Maybe food addiction statistics would be of interest to you? Well obesity statistics anyway. I am sure it does not come as news to you that obesity has been on the rise in the USA for 20 years now. I ran across this government website on U.S. obesity trends that make the situation very clear. It is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site. This data covers from 1985 to 2008. Only one state in the US in 2008 (Colorado) had an obesity rate below 20% of the population.
They offer some neat PowerPoint slide downloads if you want them. They present a lot of the data on the site if you just want part of the story. Like obesity by state, race/ethnicity, county and the like. Actually, they have a whole section of the CDC website for overweight and obesity information. You might want to check the whole site out for yourself. They even have a section with downloads for you that is devoted to scientific research on what works in managing problems with weight. Hey, your tax dollars at work I would say.
You can find a few more interesting but unofficial food addiction statistics here as well. I did notice in looking at the counties map that the Southern states have the highest levels of obesity. Not surprising given the food culture and given Blacks have the highest rates of obesity. Therefore, we have a problem that is for sure!