Restricting sugary foods could lead to overeating, according to a new rat study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    Many people try to lose weight by going on a diet. But this new research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, suggests that restricting certain foods for a set time period in the manner of dieting could cause withdrawal symptoms similar to those associated with drug abuse and increase cravings for those foods. This could lead periodic dieters to gorge on forbidden foods when they have the opportunity, the researchers suggest.

Oy frickin' vey.

The implication of this seems to be, don't ever stop eating this stuff, because it'll go bad for you when you come back, and you will.

But a completely different conclusion is practicaly shouting out from the first paragraph of the story, which was posted in December at foodnavigator-usa.com: "...restricting certain foods for a set time period in the manner of dieting could cause withdrawal symptoms similar to those associated with drug abuse..."

Maybe, just maybe, the conclusion should be that one shouldn't restrict foods for a set time period! This is the unsustainability embedded in the DNA  of "...the manner of dieting..." that people reluctantly turn to when they feel cornered by extra poundage — address a long-term problem with a solution that is short term by design. How is that ever going to work?

Alternatively, perhaps people who are triggered by particular foods should just not eat them anymore, in the same way that people allergic to strawberries just avoid strawberries. Even if they like them. Even if "everybody else" gets to eat strawberries, and it is so not fair.

And, let's also pay attention to the finding that those actions could cause effects similar to those of drug abuse. Yes, they could, but perhaps they're related to the rightful place of some problem eating in the domain of addiction, rather than just being related to diet-like actions.