Comfort Food

Researchers offered stressed and hungry rats either plain old rat chow or chocolate-flavoured treats and found the stressed rats more prone to binge eating than their calmer colleagues. Two different studies published in the October issue of the American Psychological Association journal Behavioral Neuroscience found a close link between stress and over-eating and also implicated brain opioids in the neurochemistry of binge eating.

Summarizing one of the two recent studies, a press release conclude that binge eating is a natural response to a stressful environment:

The researchers speculate that the deprived and stressed rats may have been in a “hedonic deprivation state,” essentially craving something good and rewarding. The research underscores how what is viewed as an unhealthy behavior (indulging in palatable foods, which are cheap, convenient and often high in fat and sugar) may have its roots in the need to survive. It suggests that binge eating is an adaptive response to abnormal environmental conditions. Boggiano cites other scientists’ findings that among healthy people without eating disorders, dieting is the biggest predictor of stress-induced overeating.

In light of their findings, she says, “Highly palatable food can mimic opioid drugs by releasing opioids or activating sensitized receptors, so imagine so imagine what it can do in a human with a history of dieting. If only rat chow is available, even rats with a history of dieting when stressed rats don’t binge — but when they get a little bite of cookie first, they do.” As a result, she says when treating bulimics and binge eaters, it may not be a good idea to introduce palatable (junk) food too early in therapy.

However, she thinks that binge eaters’ sensitized opioid receptors should return to normal as long as they stay away from very-low-calorie diets and from trigger foods for a long time, perhaps relative to the amount of time they’ve had the disorder. In the meantime, scientists could perhaps develop a safe opioid blocker that could help binge eaters fight off food cravings. However, Boggiano believes that the main key is not drugs but behavioral change around food, recognizing stressors and avoiding restrictive diets.

“Binge eating is normal,” she says. “It’s your brain’s best way to respond to expected starvation. It’s restrictive dieting and stressing so much about your body weight and shape that is abnormal.”

One hope is that a better understanding of the biological basis of binge eating in response to stress may help both the stressed and the non-stressed to avoid binge-eating and keep their weight at healthy levels.

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