Cutting down on unhealthy food can cause headaches and insomnia

Researchers found that people attempting to cut down on eating highly processed foods experience some of the same physical and psychological symptoms — such as mood swings, cravings, anxiety, headaches and poor sleep — as those quitting smoking cigarettes, according to a study, Live Science reports.

In the study, the researchers developed a new tool modeled after the withdrawal scales that are used to assess symptoms that occur after people quit smoking. This modified questionnaire was given to more than 200 adults who had dieted during the past year by attempting to cut down on junk food. The results showed that the symptoms people experience during withdrawal from tobacco may also be relevant to cutting out highly processed foods from the diet.

Lead study author Erica Schulte said for Live Science that it was the first study looking into whether reducing junk food can trigger withdrawal symptoms in people.

– Withdrawal is a key feature of addiction and showing that it may also occur when reducing junk-food consumption provides more support for the hypothesis that highly processed foods may be addictive – Schulte said.

A limitation of the study is that it asked participants to recall their withdrawal symptoms, but a next step would be to measure these effects in real time, while people were actually reducing their junk-food consumption, she added.

University of Michigan

Live Science

Erica Schulte

how snacks affect us

snacks