The food environments around children and adolescents are often unhealthy and can develop obesity (e.g., fast food outlets in the surroundings). Because of that, they are considered to develop more addictions to food. Food addiction is described as overconsumption of palatable food (i.e., high calorie, fat, and sugar food).
The concept of food addiction is still not widely accepted as an addictive behavior, but some characteristics are similar to eating disorders (e.g., overconsumption of palatable food, cravings, difficulty in reducing the desire; [2]). This present study explored whether there is a difference in palatable food consumption among children and adolescents with and without food addiction.
CORE
- Children and adolescents with food addiction clearly showed high food consumption, particularly food with high calories, fat, and sugar.
- The addiction to palatable food could develop in the early stage of life (i.e., children).
- A new perspective is needed for intervention and change in the food environment, starting from the early stage of life.
- Long-term studies are needed to demonstrate the link between food intake and food addiction.
RESEARCH METHOD
WHAT This is a systematic review study (i.e., interpret data from some studies and describe conclusions). The aims of this review study are to investigate qualitative and quantitative food intake among children and adolescents with and without food addiction.
WHO All studies that met the criteria: 1) Population: children and adolescents; 2) YFAS (The Yale Food Addiction Scale) were used to check if children or adolescents are with or without food addiction; 3) Compare participants with and without food addiction; 4) Outcomes: food intake using the 24-h food recall (i.e., structured interview questions that check the food consumption) or food frequency questionnaire; 5) Study design: observational studies. In the beginning, 4868 reports were compatible with the criteria. After screening from abstracts and titles, 4650 were excluded. After final screening from reviewers, 6 studies were included in this systematic review study.
HOW
- Selection of the titles and abstracts by two authors to put the studies for inclusion or exclusion.
- Gray literature from Google search engines and duplicates studies were automatically removed.
- The Joanna Brigss Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for analytical cross-sectional studies was used to assess the methodological quality (i.e., participant selection, confounding factors, validity and reliability) of the included studies.
- Two reviewers reviewed all selected studies. Discrepancies between evaluators were resolved by consensus.
FINDINGS
- All studies included in this review were cross-sectional study (i.e., collecting data from many different individuals from a single time point).
- Children and adolescents with food addiction had a higher vulnerability to consume palatable food (i.e., high calories, fat, sugar).
- Ultra-processed food contains a high percentage of sugar that makes children or adolescents with food addiction have difficulties stopping or controlling their consumption of this kind of food.
- Palatable food often gives pleasure taste that could lead to a high sensation of reward-seeking (e.g., eating again although individuals are not hungry or just had meal).
DETAILS Santos, J., de Sousa Fernandes, M.S., Carniel, P.G., da Silva Garcês, A., et al. Dietary Intake in Children and Adolescens with Food Addiction: A Systematic Review. Addictive Behaviors Report, 19, 100531, 1-8 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.abrep.2024.100531
This sci-fly was written by Eveline Sarintohe (Behavior Science Institute – Radboud University) for RAD-blog, the blog on smoking, alcohol, drugs and diet.