Food as a addiction?
Options
Replies
-
Everyone is overly negative and judging. I'm sorry OP. I am actually underweight, but i also struggle with emotional eating. If everyone here was so great and never ever overate, never reached for food because of boredom or loneliness, then why the hell are all of them here. Sure it's a fitness site, but like 90% are here for weight loss.
What worked for me, although i still struggle, is to count calories, work out, have treats every day. An ice cream after dinner can be like 250 calories, leave room for it, and you can look forward to it at the end of the day. Tell yourself there'll always be tomorrow, no need to eat everything, you can have more tomorrow and the next day and so on.
Exercise will make you super happy and pumped, i know getting fit and stuff but i work out MOSTLY for endorphins!
Pick one day of the week where you can eat pasta, pizza or a huge dessert for one meal, it's ok, it's not gonna set you back.
I wish you all the best luck0 -
AlabasterVerve wrote: »Is it really so far outside the realms of possibility that eating one way left me hungry and always wanting more and yet eating another way I have a normal appetite? If that uncontrolled eating can be shut off like a light switch why would you think that's anything other than physiological?
Personally, I think food choice of course plays a role in how hungry you feel and that for some people carbs in particular (especially more refined carbs) tend to increase hunger or at least not sate it, especially if eaten in too high a proportion vs. the other foods in the diet. So I don't have any issue at all with your choices about how to eat (why would I?) or even your statements that changing what you eat made eating less much easier and kept you from being hungry. That's why low carb diets work for many.
What I think would be wrong--and I haven't noticed you doing it--would be to call this an "addiction" issue. That carbs (or sugar) may not be physiologically satisfying to some doesn't make them "addictive"--that would be a very strange use of the word "addiction."
OP seems to be talking about emotional eating, though, which generally is psychological. (Not saying he/she needs a therapist, as many of us deal with emotional eating without therapy, but I do think it's usually more than just an issue of the foods chosen.)0 -
I would like to state again for those who have recommended that I try therapy. I have been to counseling, I am also follow by my Doctor regular( 2 to 3 months)
For those who feel that I am blaming food for my overeating, I am responsible for what choices I make. I would not have posted if I was not owning my eat problems. Whether you believe in food addiction or not, the path to weight loss is not smooth or easy. Based on my personal experience and interaction with my doctors this is what I come to believe is my challenge to overcome. Each person takes a personal journey to success, some people you interact with along the way are helpful, other are just noise. The trick is figure out which is which.
Very good! I'm glad to see you are on the right track and are doing what's right for you! Keep working on it and ignore the "noise." I've been following some of these boards and I'm sorry to see there is a lot of noise on them, often by the same people. Weed through and there is a lot of good advice, also.
0 -
AlabasterVerve wrote: »
I believe you when you tell me you have/had underlying emotional issues you had to deal with. Why don't you believe me when I tell you I didn't?mamapeach910 wrote: »AlabasterVerve wrote: »mamapeach910 wrote: »AlabasterVerve wrote: »AlabasterVerve wrote: »
So what non-therapy route do you suggest for stopping smoking that can be used for stopping eating?Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »TheVirgoddess wrote: »If you really believe you're addicted to food, you should be seeing a therapist.
People don't necessarily need therapy to break an addiction. Many people quit smoking without therapy.
The difference is you need food to live. Eating is not something you just quit. Of course, you *can* use the same strategies to not eat food as you can with not smoking/drinking/other drug use, but eventually death happens because humans kinda need to eat to survive.
I didn't suggest using the same strategy.
You don't stop eating altogether, you stop eating your trigger foods or eat them in such small amounts they don't cause a problem. And that produces the same exact feelings, or at least it did for me, I experienced trying to quit smoking.
For years before I quit smoking just the thought of quitting would make me smoke more and if I tried to cut back? I'd smoke even more... I worked my way up to a 2 pack a day habit doing that. But there comes a point when enough is enough, you resolve to stop and you do -- no matter how panicky or sick you feel you suck it up, don't give in and know it gets easier. And a few years later you wonder that you ever had a problem.
I've never been a drug addict but there are people who say their issues with food were comparable:I’m a recovering alcoholic, smoker and drug addict with a history of many rehabs, jail more often than I can count and several trips to the emergency room due to overdose.
After I had been sober for several years, I started to develop an addiction to unhealthy foods.
Full-blown addiction. Nothing more, nothing less.
The reason I’m telling you this is to demonstrate that I know how addiction works.
I’m here to tell you that food addiction is the same as addiction to drugs… exactly the same. --Food Addiction – A Serious Problem With a Simple Solution
The authority nutrition quack's link to the scientific proof is hilarious and many don't deal with "food addiction" or even humans
I wasn't posting science I was sharing my experience and the experience of a drug addict for the countless people using this site who feel like they have a problem and are looking for a solution -- whether there's "proof" that problem exists or not is irrelevant.
That's not a solution, it's perpetuating faulty thinking and enabling the continuing of the real problem without ever getting to the root of it.
You can go to therapy, get in touch with your feelings, your higher power, your inner child, dig deep for the "real problem" or any of the other woo... and if that works for you? More power to you and thank you for sharing your experience; I'm sure it will resonate for someone and be exactly what they need to hear to be successful.
But while you do that I'll be over here eating in a way that resolves the issue and getting the same results without the therapy.
Actually, I didn't go to therapy at all. I just learned through experience and was willing to admit over and over again that I was wrong.
The biggest steps for me in my life, not just when it comes to weight, but for everything (actually, for me, losing weight is the last piece of a really complicated puzzle) were taking responsibility for my own actions and realizing that I didn't need to feel afraid of negative emotions. A large part of my weight problems were due to issues arising from those two factors.
I grew into those realizations all on my own.
No woo, no higher power, nothing.
In other words, I finally grew up. Now, I say that... but my issue with food was mostly emotional. However, even after realizing what those emotional issues were, I was still left with bad habits that I needed to break. I had no sense of portion size, for example.
I tend to think, for the most part, that the crowd who feels addicted to food does have an emotional aspect to their eating problem.
So, yes, I will share my experience, because I think blaming the food is still masking the underlying emotional issue.
IF it's just a matter of really, really liking ... say... sweets? Meh, you want to never eat them again? Have at it. But that wasn't the thrust of the link you provided. So I'll stick with the emotional aspect for the sake of this conversation.
Is it really so far outside the realms of possibility that eating one way left me hungry and always wanting more and yet eating another way I have a normal appetite? If that uncontrolled eating can be shut off like a light switch why would you think that's anything other than physiological?
Hmmm... I won't argue your personal experience or your feelings on it. And I don't believe I have argued your experience in this thread. I'm questioning the OP. Her carb addiction elimination is quite dodgy.
I'll just share my experience with the hunger issue here, though. It's brought up a lot, and there's an aspect to it that I'd like to address. Because outside of a medical condition that messes up your hormones and causes that hunger? Well... here's my experience.
I did some form of low carb (Paleo before Cordain's book came out... there was a book called Neanderthin that came out in the 90's, and Atkins and Sugar Busters) for a great many years.
I had the same feeling of oh, this is great! I'm not hungry all the time any more!
Gluten free oatmeal came out on the market, and oddly, that was the carby thing I missed the most. I bought some and ate it. The thing was that I controlled my portion of it because I knew I had been overeating carbs and was afraid of them.
I was fine. I wasn't hungry after eating it.
This started me thinking, and I started reintroducing carbs back in my life, but I'd call what I did moderate carb. I still moderate my carbs because I seem to feel more fatigued if I eat too many (I have a chronic illness that makes me feel fatigued all the time).
I was still overeating food at this point in my life, but I was overeating EVERYTHING. I wasn't any more hungry because I was eating chickpeas and oatmeal and the occasional bowl of cereal or cookies now and then. Honestly, cheese, avocados, and almond butter probably did more damage calorie-wise than anything else I was eating.
I'm not sure why you need me to validate your experience. It's great that low carb works for you. I simply think it's false thinking that it's NEEDED outside of certain medical circumstances. That's not to say that it's not a great choice for some people. You're obviously one of them.
0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »AlabasterVerve wrote: »Is it really so far outside the realms of possibility that eating one way left me hungry and always wanting more and yet eating another way I have a normal appetite? If that uncontrolled eating can be shut off like a light switch why would you think that's anything other than physiological?
Personally, I think food choice of course plays a role in how hungry you feel and that for some people carbs in particular (especially more refined carbs) tend to increase hunger or at least not sate it, especially if eaten in too high a proportion vs. the other foods in the diet. So I don't have any issue at all with your choices about how to eat (why would I?) or even your statements that changing what you eat made eating less much easier and kept you from being hungry. That's why low carb diets work for many.
What I think would be wrong--and I haven't noticed you doing it--would be to call this an "addiction" issue. That carbs (or sugar) may not be physiologically satisfying to some doesn't make them "addictive"--that would be a very strange use of the word "addiction."
OP seems to be talking about emotional eating, though, which generally is psychological. (Not saying he/she needs a therapist, as many of us deal with emotional eating without therapy, but I do think it's usually more than just an issue of the foods chosen.)
That's what I found key, especially in terms of that hungry feeling.
Because I chronically overate, I had NO idea of portion size. When I reintroduced carbs, because I was afraid of them, I limited my servings of them. I didn't experience any hunger surges from them when monitoring my intake of them.
I am NOT trying to discount what works for AlabasterVerve at all. I'm just trying to share my experience and point out that there's another way if one wants to look for a different solution.
0 -
OP: You are wasting your time discussing food addiction in these forums. Over 50% of the people will condemn you as simply a weakling.0
-
I didn't go through all 5 pages, but I'll say what I always say...I don't believe in food addiction...I do not believe you can be addicted to something that is necessary to sustain life...if you were, you're screwed because the only way to beat an actual addiction is abstinence...and if you abstain from food, you will die.
There are any number of eating disorders out there...under-eating/purging disorders tend to get the most attention...but there are overeating disorders as well that get far less press. These are disorders, not addictions.
For either under-eating or over-eating disorders, there is pretty much always an underlying emotional/psychological issue that needs to be dealt with in order to beat the disorder.0 -
jessicadb2 wrote: »herrspoons wrote: »It's a great excuse. But that's what it is: an excuse.
Rationalise your failure all you like. It's still failure by choice.
Would you say that to a bulimic or anorexic? Would you say that to someone with a drug addiction or alcoholism?
They probably would... but that doesn't make it right! I think that yes, people CAN have food addictions. If these need to be classified as eating disorders in order to be taken seriously and treated appropriately, then so be it.0 -
A lot of you people are brutal. You will defend it with "being candid" or "being honest" but the truth of the matter is some of you feed on beating people down.
The forums are a toxic place. I expected it to be different than the other general comment forums, being a self improvement platform, but I see now that it really is no different than the forum and comment section of any local newspaper.
0 -
RedRockChic wrote: »A lot of you people are brutal. You will defend it with "being candid" or "being honest" but the truth of the matter is some of you feed on beating people down.
Yep.
0 -
2snakeswoman wrote: »There's no code in the ICD-9-CM (which has a code for every accepted medical condition) for food addiction. There is, however, a code for eating disorder.
That's because everyone is technically addicted to food- without it you die.0 -
I should have added, that I have been followed by a MD through all of this, and counseling on and off.
I never said I was not responsible for my choices, as stated above I went back to old coping habits, that made me feel good, In the moment. I took the path of least resistance. Each person can have an opinion, but if you do not believe that people can be addicted to food. Then you are fooling yourself. Food is used in society to help sooth broken hearts, celebrate life, mourn deaths, just to name few. We attach all kinds of importance to food that has nothing to do with the basic need to eat to sustain life. So, if you think a person can not have an emotional/ psychological attachment to food which is difficult to control or manage ,you are fooling yourself.
I am responsible for me and what I eat. It does not make it any easier to say no, when almost everyday, Some one in your life, be it home or work is right there with cake, cookies, left over Easter candy. etc
Each person needs to find their approach or relationship with food, many people can find balance between all foods some just can not thus the Yo - Yo of weight loss world. If this was easy , I assume most of us would not be here.
You went bad to your old coping habits. That means you have poor coping skills, not an addiction.
I think people overuse the term addiction to explain away a compulsive need to use bad coping mechanisms.
Think of it like this-an alcoholic should abstain from alcohol, right? Because they are addicted and once they start, they cannot stop.
If you are addicted to food, should you abstain?
Do you need to go to detox to overcome the withdrawal from food?
Yes, overeating is a type of disordered eating, but to label it as an addiction, I can't buy into that. Maybe it's a matter of semantics, but I think it does a disservice to those who have actual physical addictions.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »AlabasterVerve wrote: »Is it really so far outside the realms of possibility that eating one way left me hungry and always wanting more and yet eating another way I have a normal appetite? If that uncontrolled eating can be shut off like a light switch why would you think that's anything other than physiological?
Personally, I think food choice of course plays a role in how hungry you feel and that for some people carbs in particular (especially more refined carbs) tend to increase hunger or at least not sate it, especially if eaten in too high a proportion vs. the other foods in the diet. So I don't have any issue at all with your choices about how to eat (why would I?) or even your statements that changing what you eat made eating less much easier and kept you from being hungry. That's why low carb diets work for many.
What I think would be wrong--and I haven't noticed you doing it--would be to call this an "addiction" issue. That carbs (or sugar) may not be physiologically satisfying to some doesn't make them "addictive"--that would be a very strange use of the word "addiction."
OP seems to be talking about emotional eating, though, which generally is psychological. (Not saying he/she needs a therapist, as many of us deal with emotional eating without therapy, but I do think it's usually more than just an issue of the foods chosen.)
While I don't self identify as an addict, my eating was absolutely out of control and not just a feeling of hunger. I was never full, never satisfied and eating felt more like a compulsion I had no control over than a desire to eat tasty food. And the quantity of food needed just kept increasing and increasing. It was easier to not eat at all than stop eating once I started.
This didn't happen over night, of course, and it took a several years to get to that point where I wasn't just ordering takeout and soda because it was convenient and tasted good. But just like with cigarettes there came a time when enough was enough and I put a stop to it. I joined MFP, started exercising again and started eating the diet that's always suggested for good health -- lean meats, whole wheat, lots of fruit and vegetables, nuts etc. I limited takeout to the last Friday of every month (because I considered it a bad habit that needed to be broken) but nothing was off limits. I struggled every single day for 6 months. I didn't struggle to lose weight -- I do not lack willpower -- but I was fighting this almost ceaseless compulsion to eat and keep eating.
For health reasons (devastating diagnoses of diabetes, heart disease and cancer in my family) I decided I should lower my carbs and then I lowered them some more and in less than three weeks that nagging compulsion to eat and keep eating was gone. Gone. I described it at the time as miraculous and I still feel that way.
I can ascribe all sorts of emotional excuses to my out of control eating -- life is tramatic and I have a lot of reasons that fit -- but I'll never again be convinced that it wasn't the food when eating different food gave me back a normal appetite. I hope the research continues in this area because I think there's a lot more to be learned.
0 -
jessicadb2 wrote: »herrspoons wrote: »It's a great excuse. But that's what it is: an excuse.
Rationalise your failure all you like. It's still failure by choice.
Would you say that to a bulimic or anorexic? Would you say that to someone with a drug addiction or alcoholism?
They probably would... but that doesn't make it right! I think that yes, people CAN have food addictions. If these need to be classified as eating disorders in order to be taken seriously and treated appropriately, then so be it.
Honest question - if someone said "I'm addicted to strawberries. I literally cannot stop eating them." you would take it at face value and agree that it should be labeled as an eating disorder? With treatment?0 -
mamapeach910 wrote: »That's what I found key, especially in terms of that hungry feeling.
Me too. This comes up sometimes when people claim potatoes or pasta or oatmeal isn't filling. I don't think any of those foods are filling on their own (for the record, at home I eat whole grain pasta and I eat steel cut oats). However, with the exception of oatmeal, I never want to eat those foods on their own, so the way I eat them they are exactly as filling as a meal with equal calories that happens to be mostly meat and veggies (although it's obviously easier to keep the latter lower cal, since you are cutting out one of the components--however, fewer calories tends to make it less filling overall for me, to some extent).
What IS a problem for me, and was when I was gaining weight, is eating something particularly carby (could be sugary but need not) on its own. So if I had a bagel for breakfast (which I often did) and ate it plain because I like it that way and figured it was "healthier" than adding more calories from cream cheese, etc., I'd be hungrier all morning, since I would get the spike and crash effect.
I'm not sure if I'd still get that effect now that I'm more active and much thinner--I'm experimenting with white rice and the like (with protein and veggies, though) post workout and that doesn't seem to make me hungry at all or interfere with satiety despite the fact that OP et al seem to think white rice is one of the EVIL ADDICTIVE foods.
Anyway, I'm not saying that low carb doesn't make a huge difference for some--I think it clearly does--but for many of us (like you and me!) eating balanced diets is what's needed and takes care of the issues that eating unbalanced carbs can cause for us.
I also agree that messed up portion sizing overall, plus (for me) eating when I wasn't hungry for lots of reasons played a huge role in me getting fat. Uncontrollable hunger really wasn't a significant issue (and again would seem to have nothing to do with the alleged addictiveness of certain foods--I wasn't a drunk because I had uncontrollable thirst, after all).
0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 392K Introduce Yourself
- 43.6K Getting Started
- 259.8K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.7K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 402 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.8K Motivation and Support
- 7.9K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.4K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 998 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.4K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions