Who's to blame for the U.S. obesity epidemic?

You can sum-up this food fight in one question: are we fat because we’re not trying hard enough to eat well or because somehow the food industry has eroded our ability to just say no?

Back in the 90s, lawyers suing cigarette-makers clinched their case by proving smokers found it hard to quit not for lack of will, but because nicotine was addictive.

Now, some of the same lawyers are pointing to similar, preliminary but tantalizing findings about your burgers and fries.

From the days of “reefer madness,” that old anti-drug movie, the word “addiction” has conjured images of out-of-control behavior. But today, cutting edge science is shedding new light on addiction and its connection to chemical changes in the brain.   If those changes can lead to compulsive behavior, some scientists wonder if  fatty foods and drugs just might have more in common than you think.

Dr. William Jacobs:  We’re very early in the game when it comes to addiction to food. The evidence is beginning to line up that there are so many similarities that I think we’re going to see that there are patients who are addicted to food.

Dr. William Jacobs studies addiction at the University of Florida, and has testified against cigarette makers in past tobacco cases.

He points to brain images that indicate activity in our brain’s reward and pleasure centers.

Dr. Jacobs: What that scans tells us is that the brain is responding to food in a nearly identical manner as it is responding to cocaine in the patients who met the criteria for food addiction.

Scanning people’s brains while making them sniff food looked like an odd experiment, but scientists at the prestigious Brookhaven National Lab are finding that just smelling and seeing certain foods, can often trigger a chemical excitement in the brains of over-eaters, making them compulsively want it.

And it seems our brain gets most excited by the things that cause us so many problems: sugar, salt, and fat.

Scientists warn our brain chemistry may actually change as we eat these foods, causing us to crave them even more.

Dr. Jacobs: If as a child I eat very sweet, pleasurable food, instead of my vegetables that my mother wants me to eat, I may be setting myself up for brain-changes that may be irreversible.

As preliminary as much of this science is, it’s all potential ammunition for lawyers like John Banzhaf.

Banzhaf: Fast food companies fail to tell people that there is now sufficient evidence that eating fatting foods can cause addictive changes in the body.

So do chocoholics and junk food junkies really exist? Science may be leaning that way, but the food industry says no. You have to eat to survive. You want to eat because it tastes good.

Joe McMenamin: Food is not an addicting substance. Food is not morphine. And the solution for the obesity problem is not litigation.

Joe McMenamin is a lawyer and a medical doctor in Richmond, Virginia. His firm represents food companies, so he’s studying the issue of food addiction. He’s concluded that calling food “addictive” is speculative junk science.

Dr. McMenamin: The behaviors of those who overeat simply don’t resemble the behaviors of those who truly addicted. In those who are addicted, we see altered mental status. We see abrupt and often impulsive behavior dangerous to the individual himself or others.  We see withdrawal, when one is denied access to his drug of choice. Foods don’t do that.

So, how does this chemical excitement in our brain influence our decision-making as we pull into that drive-thru? If there is such a thing as food addiction, are some foods more addictive than others? The scientists we spoke to said a lot more needs to be understood before any of them would feel comfortable calling food “addictive” as experts on the witness stand.  Stay tuned. 

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