# Is obesity the symptom of an addiction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 5, 2002, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513 "2002-06-05T17:34:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![perspective](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f475e1/32.png) [@perspective](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perspective)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/21 "2002-06-05T21:57:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SisterCoyote \* > But, still, it seems to me that _everyone_ is addicted to food. Just like we’re addicted to oxygen. A fair point, but there are behavior patterns associated with eating. Not _everyone_ sits down with a gallon of ice cream and eats the whole thing at once. There are certain behavior patterns that indicate that people are trying to assuage emotional needs with food. Specifically binge eating. It has nothing to do with hunger and not that much with enjoyment. I mean, are people really savoring that 128th bite of rocky road? I’ve had bouts of binging myself. Luckily, it’s only triggered by snack-food. I can fight it simply by not buying it. But if I do…that huge bag of Doritos, it’s gone in an hour. I eat so much I feel sick. I’m not even conscious really of eating the food, of each bite, I just start eating and I stop when it’s gone. I lead a fairly active lifestyle and I don’t tempt myself too often so you would never guess how I act around certain foods just by looking at me. I think that Mighty\_Girl’s friend was practicing discrimination. You should judge each person on their own merits. Those track marks could mean their diabetics, or it could mean they’re addicted to heroin. ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/22 "2002-06-05T22:07:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mighty\_Girl \* > \*\*Yesterday while having a conversation with a friend he was praising me for my will power. He commented that he would never hire an overweight person in his company, because, he beliefs "they are just like drug/niccotine addicts. He says that these (addicts) people are not reliable, “if they don’t have the strenght to do what’s best for them, why should I trust them”. > > I have to admit that after listening to him I saw some merit in his arguments about obesity = addiction. Regardless of his discrimination (which I don’t agree with), should we consider obesity a food addiction? What is the difference between the two? \*\* Setting aside the complete claptrap that being overweight is evidence of food addiction, discriminating against people because of a medical condition is illegal. Your “friend” is advocating violating the ADA and should be called to the carpet for it, not lauded for his valiant stand against the evils of fat. There are people who **cannot** , no matter what they do, lose enough weight to be consider other than “obese” by current medical definitions. These people go on to lead happy, healthy lives, marred only by encounters with fat bigots such as your “friend” whose attitudes are based in ignorance and simplistic thinking, and completely lacking in a fundamental concern for the value of human dignity and diversity. ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/23 "2002-06-05T22:23:45Z")
> [@](#): > > A fair point, but there are behavior patterns associated with eating. Not everyone sits down with a gallon of ice cream and eats the whole thing at once. And some people sit down with the same gallon of ice cream, eat it, and _never gain a pound_. > [@](#): > > When identical twins were overfed intentionally, the siblings gained weight at about the same rate, but unrelated people gained anywhere from 9.5 to 29 lbs, even though all were fed the same number of calories E. Sims, “Studies in Human Hyperphagia.” in _Treatment and Management of Obesity_ and > [@](#): > > A group of university students was asked to deliberately overeat, which should have increased each weight by 20% according to the mathematics of calories. Instead, most found it difficult to post even a 10% weight gain. Same Study > [@](#): > > A group of _lean_ prisoners volunteered to overeat for 200 days with the goal of gaining 20 to 30 lbs. Even though they virtually doubled their food intake, most struggled to gain weight. Only two did so easily. Not everyone reached the goal, and those who did could only maintain it by continuing to overeat. Once the experiment was over, weight loss came readily to all but the two who gained most easily. “Experimental Obesity in Man” _Transactions of the American Associations of Physicians_ **Kelly** , I’m glad you’re here to help. ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/24 "2002-06-05T22:37:29Z")
**SisterCoyote** , thanks for posting the references to experimental studies that document that the ability to gain and lose weight is at least as much a matter of genetics as it is willpower. I’ve tried several times in my life to gain weight. I was up to 6000 calories a day at one point without gaining any weight. My girlfriend, on the other hand, has restricted her diet to as low as 800 calories a day (possibly lower), and while she did eventually start to lose weight at that dietary level she suffered very badly from the symptoms of malnourishment and starvation long before her weight dropped out of the “obese” range. Some people are fat, others are thin, and there is damn little one can do to change one to the other. It’s about damn time that people got that point. The current “epidemic of obesity” mentality that is ravaging the medical establishment (under the whips of the companies that sell weight-loss programs) is interfering with well-reasoned investigation of the genetics of obesity and the actual risk factors involved in being obese. “The simple solution is often quite elegant, and even more often quite wrong.” ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/25 "2002-06-05T22:41:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by **KellyM** \* > Your “friend” is advocating violating the ADA and should be called to the carpet for it, not lauded for his valiant stand against the evils of fat. In the OP I tried to make clear that I will not argue the moral merits of his thinking, which I find questionable, my interest was targeted at his use of the word addiction. With that in mind I didn’t think it was important to point out that since we are not residents of the US, US laws do not apply in this case. In my country it is legal for employers to test or inquiry potential employees about substance abuse (even legal ones like alcohol). It is the employer’s right to not hire anyone proven to have an addiction (any) that in the employer’s thinking could prevent this person from doing a good job. My friend line of thinking goes like this: “since **morbid obesity** prevents an employee from perfoming a number of activities, and it is has all the signs of being the result of an addiction” he would have grounds to not hire this person on those grounds. Regardless of the moral and social implications of his belief, there is some merit to the obesity = addiction theory. People do not abuse oxigen, neither can you become unable to perform some activities due to “oxigen use or abuse”. By having struggled to keep my weight down I can testify that there is some “gratification” in food that goes farther than “killing my hunger”. My body does not need chocolates, ice cream or snacks, yet like **perspective** said, if I buy it, I’ll eat it all. Then my stomach would hurt and I would feel guilty, but it comes down to instant gratification vs health. Isn’t that not the sign of an addiction? In a way I am still struggling just like a recovering alcoholic. So, let’s forget for a second the legal side of this (different countries, totally different legal systems) and the moral arguments behind not hiring substance abusers (which could be argued in another time/thread). Let’s just stick to the medical arguments. ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/26 "2002-06-05T22:50:48Z")
And what if you hadn’t told yourself that you couldn’t have those foods? Would you still “eat them all”? Or would you stop, knowing that they were there when you wanted them? That you didn’t have to eat them all to “hide them” so that no one knew you were eating them? Also: > [@](#): > > We feel that losing weight by dieting is not unlike breath holding. The body will take over control after awhile, and it will cause breathing and eating even if the mind doesn’t want to. After breath holding, a normal person will inhale a vast quantity of air to make up for the oxygen deficit. After a prolonged diet, the body will take in a large number of calories to make up for calorie deprivation John Foreyt, Ph.D. and G. Ken Goodrick, Ph.D., Living Without Dieting ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/27 "2002-06-05T22:52:14Z")
Sorry, didn’t mean to imply that those were the only possible reasons for eating whatever in one sitting. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/28 "2002-06-05T23:13:33Z")
One can argue over the existence of a link between overeating and obesity. Many researchers believe there is a direct link, although accepting it may not be the only cause. Just like some doctors believe there may be a genetical proclivity to alcohol, having the gene doesn’t necessarily mean that you will become an alcoholic. CDC ([http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/press/archive/obesity\_climbs.htm](http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/press/archive/obesity_climbs.htm)) says: > [@](#): > > “The continuing epidemic of obesity is a critical public health problem,” said Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. " > [@](#): > > Overweight and physical inactivity account for more than 300,000 premature deaths each year in the U.S., second only to tobacco-related deaths. Please keep in mind that a)I don’t want all people to look all the same, b)I hate bone-sticking-cronically-starved models, c)I am “snuggly”, but very active and healthy. But let’s face it, when you eat a large pizza for snack, have **gained** 200 lbs over 6 yrs, don’t walk more than 10 meters without almost fainting and you think twice before getting up to go to the bathroom because “it is a lot of effort”, then you show all the self-desctructive signs of an addict. ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/29 "2002-06-05T23:21:58Z")
Or maybe all the signs of someone who has given up because all your life you’ve been told that you’re fat, therefore ugly and unacceptable, so _it doesn’t matter_ what you look like, what you do or how much you “let yourself go” because no one will ever see anything but your fat anyway. As far as the CDC quotes - first let’s get a coherent definition of “obesity” (because it varies from health organization to health organization) and then let’s look at how many of those people are _truly_ unhealthy and not just _assumed_ to be because of their weight, and then we’ll talk. BTW - I’m glad you lost the weight, as it was obviously important to you. I’ve dieted since I was **nine** , with little to no effect on my body (other than the damage it did to my self esteem). Now, I’m exploring a healthier (for me) alternative. ---
**Author:** ![Regina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@Regina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regina)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/30 "2002-06-05T23:24:57Z")
If I may chime in here. Just from some random googling it appears that there isn’t even an agreed-upon definition of addiction. I found several, but just took the first two: [This site](http://www.winnipeg.freenet.mb.ca/iphome/a/aca/lit/defin.html) defines it as “State of dependence caused by habitual use of drugs, alcohol, or other substances. It is characterized by uncontrolled craving, tolerance, and symptoms of withdrawal when access is denied. Habitual use produces changes in body chemistry . . .” [This one](http://www.sexualcontrol.com/definition-of-addiction.pdf) (in reference to sexual addiction) broadly defines an addiction as “behavior a person cannot control that leads to detrimental consequences.” Based on the first definition, obesity is not the sign of an addiction to food. Based on the second, you could argue that some people’s obesity (with attendant health problems) is the result of a food addiction. We all understand now that fatness itself does not necessarily indicate overeating/underactivity or health problems, but some obese people may well have gotten that way because of a behavior pattern they cannot control. Yes, your friend may be right about some of those obese people, but to refuse to hire any obese person only because he has made the generalization that all obese people have health problems and will not be able to perform the job seems a little short-sighted. I think most of us have known an obese person or two who had energy, stamina and skills to perform most any job. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/31 "2002-06-05T23:48:31Z")
**AlaItalia** I find your post most enlightening. Keeping sentiments aside (which usually happens when discussing certain subjects), I would say that I am not even convinced that the law in my country should be so broad as to say “substance” abuse. Hey, I am addicted to caffeine, next thing I know I am fired because of that. As I said, the discussion here is not whether this or that is fair or not. I feel like I must keep repeating that I am not talking about your regular run of the mill obese-but-fairly-health-overly-active-and always-happy-aunt (I have them by the bunch). I am talking about someone with dissabilities directly caused by BEING excessively overweight. I understand the genetic tendencies and such and such. I have a weight “issue” because it runs in my family, just like diabetes and high blood pressure. But if I let this get out of control fully knowing the consequences of overeating + not exercising then the problem is all in my head. I cannot do anything about being short, it’s all my dad’s fault for being short. But I can **try** to prevent these other traits from affecting me. Apparently the definition of addiction is getting broader to include any behaviour that one cannot easily control. In that sense, I am sure somebody else has though of the food addiction idea before my friend. ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/32 "2002-06-06T00:09:47Z")
Yes, and it’s been a very destructive idea for many women (and men). Overeaters Anonymous and Compulsive Eaters Anonymous wouldn’t exist if people didn’t think about food as being an addictive substance. It isn’t. _Food is **not** addictive. Sugar is **not** addictive. Carbohydrates are **not** addictive._ It’s just (and this is partly from my resources, and partly my experience, and partly MNSHO) that we’re taught not to trust our bodies to be healthy, and so we starve, then binge, then starve, then binge, each time creating more weight that is then harder to remove. If we weren’t starving our bodies (holding our breath) we wouldn’t have to take such a deep breath (“over” eat) in order to compensate. Because of this belief, I (and a number of other folks) have decided not to see my body as an enemy to be controlled, but an ally to be listened to. ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/33 "2002-06-06T00:11:25Z")
Boy, did I mix THAT sentence up. Sigh ---
**Author:** ![Regina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@Regina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regina)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/34 "2002-06-06T00:16:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mighty\_Girl \* > \*\* . . . should we consider obesity a food addiction? What is the difference between the two? \*\* Let’s be Frank, shall we? I’m sure he won’t mind. I danced around the question, not wanting to offend fat people and being too lazy to have cites ready. The answer is “no.” We should not consider obesity\* a food addiction\*\*. A food addiction is a food addiction. Obesity may result. Obesity may have many causes, including food addiction or just plain laziness\*\*\*. Health problems and disabilities may result from obesity and/or food addiction. The difference between the two is that obesity is the physiological condition of carrying around a lot of excess fat; food addiction is a psychological condition revolving around issues of security and abandonment. They can be intertwined but are not the same thing. One does not necessarily stem from the other. * * * \*And let’s not get hung up on “what is obese?” I think we all know a grossly fat person when we see one, regardless of their activity level or our subjective feelings about it. \*\*And let’s just assume there is such a thing, broadly defined as an uncontrollable behavior pattern. \*\*\*Yeah yeah yeah some obese people have thyroid problems. Most just eat too much of the wrong foods and aren’t active. Cite? Common sense. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/35 "2002-06-06T00:19:07Z")
So, the question is: is someone who is bedridden, or partially dissable because of **excessive overweight** listening to his/her body? I would venture a no as an answer. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/36 "2002-06-06T00:25:37Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by **AlaItalia** \* > We should not consider obesity_ a food addiction\*\*. Notice the OP says “a symptom of a food addiction”. But I get your point. ---
**Author:** ![Regina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@Regina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regina)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/37 "2002-06-06T00:31:38Z")
No they’re not listening to their bodies. And they’re addicts in the sense that they are experiencing detriments from uncontrollable behavior, or, more specifically, uninformed or pleasurable-but-bad-for-you patterns of behavior. That doesn’t mean they’re food addicts necessarily. Another thought: labeling obesity an addiction just perpetuates the victim attitude that seems rife in our society (where I live, anyway): “I’m not fat, I suffer from a food addiction!” “My child isn’t a brat, she has ADD!” “I’m not a womanizing sleazebag, I suffer from a sex addiction!” I know, not very PC. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/38 "2002-06-06T01:27:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SisterCoyote \* > \*\*Pardon me while I mutter a lot about the hamsters. > > Also, I meant to mention: I haven’t been able to find anything about joints in particular, but I will say that, as a large woman, I did not start having joint problems _until_ I stopped being active. (I lost my membership to my health club when I was fired, and haven’t been walking like know I should.) > > In fact, I’m pretty sure that of the few health problems I’ve had lately, most if not all of them can be chalked up to my lack of movement and not to my weight. \*\* I’m just the reverse. I’ve been varying degrees of obese my entire adult life, but it wasn’t until after I’d been taking regular walks of 1-2 miles, 3-5 times per week that my knees went kablooey. It took about 8 months, but now I’m scrod. Not hopeless, mind you… I’m swimming regularly now and it looks like I’m going to be losing quite a bit of this weight. I’m saying my prayers that the weight loss will help. stoid ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/39 "2002-06-06T02:26:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KellyM \* > \*\ ***SisterCoyote** , thanks for posting the references to experimental studies that document that the ability to gain and lose weight is at least as much a matter of genetics as it is willpower. > > I’ve tried several times in my life to gain weight. I was up to 6000 calories a day at one point without gaining any weight. My girlfriend, on the other hand, has restricted her diet to as low as 800 calories a day (possibly lower), and while she did eventually start to lose weight at that dietary level she suffered very badly from the symptoms of malnourishment and starvation long before her weight dropped out of the “obese” range. > > Some people are fat, others are thin, and there is damn little one can do to change one to the other. It’s about damn time that people got that point. The current “epidemic of obesity” mentality that is ravaging the medical establishment (under the whips of the companies that sell weight-loss programs) is interfering with well-reasoned investigation of the genetics of obesity and the actual risk factors involved in being obese. > > “The simple solution is often quite elegant, and even more often quite wrong.” \*\* What you eat is even more important than how much you eat. If you eat 6000 clean calories spread out 5-6 times a day, your metabolism kicks in, and you will burn more.(of course I only eat about 3500-4k) Alot of people simply do not eat enough food, which is why they are fat. Whats that you say? Eating more food will make you skinny? Possibly. Eating 800 calories will only tell your body to start storing fat, so when you eat more or go back to your old way of eating, fat will get stored and all that starving for nothing. If a person eats a low sugar diet with lots of protien and essental fats, gets some exercise (and i’m not talking about wussy cardio, lift some weights), and eats 6-8 times a day, the fat will roll off. America is fat because of the diet fad we have. We starve ourselves or overindulge with high sugar foods or eat way too many carbohydrates. I don’t think obesity is as simple as eating too much, I think it has to do with eating too little of the foods we need. I think it has to do with the type of Exercise that we do. Aerobics and Cardio alone will not make your metabolism faster. Burning 400 kcal an hour on the treadmill is nothing compared to the 50 cals per lb of muscle mass that is burned just sitting around. Instead people run 8 miles, burning off helpful muscle to fuel themselves, and eat 1500 calories, feeding twice or three times a day, it makes for fat, soft people.(a body typically will kick into storing fat after 8-10 hours of no food) Obese= compuslive eater? Nah. I think it is from too many conflicting “nutritionalists” sometimes using outdated material. As for some people are Fat, some people are thin… You are wrong KellyM, many fat people have become thin (sort of) by working out and eating properly. Just as many Thin people have become huge muscular giants by changing diets. I can provide some links if you like, there is plenty of fat people (women too) that have lost hundreds of lbs by getting into bodybuilding. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513/40 "2002-06-06T02:35:38Z")
It is a bit of a long thread, but it has alot of people that used to be fat, convincing a lady from the Fat message board that loosing weight is possible. [http://209.11.101.244/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=129890&perpage=20&pagenumber=1](http://209.11.101.244/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=129890&perpage=20&pagenumber=1) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obesity-the-symptom-of-an-addiction/112513.md?page=3)