PHILADELPHIA, University of Pennsylvania—Dr. Mary Anne Layden, Co-Director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania, claims that pictures of food produced for television, magazine, and billboard advertisements are responsible for heart attacks, strokes, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, gallbladder disease, and several types of cancer. Layden, who in November 2004 testified before a Senate subcommittee on the dangers of pornography, claiming it was as addictive as cocaine, has now released findings that looking at pictures of food are also addictive as cocaine and lead directly to obesity, and with it, the myriad health concerns that cause death, and cost taxpayers millions each year.

“If pictures of food made us healthy, we would be healthy by now,” Dr. Layden said. “No healthy six-year-old growing up in a healthy home environment says, ‘I hope I grow up to be obese, suffer from type 2 diabetes, and use a Shoprider Sunrunner electric three-wheeled scooter because I will be too fat to walk.’”

Critics point out that Layden’s findings do not mention individuals who encounter gastronomic representations and have no weight-related issues. They also point out that Layden herself, after viewing thousands of culinary images during the course of her research, remains unaffected.

Aaron Moore, CEO for New York City marketing firm Moore and Moore, takes issue with the implication that these images are somehow harmful. "What evidence is there for that?" he asks. "This is saying eating is naughty and you shouldn't do it. The brain lights up in response to the sight of any reward. To conclude that this means pictures of food can be compared to hard drugs is complete rubbish,” he said.

Layden claims that not only can the images affect the viewers’ physical states, but can also interfere with the family unit. “A child who has a food-picture-viewing parent complains that when he looks at him it feels ‘creepy.’ The parental gaze has now become the ‘all-you-can-eat gaze.’” Layden says these children are inversely exposed to images of food as it “becomes normalized” and “is left around the house,” such as the Sunday edition of the newspaper that contains circulars with high-resolution pictures of food, many which include fat-rich oozing cheese and 2-for-1 coupons that can be redeemed at a participating establishment.

“Because of this advertising--material which is potent, addictive, and permanently implanted in the brain--children find that everything is about food. I also found that a large number of children believed that the only use of the television was to advertise between-meal snacks.”

Layden is not alone in her claims. Princeton University’s Dr. Jeffrey Satinover described how a picture of food is analogous to cigarettes, noting, "it is a very carefully designed delivery system for evoking a tremendous flood within the brain of endogenous opioids,” Satinover said. “That is, they cause eating, which causes obesity.” Satinover feels that “It's time to stop regarding pictures of food as simply a form of expression, and see the real cost our society pays because of obesity and its related detrimental effects.”

The journal Obesity Research evaluates state-by-state expenditures related to weight problems and claims that taxpayers foot the doctor's bill for more than half of obesity-related medical costs, which reached a total of $75 billion in 2003. The research was done by the nonprofit group RTI International and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Obesity has become a crucial health problem for our nation, and these findings show that the medical costs alone reflect the significance of the challenge," said Tommy Thompson, secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services. "Of course, the ultimate cost to Americans is measured in chronic disease and early death."

Dr. Judith Reisman, president of the Institute for Media Education, called on the Senate to take action against images of food, saying it's time to mandate that law enforcement begin to collect all data and advertising materials found in the possession of obese individuals. “To be obese, a financial burden on society, and succumb to the variety of weight-related syndromes should no longer be considered a freedom protected by the constitution,” she said.