The next big product liability class action lawsuit could target junk food peddlers. Scientific studies show that eating junk food — processed food that is low in nutrients but high in fat and calories — can actually mimic addiction in the brain.

Pennsylvania consumer advocates and analysts have suggested that the findings could trigger a new wave of class action litigation, similar to the lawsuits filed against the tobacco industry when smokers found out that tobacco executives had manipulated the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, having known all along about nicotine's addictive properties.

The scientific findings revealed behaviors related to food that mimicked behaviors related to drug addiction and withdrawal. In one study, rats began to binge-eat after they were allowed to eat indulgent foods such as bacon and cake for an hour a day. The rodents stuffed as much fatty, sugary food into their bodies as they could during that hour, even though they could eat healthy, nutritious food for the other 23 hours of the day.

In another study, rats that drank sugar water soon preferred the sweet drink to their usual food. When scientists blocked the effects of the sugar with a drug, the rats appeared to experience withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety and tremors.

Research with humans is consistent with the findings from the rodent studies. Researchers administered MRI scans on overweight women as the women drank a high-calorie milkshake. Six months later, the brains of women who had gained more weight were found to have undergone changes that made the women have to eat more to derive the same amount of pleasure from food.

Source: ABA Journal, "Research on Junk Foods and Addiction Could Lead to Tobacco-Type Litigation, Yale Prof Says," Debra Cassens Weiss, Nov. 3, 2011