What is Food Addiction?
Do you find that, despite your best intentions, you continue to eat foods that you know will raise your blood sugar and negatively impact your health? Do you crave these foods, obsess over them, or find that once you start eating them, you’re unable to stop?
The Basics
Food addiction is characterized by a dependency on certain foods, which are often called “trigger foods.” A food addict feels compelled to continue eating these trigger foods, regardless of how hungry they are, how they feel mentally and emotionally, and despite knowing that the foods are undermining their health, such as worsening their prediabetes or contributing to weight gain.
Although some people have questioned whether food addiction exists, individuals who struggle with compulsive eating behavior know that it is definitely real.
Indeed, the most recent research suggests that, just like alcohol, tobacco or drugs, certain foods may spark the brain’s reward pathways in susceptible people, creating a similar chemical dependency that they can’t control.
The 5 Signs of Food Addiction
According to food addiction specialist Vera Tarman, MD, author of Food Junkies, food addiction can be identified by five key signs:
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Cravings and Obsessions
Do you crave specific foods? Do these foods obsessively occupy your thoughts? Even when you’re not around the food, are you obsessing about where you might be able to get it next? If you see this food, do you obsess over having it and usually give in and eat it?
Tolerance
Do you need to eat more of your trigger foods to get the same effect?
Do you try to get to a moment of satisfaction from the food that never seems to happen?
Do you binge or eat to the point of feeling sick just to feel “normal”?
Lack of Control
Do you find you simply can't stop at 'just one' of your favorite foods?
Do you eat in secret? Are you embarrassed about the way you eat?
Are you unable to regulate your consumption of trigger foods?
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Impairment
Are you suffering consequences to your health, your weight, or your relationships but continuing to eat foods that you know you should avoid? Do you believe your prediabetes may be caused by your inability to control the foods you eat?
Do you feel depressed or have self-loathing about the way or what you eat?
Are relationships, social events or work situations negatively imapcted by your eating?
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Dependance
When you try to stop eating trigger foods, do you find it too hard and then give up? When you try to stop, do your cravings get worse or intolerable? When you stop, do you experience withdrawal symptoms, such as agitation, anxiety, insomnia, anger, or irritability? Do you feel foggy, tired, or low energy? Can you not imagine your life without your trigger food(s)? Would you do anything, even steal, to get your special food rather than stop?
If you have a few of these signs, an addictive cycle to one or more foods may be undermining your health or your ability to lose weight.
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If you have all five signs, then you should definitely consider yourself a food addict and treat your trigger foods as if they are as potent as an addictive drug for you.
How to Beat a Food Addiction
If you are feeling sad or hopeless about your relationship with food, take heart. You can conquer food and sugar addiction.
Start by following these steps:
Cut trigger foods out of your life. Dr. Tarman says that the most effective and sustainable way to beat food addiction is to avoid your trigger foods and behaviors. Moderation is not an option with these foods – they must be removed entirely. Just as someone with an addiction to alcohol risks relapse if they drink, a food addict can lose control with even a single bite of a trigger food, such as just a sliver of dessert or a piece of bread or pizza.
Avoid temptations. Removing trigger foods from your home and work environments, not going to places where you will see the food and trigger the cravings, and not eating sweet-tasting foods can all help stop retriggering the food addiction cycle.
Remove ultra-processed foods from your diet. Whether it is potato chips, nacho chips, chocolate bars, crackers or any other irresistible snack food, the processed food industry has teams of scientists creating tasty foods that deliberately aim to light up the brain’s reward centers and keep people coming back for more. If it comes in a package and has in its ingredient list salt, fat, sugar and flavorings — avoid! Choose whole unprocessed foods instead.
Eat low carb or keto. A low carb or keto diet removes many of the top addictive foods from your life while still nourishing your body and satisfying your appetite with healthy food. People with food addiction who adopt ketogenic or low carb diets report a significant reduction in food addiction symptoms, including cravings and lack of control.
Although it may take time to overcome food addiction, you can do it!
However, stumbles may happen along the way. If you do succumb to a trigger food and lose control over your consumption, treat yourself with compassion and understanding, rather than beating yourself up. Figure out why it happened and make a plan for how to avoid it the next time. Then cut the trigger food out of your life once again, resolving to get back on track and stay there, taking it one day at a time and one meal at a time.