Background‘Food addiction’ shares a similar neurobiological and behavioral framework with substance addiction. However whether, and to what degree, ‘food addiction’ contributes to obesity in the general population is unknown.Objectivesto assess 1) the prevalence of ‘food addiction’ in the Newfoundland population; 2) if clinical symptom counts of ‘food addiction’ were significantly correlated with the body composition measurements; 3) if food addicts were significantly more obese than controls, and 4) if macronutrient intakes are associated with ‘food addiction’.DesignA total of 652 adults (415 women, 237 men) recruited from the general population participated in this study. Obesity was evaluated by Body Mass Index (BMI) and Body Fat percentage measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. ‘Food addiction’ was assessed using the Yale Food Addiction Scale and macronutrient intake was determined from the Willet Food Frequency Questionnaire.ResultsThe prevalence of ‘food addiction’ was 5.4% (6.7% in females and 3.0% in males) and increased with obesity status. The clinical symptom counts of ‘food addiction’ were positively correlated with all body composition measurements across the entire sample (p<0.001). Obesity measurements were significantly higher in food addicts than controls; Food addicts were 11.7 (kg) heavier, 4.6 BMI units higher, and had 8.2% more body fat and 8.5% more trunk fat. Furthermore, food addicts consumed more calories from fat and protein compared with controls.ConclusionOur results demonstrated that ‘food addiction’ contributes to severity of obesity and body composition measurements from normal weight to obese individuals in the general population with higher rate in women as compared to men.

Dietary alpha-lipoic acid supplementation in SHRs lowered the systolic blood pressure, cytosolic [Ca2+]i, blood glucose and insulin levels, and tissue aldehyde conjugates, and attenuated adverse renal vascular changes.

Alteration of extracellular calcium concentration may be involved in glucose metabolism in a number of pathways. The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between total serum calcium and 1) fasting serum glucose, 2) insulin, 3) insulin resistance, and 4) beta-cell function in 1,182 healthy subjects from the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. All variables were log10 transformed, and confounding factors including age, trunk fat percentage, serum phosphorus, magnesium, 25-OH vitamin D, and parathyroid hormone were adjusted before analyses. Significant positive correlations between glucose and insulin resistance with calcium were found in both sexes, whereas an inverse correlation between beta-cell function and calcium was found only in women. Similar results were found in medication-free women and men, as well as in pre- and postmenopausal women. Subjects with low calcium levels had the lowest concentration of glucose and the least insulin resistance, whereas subjects with high calcium levels had the highest concentration of glucose and insulin resistance in women but not in men. This relationship remained after calcium was adjusted for 25-OH vitamin D and parathyroid hormone. Our results suggest that alteration of serum calcium homeostasis is significantly correlated with the abnormality of glucose level, insulin resistance, and beta-cell function.