Summary: It sure can seem like we have a food addiction. Intense cravings for sweet, salty, and fatty foods abound. Sales of fast food, chips, cookies, and soda outweigh fruits and veggies by far. Do we have an actual addiction or is something else going on here?<br> [divider]<br> Transcript for Are You Addicted To Food?<br> Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking. I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann. Today I’m going to be looking at whether you could be addicted to food. As a disclaimer, note that I am not a medical doctor and am unable to make diagnoses.<br> If you’ve noticed, it seems like food can be addicting, but not just any food. I wouldn’t call apples or cauliflower addictive, but chocolate and chips certainly would fit the description.<br> <br> “Addiction” Defined<br> To start, it would be helpful to describe “addiction”. Merriam-Webster defines addiction as “a compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal”; Collins English Dictionary describes addiction as “the condition of being abnormally dependent on some habit”; Wikipedia specifically defines Behavioral addiction as a “recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences, as deemed by the user themselves to their individual health, mental state, or social life. There may be biological and psychological factors contributing to these addictions”. So, in hopefully more clear terminology, we would describe food addiction as being an obsessive, overwhelming, compelling need to eat certain foods even when you recognize the physical consequences (i.e. weight gain, lethargy, gas, stomach pain, etc.), accompanied by a tolerance to a certain amount of that food (meaning you need more to satisfy you). This addiction may be related to unmet needs, emotional lability, current or past life stressors, etc.<br> Lets get specific. Many people think that they are addicted to sugar because they notice that they have intensely strong, overpowering cravings to eat sugary foods (like candy, cakes, soda); over time they need more sugar to get the same amount of pleasure or relaxation or positive effect; they feel a lack of self-control and continue to eat and overeat sugary foods even when it gives them headaches and other physical symptoms; they notice that they turn to sugar when they are angry, sad, or bored; they eat dessert and binge in secret; or they recall that their dad ate a lot of sugar-laden foods after he came home from work.<br> Before we go on, let me clarify that occasional food cravings or a strong desire for a salty or sugary food is not what I’m discussing today. For times when you feel that you’re going to eat a whole bag of cookies if you’re alone and bored, there are strategies that may help you like: going out for a walk, calling a friend, painting your nails, not keeping trigger foods in the house, doing a self-care activity, etc.<br> <br> Contributors to Food Addiction<br> Let’s look at what might contribute to a food addiction.<br> Some argue that the environment is to blame, that over-consumption is a natural result of marketing of sugary products and the availability and accessibility of cheap foodstuffs (like fast food and soda).<br> Adding to that is the actual addictive experience of eating. Quoting from “The Meaning of Addiction” by Dr. Stanton Peele, “People become addicted to experiences…it engages every aspect of a person’s functioning, starting with the rewards (as interpreted by the individual) that an involvement provides and the individual’s needs for these rewards. The motivation to pursue the involvement, as compared with other involvements, is a function of an additional layer of social, situational, and personality variables.” In other words, eating is an experience that has familiar, expected, and consistent rewards of “good feelings” in the ...
