Sweet and high fat foods
Women in particular report extreme liking of or craving for foods that are both sweet and high in fat (e.g., candies, cakes or pastries, ice cream) (23). One proposed model for binge eating of palatable foods (particularly those rich in both sugar and fat) is that intake of these foods is influenced by the opioid peptide system. Drewnowski et al. (24,25) found that the opiate antagonist drug naloxone reduced hedonic preferences for sugar/fat mixtures in both binge eaters and controls. Naloxone also preferentially reduced intake of sweet high fat foods in binge eaters compared with low fat carbohydrates, such as pretzels, jelly beans or popcorn (Fig. 1). Although there may be a modest role of opioid involvement in the consumption of sweet high fat foods, particularly among binge eaters, it does not appear that the use of opioid antagonists is clinically useful in achieving or sustaining reductions in body weight (19,23).