Carboholicism

gisem17

Is food addiction real? And is it fair to compare my perceived addiction to carbs to somebody's actual addiction to alcohol, narcotics or other serious drugs?

lemurcat2

Just my opinion, but I think many eating disorders are similar to addictions, sure, in that one has a lack of control, engages in behaviors to one's detriment, and may eat as a dysfunctional coping mechanism, sure. That's not limited to one particular type of food -- I think it's more of an eating "addiction," in reality, that may tend to preference foods one likes best or finds comforting. Often, but not always, people may find that their habits focus on so-called hyperpalatable foods, but part of that is often that those are foods that tend to be available between meals, what one has historically used to self-comfort, or immediately available.

Carbs, of course, are often demonized when in fact carrots are carbs, peaches and blueberries are carbs, barley and quinoa and sweet potatoes are carbs, cottage cheese and yogurt are partially carbs, etc. Very often the so-called hyperpalatable foods/dessert foods have as as much fat as carbs and many foods that some will put in the carbs bucket (fast food, pizza) have all three macros. I don't think there's such a thing as a carb (generally) addiction.

I would NOT compare my food issues (although I think there are some parallels to the issues with alcohol I've dealt with) with somebody's alcohol or drug issues, no, but then I also wouldn't compare my personal alcohol issues/various family members' issues with someone else's alcohol/drug issues (although one-to-one or in an appropriate group you may find a lot of common ground in discussing issues) or, say, the issues someone on my 600 lb life has with food (and for the super morbidly obese I do think the way they talk about food and what they've thrown away for food is more comparable), because we are all different. What I find annoying -- if done seriously -- is for people to compare eating something delicious and having trouble stopping or having a weakness for especially delicious sweets to an addiction. I also think that in the current food environment it's quite easy to become obese and have some food control issues based on one's food environment and habits and learned tastes without it being addiction-like at all.

snowflake954

I would like to point out a big difference. You can live without alcohol or drugs for the rest of your life--you cannot live without food. Therefore it's an entirely different "addiction", and I just think it's mostly loss of self-control under another name.

Diatonic12

Drug and/or drunk driving is a killer.

There are many cross-addictions like smoking, gambling and shifting over to food would fall in there. You can research it but some WLS patients make the shift to alcohol.

Food addiction is complex just like all of the other addictions. You can be an alcoholic and have a food addiction at the same time. The mileage will always vary.

The run of the mill food addiction via self-diagnosis is based on the All or Nothing approach to food. These things are learned in childhood by observation, environment, family/peer behaviors. You adopt these behaviors as your own ...believing that you can't ever change that narrative for the rest of your life.

The all or nothing approach to food results in constant stops and starts with massive rationalization and excuses.
There's thrill eating, living for another hit of dopamine to the brain while entertaining ourselves with food rewards.
Immediate gratification is learned behavior. Our brains are hard-wired with deep grooves and it's easy to become and stay a looper forever. Starting over and over and over again.

Don't overthink it. Don't overcomplicate it.

We can learn to moderate ourselves with food. You need skills, tools and strategy. It's not about motivation or willpower. Those are limited resources and it's not possible to keep yourself or others propped UP. It's exhausting.

New cognitive behaviors, tools and skillsets will take you much further down the road than gutting it out with willpower. Telling ourselves that we're an all or nothing person is a self-perpetuating diagnosis that will keep you in a self-induced food prison for the rest of your life.

Get off that merry-go-round with food. There's only choices and consequences. You have to choose every single day that you will not fall back into that behavior with focus and consistency.

janejellyroll

I personally do not believe food addiction is real, although I'm open to the possibility that I am wrong.

I do think that people can use food as a way to cope with emotions in ways that are similar to how drugs or alcohol are used and they can use food in this way to an extent that it interferes with their happiness and health.

But the thing is: if perceiving your issues with food as an addiction helps you come up with ways to cope and be happier, why not use that framework?

SuzySunshine99

I don't think a physical addiction to a type of food is a real thing. I don't believe people who say they are addicted to carbs, sugar, chocolate, whatever. You're not...you just like them a lot.

However, an eating disorder can be a type of "addiction", when we are talking about obsessive or compulsive behavior. In that case, it's the act of eating that is the addiction. The type of food would not be the driving force.

In the stereotypical case of a person with OCD who can't stop washing their hands...they are not addicted to soap, they are "addicted" to the behavior of washing their hands.

Mellouk89

There may be an “addiction” to foods that have a combination of sugar, fat and salt. But you rarely eat only carbs. So I don't know if it's a carb addiction or just foods that are calorically dense.

sijomial

Do you get the same reaction to apples, cauliflower, pasta or straight sugar?
Is there a carb that you dislike the taste or texture of but would still binge on despite not enjoying eating that food?

Or alternatively is it certain foods rather than a whole macronutrient that triggers you?

No I don't think food addiction to a macronutrient is real but eating disorders, disordered eating, harmful behavioural issues around food and self-control issues certainly are.
I'm not convinced labelling the behaviour(s) as an addiction actually helps the person overcome or simply manage those issues, to me that's excusing a person from taking control and making different choices.

mariomicro

Carbohydrates (and sugars in particular) are converted into blood glucose almost immediately (as opposed to fats). That gives an instant gratification, which is the common pattern of all addictions.

That is not to say that only carbs can cause addiction. There are many other factors involved. I am addicted to coffee (even decaf coffee) and I haven't managed a way to get rid of it.

Squatcleananddeadlift

mariomicro wrote: »

Carbohydrates (and sugars in particular) are converted into blood glucose almost immediately (as opposed to fats). That gives an instant gratification, which is the common pattern of all addictions.

That is not to say that only carbs can cause addiction. There are many other factors involved. I am addicted to coffee (even decaf coffee) and I haven't managed a way to get rid of it.

Why did you get free disagrees for this post?

mariomicro

Squatcleananddeadlift wrote: »

Why did you get free disagrees for this post?

Probably from closeted carb addicts.

janejellyroll

mariomicro wrote: »

Carbohydrates (and sugars in particular) are converted into blood glucose almost immediately (as opposed to fats). That gives an instant gratification, which is the common pattern of all addictions.

That is not to say that only carbs can cause addiction. There are many other factors involved. I am addicted to coffee (even decaf coffee) and I haven't managed a way to get rid of it.

Yet we see people struggle with foods like chips and donuts way more than we see people struggle with foods like apples or cauliflower or even jam straight from the jar. Not that nobody anywhere struggles with the foods in the latter group, but the majority of the time when people say they're addicted to "carbs," it's pretty predictable what foods they go on to discuss. A big portion of the time, they're discussing foods that include good doses of fat.

There probably are people squirting agave nectar right into their mouths because it's a big world and you can find people doing just about anything. But we don't see it nearly in the quantities we'd see if carbohydrate addiction was just a function of how quickly something was converted into blood glucose.

LB30

I think we, as a society, use the term "addiction" as a catch-all for all sorts of behaviors, primarily those that involve an over-indulgence of something. I think the term that applies more appropriately here is "dependence". The two are not interchangeable. While addiction doesn't exist without dependence, dependence frequently exists without addiction, assuming we are using proper definitions.

Addiction comes with withdrawal- very real and adverse physical reactions. There is a reason why someone who is severely addicted to alcohol requires medical supervision to stop. Or why those addicted to opioids experience a period of violent illness. That is above an beyond dependency alone. I haven't touched alcohol in over 5 months. I most certainly was becoming very dependent upon it. I used it to relax, to help me sleep, calm the nerves, etc. But, when I decided this might be an issue and stopped, I did not suffer any sort of withdrawal. I was not yet addicted. My head was emotionally "depending" on alcohol, but I wasn't an addict. A binge drinker, most certainly yes. Addict, no. I didn't have those adverse physical reactions. I think the same is true with food. There can be an emotional attachment to it for sure, but its not the same as true addiction.

Daisy_Girl2019

Rice is life... that's all I can say. 🤣

lemurcat2

Squatcleananddeadlift wrote: »

mariomicro wrote: »

Carbohydrates (and sugars in particular) are converted into blood glucose almost immediately (as opposed to fats). That gives an instant gratification, which is the common pattern of all addictions.

That is not to say that only carbs can cause addiction. There are many other factors involved. I am addicted to coffee (even decaf coffee) and I haven't managed a way to get rid of it.

Why did you get free disagrees for this post?

Probably because it seemed to misunderstand what "carbs" are and to talk about fats in a way that suggested that he did not understand that for the vast majority of people who post here about trouble controlling carbs, they are really talking about foods with as much fat as carbs (and often other things, like salt). See, e.g., chips and donuts as the examples given.

I love cauliflower and pears, but I am not going to binge on them, and neither gives me more of an immediate gratification than nuts, good cheese, roasted chicken, or even a pickle -- depends what I am in the mood for.

lemurcat2

LB30 wrote: »

I think we, as a society, use the term "addiction" as a catch-all for all sorts of behaviors, primarily those that involve an over-indulgence of something. I think the term that applies more appropriately here is "dependence". The two are not interchangeable. While addiction doesn't exist without dependence, dependence frequently exists without addiction, assuming we are using proper definitions.

Addiction comes with withdrawal- very real and adverse physical reactions. There is a reason why someone who is severely addicted to alcohol requires medical supervision to stop. Or why those addicted to opioids experience a period of violent illness. That is above an beyond dependency alone. I haven't touched alcohol in over 5 months. I most certainly was becoming very dependent upon it. I used it to relax, to help me sleep, calm the nerves, etc. But, when I decided this might be an issue and stopped, I did not suffer any sort of withdrawal. I was not yet addicted. My head was emotionally "depending" on alcohol, but I wasn't an addict. A binge drinker, most certainly yes. Addict, no. I didn't have those adverse physical reactions. I think the same is true with food. There can be an emotional attachment to it for sure, but its not the same as true addiction.

I agree with your first sentence (we also just use it casually -- I'm addicted to shoes!). But actually, I think you have addiction and dependence backwards. Dependence comes with withdrawal, but may not be addiction (some common anti depressants, for example, or in some cases coffee--someone might be in the habit of drinking coffee and then quit and get headaches, but not use coffee for any kind of emotional need or drink it despite serious harmful results).

Addictions may not involve physical withdrawal (one can have an addiction to alcohol without any kind of severe withdrawal, although alcohol withdrawal can kill you). Even with drugs (like heroin, perhaps) that will generally always involve withdrawal, getting past the dependence doesn't resolve the issue, and the addiction will lead to the tendency to relapse that many have, etc. And I do believe that things like gambling addiction are real, too.

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-drug-addiction-treatment-research-based-guide-third-edition/frequently-asked-questions/there-difference-between-physical-dependence-addiction

Addiction—or compulsive drug use despite harmful consequences—is characterized by an inability to stop using a drug; failure to meet work, social, or family obligations; and, sometimes (depending on the drug), tolerance and withdrawal. The latter reflect physical dependence in which the body adapts to the drug, requiring more of it to achieve a certain effect (tolerance) and eliciting drug-specific physical or mental symptoms if drug use is abruptly ceased (withdrawal). Physical dependence can happen with the chronic use of many drugs—including many prescription drugs, even if taken as instructed. Thus, physical dependence in and of itself does not constitute addiction, but it often accompanies addiction. This distinction can be difficult to discern, particularly with prescribed pain medications, for which the need for increasing dosages can represent tolerance or a worsening underlying problem, as opposed to the beginning of abuse or addiction.