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

by Michael Moss

In time, however, the repetitive nature of addiction can morph these two pursuits—seeking pleasure and seeking relief—into a dismal loop that’s really hard to break. The brain, you’ll remember, has its own numbing device: endorphins, the hormone responsible for the feeling known as “runner’s high.” When we experience trauma, research has found that endorphins rush through the brain, which reduces the emotional or physical pain. When this occurs repeatedly, as in remembering and reliving a past trauma, we come to expect the endorphins and miss them sorely when they retreat. Because addictive substances also cause endorphins to flood the brain, researchers suggest that those among us who are struggling with trauma or other forms of mental illness might be turning to alcohol or food to replace those hormones and experience anew the comforting feeling they generate. We eat to forget, then we eat for relief.