Food Addiction

What is Food Addiction?

Food addiction isn’t just about loving food or overeating sometimes; it’s a serious condition where you become addicted to certain foods, often those high in sugar, fat, and carbohydrates.

Food addictions like drugs and alcohol involve the brain’s pleasure centers and create cravings for certain types of foods.  Cravings are very different from what we generally call hunger, which is a natural and healthy sensory response to what the body needs to remain stable and in balance.

People with food addiction find themselves eating large amounts of highly palatable foods. This includes highly processed foods, like fast foods and sugary snacks, often chemically designed for extreme flavor and taste.

This behavior triggers a cycle where eating leads to cravings for more, even though they know the negative consequences – weight gain, health problems, escalating anxiety, and emotional distress. This can affect your life in profound ways, both physically and emotionally.

What is Disordered Eating?

What medical science calls disordered eating is much more than compulsive eating, being addicted to consuming certain foods or being unable to satisfy one’s seemingly limitless sense of hunger.

Disordered eating also includes different forms of restrictive, irregular, and inflexible eating patterns, such as:

• Extreme and obsessive dieting
• Pursuit of thinness to the point of emaciation
• An obsessive unwillingness to maintain a normal weight
• A profound and intense fear of gaining weight
• Habitual use of diet pills and fasting

How Food Addiction Affects the Brain

Your brain releases dopamine when you eat trigger-inducing foods like processed foods such as sugary snacks, salty chips, or fatty treats.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter produced by the brain that acts as a chemical messenger. It sends feel-good pleasure signals from the brain to the rest of the body, not unlike addictive substances like drugs or alcohol, which affect the brain and body in similar ways.

The problem is that the brain needs more of those foods over time to obtain the same or stronger feel-good feelings, resulting in an insatiable craving for more of these foods.

This is where food addiction and other eating disorders overlap. Conditions like binge eating disorder involve eating large amounts of food in one sitting and feeling out of control while doing it.

Unlike binge and purge behaviors seen in bulimia, people with binge eating disorder don’t purge after, but they often feel intense shame and guilt after they binge.

The Yale Food Addiction Scale is used to diagnose food addiction. This tool asks questions about your cravings, food consumption, and whether certain eating habits are causing you distress or interfering with your daily life.

Statistic: Food addiction occurs in almost 7% of women and 3% of men.

Signs and Symptoms of Food Addiction

Not sure if you have a food addiction? Here are the warning signs:

• Cravings for Certain Foods: You find yourself constantly thinking about or craving certain foods, especially those high in sugar, fat, or salt.

• Loss of Control Around Food: Once you start eating, you can’t stop and eat a large amount of food even when you’re not hungry.

• Eating Despite Negative Consequences: Even though you know overeating will lead to weight gain, physical discomfort, or emotional distress, you still eat.

• Physical Symptoms: After eating, you feel bloated, tired, or uncomfortable. You might also experience withdrawal symptoms like irritability or headaches when you can’t eat certain foods.

• Emotional Eating: Turning to food for comfort when stressed, anxious, or depressed.

• Overeating: Eating more than planned, often until you’re physically uncomfortable.

Food Addiction Is Hard To Define: This is because uncontrollable cravings for specific types of palatable foods have been characterized as an addiction.

What Causes Food Addiction?

Emotional, biological, and environmental triggers and influences:

Emotional Triggers:

Stress, depression, and anxiety can lead people to turn to food for comfort. Emotional eating becomes a way to cope with difficult situations like a divorce or having been wrongly terminated from a job. For some, this behavior can spiral into food addiction as the brain starts to associate eating certain foods with relief from emotional pain.

Biological Factors:

The brain’s pleasure centers play a big role in food addiction. When we eat highly palatable foods like processed foods or those high in sugar, our brain releases dopamine.

Over time, the brain needs higher and higher levels of these foods to get the same effect, and we start to eat compulsively. Some people may even be genetically predisposed to food addiction, like some people are to substance addictions to drugs or alcohol and then require treatment.

Environmental Factors:

Our environment can greatly influence our eating habits. We live in a world where processed foods are cheap, readily available, and marketed to us 24/7.

Fast food restaurants are everywhere, and unhealthy snacks are often available at school, work, and social gatherings. Specific societal pressures and cultural norms can encourage overeating, especially in social or celebratory settings.

Effects of Food Addiction on Your Health

Food addiction can have serious consequences on both your physical and mental health.

Weight Gain and Obesity:

Overeating foods high in calories, fat, and sugar leads to weight gain. Over time, this can develop into obesity, which is linked to severe health issues like diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure.

Mental Health Struggles:

Food addiction causes emotional pain and leads to feelings of shame, guilt, and isolation. Many people with food addiction also experience depression or anxiety as the cycle of cravings and overeating takes a toll on their mental health.

Physical Symptoms:

Food addicts may experience physical symptoms like digestive problems, fatigue, and weight gain. Continued consumption of unhealthy foods can lead to chronic illnesses and nutrient deficiencies.

Impact on Daily Life and Relationships:

Food addiction can stop you from having relationships, performing at work, or participating in daily activities. The focus on feeding your cravings can pull you away from the things you value most in life.

How to Know You Have Food Addiction

If you have a food addiction, recognizing the signs is the first step to getting help.

Here’s what to look out for:

• Binge Eating: Eating large amounts of food in one sitting even when not hungry.

• Constant Food Thoughts: You’re always thinking about what you will eat next, planning meals, or obsessing over specific foods.

• Guilt After Eating: Feeling ashamed after a binge but still craving the same foods afterward.

• Feeling Out of Control: You eat even when you know you shouldn’t and can’t stop.

If these symptoms sound like you, you may want to use the Yale Food Addiction Scale or talk to a doctor or therapist who specializes in eating disorders. They can help you determine if food addiction is at play and offer you tools for recovery.

Recovery

Recovery from food addiction isn’t easy, but it is possible with the proper support and tools.

Here are some steps to help you break free:

Get Professional Help

Talking to a mental health counselor or dietitian can be super helpful. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a common treatment that helps you change how you think about food and teaches you how to cope with cravings. A professional can also help you work through any emotional triggers that are contributing to your food addiction.

Eat Mindfully

Listening to your body and eating mindfully can make a big difference. Mindful eating means paying attention to your hunger and fullness cues and savoring each bite. This helps you slow down and regain control of your eating habits.

Build a Healthy Relationship With Food

Instead of following restrictive diets, which can trigger binge eating, focus on building a balanced relationship with food. Intuitive eating means eating when you’re hungry, stopping when you’re full, and choosing foods that nourish your body. This reduces the obsessive thinking about food intake and helps you adopt a healthy lifestyle.

Get Support

Having a support system is crucial. Whether through friends, family, or a group like Overeaters Anonymous, having someone to talk to can give you the encouragement and accountability you need.

Statistic:  Another food addiction cause may be genetics. A 2002 study found that women with a family history of alcoholism had a 49% higher chance of obesity than those without a family history.

(Above Image) Distressed And Depressed Food Addict On His Knees Near Trigger Foods

Managing Relapse and Long-term Recovery

Recovery from food addiction is a lifelong process, and it’s normal to have setbacks. Don’t give up if you find yourself slipping back into old habits.

Here’s how to handle it:

• Acknowledge the Slip-Up: Relapse is part of recovery. Instead of feeling guilty, acknowledge it happened and use it as a learning experience.

• Refocus on Your Goals: Remind yourself why you’re on this journey. Whether it’s for your physical health, mental well-being, or relationships, keep your goals in mind, and you’ll stay motivated.

• Keep Building Positive Habits: Recovery is about creating a healthier lifestyle over time. Eat mindfully, stay connected to your support system, and remember that every small win counts.

Treatment for Food Addiction

If you’re a food addict, here are some treatment options:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): This therapy helps you change negative thoughts and behaviors around food.

• Nutritional Counseling: A dietitian can help you create a healthy eating plan for your recovery.

• Support Groups: Mental health settings like Overeaters Anonymous are a safe space for people in recovery.

The medical community acknowledges the harm of obsessive eating

Eating too much is a common behavior and often results in a multitude of unhealthy consequences, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Yet the food addict will continue to eat to excess despite knowing the harm to their body.

While the medical community has acknowledged the addictive nature of alcoholism and drug abuse, few have accepted that people can be addicted to food in the same way.

For example, people with emotional addiction to eating will eat when they’re sad, worried, or depressed, regardless of whether they’re hungry.

A Vicious Cycle

Food addicts are often stuck in a vicious cycle of binge eating and depression.

The cycle is perpetuated and made worse by losing personal confidence and self-esteem, which a severe episode of job burnout can cause.

Some think you can break the addiction by bingeing and then purging.

Binge and Purge – Bulimia

Bulimia Nervosa is the medical term for bulimia. It’s a severe and sometimes life-threatening condition.

People with bulimia will secretly and obsessively eat large amounts of food and then purge what they’ve eaten in a cycle of compulsive eating and purging.

Most medical professionals believe this behavior is used to cover up emotional pain, whether it be bingeing or purging.

Many food addicts describe their food addiction as a way to avoid dark and painful feelings about themselves.

Many patients have found relief through group therapy, family and individual counseling sessions, including behavior therapy.

Traditional talk therapy counseling explores many areas of the individual’s emotional life in a safe space. Therapy is usually combined with nutritional guidance, exercise, and education.

Patients have reported success with a combination of behavior therapy, psychotherapy, and nutritional guidance.

Surgical stomach clamping

Obese and food addicts have also turned to surgical procedures that reduce the size of the stomach with a ringed clamp device. It’s similar to another procedure called gastric banding.

The surgery aims to create in the patient a deep and intense feeling of fullness when eating. The ring or band limits and controls the amount of food a person can eat so patients can feel full and satisfied with smaller amounts of food.

Drug therapies

And finally, those with eating disorders and addictions have turned to medication to control their food cravings and compulsions. However, over-the-counter and prescribed diet pills are the least desirable weight control options and cause blood pressure spikes.

Diet Pills Can Exacerbate Anxiety: Practice caution. Diet pills increase anxiety levels, making bad situations worse for some obsessive eaters. Anxiety can cause depression, and depression can lead to compulsive eating.

So many mental health professionals believe that certain types of anti-depressants can be more helpful in reducing the types of depression and anxiety that are thought to be the underlying causes of compulsive eating.

Four Common Misconceptions About Food Addiction

Misconception 1: Food addiction only affects overweight individuals.

Reality: Food addiction can affect people of all body sizes; not all individuals with food addiction are overweight, and they may struggle with eating behaviors regardless of their weight.

Misconception 2: Food addiction is the same as binge eating disorder.

Reality: While there is overlap, food addiction focuses more on the compulsive nature of eating certain foods. At the same time, binge eating disorder involves episodes of eating large quantities of food in a short time.

Misconception 3: Food addiction can be cured with a simple diet change.

Reality: Overcoming food addiction often requires comprehensive treatment, including therapy and support, to address the underlying emotional and psychological issues.

Misconception 4: Only certain foods can be addictive.

Reality: While highly processed and sugary foods are often associated with addiction-like behaviors, any type of food can be problematic for someone struggling with food addiction.

Helpful Resources:

If you or someone you know is struggling with food addiction, here are some resources:

• Overeaters Anonymous (OA): A 12-step program to overcome food addiction.

• Food Addicts Anonymous (FAA): Another support group for those struggling with food addiction and compulsive eating.

• Books and Podcasts: Check out “The Food Addiction Recovery Workbook\” or the “Food Junkies Podcast.”

You Are Not Alone: Start Your Recovery Today

Food addiction is hard, but you don’t have to do it alone. You can regain control over your relationship with food by recognizing the signs, seeking help, and taking small steps toward recovery.

You deserve to live a life free from addiction. You can break free and build a healthier, happier life with the right support, tools, and mindset.

Watch TEDx With Pete Peterson On Beating Food Addiction:

References and Sources:

Cleveland Clinic On Dopamine

NEDC on Eating Disorders

National Library of Medicine

WebMD Eating Disorders

Health and Wellness News – Health and Wellness News.

How to Curb Emotional Eating – Office of Research Trainees.

Eating Disorder: What Causes Food Addiction | PsychGuides.com.

Gastric Bypass Weight Loss Surgery | Edward-Elmhurst Health.

Reddit Eating Disorder Testimonials

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