Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions

by Michael Moss

In 1965, the head of pharmacology at the World Health Organization complained, “It has become impossible in practice, and is scientifically unsound, to maintain a single definition for all forms of drug addiction and/or habituation.” The organization eventually stopped using the term altogether, replacing it with the word dependency. The catalyst for this change was a better understanding of the narcotics and other drugs we came to use recreationally or abuse. They were not nearly as powerful as they were commonly portrayed. Or rather, not uniformly so. Cocaine, for instance, typically causes no physical discomfort when its usage is stopped. There may be intense psychic pain, including depression and severe cravings, but there is none of the body-wrenching havoc that withdrawal from barbiturates causes. Yet cocaine does create tolerance, propelling some users to take more and more for the same effect. Cannabis, in turn, does not cause significant amounts of tolerance, but in extreme cases stopping its use can trigger irritability and restlessness.