Going along with my blog post "Food and Sex," there is another interesting neural similarity with food and consumption: drug addiction.
Although it may be slightly dense for some, I read a scientific article pertaining to this issue for my course on psychopharmacology this semester. This review article goes into how, based on previous research in the field, one can see similar patterns of activation and displays of behavior between food-induced and drug-induced craving. As pertaining to this class, we always discussed how "food is important because we all need to eat." Well, here is one way to look at the neurophysiological explanation of that need and likening it to another well-known behavior. It is also interesting because it places food as a drug itself, inferring the possibility of addiction to food (e.g.- obesity?). If you can stand some scientific rhetoric, I think this article is really worth the read and may give you a different outlook on some of the food issues we discussed throughout the course.
Roy Wise: Drug Self-Administration Viewed as Ingestive Behavior
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