Food Addiction Is Real

The more I look into food as an addictive substance the more I am convinced that some people react to food just like an alcoholic to alcohol and a drug addict to drugs. Food can a hold over these people's lives and make them miserable. It is like someone or something outside of their bodies has taken control and is forcing them to eat. This is often how an addict describes his or her addiction. Logically then know they want to quit, they know they don't want to smoke the joint, do the line, or mainline the needle but they can't stop.

I really believe this is exactly what happens with food for some people. They have so tied up emotions to food that they no longer can control whether they eat or not. For these people, food is not something to enjoy it has become something they must have. Often times an alcoholic will say he needs a drink to feel normal. I have heard people talk about food this way. Even though they are not hungry, they have to be eating in order to feel normal again. Afterwards they feel like cr*p but during the eating process and for a few minutes after they feel good. With all the free drug rehab help around there should be some help for people who have food addictions.

I think the only way we are going to get a handle on the obesity epidemic in this country is to address this problem of people looking at food as something other than healthy sustenance. We have so completely lost site of the proper role of food that people are constantly turning to crack pot ideas to try to lose weight instead of focusing on a well balanced, healthy plan. At the same time that we have this obesity epidemic we are telling young people they should be skinny. We are completely giving mixed signals.

Just look at advertising. On TV all the restaurant commercials show high calorie, high fat food along with a bunch of normal weight or under weight people laughing and having fun. This is telling the audience that these foods will give you great experiences. They should be honest and show that most of the people in these restaurants are actually fat. It has got so bad that hundreds of people are searching everyday on the internet to learn how to be anorexic. Can you believe that. This is a terrible mental illness and young people are choosing that over the fact that they don't have the proper body type.

We must get our food addictions under control if we want to get back to having a healthy population again.