text: How does the brain respond when we eat? Can we become addicted to food? We all know it can be hard to stop eating the entire pint of ice cream—but does this really qualify as true addiction? Recent research into the brain’s response to binge eating in mice suggests this may be the case.
  Obesity has become a major health crisis in recent years, where currently 2 in 3 American adults and 1 in 3 children are considered overweight or obese (National Institute of Health, 2015). There has also been an increase in related health problems including higher rates of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure (National Institute of Health, 2015). These alarming trends have put a renewed focus on research into elucidating the mechanisms involved in food consumption and disordered eating in an attempt to figure out what is leading to this alarming epidemic of obesity in the US.