Food addiction is associated with greater objective binge eating and eating disorder psychopathology, and higher body mass index in youth, a meta-analysis

Abstract

This meta-analysis quantifies the association between food addiction (FA) and body mass index (BMI), between FA and objective binge eating and between FA and eating disorder psychopathology in youth. We found a small positive significant association between FA and BMI and large positive significant associations between FA and objective binge eating and between FA and eating disorder psychopathology. An exploratory moderation analysis showed that FA may be more strongly correlated with objective binge eating in young adults than in adolescents. While more studies of FA examining its overlap with binge eating and eating disorder psychopathology are needed, the current data provides evidence for the construct of FA as overlapping with higher BMI, greater objective binge eating frequency, and greater self-reported eating disorder psychopathology. Further research to delineate the common and differing behavioral and neurobiological substrates of FA, Binge Eating Disorder, and obesity are needed.

Keywords

• Eating disorder
• Obesity
• Weight
• Binge eating
• Young adult
• Adolescent