are "obese" people "hedonists" when it comes to food?

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had an interesting article, Eating to Live or Living to Eat?
It talked about the impression that 'obese' people react differently to sweets and forbidden foods than 'normal' weight people. The notion that 'obese' people are hedonists and can't control themselves, that brain chemistry can explain the addiction to food. (See my review of End to Overeating for a brief discussion...)

Lots of the same old same old, 'obese' people are gluttons with a physiological explanation, but a few sentences stood out and gave me hope that we are starting to consider the feeding/eating relationship. They never come right out and say it...

"It's possible that these changes reflect how the brain has adapted to eating patterns in obese people, and that could create a vicious circle, putting them at risk for even more disordered eating," says Dr. Small.

I would have loved to see them talk about those "eating patterns" can we just spit it out? Dieting? Avoidance? Restriction? Years of yo-yo dieting where all of these foods have been forbidden, where maybe the obese subjects have a higher probability of having engaged in dieting? I would like to know. Did they include those factors in the study? (Of note, most obesity studies in children do not take into account at all the feeding relationship...)

There are plenty of other metabolic mysteries, too: Why are some "foodies" who get intense pleasure from eating able to stop when they're full and others aren't? Is the tendency to eat way past fullness genetic or learned behavior, and how much can it be changed?

Did they bother to ask about their eating styles, their dieting histories? Have their brains been wired for years that these foods are for pleasure or are these foods associated with shame, guilt, restriction and intense desire...

On people who have lost significant weight and kept it off through diet and exercise alone:

"They are very controlled individuals, and they are very rare. We had to fly some in from Alaska,"

I think that last part is my favorite sentence. Goes in the face of everything we hear about how simple it is to just eat less and exercise more!

Some of you may remember my favorite quote that these researchers might benefit from:

"Food might not be addictive on its own, but prohibiting it can set off a cycle of anxiety, craving, and overconsumption that for all purposes looks like addiction."

What do you think?