I'm not so sure it's "food is an addiction" compared to "look how people are eating today (and how much.)
If you compare today's "modern" diet with that of the 40's, 50's and 60's you'd see that today we eat more refined and processed foods than we ever have.
Back in the 40's - 60's meals were made at home "from scratch", we didn't have all these prepared foods high in salt, carbohydrates, and all kinds of chemicals going through our digestive systems. We also didn't have an obesity problem in this country.
It's been pretty well known that the instances of heart disease and intestinal cancer for example were far less "back in the day" than they are today. Much of that, along with our society getting fatter is directly correlated with the refined/heavily processed "foods" we eat.
Want to lose weight? Stop eating refined/processed foods, (junk food) and sugary drinks or drinks high in empty calories. For most people, simply switching to a natural food diet does the trick in losing weight.
Those that can't will likely have some form of metabolic disorder, or something else related to medication (prednisone, steroids for example cause rapid weight gain.) Beyond that group --- those are the people who get fat through eating crap.
People eat “processed” food because they work much longer hours than they did in the 40s and 50s and 60s. Get women back in the kitchen and you will see slenderness return. But women are running from one job to another while also buying food, preparing food and serving food. No wonder they take short cuts.