Addicted to food, really?

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Replies

  • LiminalAscendance
    LiminalAscendance Posts: 489 Member
    The term "addiction" has been watered down by society to be pretty much something that you want to do really, really badly.

    Of course, there are real addictions out there. You know, the ones that will actually cause severe physiological reactions, including death. But let's not talk about those, and lump in all the other ones with them, such as food, sex, video games, etc.

    When someone mentions they are "addicted" to something, it transfers the responsibility for the act. It's perfectly reasonable for someone with such an affliction to succumb to it, right?

    Even if these other addictions didn't exist, I can certainly understand why people would want to think they did.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    People use the word "addiction" to justify a lack of willpower

    How is having an addiction not a lack of willpower? An alcoholic picks up a drink due to lack of willpower, does s/he not? There is a compulsion to drink. That compulsion is only overcome by will or force.

    no

    Then how?
  • TheFitHooker
    TheFitHooker Posts: 3,357 Member
    Addiction - Dependency, dependence, habit, problem
    devotion to, dedication to, obsession with, infatuation with, passion for, love of, mania for, enslavement to
    "a slavish addiction to fashion"

    This is what Addiction means. It does not mean it has to be related to a drug. My husband has a game addiction that isn't a drug, but yet he is very much so addicted to playing his games.
  • fbmandy55
    fbmandy55 Posts: 5,263 Member
    So OP, do people with bulimia and anorexia just lack control also? They lack the control to eat a healthy amount or lack control to purge?

    While I don't think food addiction is as common as people tend to say it is, I still feel the OP is way off base. I think overeating would be better classified an eating disorder, rather than an addiction, but it doesn't mean it's not real. I've never been treated for an eating disorder but I too have been to the point where I get so caught up in losing weight I under eat a ton. And I've also been to the point where I make myself sick from eating TOO much. I've had moments, even recently, where I wanted something sweet at night so badly that I went to the store in my pj's to get something to binge on because it brought on an anxiety attack.

    As always, there are plenty of people who will use it as an excuse but it does exist.
  • Ang108
    Ang108 Posts: 1,711 Member
    People use the word "addiction" to justify a lack of willpower

    Exactly what I was thinking. There's a difference between addiction and being unwilling to control your behavior. Someone said if they make one serving of pasta, they want to make 5 more. You're not addicted to the food. You're not going to go into withdrawals if you don't eat 5 more servings of pasta. You'll go to sleep and wake up tomorrow and be just fine. You have a bad HABIT, not an addiction.

    That is actually not always true. Most people who are " addicted " to one or just a couple of specific foods do have withdrawal symptoms. I was heavily dependent on white rice and pasta. To the point that I would get anxious if there was no already prepared rice or pasta in the fridge, so I could eat it with all meals and as a " pacifier " inbetween. If there wasn't, I would cook either of them, no matter the time of night.I would obsess about it during my work day. Not every moment, but I would think about having enough rice/pasta in the fridge, having to buy some, having to prepare some and felt relieved when all those tasks were accomplished. If I would not have my " fix " of rice, pasta or in a pinch bread, I would have a head ache several hours later, or the next morning....and things were not just fine.
    I was discovered to have severe thyroid problems and once they were addressed my physical need for simple carbs ( probably the readily accessible energy in them ) diminished, but I had gotten used to this way of eating and it took a lot longer to brake that dependence. Right now I am in the process to slowly re-introduce rice maybe once a month or fortnight, but I have not had pasta since March of this year, because I am not sure that I could stick to normal portions yet. It has obviously nothing to do with will power, because I obviously have it with other food items. I have never called it addiction, but I remember from being a hardcore smoker that there were very similar feelings and behaviors involved.
  • Jude_V
    Jude_V Posts: 72 Member
    Perhaps the OP should read some scientific research, as opposed to anecdotal/personal evidence.

    One of the most famous pieces of research was by Ancel Keys et al - here are just some of the results:

    Keys put 36 physically and mentally healthy men on a calorie controlled diet, with a moderate amount of exercise, and, in a matter of weeks, he turned them into physical and emotional wrecks (bulimics to all intents and purposes).

    Physically, the men reported incessant hunger, weakness, exhaustion and they lost 21% of their strength in the first 12 weeks alone. They experienced dizziness, muscle wasting, hair loss and reduced coordination. Several withdrew from their university classes, because they simply didn’t have the energy or motivation to attend.

    Psychologically, the men became obsessed with food, meal times and everything to do with eating (a number became chefs after the experiment; such was their interest in food). They had to ‘buddy up’ to avoid breaking their diets, as their drive to binge was so enormous. Before the buddy system was put in place, a couple did get hold of some forbidden food and binge and suffered extreme guilt and self-loathing as a result. (It is fair to assume, therefore, that, had this not been a confined experiment, all men would have given up on their ‘diet’). The men reported extreme depression, irritability, a sense of deprivation and they lost all interest in sex. (They actually lost all interest in anything other than food – such is the human drive to overcome hunger).

    If you disregard the fact that the men in this experiment were starving for science and transpose the information to anyone who has ever dieted you will see that many people who report being "addicted" to food are experiencing those same feelings and physical phenomena.

    Never underestimate the body's ability to drive you to gorge - if you have ever starved (either willingly through dieting or through environmental/financial circumstances) - you will have experienced the craving, gnawing need to eat as much as you can, when either your willpower collapses or when food becomes available.

    Perhaps the OP's experience of being able to control his eating is down to the fact that his first diet (and, by the sounds of it, his last) was done in a sensible manner - a decision to sensibly control his portions, calorie intake and engage in some exercise.

    My first diet was when I was fifteen and involved just not eating for as many days as I could manage. I was not overweight (by my standards today) and within a few months I was starving myself again to lose the weight again....This has been the pattern of my eating for almost 40 years.

    If someone reports that they feel addicted to food, then I believe that their experiences of craving food, withdrawal symptoms when food is unavailable/withdrawn, overeating when they finally get their fix, could reasonably be likened to any other addiction you care to mention.

    http://www.possibility.com/wiki/index.php?title=EffectsOfSemiStarvation
  • fatfudgery
    fatfudgery Posts: 449 Member
    What's with the "herself" and "she" cause men lack self control when it comes to food too too not just women.

    The English language doesn't have a gender-neutral singular pronoun.

    "Themselves" "them" or "they" lol

    Sigh... The English language doesn't have a gender-neutral singular pronoun.
  • k1229
    k1229 Posts: 135
    People use the word "addiction" to justify a lack of willpower

    How is having an addiction not a lack of willpower? An alcoholic picks up a drink due to lack of willpower, does s/he not? There is a compulsion to drink. That compulsion is only overcome by will or force.

    no

    Then how?
    you said it your self... compulsion.
  • Achaila
    Achaila Posts: 264 Member
    So OP, do people with bulimia and anorexia just lack control also? They lack the control to eat a healthy amount or lack control to purge?

    While I don't think food addiction is as common as people tend to say it is, I still feel the OP is way off base. I think overeating would be better classified an eating disorder, rather than an addiction, but it doesn't mean it's not real. I've never been treated for an eating disorder but I too have been to the point where I get so caught up in losing weight I under eat a ton. And I've also been to the point where I make myself sick from eating TOO much. I've had moments, even recently, where I wanted something sweet at night so badly that I went to the store in my pj's to get something to binge on because it brought on an anxiety attack.

    As always, there are plenty of people who will use it as an excuse but it does exist.

    Overeating can be a BED (binge eating disorder). While in inpatient treatment I was around many people who had BEDs. Some of them would eat and eat and eat and they never got full. Some would eat and eat and eat then suddenly it would hit them that they were full and they would get sick. Supposedly, people with BED's have a hard time recognizing when they have had enough. Their brain doesn't say 'hey, you're full, now stop.'
    With Bulimia (which is what I have, but I am bulimic non-purging type, meaning that I starve myself to make up for eating) we can sit down and eat thousands and thousands of calories worth of food and lose all control. I have hidden food so I could binge on it later. I have eaten food out of the trash because I ate every piece of food in my house and wanted more. Disgusting, right? Why would I do that if I weren't sick, you know? And I have been doing this since I was 13.
    I have certain foods that I cannot be around because they "trigger" me. I don't have a ton of self control. I could sit down and rather than eating 1 or 2 pieces of pizza, I could eat the whole thing in a matter of minutes. But its all psychological. All of it. I had a good conversation with my doctor yesterday about how she believes I can beat this despite the fact that I have been going through it for so long because it is getting over the mental hurdle, which is WAY easier said than done.

    But I do agree 110% that people use it as an excuse.
  • RivenV
    RivenV Posts: 1,667 Member
    I can't live without food.

    9c2.png

    In all seriousness, I don't think I've ever had an "addiction" to food, either. I got to be a tubby little hobbit by absently eating too much all the time, including when I was bored. It got to be a habit that was difficult to break, but at no point would I classify that as an addiction.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    It was not like I eat some pasta, and was like "oh, my god I have to have more pasta"

    [...]

    I do not think that anyone can be "addicted to food"

    You weren't addicted to food, so nobody can be addicted to food. I can't give birth, so nobody can give birth. LOGIC!

    I said think, which implies I am thinking and posing a topic for discussion...

    read much?

    If I was saying it was fact it would have read "I am not addicted to food; therefore, no one is addicted to food."

    You are getting upset because people are pointing out what you said in your original post...which was something to the effect that no...food addiction doesn't exist and that many people use it as an excuse. You then asked for others opinions. I'm thinking that's what some are annoyed with.

    well I said I would catch flack ...so my prediction came true ..

    I simply took my experience and said I did not experience, and as such did not think it exists, but curious what others thought to expand my thinking on the subject...is that now how we all learn and progress? I never made a blanket statement that it must not exist, pretty big difference...
    Aren't you the special snowflake. You were barely overweight for a small portion of your life and claim there's no such thing as food addiction only lack of willpower. Gotta love anecdotal broscience BS.

    Here's another; I tried pretty much every illegal drug out there at one point or another and didn't become an addict of any of them. I guess all those drug addicts just lack willpower also.

    Bottomline, not everyone reacts the same way to different substances.

    What a dumbazz post to even start with.

    Hmmmm overeact much ...? You do not even know my story, yet you seem to think to know what I have been through? Try being 50 pounds overweight, out of shape, and having to go through a year of chemotherapy and radiation...

    Your probably just trolling...but seriously bro....grow the F up....
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    I'd say food addiction exists, but only for a very select few. Like those who are so morbidly obese that they're incapable of standing up. If food has brought you to such a miserable existence and you STILL continue to eat in the same way, then it's likely an addiction.
    All addictions have a 'reason' behind them, e.g. depression, abuse; and the end result is the person abusing their own body. Anorexics and severe over eaters are somewhat similar, except anorexics use their lack of eating as a method of gaining control, whereas over-eaters show a real lack of control.

    However, I think most people who say "I'm addicted to food!" are using it as an excuse to not do anything about it. It's like a Get-Out-Of-Dieting free card they use to prevent being blamed for their physical state. And if you're addicted to food, you're not just addicted to gummy bears, you're addicted to stuffing yourself to the point of sickness.

    Addiction = Sickness.

    so I guess you are saying it cuts both ways...addiction for some, excuse for others..?
  • Confuzzled4ever
    Confuzzled4ever Posts: 2,860 Member
    Sugar/carbs/eating makes us feel good. We associate it with celebrating, happy times. It released endorphins that make us happy and we want to feel that way again. Some people crave this feeling so much that it presents like a food addiction. Eating disorders are mental disorders because it is all in our head. We eat an entire cake because we love the sugar rush and the feeling that rush produces. When the rush goes away we feel icky and want to eat some more. Or maybe we have been in that place where food was scarce and we would eat whatever was put in front of us, because we're afraid the next meal won't come. Or maybe we think we are worthless and food brings us comfort in some way. Or we just need to feel in control of some part of our lives. Much of our lives is governed by others and their actions. If we're late due to traffic, our boss being in a bad mood, the government threatening shut down, taxes going up, pricing going up, salaries decreasing, our kids school work/ home work, the lists goes on and on. We can control what we put in our mouth and how much of it. Some people think. Well at lest i can have this cake, and ice cream and candy bar, they cant' take that from me. Others go the extreme opposite and don't eat.

    Maybe you don't think it's real, but it's very real. The food addiction is the way people who suffer from it express themselves, the actual problem is much much bigger.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    People use the word "addiction" to justify a lack of willpower

    How is having an addiction not a lack of willpower? An alcoholic picks up a drink due to lack of willpower, does s/he not? There is a compulsion to drink. That compulsion is only overcome by will or force.

    no

    Then how?
    you said it your self... compulsion.

    Sorry, I thought you were saying "no" to willpower being the method to break the compulsion. The one word answer was pretty nondescriptive, especially since you agree it's compulsion.

    It's pretty hard to deny that there are those that feel compulsion to overeat.
  • LoosingMyLast15
    LoosingMyLast15 Posts: 1,457 Member
    I am probably going to catch some major flack for this one, but oh well what the hell, I am used to it.

    Reading through the threads I am reading a lot of "I can't eat carbs because it make me binge on more carbs", or "I can't eat sugary foods, because then I want more sugary foods and can't stop myself" or "I have to eat clean because I have a food addiction..." there are more but I think I have laid out the general thoughts that I have seen on the subject.

    So I think back to when I was like 200# and totally out of shape...I was never "addicted to food" I mean I just ate way too much of foods that I liked and did zero exercise. It was not like I eat some pasta, and was like "oh, my god I have to have more pasta" I would just cook a crap ton of it and eat all of it. Now, I still eat pasta, ice cream etc on occasion, I just eat less of it and watch my calories and macros goals or the day. Its not like I make a serving of pasta and immediately want to make five more servings to eat. I have ice cream in the freezer right now, if I have a servicing I do not woof down the whole pint...

    I do not think that anyone can be "addicted to food", it just seems like a strange concept to me. I mean if you do not have that food will you have withdrawals? I just think that it is an excuse that people use to tell themselves that they can't eat certain foods, or to just blame their obesity issue on something else, or to cover up an underlying mental health issue. I mean people binge, but to me that seems tied into more of a mental health issue or just bad relationship with food.

    So I will toss it out to the MFP crowed..what do you all think ...food addictions yes, no, or total garbage..?????

    i think it gives people an excuse - oh i have a food addiction that's why i'm the way i am. some not all do not want to be held responsible for anything including their own health. it's easier to blame something else whether real or not than to say i did this to myself.
  • jclark0523
    jclark0523 Posts: 47 Member
    I don't believe in food addiction. It's a matter of self control and self discipline.
    If you are addicted to something, then you start having adverse effects to not having it. When you go without over doing it on bad food, you start to feel better.

    After how long? Talk to a true food addict, someone who has been tapping directly into the pleasure centers of their brain and releasing dopamine and pleasure response through the repeated use of food for a while. Talk to them the day after they try to stop overdoing it. Talk to them two days after. Talk to them a week after.

    Will they eventually start feeling better? Yes. But then, "true" addicts to drugs, alcohol, etc., start to feel better after a while, too.

    I'm totally okay with people saying "I think this is claimed more often than it's true," but saying it doesn't exist at all is ridiculous.

    How on earth can doing something you have to do everyday be an addiction? If you are eating more than you need, its not because you are going to fall apart if you don't. It cause you just think it taste good and you can't control yourself (self-control). Your telling me if you lock a "food addict" in a room with nothing but pounds upon pound of something they don't think taste good but is FOOD, they would still eat it all up to satisfy their addiction? Stop it!
  • Achaila
    Achaila Posts: 264 Member
    I don't believe in food addiction. It's a matter of self control and self discipline.
    If you are addicted to something, then you start having adverse effects to not having it. When you go without over doing it on bad food, you start to feel better.

    After how long? Talk to a true food addict, someone who has been tapping directly into the pleasure centers of their brain and releasing dopamine and pleasure response through the repeated use of food for a while. Talk to them the day after they try to stop overdoing it. Talk to them two days after. Talk to them a week after.

    Will they eventually start feeling better? Yes. But then, "true" addicts to drugs, alcohol, etc., start to feel better after a while, too.

    I'm totally okay with people saying "I think this is claimed more often than it's true," but saying it doesn't exist at all is ridiculous.

    How on earth can doing something you have to do everyday be an addiction? If you are eating more than you need, its not because you are going to fall apart if you don't. It cause you just think it taste good and you can't control yourself (self-control). Your telling me if you lock a "food addict" in a room with nothing but pounds upon pound of something they don't think taste good but is FOOD, they would still eat it all up to satisfy their addiction? Stop it!

    ...I've eaten food out of my trash can before just because it was food. YOU stop it.
  • You can call it "lack of self control" or "excuses to eat" all you want but since there is studies
    Done on the effect of food releasing chemicals in the brain that say YES it can be addicting.
    You can be addicted to basically anything. If you spend all your time, thoughts, Money on food
    Wouldn't that be an addiction? Overweight or not? Yes it would.
    Argument over.
  • AmykinsCatfood
    AmykinsCatfood Posts: 599 Member
    People use the word "addiction" to justify a lack of willpower

    So you're saying that say a Meth or other hard drug addict can't quit because they don't have enough willpower? Me thinks you need to look up the definition of addiction.
  • sobriquet84
    sobriquet84 Posts: 607 Member
    wow, mfp really has a lot of physicians and psychiatrists. who knew.
  • jclark0523
    jclark0523 Posts: 47 Member
    I don't believe in food addiction. It's a matter of self control and self discipline.
    If you are addicted to something, then you start having adverse effects to not having it. When you go without over doing it on bad food, you start to feel better.

    After how long? Talk to a true food addict, someone who has been tapping directly into the pleasure centers of their brain and releasing dopamine and pleasure response through the repeated use of food for a while. Talk to them the day after they try to stop overdoing it. Talk to them two days after. Talk to them a week after.

    Will they eventually start feeling better? Yes. But then, "true" addicts to drugs, alcohol, etc., start to feel better after a while, too.

    I'm totally okay with people saying "I think this is claimed more often than it's true," but saying it doesn't exist at all is ridiculous.

    How on earth can doing something you have to do everyday be an addiction? If you are eating more than you need, its not because you are going to fall apart if you don't. It cause you just think it taste good and you can't control yourself (self-control). Your telling me if you lock a "food addict" in a room with nothing but pounds upon pound of something they don't think taste good but is FOOD, they would still eat it all up to satisfy their addiction? Stop it!

    ...I've eaten food out of my trash can before just because it was food. YOU stop it.

    Haha! Good stuff!
  • arabianhorselover
    arabianhorselover Posts: 1,488 Member
    Great post. Thank you for writing it.

    I never wanted to say that I was addicted to food because I feel the same way you (the OP) does...addictions are simply weaknesses that could be overcome if the addict wanted to. I feel that way about smoking, drinking, gambling, drugs, food, all of it....

    This is not the definition of an addiction, it never was, and it never will be. Addictions can be physiological, psychological, or simply compulsive beyond the sufferer's control. Addicts will oftentimes feel incredibly despondent and negative about their conditions and make great efforts to change it, but will relapse.
    That is why part of recovering from addiction is relapsing, you will, in all likelihood, in all cases of addiction, relapse. These can be from simple nervous tics that relieve tension in anxiety suffers, like biting your fingernails, or pulling hair, to full on drug addiction where the user feels physically and psychologically compelled to use. Not using is not the same as not being an addict. People who have eating disorders do not always engage in those eating disorders, but will still feel the same negative emotions from them. This could be an over-eater who doesn't over-eat but feels the negative connotations that come with it, the thought of wasting, the strong urge to do it, and the resultant anxiety from not engaging in the addiction, if you over-eat and have those feelings at the same time, then you are a using addict. That is being an addict, and it is a marked difference from people who just stuff their faces out of sheer boredom or no control on their diet, that is what every single person in this thread who asserts that they had over ate and could "easily" solve that problem. The issue isn't that people who suffer from eating addiction have low self-control, it's that you never had self-control in the first place. People with an eating addiction will become fat because of their addiction, you will become fat because you are a slob.
    This is the difference, you are projecting your own stupidity onto others, just because you got fat because of poor self control, doesn't mean that there aren't skinny/average/fat people who don't have a legitimate addiction to eating food.
    Wanting to and needing to are two incredibly different things. You want to eat food, addicts feel like they NEED to eat food.

    Please understand the basics of the subjects before you deign to fill this topic with stupidity.
    You are ignorant, you have nothing but anecdotal evidence and refuse to do the actual research as to why various forms of addiction exists. There are people who chronically over eat, they are not hungry, they do not even want to eat, but they feel a grave compulsion to do so. This is no more controllable that someone who suffers from borderline personality disorder or other thought disturbances. The of self control is not the moment when you see a food item and keep yourself from eating it, self control in a sufferer's of addiction perspective is attempting to dispel the obsessive thoughts that create the addiction. These are thoughts like "I am a bad person if I do not do that thing." or "If I don't do that thing I will have a panic attack." or "I have to do that thing because it's the most important thing."
    THAT is the root of the addiction, not eating the food, but the thinking behind it.

    Once again, you saying that these addictions aren't real and are a symptom of loose self-control and excuse making goes against decades of psychological and physiological research. Also keep in mind that your body's hormones and metabolism matches your diet, so you can very, very, very easily have your body be incredibly stubborn and refuse to adapt to a newer diet with less food in it. This is something even body builders suffer from when they switch from their bulking phase to their cutting phase. Rapidly changing diet, or even slowly changing diet, especially if that diet has been a fixture for an extended period of time, is something your body does not enjoy doing, and your body very slowly adapts to those changes in diet by adjusting your metabolism and hormones.
    There are hormones that are directly link to the feeling of hunger or the satisfaction of eating, and those become more prevalent the more and more someone eats. This is why it's significantly more difficult for people to lose weight the larger they become.

    I haven't been overweight since I was in elementary school, and I've never suffered from compulsive eating or any real addictions beyond a brief period of smoking for the course of a year, but it's very, very easy to understand that these things are real, they do exist, and there's an enormous difference between an addict and someone lacking in self control.

    Do some research instead of making yourself look like a fool.
  • determinedbutlazy
    determinedbutlazy Posts: 1,941 Member
    You can become addicted to anything that triggers a pleasure reaction and releases endorphins. Food, sex, alcohol, exercise, drugs... All can be addictive.
  • Our culture lacks the ability to discern between abusing something and being addicted to it.

    You can very easily abuse food as a coping mechanism or an indulgence; and there are definitely learned behaviors that can result from a given trigger (aka habit eating). But addicted? Of course everyone is addicted to food, but not how they mean it. It's not like you can give up eating without physical and mental withdrawal effects.
  • According to the Food Addiction Institute (FAI) there have been 2,733 peer reviewed articles and books that point towards food being addictive since 2009.

    Here is the first one listed under their research column: "Gearhardt AN, Yokum S, Orr PT, Stice E, Corbin WR, Brownell KD. Neural Correlates of Food Addiction. Yale Rudd Center, Archives of General Psychiatry. 2011 Apr."

    Am I addicted to food? Not sure, but I do know that it certainly triggers odd responses depending on what I am eating.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    How about this? I won't judge you for being an uninformed narcissist and you don't judge me for calling my food struggle an addiction. Addictive personalities can become addicted to anything, even food.

    Don't speak further on this subject until you have done the research. It shows your ignorance. Study first to show yourself approved.

    Is this directed at me??

    So it is narcissism and ignorance to post a topic and ask for people to share their thoughts? Then I guess MFP is comprised of all narcissistic and ignorant people...?

    You may want to take a look in the mirror...
  • Tiernan1212
    Tiernan1212 Posts: 797 Member
    I don't believe in food addiction. It's a matter of self control and self discipline.
    If you are addicted to something, then you start having adverse effects to not having it. When you go without over doing it on bad food, you start to feel better.

    After how long? Talk to a true food addict, someone who has been tapping directly into the pleasure centers of their brain and releasing dopamine and pleasure response through the repeated use of food for a while. Talk to them the day after they try to stop overdoing it. Talk to them two days after. Talk to them a week after.

    Will they eventually start feeling better? Yes. But then, "true" addicts to drugs, alcohol, etc., start to feel better after a while, too.

    I'm totally okay with people saying "I think this is claimed more often than it's true," but saying it doesn't exist at all is ridiculous.

    How on earth can doing something you have to do everyday be an addiction? If you are eating more than you need, its not because you are going to fall apart if you don't. It cause you just think it taste good and you can't control yourself (self-control). Your telling me if you lock a "food addict" in a room with nothing but pounds upon pound of something they don't think taste good but is FOOD, they would still eat it all up to satisfy their addiction? Stop it!

    ...I've eaten food out of my trash can before just because it was food. YOU stop it.

    Haha! Good stuff!

    Okay, she's not joking or trying to be funny. She's being serious, and it's tragic that someone would have to experience that.

    The only positive thing I can think to say to you is to be thankful that you have never personally experienced an addiction or compulsion to food as seriously as many people in this thread have.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    How on earth can doing something you have to do everyday be an addiction? If you are eating more than you need, its not because you are going to fall apart if you don't. It cause you just think it taste good and you can't control yourself (self-control). Your telling me if you lock a "food addict" in a room with nothing but pounds upon pound of something they don't think taste good but is FOOD, they would still eat it all up to satisfy their addiction? Stop it!

    Is this a serious post? I don't think you understand the meaning of the word "addiction".
  • LiminalAscendance
    LiminalAscendance Posts: 489 Member
    I don't believe in food addiction. It's a matter of self control and self discipline.
    If you are addicted to something, then you start having adverse effects to not having it. When you go without over doing it on bad food, you start to feel better.

    After how long? Talk to a true food addict, someone who has been tapping directly into the pleasure centers of their brain and releasing dopamine and pleasure response through the repeated use of food for a while. Talk to them the day after they try to stop overdoing it. Talk to them two days after. Talk to them a week after.

    Will they eventually start feeling better? Yes. But then, "true" addicts to drugs, alcohol, etc., start to feel better after a while, too.

    I'm totally okay with people saying "I think this is claimed more often than it's true," but saying it doesn't exist at all is ridiculous.

    How on earth can doing something you have to do everyday be an addiction? If you are eating more than you need, its not because you are going to fall apart if you don't. It cause you just think it taste good and you can't control yourself (self-control). Your telling me if you lock a "food addict" in a room with nothing but pounds upon pound of something they don't think taste good but is FOOD, they would still eat it all up to satisfy their addiction? Stop it!

    ...I've eaten food out of my trash can before just because it was food. YOU stop it.

    Okay, show of hands...how many of you guys have actually willingly eaten food out of a trash receptacle (non-hygienic, of course, or it doesn't count).

    This may actually change my viewpoint on the whole "food addiction" thing...