasks. People with a lack of perseverance might have a difficult time following through with attempts to change addictive eating behaviors, which could also cause an overweight or obese BMI.
Impulsivity might be one reason why some people eat in an addictive way despite motivation to lose weight, said Dr. Ashley Gearhardt, a clinical psychologist who helped develop the Yale Food Addiction Scale.
“One of the key hallmarks of addiction is impulsivity,” said Gearhardt, now an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.
“We were theorizing that if food addiction is really a thing, then our measure [the Yale Food Addiction Scale] should be related to impulsive action.”
Clinical psychologist Dr. James MacKillop, whose lab was behind the study, believes that therapies used to treat addictive drug behaviors could help people who suffer from addictive eating habits.
“Most of the programs for weight loss at this point focus on the most obvious things, which are clearly diet and exercise,” MacKillop said. “It seems like craving management or managing acute desires to eat would have a natural fit within the domain of skills a person would need to eat healthily.”
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美國喬治亞大學的研究人員進行的一項新研究表明，性格沖動的人更易患暴飲暴食癥。
這項研究發現，表現出性格沖動的人不一定都面臨著超重問題，但沖動性格和過度飲食有著必然聯系，而過度飲食就會導致不健康的體重。
食物成癮已與藥物上癮無異。有研究發現品嘗美味之后釋放出的多巴胺與人們使用其他上癮的物質后釋放的多巴胺有關聯。
沖動行為包括多種性格特點。在這項研究中，這其中兩個特點——急躁和缺乏毅力尤其與食物成癮及較高的體重指數聯系在一起。
急躁是指處于消極情緒時表現出的一種沖動行為。對于一些人來說，酗酒和吸毒位列其中。對于另一些人來說，這里面也包含為了讓自己感覺好些而吃東西。
缺乏毅力指遇到困難或無聊的任務時難以順利愉快地完成。缺乏毅力的人難以堅持改變其成癮性飲食問題，這也可能導致身體超重或體重指數上升。
臨床心理醫生阿什利·吉爾哈德博士表示，沖動的性格也可以從一方面解釋為什么即使有些人有減肥的動力卻難以改變成癮性飲食方式。他協助制訂出了耶魯食物成癮刻度表。
“成癮的一個主要標志就是沖動，”吉爾哈德說道。他現在是密歇根大學的助理教授。
“我們正在對食物成癮是否真正存在進行理論化研究，之后我們的措施（即耶魯食物成癮刻度表）應該與解決沖動行為有關。”
臨床心理醫生詹姆斯·麥克克羅普博士認為，用于治療吸毒成癮行為的療法可以幫助醫治患有食物成癮癥的病人。他所在的實驗室在進行此項研究。
“目前大多數減重項目都把注意力放在最明顯的事情上——顯然就是飲食和鍛煉，”麥克克羅普說道。“似乎控制想要進食的急切渴望與人們健康飲食所需要的技能關系緊密。” |
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