Food addiction

"Food might be the substance in a substance-abuse disorder that we see today as obesity," says Mark Gold, MD, chief of addiction
medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine. "If you ask some of the questions that are used to diagnose drug
abuse-for instance, 'Do you continue to use the substance despite its negative effects?' or 'Do you have a preference for more
refined substances?'-and then replace substance with food, it's not all that difficult to imagine that food addictions exist."

http://health.yahoo.com/weightloss-overview/are-you-addicted-to-food/prevention--23233.html