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A Psycho-Genetic Study of Hedonic Responsiveness in Relation to "Food Addiction"

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Added on  2020-01-07

A Psycho-Genetic Study of Hedonic Responsiveness in Relation to "Food Addiction"

   Added on 2020-01-07

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Proposal – The Genotyping in Hedonic Eating Individuals 1Proposal – The Genotyping in Hedonic Eating IndividualsStudent’s Name:Instructor's Name:Date:
A Psycho-Genetic Study of Hedonic Responsiveness in Relation to "Food Addiction"_1
Proposal – The Genotyping in Hedonic Eating Individuals 2Proposal – The Genotyping in Hedonic Eating IndividualsIntroductionFood addiction is fast becoming a topic of great interest to researchers around the world,especially, for its contribution to obesity. Food addiction includes food preference, choice,hedonic eating, and motivation and rewards of pleasure end happiness.The obesity epidemic is perceived in most developed countries, and this has been attributed tothe abundant presence of palatable foods. In such a scenario, the concept of hedonic eating isbecoming popular. While homeostatic eating is eating for calorific needs, hedonic eating meansthe eating for the rewarding, pleasurable aspects of food (Lowe & Butryn, 2007). Hedonic eatingcan be termed as food addiction (Avena, et al. 2012). Theorists say that to people indulging inhedonic eating it is so addictive that it sometimes resembles being addicted to drugs (Ziauddeen,2012). In turn, hedonic eating may result in obesity and weight gain in the respective individuals.It has been proposed that emotional eating is spurred by emotion cues such as anxiety,depression, boredom and sadness rather than being instigated by hunger. Engaging in binge orhedonic eating, the person is trying to seek comfort or pleasure from food.People who also have low satiety tend to gain weight with emotional eating. In severe cases, theeating is called hedonic or compulsive eating. Hedonic eating is thus, a type of emotional eating.Emotional eating is mostly regulated by the brain’s reward systems. The four aspects that the brain’s reward system comprises are;Motivation or wanting;
A Psycho-Genetic Study of Hedonic Responsiveness in Relation to "Food Addiction"_2
Proposal – The Genotyping in Hedonic Eating Individuals 3Memory or learning;Outcome or liking; and Habituation or adapting.These aspects result in the determination of how food is perceived, liked, memorized, andforgotten or expected. The properties such as “rewarding” of food are decided by the palatability of foods. Thepalatability of the foods triggers the reward system of the brain in humans resulting in productionof feelings such as pleasure. Palatability is the overall desirability of a food decided by itstexture, flavor, and taste. Among humans, sweet and high-fat foods are normally consideredpalatable. While some people like the sweet and high-fat foods to a great extent and indulge inthem excessively, not all of the human population is receptive to these tasty pleasures equally.Genetic variations among humans determine whether they would indulge in hedonic eating ornot.Many of the neurotransmitters including dopamine have been implicated in the rewarding aspects of food (Cason et al., 2010; Atkinson, 2008). Dopamine is involving in modulating rewards and is the best characterized among neurotransmitters. Johnson and Kenny (2010)suggested a strong association between compulsive eating disorders and D2 receptor expression.Polymorphisms of TaqA1 have 3 allelic variants, namely, the A1/A1, A1/A2, and A2/A2. Individuals who have at least one or two copies of the A1 allele have about 30% fewer D2
A Psycho-Genetic Study of Hedonic Responsiveness in Relation to "Food Addiction"_3

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