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Fast Food Addiction - Can Anyone Else Relate?
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Nicotine is unquestionably physically addictive.
What is in Taco Bell (which I don't understand liking, but some would call it highly palatable, I suppose) that is not in other foods so as to be the addictive substance?
Re OP, I think we have a better understanding now that she explained she's on a really restrictive diet. My guess is that anything she considers extra tasty but off limits, fast food or no, could have provoked the same reaction (including a homemade burger).
The difficult thing for her is that at some point she will need to work on how to maintain with a more varied diet, but I think if she likes the current approach and it's working and she thinks it is sustainable, that's something to deal with a bit later.8 -
positivepowers wrote: »Katherinelittle24 wrote: »Thank you for commenting but please don't tell me that I'm not addicted. Fast food can be addictive. I did research on it, and a lot of research says it is. Some people can go and get fast food, and be fine like my boyfriend can. But other people, like me for instance, thinks about it constantly. Even the next day, I just ate a very nutritious breakfast full of protein but I am still craving that hamburger. So yes, for me it is an addiction. One that has take me months to break, and it's definitely a work of progress.
Yeah it is. If I stop eating fast food I get headaches, fuzzy thinking, lethargy, irritability and cravings that keep me up and wake me up at night. I feel just like I did when I quit smoking (and nobody argues that's addictive, right?) I don't care what anyone says, I know what I feel and some peer-reviewed scientific studies back me on this (I've posted them before.) After a few weeks of abstinence, if I go back to eating fast food (because mmm mmm Taco Bell!) The cycle starts all over. Before I am accused of this, I do not use this as an excuse, I use it as another tool to fight the addiction.
OP: I'm trying to stay away from the fast food, it's the only way I know to take and keep control. Stay strong!!
Nope. There are no peer reviewed scientific studies that show fast food is addicting.9 -
positivepowers wrote: »Katherinelittle24 wrote: »Thank you for commenting but please don't tell me that I'm not addicted. Fast food can be addictive. I did research on it, and a lot of research says it is. Some people can go and get fast food, and be fine like my boyfriend can. But other people, like me for instance, thinks about it constantly. Even the next day, I just ate a very nutritious breakfast full of protein but I am still craving that hamburger. So yes, for me it is an addiction. One that has take me months to break, and it's definitely a work of progress.
Yeah it is. If I stop eating fast food I get headaches, fuzzy thinking, lethargy, irritability and cravings that keep me up and wake me up at night. I feel just like I did when I quit smoking (and nobody argues that's addictive, right?) I don't care what anyone says, I know what I feel and some peer-reviewed scientific studies back me on this (I've posted them before.) After a few weeks of abstinence, if I go back to eating fast food (because mmm mmm Taco Bell!) The cycle starts all over. Before I am accused of this, I do not use this as an excuse, I use it as another tool to fight the addiction.
OP: I'm trying to stay away from the fast food, it's the only way I know to take and keep control. Stay strong!!
OK, I've stayed out of this whole addiction debate, but this comment got to me... specifically, which fast food is causing this reaction? Pizza? Burgers? Fries? Tacos? Milkshakes? Chicken fingers? And does eating a french fry clear your thinking, because if it does, I'm headed to McDonalds
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Katherinelittle24 wrote: »Random Thought:
Who here is addicted to fast food? Yesterday, I kind of cheated on my weight loss program and had Burger King for the first time in a while. Now, at that very moment it felt good to have a hamburger again but than later in the evening, I felt disgusting. I felt bloated, heavy, depressed and felt like I didn't want to work out at all. Honesty, since then, I have felt this desire to get more fast food, and even though I was full after I had a meal at Burger King, I still wanted more....that's how terrible my addiction is. Fast Food is the devil haha sorry don't need to be dramatic but for those that are addicted to food, I'm sure you will understand.
Long story short, since November of 2017, I've lost 52lbs. I have a long way to go but when I started my weight loss journey, I was 400lbs. I became highly addicted to fast food. Even though I love to cook and I love all of the healthy delicious foods, I ate fast food about four days a week at least and that's how I became so obese. I wanted fast food every day and yesterday, I got a glimpse of the old me and it kind of scared me because thinking about how much I've worked on myself since then, and how much I can easily gain the weight I loss because of my terrible food addiction. After I had fast food, my mind has been thinking about it ever since. Does anyone else get these thoughts as well?
Just so I'm clear. You've been eating a restrictive diet. You then ate a highly palatable food that you've not allowed yourself to have. Now you want more of this highly palatable food.
But instead of accepting that you ate something that tasted good, surely it must be an addiction, because then you couldn't have possibly had anything to do with it.16 -
Katherinelittle24 wrote: »Hey everyone! Thank you for all of your support. Sorry, I didn't mean my message to sound like I'm arguing about food addiction. I do agree that this post should be about how to deal with feelings of being out of control around food, because that's what I'm kind of dealing with right now as I'm sure we all are. I just really hate when people say, I'm not this or not that, especially because in my mind, I do think that food addiction does exist because for months I didn't have fast food and I was fine but than one day I had it, I was completely out of control and I read tons of articles online about it also. So for me, I do think it exist. It's okay if some think differently. But this was just my opinion. I'm also on a very strict medically supervise program, called HMR which I don't regret joining because this program has given me back my life. Anyways, thanks again guys. Hope everyone has a great week, full of goals and determinations!
I googled HMR and it looks like a meal replacement plan that is possibly a VLCD. They have a “decision-free” version that they say is 500-800 calories per day. Alternatively you eat their meal replacement products and supplement with your own fruits and vegetables. That may be above 1200 calories but may still be unsustainably low. OP can I ask how much weight you have lost and over what period of time? If you feel out of control around food you have my empathy regardless of the reason. I can’t help but wonder though if an overly aggressive deficit is a big factor.
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goldthistime wrote: »Katherinelittle24 wrote: »Hey everyone! Thank you for all of your support. Sorry, I didn't mean my message to sound like I'm arguing about food addiction. I do agree that this post should be about how to deal with feelings of being out of control around food, because that's what I'm kind of dealing with right now as I'm sure we all are. I just really hate when people say, I'm not this or not that, especially because in my mind, I do think that food addiction does exist because for months I didn't have fast food and I was fine but than one day I had it, I was completely out of control and I read tons of articles online about it also. So for me, I do think it exist. It's okay if some think differently. But this was just my opinion. I'm also on a very strict medically supervise program, called HMR which I don't regret joining because this program has given me back my life. Anyways, thanks again guys. Hope everyone has a great week, full of goals and determinations!
I googled HMR and it looks like a meal replacement plan that is possibly a VLCD. They have a “decision-free” version that they say is 500-800 calories per day. Alternatively you eat their meal replacement products and supplement with your own fruits and vegetables. That may be above 1200 calories but may still be unsustainably low. OP can I ask how much weight you have lost and over what period of time? If you feel out of control around food you have my empathy regardless of the reason. I can’t help but wonder though if an overly aggressive deficit is a big factor.
Yes, this doesn't appear to have anything to do with fast food, but with the OP's very strict, albeit medically supervised, regime. I'm sure everyone would experience intense cravings on a diet like that.6 -
candylilacs wrote: »It's carbs and sugar! Can it not be addictive?
Wrong!!!! Problem with fast food is that they have a lot of high carbs, high fats and moderate/to low protein which in total makes up a huge amount of calories.3 -
Sorry you wasted those minutes of your life that you can never get back. That Sugar Film is a one-sided, agenda-driven hack job done by people who aren't even scientists/researchers. It contains nothing but junk science and outright falsehoods perpetrated by uneducated crackpots.candylilacs wrote: »This is Burger King's nutritional information (forgive me, but I had a stroke two years and I'm still not up to par with grammar):
A Whopper is 49 g of carbohydrate and 11g sugars. Where's all this carbohydrate coming from? The sugar-laden bread, atop a 40g of fat and 980 g of sodium.
Metabolic syndrome, diabetes,impaired glucose tolerance -- layer over layer of sugar of refined foods. Yeah, I crave Slightly Sweetened Chai tea, 7 g sugar (8 g of Carb). The Original Tea is 19 g of sugar (22 g of carb). Whole wheat bread should not be flavored with corn syrup. A yoghurt shouldn't be an amount of sugar akin to Snicker's bar.
How to Stop Eating Sugar
I saw the "That Sugar Movie" last night!
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It's not the film, man.
https://mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/triglycerides/art-20048186?pg=2
Triglycerides are a type of fat (lipid) found in your blood. When you eat, your body converts any calories it doesn't need to use right away into triglycerides. The triglycerides are stored in your fat cells. Later, hormones release triglycerides for energy between meals. If you regularly eat more calories than you burn, particularly "easy" calories like carbohydrates and fats, you may have high triglycerides (hypertriglyceridemia).
Avoid sugary and refined foods. Simple carbohydrates, such as sugar and foods made with white flour, can increase triglycerides.
It's there in black and white.
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Sugar is the new eggs lol. Remember when eggs were the devil.15
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candylilacs wrote: »It's not the film, man.
https://mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/triglycerides/art-20048186?pg=2
Triglycerides are a type of fat (lipid) found in your blood. When you eat, your body converts any calories it doesn't need to use right away into triglycerides. The triglycerides are stored in your fat cells. Later, hormones release triglycerides for energy between meals. If you regularly eat more calories than you burn, particularly "easy" calories like carbohydrates and fats, you may have high triglycerides (hypertriglyceridemia).
Avoid sugary and refined foods. Simple carbohydrates, such as sugar and foods made with white flour, can increase triglycerides.
It's there in black and white.
Also there in black and white, "if you regularly eat more calories than you burn."
Sugar is not the enemy. Over-eating is.21 -
positivepowers wrote: »Katherinelittle24 wrote: »Thank you for commenting but please don't tell me that I'm not addicted. Fast food can be addictive. I did research on it, and a lot of research says it is. Some people can go and get fast food, and be fine like my boyfriend can. But other people, like me for instance, thinks about it constantly. Even the next day, I just ate a very nutritious breakfast full of protein but I am still craving that hamburger. So yes, for me it is an addiction. One that has take me months to break, and it's definitely a work of progress.
Yeah it is. If I stop eating fast food I get headaches, fuzzy thinking, lethargy, irritability and cravings that keep me up and wake me up at night. I feel just like I did when I quit smoking (and nobody argues that's addictive, right?) I don't care what anyone says, I know what I feel and some peer-reviewed scientific studies back me on this (I've posted them before.) After a few weeks of abstinence, if I go back to eating fast food (because mmm mmm Taco Bell!) The cycle starts all over. Before I am accused of this, I do not use this as an excuse, I use it as another tool to fight the addiction.
OP: I'm trying to stay away from the fast food, it's the only way I know to take and keep control. Stay strong!!
Nope. There are no peer reviewed scientific studies that show fast food is addicting.
Yep, there are:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02791072.2012.662092
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.454.8591&rep=rep1&type=pdf
http://www.wealthandhealth.ltd.uk/articles/processed food addiction.pd
http://fastlab.psych.lsa.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/GearhardtCorbinBrownell_PreliminaryValidationYaleFoodAddictionScale_2008.pdf
http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=econ_fac
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrea_Garber/publication/51722472_Is_Fast_Food_Addictive/links/02bfe5134f5732aef2000000/Is-Fast-Food-Addictive.pdf
This is just from a cursory search in Google Scholar. All are peer-reviewed and from reputable publications including Yale and Cal Poly universities.8 -
Sugar is the enemy -- 84.1 million adults have prediabetes. https://cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/diabetes.html
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positivepowers wrote: »Katherinelittle24 wrote: »Thank you for commenting but please don't tell me that I'm not addicted. Fast food can be addictive. I did research on it, and a lot of research says it is. Some people can go and get fast food, and be fine like my boyfriend can. But other people, like me for instance, thinks about it constantly. Even the next day, I just ate a very nutritious breakfast full of protein but I am still craving that hamburger. So yes, for me it is an addiction. One that has take me months to break, and it's definitely a work of progress.
Yeah it is. If I stop eating fast food I get headaches, fuzzy thinking, lethargy, irritability and cravings that keep me up and wake me up at night. I feel just like I did when I quit smoking (and nobody argues that's addictive, right?) I don't care what anyone says, I know what I feel and some peer-reviewed scientific studies back me on this (I've posted them before.) After a few weeks of abstinence, if I go back to eating fast food (because mmm mmm Taco Bell!) The cycle starts all over. Before I am accused of this, I do not use this as an excuse, I use it as another tool to fight the addiction.
OP: I'm trying to stay away from the fast food, it's the only way I know to take and keep control. Stay strong!!
OK, I've stayed out of this whole addiction debate, but this comment got to me... specifically, which fast food is causing this reaction? Pizza? Burgers? Fries? Tacos? Milkshakes? Chicken fingers? And does eating a french fry clear your thinking, because if it does, I'm headed to McDonalds
I know you're being sarcastic but I'm going to answer this as if the question was serious: No, eating a french fry does not exactly clear my thinking, and I haven't been able to stop at one fry since I was 5 (not an excuse. We all have something that we fight; this is mine) but if I eat the fries I stop obsessing over them for a while and I can think about something else. Although I am sated for a while, eating the fries just brings on a cycle of: Obsessing over __________ fast food or junk food; eating the food; obsessing over another fast/junk food. Every time I "quit" the fast/junk food I act exactly the way I did when I quit smoking. The only difference is that I've never wanted to start smoking again. I also tend to "phase out" when eating fast/junk food, I don't realize how much I've eaten until it's gone. I once ate an entire 9" chocolate cake and I only remember "tasting" the frosting at the beginning. And throwing away the empty box in shame so my family wouldn't know.
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candylilacs wrote: »Sugar is the enemy -- 84.1 million adults have prediabetes. https://cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/diabetes.html
And sugar consumption is not listed as a risk factor:
https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/risk-factors.html
Obesity is, of course. While reducing high calorie foods can be helpful to reducing your weight, cutting out all of the evil sugars isn't necessary. Balanced approaches, make small changes that are sustainable and change things over time. The culling of all things sugar isn't necessary, and for some (myself as an example) lead to not only failure but feeling helpless and hopeless.12 -
I don't feel disgusted with myself or anything, but I love fast food. I know thats why most of my weight loss plans have always failed. I just eat it too much. I love it. That and pop. It's been hard to give up my junk food, but I'm seeing actual weight loss now so I know those were holding me back.5
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You aren't addicted, as fast food isn't an addicting substance. You just need to exercise some willpower.
I lost 65 pounds and still ate fast food. I just cut down from going after work on the weekends (both days, often) to once a week maximum, opting for smaller sandwiches and no fries (not worth the calories for what you get). It fits into my calories well.
I'm going to blow apparently everyone's mind here, but all addictions are mental. The idea of physical addiction is a myth. That doesn't mean addiction isn't real it means we thought the cause was different. Gambling can cause brain rushes same way drugs, caffeine, and fast food does. Y'all need some actual science on this board yeesh.
https://youtu.be/ao8L-0nSYzg 23 -
There is no physical hooks in alcohol to make it addictive. There is no hooks in most opioids either. If you want to say only physical hooks count then very few things could truly even count unless we are going to count the change in brain chemistry in which case literally anything could cause a flood of those hormones even fetishes. Seriously lay people with no science degree you don't know what you are talking about.paperpudding wrote: »I agree there are ED's and some people have difficulty restricting foods and there are individual trigger foods for some people and there are behavioural issues - that doesnt make there be an addiction though.
i actually think it is quite trivialising to real physical addictions like opiates,alcohol, nicotine to say this
and yes there is an organisation called Over eaters Anonymous - but I notice they do not refer to food addiction either
In their own words "Overeaters Anonymous (OA) is a fellowship of individuals who, through shared experience, strength and hope, are recovering from compulsive overeating. We welcome everyone who wants to stop eating compulsively. .......
Our primary purpose is to abstain from compulsive overeating and to carry the message of recovery to those who still suffer.
OA caters for all who have a problem with their eating, such as compulsive overeaters, anorexics and bulimics."
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I really just don't understand the "carb/sugar/fast food addiction" mindset. I understand physical addictions exist, and to a certain extent behavioral addictions such as sex and gambling exist as well, but to be honest, I do not buy that such specific food "addictions" exist.
Heck, if personal anecdotes are to be believed, I would be the queen of carb addiction. I love bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, basically all the starchy carb-rich fare Dr. Atkins would have had a field day over. I have a minute sweet tooth in comparison to my love of bread. Hell, I went on the Atkins Diet in high school in the '00s and felt like shanking my best friend with our cafeteria-issued plastic spork for her soggy slice of public-school baguette within two weeks. Was I addicted? No, of course not. I just had been 100% deprived of my favorite food all of a sudden.
I still eat bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes but I weigh them and log them. I do not think I have an "addiction", I just really like these foods. They hit the happy parts of my brain and taste buds. I will sometimes save up for a loaf of ciabatta from a local bakery, but that's mostly because I'm poor and can't afford it most weeks. That's nowhere near prostituting myself for a teaspoon of sugar. I've known a lot of people with serious drug/alcohol addictions, many in my own family, and the idea that eating a Big Mac is equal to slamming heroin is astonishingly ignorant and frankly offensive. Yes, you "need food to live" unlike drugs or booze, but "withdrawing" from Whoppers maybe results in a couple grouchy hangry days. Withdrawing from alcohol and drugs can literally kill you in that same amount of time. If there was a juice cleanse that "detoxed" you from hard substances, rehab facilities wouldn't need to exist.9 -
Did you know McDonald’s French fries has 17 different additives? I think the addiction may be both mental and physical but perhaps more mental (mind over body). Fast food is so unnatural and so processed that our bodies literally don’t know what to do with it once consumed. Our bodies are not designed to deal with such high levels of processed food. Let’s think about it this way: how many oranges or apples can you eat before you wouldn’t want to eat any more? Now how much French fries can you have before your body says stop? Which one has the highest calorie and fat content? Our bodies can deal with natural food very easily. We eat some and we are satisfied. However, processed food (chips, fast food, etc) is a different story. They are designed to make us want to go back for more. It is as if there is a disconnect between the brain and the stomach and the signals are not being routed properly.
In short, I think this addiction you are referring to has mostly mental as well as physical components to it. Some psychotherapy will defintily help by identifying the root of the problem as well as methods to deal with the urges. I hope you find your way. Fight on!30
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