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Food addiction?

Yeledov

Yeledov

Member
Hi all,
I’ve been delving into information on food addiction after hearing some updated science about it on a very good bariatric podcast. I was, until about a year ago, some one who couldn’t grasp the concept of food addiction. Science seems to be showing a lot of support for the issue. I’ve started reading a book called “Food Junkies”. I also asked my procedural psychiatrist, who was once a food chemist before becoming a psychiatrist, for his opinion and got a lot of interesting information as well as him saying he believes it will become an official diagnosis in the next few years. (By “official” he means added to the next of the DSM, a book that gives a code to every recognized medical and psychological diagnosis).
I was wondering if anyone would like to chat about the concept. Do you consider yourself addicted to food? If so, would you be willing to share with me (in forum or by DM, your choice) how you are addressing it?
Just as a final note: please know I am not saying all people who get wls are food addicts. Just looking for people interested in discussing the topic.
Thanks! Have a very good day!
 
For me, food addiction went hand in hand with other emotional problems. During the worst of my postpartum depression, seasonal affect disorder, general depression, and general anxiety disorder I can point out foods or drinks that I was addicted to. I’ve never been addicted to the sensation of feeling full or over eating. I’ve never been addicted to alcohol, but I’ve been addicted to soda and sweet tea. I never thought about that being an addiction until I looked back and remembered what addiction is at the core. After my first son was born, I had horrible postpartum and was still mourning the loss of a pregnancy before him. I would go buy BOXES of chocolate covered cherries and just stuff myself full of them. I’ve done the same with M&M’s at different times. I do equate it to binging as well, but when I am feeling more emotionally stable, balanced, I don’t have those needs. I’ve been able to identify triggers and have effecting coping tools now to not allow those types of events to happen anymore. I’m not saying they won’t happen because just like any addiction, it’s a daily mindfulness to choose to live a certain way. Does my brain still scream at me sometimes to get candy, have that sugary snack in the pantry, or add a bunch of sugar to my morning coffee? Yes it does. But I have to know that my health, my long term well being, is more important than a quick fix sugar shot that is probably being brought on by my needing something else. I decided that I was mentally ready for weight loss surgery when I knew I could control my addiction. I think it’s very important that the surgery not be a tool to help the addiction, but that the addiction is already being managed before.
 
I think this is a great idea and would love to hear more about it. I know I have food addiction and have had it probably all my adult life. I fear I can so easily slip back into old ways but I am much more mindful of it now. Will talk more on this later but right now I have my live book club on Intuitive Eating. :)
 
3momchaos said:
For me, food addiction went hand in hand with other emotional problems. During the worst of my postpartum depression, seasonal affect disorder, general depression, and general anxiety disorder I can point out foods or drinks that I was addicted to. I’ve never been addicted to the sensation of feeling full or over eating. I’ve never been addicted to alcohol, but I’ve been addicted to soda and sweet tea. I never thought about that being an addiction until I looked back and remembered what addiction is at the core. After my first son was born, I had horrible postpartum and was still mourning the loss of a pregnancy before him. I would go buy BOXES of chocolate covered cherries and just stuff myself full of them. I’ve done the same with M&M’s at different times. I do equate it to binging as well, but when I am feeling more emotionally stable, balanced, I don’t have those needs. I’ve been able to identify triggers and have effecting coping tools now to not allow those types of events to happen anymore. I’m not saying they won’t happen because just like any addiction, it’s a daily mindfulness to choose to live a certain way. Does my brain still scream at me sometimes to get candy, have that sugary snack in the pantry, or add a bunch of sugar to my morning coffee? Yes it does. But I have to know that my health, my long term well being, is more important than a quick fix sugar shot that is probably being brought on by my needing something else. I decided that I was mentally ready for weight loss surgery when I knew I could control my addiction. I think it’s very important that the surgery not be a tool to help the addiction, but that the addiction is already being managed before.
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3mom,
thank you so much for sharing your experience. I really appreciate it. I have heard that postpartum depression is quite horrible. And after a loss I’m sure that would magnify it terribly.
When I was going through infertility treatments I had a very early miscarriage. It was the only time in seven years I managed to even get pregnant. During those years, on all those hormones, and then losing the pregnancy, my mental health was a complete disaster.
(Oh, if anyone is confused about how I had these experiences as a man, I will remind you than I am transgender. I was born with the plumbing for pregnancy. Faulty plumbing apparently but still...)
Anyway, I gained a significant amount of weight during and after that experience that I have been unable to shed, which is why I’m getting bariatric surgery. But, I know that won’t solve my issue with my obsession with baked goods. I can’t seem to control myself with flour and sugar. I will overeat other things too but not the way I do with baked goods.
When they described what food addiction looks like in that podcast I actually had to stop what I was doing and sit down. It was describing exactly how I felt and how I behaved. I’ve always tackled my food issues from the perspective of an eating disorder but I don’t think that is the right direction for me now. I absolutely hate the idea of quitting all sugar and flour but....I know I need a better handle on my relationship with food, preferably before surgery or, at least, before I hit 6 months in post-op.
Again, thank you for sharing.
 
JudyNY said:
I think this is a great idea and would love to hear more about it. I know I have food addiction and have had it probably all my adult life. I fear I can so easily slip back into old ways but I am much more mindful of it now. Will talk more on this later but right now I have my live book club on Intuitive Eating. :)
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Hi Judy,
I’d love to chat more about it! I look forward to it! I hope you enjoyed your book club!
 
So sorry 3mom and Yeledov on your miscarriages. I am sure that brings a lot of heartache.

Yeledov, I too love flour and sugar in baked goods, in fact I love to bake so that is something I need to curtail. I did do a lot of baking at Christmas time and thought I could handle passing up eating the cookies - after all I already went 10 months without eating any cookies - store bought or homemade. But, I weakened and it wasn't a good thing. Found myself not being able to stop at one or even two. Luckily 80% of my baking went as gifts but still needed to keep some in the house for my husband. It's a good thing I was very active baking all those cookies and I didn't gain weight but December's weight loss was lower than the month by about half. I bounced back in January and really stuck hard to good healthy eating. But it sure does wake me up as to how easy old habits can come back. Scary!

There are certain foods that I have a hard time limiting how much of it I eat. Ice cream is one of the worst so I stopped buying it. Good cheese is another, but I still eat that because it gives me protein but if I have crackers with the cheese I am choosing healthier multi-grain, higher protein crackers.

Yes, my book club was good. Intuitive Eating is something I am working through but it takes a while. It's just another tool to have but in itself isn't going to make me lose weight. It is teaching me how to make peace with food, honor my hunger and respect my fullness.
 
Thank you. Luckily my doctor didn’t categorize it as “just one of those things”, and he didn’t stop investigating until he found a cause. That’s when I found out that I have Hashimotos and MTHFR. Treating those was how I was able to successfully have 2 more pregnancies, one which resulted in fraternal twins.
 
I dont necessarily agree with food addiction being am addiction. It very much can be a poor coping skill and can also fall under one of the many options of "eating disorders."
 
In my opinion, I believe there are addictive behaviors that lead to overeating, but those situations aren't necessarily an actual addiction to food. We don't need drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, etc to survive, but we do need food. We have a permanent relationship with it, and either specific behavior or sometimes medical or genetic conditions lead us to eat more than we need. It becomes our normal. I don't know that it is really an "addiction" to food itself though. There are many cases of people transferring addictive behavior to something else when they can't fulfill whatever they were getting before. There are many things at play...dopamine, and other brain chemicals. I would "never say never" that a true food addiction couldn't exist, but I suspect it would be in very rare circumstances. Discovering the root cause of the behaviors and dealing with that is an important part to establishing a new relationship with food.

IMHO
 
While it's almost surely true that no one is addicted to broccoli for example, (wouldn't THAT be nice?) I do believe many people may be addicted to the additives found in processed food products. Not to mention all the added salt, sugar and fats. That is literally why they add them. So that you crave them. Whether that is due to the dopamine hit doesn't change your longing for them. Many addictions, such as gambling and sex, are to the chemical feelings they invoke and not a chemical compound, such as with heroin or nicotine. I do think that anyone, with any sort of addiction should always try to get to the underlying cause of the behavior, be it food, drugs or alcohol.
 
missyinacage said:
While it's almost surely true that no one is addicted to broccoli for example, (wouldn't THAT be nice?) I do believe many people may be addicted to the additives found in processed food products. Not to mention all the added salt, sugar and fats. That is literally why they add them. So that you crave them. Whether that is due to the dopamine hit doesn't change your longing for them. Many addictions, such as gambling and sex, are to the chemical feelings they invoke and not a chemical compound, such as with heroin or nicotine. I do think that anyone, with any sort of addiction should always try to get to the underlying cause of the behavior, be it food, drugs or alcohol.
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I agree with that Missy. I have heard many people say when they stay away from processed foods they have less cravings. I keep trying to eat less and less processed foods but it's not going to happen overnight.
 
3momchaos said:
Thank you. Luckily my doctor didn’t categorize it as “just one of those things”, and he didn’t stop investigating until he found a cause. That’s when I found out that I have Hashimotos and MTHFR. Treating those was how I was able to successfully have 2 more pregnancies, one which resulted in fraternal twins.
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That is wonderful! Hurray for good doctors!
 
I thought I’d drop a few links that led me to take food addiction seriously.

Here is the podcast episode that started me researching. The host is a Family Nurse Practitioner that has worked in the bariatric field for years. 104 What if Food Addiction is Part of the Problem? A Talk with Dr Vera Tarman
I’m currently reading Dr Tarman’s book “Food Junkies” that goes into a lot of the biology of why she believes food addiction is real.

This study was published in 2016. Food addiction as a new piece of the obesity framework
This is a study published in 2018. What Is the Evidence for “Food Addiction?” A Systematic Review

I think maybe the term “food addiction” is misleading. What the science seems to be pointing at is refined foods, highly processed, with added sugar, salt, and fat. More than ever could fit in food in its natural state. These highly palatable foods are designed to target and stimulate our evolutionary trait to seek out these dense foods because, just a few hundred years ago, life was on a feast or famine cycle. In industrialized societies there is never a famine cycle. (Just a side note: famine and unfair distribution of healthy foods which result in hunger issue while in poverty are very different things.) Anyway, what I think is happening is that sugar, flour, and other highly processed foods (junk foods) hit our dopamine receptors a lot like a drug does. That seems to be where the science is pointing so far. There definitely needs to be a continuation of study on the concept. Until then, I don’t see the harm in trying to deal with my issues with eating through an addiction recovery lens.

I’m sorry, I kinda got a little dry and nerdy! I’m a science geek. I always loved reading studies and researching stuff. I have just enough education to grasp about 50%-65% of what the scientists are talking about. I keep pushing to understand more. It’s like one of my hobbies.
 
I'm a food addict.

My food addiction is as real as a drug addict's or an alcoholic's.

Like many of you, I was a member of OA, Overeaters Anonymous. I followed the Twelve Steps and took the journey like millions of other people who came to OA, to fight against the "cunning, baffling and powerful" disease that controlled me.

I am addicted to both the behavior and practice defining this addiction.

Here in the U.S., food addiction is not recognized as a disease. Otherwise, obese people would qualify for government assistance.

Food addiction is the last disease standing. Saying food addictions don't exist is like saying drug addictions are all in your head, along with racism, sexism and dozens of addictions that ruin lives.

The irony is that ceasing eating can't be an option, where you can stop all drinking or drugging. We have to eat to stay alive.

I came to my understanding one day when talking about my alcoholic brother. I said something like, "If Tim could make any other choice, he would." I realized I could have been describing myself.

And I realized at last that gastric bypass was my only option for me to stop destroying my life and death.

I'm still an addict. But surgical intervention gave me an opportunity to be strong and make healthy choices.

"A food addiction or eating addiction is a behavioral addiction that is characterized by the compulsive consumption of palatable (e.g., high fat and high sugar) foods which markedly activate the reward system in humans and other animals despite adverse consequences.[1][2]"

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missyinacage said:
While it's almost surely true that no one is addicted to broccoli for example, (wouldn't THAT be nice?) I do believe many people may be addicted to the additives found in processed food products. Not to mention all the added salt, sugar and fats. That is literally why they add them. So that you crave them. Whether that is due to the dopamine hit doesn't change your longing for them. Many addictions, such as gambling and sex, are to the chemical feelings they invoke and not a chemical compound, such as with heroin or nicotine. I do think that anyone, with any sort of addiction should always try to get to the underlying cause of the behavior, be it food, drugs or alcohol.
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I have little doubt that processed foods, artificial sweeteners and all of the chemicals and additives in foods today, that our bodies are not designed to ingest, are definitely part of the problem.
 
Hi Everyone - I do believe in food addiction. I have it. I am as addicted to sugar as a cocaine addict is addicted to cocaine or an alcoholic to Alcohol. And I am a member of Overeaters Anonymous. (It is a world wide organization.) I have literally analyzed my food habits inside and out and I have found I am triggered by certain things like coupons, recipes and food ads. I can not look at any of these things. I also have to avoid certain aisles in the grocery store or certain departments like the bakery. My earliest memory is from when I was 3 years old and my Dad was raging - he was bi-polar - and he was demanding I finish everything on my plate. I remember being very afraid of him - for good reason - and he sent me to my room for not eating my dinner. Later that night I got up and was pulling things out of the trash to eat because I couldn't reach anything else and my Mom heard me. She found me eating out of the trash can. She felt so sorry for me she got me a vanilla iced cupcake and gave it to me with these words: "Mama loves you honey....take this and go and hide in your closet in case Daddy gets up...we'll both get in trouble...so eat it in secret and remember Mama loves you and you didn't do anything wrong by not eating your food....it's all okay...now run and hide..." and from that moment I craved sugar. Sugar gave me love, and made me feel worthy. And that is when I started eating in my closet. I continued this hiding and eating until I was in my 20s. Even when I lived in an apartment alone I ate in my closet and hid food. Today I STILL hide food when I am in a binge - even though I am a widow and live alone. It is crazy how emotional food and food behaviors make me! I attempted suicide 4 times because of the shame of my weight and the shame I felt because of my Dad telling me "He did not want a fat daughter". I was not good enough. Not worthy of love. Not worthy to be called a daughter. I knew this from a very very early age. I also began cutting when I was 12 and self abusing in other ways. I've poured hot oil on my arms etc. All because the self loathing was too much to bear. No one should hate themselves that much! So OA has helped me in all these areas. I know my father was a sick man with his own demons. I know I do not have to carry the past with me forever. And I know that I am a good person and a good Mom and I deserve to be loved. I've learned to let go of so much pain. And even though my food addiction is still a part of me it is much better and I am learning moderation and a sense of joy in the small changes I am making. And I have the support of my sponsor and my fellows in program. They have my back. And this upcoming surgery - probably in July since I am in the process of redoing my trust for my special needs son -- is going to give me a new life - as long as I continue to work at it and walk on the right side of the street. I want a different life than I had the first 2/3s of my life. I'm 66 and I want the last part of my life to be different. Fuller, healthier, more active, etc. But OA gave me the tools and support I needed to face my demons. I am so grateful to that organization. Peace & Joy everyone!
 
Angel Mom said:
Hi Everyone - I do believe in food addiction. I have it. I am as addicted to sugar as a cocaine addict is addicted to cocaine or an alcoholic to Alcohol. And I am a member of Overeaters Anonymous. (It is a world wide organization.) I have literally analyzed my food habits inside and out and I have found I am triggered by certain things like coupons, recipes and food ads. I can not look at any of these things. I also have to avoid certain aisles in the grocery store or certain departments like the bakery. My earliest memory is from when I was 3 years old and my Dad was raging - he was bi-polar - and he was demanding I finish everything on my plate. I remember being very afraid of him - for good reason - and he sent me to my room for not eating my dinner. Later that night I got up and was pulling things out of the trash to eat because I couldn't reach anything else and my Mom heard me. She found me eating out of the trash can. She felt so sorry for me she got me a vanilla iced cupcake and gave it to me with these words: "Mama loves you honey....take this and go and hide in your closet in case Daddy gets up...we'll both get in trouble...so eat it in secret and remember Mama loves you and you didn't do anything wrong by not eating your food....it's all okay...now run and hide..." and from that moment I craved sugar. Sugar gave me love, and made me feel worthy. And that is when I started eating in my closet. I continued this hiding and eating until I was in my 20s. Even when I lived in an apartment alone I ate in my closet and hid food. Today I STILL hide food when I am in a binge - even though I am a widow and live alone. It is crazy how emotional food and food behaviors make me! I attempted suicide 4 times because of the shame of my weight and the shame I felt because of my Dad telling me "He did not want a fat daughter". I was not good enough. Not worthy of love. Not worthy to be called a daughter. I knew this from a very very early age. I also began cutting when I was 12 and self abusing in other ways. I've poured hot oil on my arms etc. All because the self loathing was too much to bear. No one should hate themselves that much! So OA has helped me in all these areas. I know my father was a sick man with his own demons. I know I do not have to carry the past with me forever. And I know that I am a good person and a good Mom and I deserve to be loved. I've learned to let go of so much pain. And even though my food addiction is still a part of me it is much better and I am learning moderation and a sense of joy in the small changes I am making. And I have the support of my sponsor and my fellows in program. They have my back. And this upcoming surgery - probably in July since I am in the process of redoing my trust for my special needs son -- is going to give me a new life - as long as I continue to work at it and walk on the right side of the street. I want a different life than I had the first 2/3s of my life. I'm 66 and I want the last part of my life to be different. Fuller, healthier, more active, etc. But OA gave me the tools and support I needed to face my demons. I am so grateful to that organization. Peace & Joy everyone!
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AngelMom,
Thank you so much for your courage to tell your story. I appreciate the vulnerability that takes. I’m heartbroken at what you went through as a child. You are an incredibly strong person. It is wonderful that you have found a program and people who support you in living an open, authentic, and more joyful life. I send the best of wishes your way for your surgery and your life.
Thank you, Jonah
 
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