Food Addiction

Are You a Food Addict :

Are you an emotional eater?
When life gets hard, is your first impulse to eat?
Does the mere mention of a food, or seeing it in a picture or on TV, trigger you to obsess about and crave it?
Do you stockpile “emergency” snacks in your kitchen?
Do you cook or bake regularly to satisfy your taste buds?
Do you have to know where your next meal or food source is at all times—or you feel nervous, panicky, or “off”?
In times of high emotion, do you sometimes find yourself eating even when you feel no physical hunger at all?
Do you sometimes feel as though you’re never quite satisfied or full enough after eating? Do you need more and more of the same foods to experience the same pleasure you once felt from that food?
Do you obsess about eating your next meal, or counting calories, to the point of distraction or ignoring other obligations in your life, including your family and health?
Does your relationship with certain foods cause you to have feelings of shame, guilt, disgust, or self-loathing?
Do you sometimes feel like you could manage anything in your life—just as long as you didn’t have to control your eating and you were “allowed” to eat and weigh whatever you want?
You regularly eat breakfast lunch and dinner with the precision of a clock and get restless when you skip any meal?
You are unable to fast for an extended period of time?
Do you use food to regulate emotions...to calm your nerves, de-stress, sedate, or soothe pain?
Is food your best friend and your worst enemy?
Do you find yourself consuming certain foods even though you are no longer hungry?
Do you worry about cutting down on certain foods?
Do you still feel sluggish or fatigued from after eating your favourite food?
Do you experience physical withdrawal symptoms such as agitation and anxiety when you cut down on certain foods?
Does your behaviour with respect to food and eating causes you significant distress?
Do you get irritated when a family member points out that you are addicted to a particular food?

If these questions sound familiar, you may be a food addict.

Life is a Tragedy of Nutrition

Almost from the time we are born, food plays an emotional role in our lives. If a baby cries, parents assume he’s hungry and offer milk bottle. As we get older, we are often rewarded for good behaviour with chocolate or ice cream. This cements the association between food and love from an early age.

We are trained to use food to make us feel better yet somewhere along the line, food turns on us. It stops working. We no longer feel good after we eat, and in a misguided attempt to capture those good feelings, we continue to eat more and more. We know deep inside of us that eating isn’t doing what we want it to yet we still keep hoping that we can fill the emptiness inside of us with food.

The healthy truth here is that eating is intended to be a means of nourishing our bodies. It is not a way to make ourselves feel better or a method to deal with guilt. If we eat what we know is healthy and good for our bodies, we banish the shame that comes with overeating or choosing foods that we know are harmful to our body.

This kind of eating since childhood, is the greatest enemy of vibrant health. It’s the root cause of all major physical troubles, because illness starts in a poisoned bloodstream. The stomach is regularly stuffed with food before it has finished digesting the previous meal, placing a huge burden on the digestive organs. It’s the basis of most troubles which affect the heart, arteries, liver, kidneys and joints.

Every ounce of food you eat contributes to either the health or the destruction of your body. There are other costs. Whenever you eat something you know is unhealthy you feel ashamed, guilty, and even disgusted. You beat yourself up and start to feel hopeless. Bite by bite you erode your self-esteem and cause even greater physical and emotional pain.

It’s because of your bad eating habits that things start to break down and decay in your body! Unhealthy habits promote low Vital Force and fatigue! Low energy brings on slow functioning in all the basic eliminative and cleansing organs: the bowels, liver, kidneys, skin and lungs. There is not enough energy to function at full capacity. Poisons of all kinds are not completely flushed out of the body, but instead are deposited inside, slowly building up and taking a terrible toll! Poisons start to collect in various parts of the body, resulting in illness, aches and pains.

One of the greatest nutritional teachers in the world, Professor Arnold Ehret, said, “Life is a tragedy of nutrition.” Many people never give their stomachs a rest. They continually stuff and work the digestive and eliminative functions with an overabundance of food. This excessive burden means that the functions of digestion and elimination become so overworked and so exhausted that they simply collapse. The entire body then becomes enervated! Millions suffer from fatigue.

Humans Won’t Take Blame for Miseries

Compulsive eaters will typically eat even when they are not hungry, as a coping mechanism for dealing with underlying emotional pain. The “grazing behavior,” compels them to return to pick at food throughout the day and even night.

With a food addiction, the person also relies on food for comfort. A food addict may use food to fill in for something that is missing in their lives, such as love or strong friendships. There may be biological, psychological, or social reasons why someone develops a food addiction.

Food addicts become dependent upon the “good” feelings that are obtained from consuming certain foods, which often perpetuates a continued need to eat, even when not hungry. These behaviors generate a vicious cycle. As the food addict continues to gorge upon foods that induce pleasurable feelings, they often indulge and eat beyond what is required for satiety and normal nutrition.

This can lead to several physical, emotional, and social consequences, such as digestive issues, heart disease, obesity, low-self esteem, depression, and isolation. A food addict will often re-engage in these destructive behaviors, even amidst undesired consequences, due to the need for induced feelings of pleasure. Some food addicts are skinny, but quietly obsessed, trying desperately to keep themselves in line. Others are overweight or obese.

Food Addiction is a Disease

Evidence suggests that food addiction is in fact a disease which causes loss of control over the ability to stop eating certain foods. When we are “addicted” to anything, our bodies and brains can become programmed to use that substance/ food/ behavior to temporarily relieve anxiety, irritability, depression by producing excitability and rewarding feelings. The longer we use the substance, the more likely it is that we will need an increased amount/ frequency to create the same desired mood-altering effect.

Similar to an addiction to drugs or alcohol, food addiction causes an adverse struggle amongst the addict and his or her desire to stop addictive behavior. This struggle continues despite weight gain, health problems, or emotional upset. Food addiction, though once believed to be a made up problem, is very real and does cause pain and suffering for both the addict and for those who care about the individual.

You are not a human garbage disposal bin

“I can’t let it go to waste.” How many times have you used this as an excuse to eat something that wasn’t healthy for you? Many of us treat our bodies as human garbage disposals—throwing into them anything that’s left over. Though this may seem financially efficient, it is physically and emotionally destructive. If we convince ourselves that all the food in our house must be eaten rather than thrown away, we give ourselves permission to eat more than our bodies need.

Don’t be a Slave to Foods

Most humans are slaves to foods; Religiously consuming breakfast, lunch and dinner and munching or snacking processed, devitalised food in between has become a habit. They eat whether they are hungry or not, and their poor bodies are burdened by frequent eating.

Eating man-made foods high in fat and calories is destructive to the health of those people you love. These types of foods contribute to many health problems that actually cause harm. Obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure are only a few of the physical ailments that come from overeating baked goods. Emotionally, the dangers are just as serious. When we associate cookies and cake with affection we detach ourselves from truly learning how to express and receive love.

Simple is Not The Same as Easy.

Overcoming emotional eating and food addiction is simple. Simple? Yes. It’s a matter of eating nutritious foods, exercising, avoiding processed sugar and flour, and eating moderate meals. There’s no magic to it. It isn’t brain surgery. It’s quite simple. Even a five-year-old can understand the concept.

The problem is that as simple as the idea is, the execution of it is not easy. Many of us are trying to change years of both family and societal conditioning. We have been taught that food makes everything better; that eating pastries is the way to celebrate a child’s birthday; that baking for your family will make them feel cared for; that eating ice cream will soothe a broken heart; and that fast food is a way to give yourself a break. We value thin, lean bodies but we gorge ourselves with high calorie foods to soothe our emotions.

Telling yourself you will “start tomorrow” is a lie. There will always be another celebration or family event. After Ashtami, Dusshera, and Diwali comes Christmas, New year, the wedding season, Valentines day, graduation parties, multiple birthday parties, Kittie parties, Sunday lunch, Anniversary, a Father’s Day, summer outings and picnics, vacations, movie outings, festivals, and then numerous other holidays all over again. You must make the firm decision to eat for health each day and hold fast to that commitment, no matter what the calendar says.

Avoid Giving Excuses

Over time, we have become so good at blaming others or making them responsible for our food choices, that we fail to admit our own responsibility. Instead of using excuses about the types of foods that are not available, we need to get honest about our true motives. Many of us attend special gatherings as an excuse to overeat. We believe that if we are out of our own kitchens then we have no responsibility for the food we consume.

Similarly, we tell ourselves that if we are at a restaurant we must eat what everyone else chooses, and that we must make the most of our evening out. The problem is that this kind of thinking gives you a license to eat whatever you want without considering the consequences.

Your journey into healthy eating must not be dependent on calendars and timetables. It must become a daily way of life. If you want to change things then you will need to recognize the food lies you’ve come to believe. Usually, you will notice the food lies surfacing right before you reach for food. Rather than eat, take a second to write down your thoughts. What words are you using to justify your eating?

Every ounce of food you eat contributes to either the health or the destruction of your body. When you eat food that’s been prepared at a restaurant or for a special occasion, chances are it’s higher in food additives, calories and unhealthy fats.

There Are No Compromises

To get out and stay out of food addiction, one must always have a clearly defined and non-negotiable plan, and then stick to it, no matter what. It takes vigilance and persistence at all times. One must not make compromises, or the addiction will take over again.

The discipline of following a clearly defined plan will produce freedom! Likewise, it will always take careful planning and diligence to implement that plan, no matter how seasoned one is at eating healthfully. Slip-ups, also known as lapses in judgment, happen from time to time—it’s a part of transitioning into a whole new way of eating and living for the rest of one’s life.

With repetitive compromises, the addictive cravings can be ignited to full strength again. Relapse happens sometimes, even with the best of intentions. In order to have long-term freedom from food addiction, we must reach out to others for increased help and support if relapse happens—because to live in denial of the power of addiction is to remain its prisoner.

Is Food Your Best Friend

By giving human characteristics to food we create a relationship with an object. Once we create this relationship we become emotionally attached to it. This allows us to manufacture situations that make it nearly impossible for us to resist eating. In a sense, we are using food to replace the human relationships that involve the person who once served them to us.

For many of us food is our best friend, our lover, and even our confidant. Because of this we love being around it. We get a certain emotional high from spending time with the love of our lives in the same way that we do when we are near people we love. Unlike the people we love, however, being around food is dangerous for us.

Love Is All You Need

Once you have stopped using food to deal with your emotions and learned about your feelings, you will need to learn how to love yourself. Most of us have never been told how to love ourselves or even that it’s important that we learn how. Today is the day to think about it and also to begin.

Research shows that, for some people, the same reward and pleasure centers of the brain that are triggered by addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin are also activated by food, especially highly palatable foods such as Sugar, Fat and Salt. If cravings happen often and satisfying or ignoring them becomes hard, they may be an indicator of something else. These cravings are not about a need for energy or nutrients — it’s the brain calling for something that releases dopamine, a chemical in the brain that plays a role in how humans feel pleasure.

While these tempting foods may seem like simple treats to many, when you’re struggling with food addiction, they can be as alluring and irresistible to you as a glass of liquor is to an alcoholic or a cigarette to a smoker.

Life Threatening Addiction

We have to treat food addiction as we would any other life-threatening addiction. We have to resist addictive foods with every fiber of our being and recommit to that fight on a daily, hourly, minute-to-minute basis. Vigilance is imperative to the recovery process.

Alcoholics do it. Former smokers do it. Even heroin addicts do it. We applaud their efforts because we know how hard it is, once those addictions have taken control of their bodies, to have the strength to say no to that False Hunger for the fix every single day.

You hunger for a better life, the freedom to do what you love and to enjoy and embrace every single moment. But you’re stuck with a different hunger. A gnawing, craving, tearing-your-insides-out, desperate, and frantic search for just one more food fix. Just one. But the hunger is insatiable. It never ends. You continue to live like this because somehow it works for you. The effects are familiar and comfortable. Your False emotional signals are the fake, comfortable, secure rewards associated with these habits.

There is a way to fix this addictive hunger. Your brain’s reward center has been hijacked, leaving you with an itch you just can’t scratch. It never ends. And it stands in the way of your ability to live your life to the fullest. Once you learn to tap into your innate reward neurochemistry to work the way nature intended, you will be able to fix the addictive hunger.

Even though we may believe otherwise, the healthy truth is that eating what is good for our bodies is actually easier than choosing foods that we know will harm us. Today, make a choice to eat nutritious foods. Think about all of the guilt and anger you’ll avoid by making a decision to change.

Kicking food addiction is hard. You need to really look at how you live and why it’s been so hard for you to stop your self-destructive habits.

Avoid The Moderation Myth

When it comes to toxic food, there is no such thing as eating in moderation. The only way to stop any addiction, including a dependency on food, is to abstain totally, without any exception. Breaking food addiction requires 100 percent abstinence—there is no other way. Moderation is a myth.

For someone struggling with a food entanglement, just one bite of an addictive food can do great harm. Anyone who tells you that eating “just one bite” won’t hurt has not studied the science behind food addiction. It is much easier to keep addictive cravings extinguished than to be continually fight obsessive compulsions. It only takes a tiny spark to reignite a food addiction, so eradicate moderation from your vocabulary.

When a person decides to give up on food addiction he may experience withdrawal symptoms initially, like nausea, vomiting, headaches, growling stomach, bloating, gas, diarrhea, fatigue, weakness, brain fog, sluggishness, anxiety, and irritability for a few days. This withdrawal phase can be tough for some people, but it also is relatively short-lived. Withdrawal phase is a very small price to pay for getting free from food addiction and enjoying excellent health. Once the symptoms have been resolved, and if you no longer consume addictive foods, the symptoms don’t return.

No change in life ever happens without a major mind shift. Superior nutrition, eaten consistently for three months, will radically change your taste buds to the point you will prefer only nutritarian food. In a relatively short amount of time, you will begin to experience significant improvements in health and energy levels. This “feel good” attitude propels the passion and desire to maintain excellent health for the rest of your life!

References

Mika Brzezinski – Obsessed - America's Food Addiction
OwnDebbie Danowski - The Emotional Eater's Book of Inspiration - 90 Truths You Need to Know to Overcome Your Food Addiction
(Eating Disorders) Anthea Peries - Food Addiction - Overcoming your Addiction to Sugar, Junk Food, and Binge Eating
Susan Peirce Thompson, Ph.D. - Everett Considine – Rezoom - The Powerful Reframe to End the Crash-and-Burn Cycle of Food Addiction
Cottone, R. Rocco - Koob, George F. - Moore, Catherine F. - Sabino, Valentina - Compulsive eating behaviour and food addiction - emerging pathological constructs
Sheppard, Kay - From the First Bite - a Complete Guide to Recovery from Food Addiction
McCarty, Tennie - Shades of hope - how to treat your addiction to food
Anne Katherine, M.A - Anatomy of a Food Addiction - the Brain Chemistry of Overeating-
Vera Tarman Phillip Werdell - Food Junkies - The Truth About Food Addiction
Caryl Ehrlich [Ehrlich, Caryl] - Conquer Your Food Addiction - The Ehrlich 8-Step Program for Permanent Weight Loss
Emily Boller - Joel Fuhrman - Starved to Obesity - My Journey Out of Food Addiction and How You Can Escape It Too
Pamela Peeke, Mariska van Aalst - The Hunger Fix - The Three-Stage Detox and Recovery Plan for Overeating and Food Addiction