For many, comfort foods are an outlet for stress.
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Harvard Medical School scientists have found that food addiction is twice as common among women with a history of sexual or physical abuse. The study of 57,321 women looked at those who had experienced abuse before the age of 18 and developed issues with food later on in life. What makes this study even more alarming is that more than one third of American women suffer from abuse as children. “We do think that a causal link between childhood abuse and food addiction is plausible,” the lead researcher, Dr. Susan M. Mason, told the Huffington Post. Men weren’t a part of this subject pool, but Mason noted that prior studies have shown links between childhood abuse and obesity in men, too. [HuffPo]
