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.

How to Overcome Food Addiction

Food addiction is getting to be a real problem is this country. We have the highest levels of obesity and diabetes a nation has ever suffered in history. The US is also a very addictive society. We are addicted to alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, pain killers, work, excitement, and sex. And these are only the most popular ones. Combine this addictive behavior with the preponderance of cheap food that is high in calories and you have a recipe for a time bomb.
We are already starting to see the results of this over eating epidemic. Health care costs are sky rocketing and much of the problem can be related to our diets. The question is are we choosing to over eat or is there something else going on.
Addicts partake in their addictive substances because it makes them feel better. For food addicts it is the same thing. A food addiction is marked by the person using food as a way to manipulate their emotions. If you have the food monkey on your back you can get help. Finally, people are starting to recognize that being addicted to food is a real problem.

Healthy Eating and Weight Loss Lenses

As I have shared in this blog before, I have struggled with being overweight and food addiction my whole life. Because of this I have gained a lot of knowledge about nutrition, weight loss, and food addiction over the years. One vehicle I am using to share this information is this blogspot blog. It is great because adding posts to a blog is so easy I can have an idea and almost instantly I can put type it in to blogspot and post it on the web. The problem is I then need to get people to view the blog. I have decided that I need to find other ways to get my message out while still posting here.
I have decide to start a few lenses at Squdioo.com. A lens it just a web page that is posted to the internet like any other web page. They are very easy to make and I can realistically set one up in about 20 minutes which includes writing the text I want to put on the page.
You can view two of my lenses at no carb foods and healthy diets. My plan with the lenses is to focus a small particular aspect of healthy eating and food addiction with each page and explore it to its fullest. The nice thing about using Squidoo is you can have as many lenses as you want. In fact they really would like you to develop as many as possible. Their business model involves making money off of people's lenses and sharing that revenue with the authors. I guess it works. All I know is that it is another great place to post content.

Why Do I Eat?

I have been thinking a lot lately about my addiction to food and what triggers it. I know that stress is a cause of my eating but another cause is celebration. When something goes well, even something small, I have a strong desire to eat something in order to celebrate.
In my family growing up we always had a very unhealthy view of food. We used it for comfort and we used it as a way to celebrate good things. If it was your birthday you got to go out to dinner. If you received good grades, you could have special ice cream. If there was a get together it was all about what we would have to eat. We never really thought about food as only sustenance. Instead we always thought about it as being tied to some sort of emotion. I am now battling this every day as I try to break my addiction with food and start to get my body in shape for my old age.
The other thing I have been thinking about is that my body image is really skewed. I can look in the mirror, if I choose to look at all, but I don't see reality. I do not tend to think that I am as fat as I am. This came as a sad realization a few weeks ago. I received an electronic picture frame for Christmas. While I was going through pictures for the viewer I came seeing how big my belly really was. Boy was this and eye opener. I am really fat and now that I know that I am changing my behaviors to lose weight.
I dawned on me that overweight food addicts have a lot in common with under weight, even anorexic people. Both realities are a symptom of a skewed body image. I came across a blot the other day that talks about this. How to be anorexic is a blog about anorexia but a lot that is posted can also be applied to heavy weights like me who eats for pleasure and comfort instead of to fuel my body.
I really am working on my body image so I can really "see" exactly how I look. I do not want to be fat like I am. I want to be healthy and trim for the remainder of my life.

Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms Like Food Withdrawl

One of the big problems with Food Addiction is you can't go cold turkey like you can will alcohol or drugs. You need a certain amount of food to enable your body to continue to function. Unlike abused drugs or alcohol which your body can function without just fine. I think the key is to find out which foods trigger the addictive behavior and treat those foods like you would any other deadly substance. You can still get good nutrition without eating the foods that trigger the madness associated with addiction.
In my case I think it is simple carbohydrates like white flour, sugar, and corn syrup. In particular, I think high fructose corn syrup has a powerful affect on me. As soon as it touches my tongue I can feel the affects. I get a warm feeling and I feel energized and "normal." This is the same results that alcoholics and drug addicts report when they use their drug of choice.
When I don't have these foods I start to get feelings just like alcohol withdrawal symptoms. I get irritable, I don't have any energy, and I just don't feel right. I can definitely tell that something is missing in me. When I start getting these food withdrawal symptoms my body is controlled by something other than my conscious brain. I walk to the candy machine and put my dollar in even though I know I don't want to eat junk food. It is like I no longer have any control over what I am doing.
These are classic alcohol withdrawal symptoms. I am going to view my trigger foods the same way alcoholics and addicts view their drugs of choice. Zero tolerance. I hope this will help combat my food addiction.

Food Addiction and Diets

There are a lot of diets advertised for people who are over weight. What we consume is a big cause of the obesity in this country and other western societies. An interesting note is the people in other countries are also seeing their obesity levels rise as they consume a more western diet. We need to combat food addiction in two ways. We need to deal with what we eat and we need to deal with why we eat.
I think a diet is a good thing to get started on if you have a food addiction because it sets up a system for keeping track of the food you eat. This allows you to focus on the food and start to ask yourself if you are really hungry or if you are eating because of emotions. A diet I like is the cottage cheese diet. This is structured and it allows you to think about the food you are putting in your mouth.
Yesterday at work I had a candy bar and a bag of chips. Why? There were two causes. First, I started having withdrawl from carbs. I started feeling not very good and my head felt light. I really started telling myself that I needed some carbs to "feel better". I ate the candy bar and it didn't really help. Then I had a bag of Doritoes andI felt much better. Now today my pants are tight. I want to stop doing this.
The second reason was because we had a problem at work and I am always using food as a comforter. When I am stressed I tell myself that I will feel better if I eat. The eating does make me feel better then but the next day I feel rotten. I am going to use this blog to fight my food addictions.