This is a two part series.
The first part discusses the basics of food addiction while the second
part is written by a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and will discuss
what practitioners should know about addiction.
Food has come off as a socially acceptable release for
modern day society. Where some people go
to the bar for a pint some might head to the freezer for a different pint. Recently, research has started to focus on
food addiction. According to WebMD, “experiments
in animals and humans show 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.”
Foods that trigger a ‘feel good’ response and are highly
palatable are also high in sugar, salt, and fat. New
York Times reporter, Michael Moss
(Pulitzer Prize winner) recently wrote Sugar, Salt, Fat: How
The Food Giants Hooked Us. “Every year, the average American eats
thirty-three pounds of cheese (triple what we ate in 1970) and seventy pounds
of sugar (about twenty-two teaspoons a day). We ingest 8,500 milligrams of salt
a day, double the recommended amount, and almost none of that comes from the
shakers on our table. It comes from processed food. It’s no wonder, then, that
one in three adults, and one in five kids, is clinically obese. It’s no wonder
that twenty-six million Americans have diabetes, the processed food industry in
the U.S. accounts for $1 trillion a year in sales, and the total economic cost
of this health crisis is approaching $300 billion a year.”
Stress, a pre-disposition towards addiction, and a food
industry manufacturing food add fuel to the fire.
Food addiction is different from addictions to drugs or
alcohol. It’s socially acceptable to
eat. Actually, food is essential to
life. These highly palatable foods
trigger dopamine and other feel good chemicals in the brain producing a
high. Eventually, the receptors need
more and more once a tolerance is established.
Eventually, food satisfies the person less and less.
Additional resources on the signs of food addiction include:
Researchers at Yale University's Rudd Center for Food
Science & Policy have developed a questionnaire to identify people with
food addictions.
Here's a sample of questions that can help determine if you
have a food addiction. Do these actions apply to you? Do you:
- End up
eating more than planned when you start eating certain foods
- Keep
eating certain foods even if you're no longer hungry
- Eat to
the point of feeling ill
- Worry
about not eating certain types of foods or worry about cutting down on
certain types of foods
- When
certain foods aren't available, go out of your way to obtain them
The questionnaire also asks about the impact of your
relationship with food on your personal life. Do these situations apply to you:
- You
eat certain foods so often or in such large amounts that you start eating
food instead of working, spending time with the family, or doing
recreational activities.
- You
avoid professional or social situations where certain foods are available
because of fear of overeating.
- You
have problems functioning effectively at your job or school because of
food and eating.
The questionnaire asks about withdrawal symptoms. For
example, when you cut down on certain foods (excluding caffeinated beverages),
do you have symptoms such as:
- Anxiety
- Agitation
- Other
physical symptoms
The questionnaire also tries to gauge the impact of food
decisions on your emotions. Do these situations apply to you?
- Eating
food causes problems such as depression, anxiety, self-loathing, or
guilt.
- You
need to eat more and more food to reduce negative emotions or increase
pleasure.
- Eating
the same amount of food doesn't reduce negative emotions or increase
pleasure the way it used to.
Source
