Millions of people around the world are afflicted by addictions of one kind or another.

Some of the most common addictions that afflict people include tobacco, alcohol and painkillers. However, most people do not realise that it is easy to become addicted to something that is perfectly legal: for example, addiction to alcohol, which is readily available to people. But one serious issue that is not often talked about is addiction to food.

Research has shown that for people addicted to food, the brain's reward centres are activated in the same way as the addictive stuff. This is especially true when people are addicted to foods high in sugar, salt and fat - the most addictive ingredients that also happen to be the things we eat every day. Just like addictive drugs, these ingredients trigger the release of dopamine and other feel-good chemicals.

When someone indulges in their favourite food, these reward signals overshadow the signal of being full. This is why people will continue to eat long after they are full. This is compulsive overeating and is just one of many behavioural addictions.

The role of pressure

We may not realise it, but stress can actually make us reach for our favourite crisps or chocolate without us realising it. This is, of course, why we are more inclined to make a strong effort to drink.

But food addiction can be just as dangerous. "Animals that eat sugary foods intermittently reduce their normal food intake when there are no sweet treats and overindulge when there are sweet treats." Scientists hypothesise that the brain's stress system may be behind this behaviour," explains the NIH.

Dr Eric Zorrilla of the Scripps Research Institute explains:- "Our findings suggest that eating sweets intermittently changes the brain's stress system, so you may feel stressed ...... In other words, you may be able to self-medicate stress-like symptoms with that piece of pie. "

Yes, the more stressed people are, the more they eat. "Increased availability and consumption of ultra-processed foods has been associated with an increase in the prevalence of obesity, but scientists have yet to demonstrate that ultra-processed foods lead to obesity or adverse health outcomes." Researchers at the National Institutes of Health investigated whether people consumed more calories when exposed to diets consisting of ultra-processed foods compared to diets consisting of unprocessed foods.A study published in the journal Cell Metabolism in 2019 stated that:-"Although the calories, sugars, fats, fibre and a large number of nutrients in both ultra-processed and unprocessed diets were matched, people consumed more calories in the ultra-processed diet compared with the unprocessed diet."

Conventional treatment of food addiction

There are several traditional treatments that have been recommended for people suffering from food addiction. However, not all of them are effective, leaving doctors and patients alike desperate for other successful means of treating the condition.

For food addicts, a 12-step programme is recommended; these are similar to the prescriptions of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), the only difference being that the addictive substances are not the same. In this type of treatment, the addict is asked to attend with others who are experiencing the same addiction and they end up working with a sponsor who tries to get them to work with a healthy diet and develop a changed perspective on food. There are also programmes specifically for food addiction such as Binge Eaters Anonymous and Greys Anonymous.

Other widely used conventional treatments include cognitive behavioural therapy, commercial treatment centres, medication, psychiatry, and others.

How CBD can help

With all these treatments, food addiction is still one of the most difficult addictions to cure. That's because you're dealing with a legal monster that's everywhere around you every day.

But experts believe cannabis can actually help.

Cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 are present in everyone's body. They are also found in the central nervous system and brain, and their role in our overall health, irritability, pain and other conditions has been studied.

Interestingly, the study found that CB1 receptors were more common in obese people, especially in adipose tissue. This led the researchers to suggest a link between obesity and CB1 receptor activation.

Here's what else CBD can do to help:

1. Reduces appetite:Studies have shown that CBD helps regulate the body's reward system, leading to a reduction in appetite.

2. Control emotional overeating: Apart from stress, other emotions can cause us to overeat, such as depression or anxiety. It can help you to avoid the "craving feeling".

3. Weight loss: When we eat food, much of it is converted into fat. But there are two kinds of fat in our bodies: white fat and brown fat. Brown fat is converted into energy and white fat is stored to give you energy. Removing white fat is bad because we need it to keep our bodies healthy. But in adults, we have less brown fat. Consuming CBD has been shown to help brown fat, which in turn helps us convert unwanted fat into energy that we can burn.

CBD Best Food Pairing

So now you want to treat binge eating and food addiction with CBD medication. The best way to do this is actually to eat more of it.

The good news is that food and CBD are a match made in heaven! Increased bioavailability is an effective drug treatment. Certain foods have been shown to maximise the body's absorption of CBD, so you can reap the maximum health benefits from them.

Here are the foods that go best with CBD:

1. Healthy fats: Healthy fats such as MCT, olives, sesame oil, fish, avocados, nuts and emulsified fats are a great way to speed up the absorption of CBD in the body.

2. Terpene rich foods:Terpene rich spices and herbs do enhance the absorption of CBD. Try combining it with foods with black pepper, turmeric and rosemary.

3. Caffeine:Coffee helps CBD pass through the digestive system quickly and into your bloodstream faster.