To find out more about living with and battling eating disorders, a while ago, Bored Panda reached out to Nuno, the UKAT Head of Treatment, who shared some very useful insights into the complex mind of a person with an eating disorder. According to Nuno, eating disorders can manifest in a variety of different ways for different people.

"For some, it is about controlling or limiting food, but for others, it is to consume large amounts of food. This—coupled with a sedentary lifestyle—leads to weight gain, which has mood-altering side effects like depression," Nuno told us.

In order to understand the brain with an eating disorder, it’s important to recognize the fact that there is an incredibly powerful link between food and mood. "It can often overcome a person's everyday life, in the same way that an unhealthy relationship with drugs or alcohol can, and just like an addiction to substances, the only way out is to address and treat the root cause of the problem," he told my colleague Jonas previously.

Nuno argues that one and probably the best way to alter the negative link between 'food and mood' is to exercise. “Exercising releases endorphins which trigger a positive feeling in the brain and body. Finding any way to move your body if you're struggling with weight and your mental health will bring huge advantages," he explained.

For some people, food becomes much more than its initial purpose of giving us the energy we need to do daily activities. For some, food becomes an all-consuming obsession. A significant body of research found that food addiction involves the same areas of the brain as drug addiction. According to Kris Gunnars, a nutrition expert and founder of Authority Nutrition, the same neurotransmitters are involved, and many of the symptoms are identical.

The research has shown that processed junk foods have a powerful effect on the reward centers of the brain. These effects are caused by brain neurotransmitters like dopamine. The most addiction-prone foods include typical junk foods like candy, sugary soda, and high-fat fried foods.

What’s interesting to note is that researchers agree that food addiction is not caused by a lack of willpower, but they believe it is caused by a dopamine signal that affects the biochemistry of the brain.