Addicted to food, really?
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don't you think its more a self control issue than an actual addiction?
Using that logic, there would be no such thing as addiction. Meth-heads just lack the self -control to stop doing meth. Cigarette smokers just lack self-control to stop smoking. Addiction is a very real thing, and I do believe in food addiction. I was a smoker and quit cold turkey...yet I can't quit cold turkey. Ok, that was bad to make a joke about it, but addiction is real, it just depends how your body reacts. I stopped smoking and thought nothing of it, while others struggle daily...but food has a grip on me, which I have been working on over the years. So maybe you just don't have the same physiological reaction to food as others, that doesn't mean it's not real.
Oh, and not to be a **** but it's wolf...people wolf things down, no one woofs anything, except Buzz's girlfriend.
This^^ I smoked for a few years and was able to quit cold turkey because I was never addicted, I just didn't get addicted or had the urge to smoke like other people have said they had. I enjoyed it but didn't do it in excess. Food though I have a million times more the urge to eat no matter how hungry I am, I think I'd personally call it an addiction. Now does that mean I think it's an excuse? Not at all, I just think that's the fact of what it is, that doesn't make it a reason to not be healthy. For me it makes it more of a reason to try and be healthy.0 -
This is like beginning a sentence with "no offense, but". If you have to start your comment like that, you probably shouldn't continue.I am probably going to catch some major flack for this one, but oh well what the hell, I am used to it.
I don't have withdrawal when I quit drinking. So by your logic, that means alcoholics just lack self control or have a bad relationship with alcohol. Right? :huh: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.
you have obviously never seen a true alcoholic go through withdrawals then, I assume?
Oh is it that obvious? I take it we're friends and you know about my 10 year marriage to an extremely abusive alcoholic? You've heard about how I stayed with him through multiple sobriety attempts? How I cleaned up his puke and changed his sweaty, urine-soaked sheets when he went through DTs (and also during his benders)? I told you all about how I went through this only to find out that he was meaner when he was sober? No? Ok, then you can keep your observations to yourself and retire your judgy pants because you're not very good at the "obvious" game.
What I said was *I* do not go through withdrawals when *I* quit drinking. So, again, by *your* logic, it must not be real. Just because you don't experience withdrawal, that doesn't mean others don't.
And you're catching flack because you asked for it. I suspect you're enjoying it too.0 -
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....
Oh the irony! It hurts, OP. :laugh:0 -
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'm not going to go into a lot of psychological jargon here.
In a nut shell, yes I truly believe that people can be "food addicts." Food can cause "good" feelings in much the same way drugs and alcohol cause "good" feelings. People often turn to food in the same way they do drugs... to compensate for something else.
Just because you've never experienced a "food addiction" doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Do you believe in drug addiction? Surely, you do. It's a very similar concept.
IDK I do not get a "high" from eating, so I can't really see the connection to drug addiction. When you smoke weed, snort cocaine whatever you get a "high" that you then in turn crave more...
Maybe if I experienced that with food I could relate to what you are saying...
Look up and study the nucleus accumbens. Maybe you will be a little more open minded once you educate yourself instead of going off of experience (or the lack thereof).0 -
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.
If she seriously ate food out of the trash, then I'm sure it was because it was something she thought tasted good and couldn't control herself (self-control). Hardly think it was a green bean laying on trash and because of a strong addiction to food, it got devoured.0 -
90% of the posts in this thread make me want to repeatedly bang my head against the wall.
hey, i have an idea-- let's start a thread on post partum depression, or on obsessive-compulsive disorder, or on pica, or on seasonal affective disorder, or on post-traumatic stress disorder, or on pyromania, or on borderline personality disorder... and invite ANYONE WHO HAS ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT BUT NO ACTUAL CLUE AS TO WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT to weigh in.
sounds brilliant!!!!!0 -
90% of the posts in this thread make me want to repeatedly bang my head against the wall.
hey, i have an idea-- let's start a thread on post partum depression, or on obsessive-compulsive disorder, or on pica, or on seasonal affective disorder, or on post-traumatic stress disorder, or on pyromania, or on borderline personality disorder... and invite ANYONE WHO HAS ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT BUT NO ACTUAL CLUE AS TO WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT to weigh in.
sounds brilliant!!!!!
its a free country, you can start whatever thread you choose..
If you do not like this one, then find another one...0 -
If she seriously ate food out of the trash, then I'm sure it was because it was something she thought tasted good and couldn't control herself (self-control). Hardly think it was a green bean laying on trash and because of a strong addiction to food, it got devoured.
It's been proven medically that complex carbohydrates are the substance that activates the area of the brain that's associated with addiction. Green beans don't fall in that category.
Addiction is a strong, often uncontrollable compulsion to do something even though you know it's destructive to yourself and those around you. It provides a temporary "high" and a desire to reacquire the high when it subsides. People who are addicted to drugs will commit crimes and even die for their drug. Alcoholics will lose their jobs, their relationships, their health. Sex addicts will destroy their marriages and families. Gamblers will lose everything they own in pursuit of their compulsion. Hoarders will destroy their homes. And food addicts will destroy their bodies and sometimes even eat themselves into immobility. Do you think they want these things to happen? Or is it possible that they have a compulsion that you just don't have and therefore can't understand?
So if you weren't so self-disciplined would you be lying on a bed somewhere weighing 500, 800 or 1,000 lbs?
I've never seen or experienced a lot of things. Doesn't mean they don't exist.0 -
90% of the posts in this thread make me want to repeatedly bang my head against the wall.
hey, i have an idea-- let's start a thread on post partum depression, or on obsessive-compulsive disorder, or on pica, or on seasonal affective disorder, or on post-traumatic stress disorder, or on pyromania, or on borderline personality disorder... and invite ANYONE WHO HAS ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT BUT NO ACTUAL CLUE AS TO WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT to weigh in.
sounds brilliant!!!!!
It's the internet. Nobody has a clue about anything, really. It's all just (more or less or none) well informed opinion. Seems a bit silly to get so steamed up over it....
One thing IS for certain though. This is a food and nutrition issue, not a fitness and exercise one.0 -
So if you weren't so self-disciplined would you be lying on a bed somewhere weighing 500, 800 or 1,000 lbs?
I'm no so "self-disciplined" which is why I'm one of the people using MFP to create awareness and self-control around my bad habits so I can continue to drop weight and create new habits. What I won't do is blame addiction on me deciding to crush a whole pizza in one sitting. I would do that because that pizza tasted good as hell!0 -
I love how some people believe that just because they haven't gone through it, it doesn't exist.
You can be addicted to ANYTHING and should consider yourself lucky that you don't have any problems with addiction.
Many people use these to cope with other problems, such as anxiety or depression.. but I guess if you aren't experiencing that they don't exist either, right?0 -
So I will toss it out to the MFP crowed..what do you all think ...food addictions yes, no, or total garbage..?????
Somewhere in between. Most pleasurable experiences like food, sex, shopping, or otherwise release the same chemicals in the brain that drugs do. Also, some individuals, for whatever reason, are more prone to exhibiting addictive behaviors than other. That said, I think lots of people do use the "I'm addicted" excuse about many things. I used to smoke. One day I just quit. Sometimes I'll have a cigarette if I'm at a party or something but yet I don't become re-addicted. Choice plays a big role. Same with food in my opinion.0 -
yeah i thnk i was addicted to food.
then i didn't eat it for a while and then i found i was not addicted to it.
lesson learned - when something is bugging you put some space between you and it.
might work for people that bug us too
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If she seriously ate food out of the trash, then I'm sure it was because it was something she thought tasted good and couldn't control herself (self-control). Hardly think it was a green bean laying on trash and because of a strong addiction to food, it got devoured.
[snip]
People who are addicted to drugs will commit crimes and even die for their drug. Alcoholics will lose their jobs, their relationships, their health. Sex addicts will destroy their marriages and families. Gamblers will lose everything they own in pursuit of their compulsion. Hoarders will destroy their homes. And food addicts will destroy their bodies and sometimes even eat themselves into immobility.
[snip]
Comparing drug addictions (withdrawal from which, can kill you in the more severe cases) to food and sex?
Who even needs to rebut that?0 -
I do believe some people get addicted to food...but I also believe many people throw that word around loosely, and that bothers me. It gets thrown around the same way "binge" does...oh noes, I ate two apples instead of one, I binged! I think there are some people who are well and truly addicted to food to the point that it completely prevents them from leading a normal life...but I also think the vast majority of people who use "addicted" are not addicted, but rather are trying to justify their actions.0
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If she seriously ate food out of the trash, then I'm sure it was because it was something she thought tasted good and couldn't control herself (self-control). Hardly think it was a green bean laying on trash and because of a strong addiction to food, it got devoured.
[snip]
People who are addicted to drugs will commit crimes and even die for their drug. Alcoholics will lose their jobs, their relationships, their health. Sex addicts will destroy their marriages and families. Gamblers will lose everything they own in pursuit of their compulsion. Hoarders will destroy their homes. And food addicts will destroy their bodies and sometimes even eat themselves into immobility.
[snip]
Comparing drug addictions (withdrawal from which, can kill you in the more severe cases) to food and sex?
Who even needs to rebut that?
In cases of true addiction though, and I'm not one to judge what's real or isn't, the thing the person is addicted to isn't what's important. It's the reason behind it. Addicts tend to have a metaphorical hole inside them, some sort of emptiness. Some fill it with food, some fill it with drugs, some fill it with sex, and some even fill it with religion. That's the essence of addition.0 -
This is an eating disorder bashing thread. I don't know if someone can be addicted to food, but there are various takes on treating bulimia and binge eating disorder. In bulimia, the purging is a compensating mechanism for binges. Also, one of the things that has the greatest correlation with the incidence of binge eating disorder is a prior focus on calorie counting and/or food restriction. Anyway, some therapies are cognitive-behavioral modifications and some are addiction-based. So, in some circles one is treated for an ED with addiction therapies and in others, one is treated with behavioral modifications. Many health practitioners will ask you to keep a food diary and then eliminate trigger foods until you can successfully include them back in your routine under cognitive behavioral therapy. In addiction-based therapy, you quit those particular foods.
I've been in treatment for ED's since I was a kid and I don't really appreciate the bro-science about neurology and lack of ED awareness on this site. It's pretty messed up.
Addiction is a lack of willpower, dummies. Of course, that's a trait of addiction. It's not the only trait. However, if it was so easy to get over, people wouldn't be throwing up in the toilet and purging with laxatives. Would you rather not eat a bag of frozen peas still frozen or dried uncooked rice vs. throwing up in the toilet? No one consciously wants to eat frozen or uncooked food and then barf after. Sorry for anyone I just triggered but this whole thread is a trigger.
These boards are a great way for the uninformed to judge others and make themselves feel superior and frankly, it's detrimental to the recovery of many, but I'm sure you like it that way.0 -
Wow!! Really!! I'm so happy that those of you that feel there is no such thing as food addiction have never had to deal with it. Its not a sob story as someone put it or a simple lack of willpower. Nothing like getting up on your high horse and looking down on others for having there personal struggles! Just because YOU may not have an addiction to food or something else for that matter does NOT mean that it doesn't exist! I personally deal with this and know others do as well and this type of attitude from others feels absolutely like a punch in the gut! Thanks for that I really needed it today. And yes maybe I shouldn't have clicked on the post but I did out of curiosity. Regretfully
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It's not an addiction, it's a lack of self control. People don't have withdrawls from not eating one more oreo! It's an excuse because they can't control themselves. And before anyone jumps all over me for this, everyone on this site has had this problem at one point or another or we wouldn't be here. Some have just learned self control along the way...
agreed! if i snack on food i know i shouldnt, or eat more than i know i should eat.. its because im lacking the will power..its not because im even HUNGRY!0 -
I'm no so "self-disciplined" which is why I'm one of the people using MFP to create awareness and self-control around my bad habits so I can continue to drop weight and create new habits. What I won't do is blame addiction on me deciding to crush a whole pizza in one sitting. I would do that because that pizza tasted good as hell!
You're not addicted to food. Me neither. I got fat from pleasure-eating, and ignored my expanding size by denying that it was all that bad. But I do know that eating certain foods satisfies something that goes beyond taste and hunger satiation...and I can see how some people would become addicted to that feeling and have it turn into a self-harming compulsion.0 -
I wish more people took classes on addiction. Certain foods probably set off the reward & pleasure centers in the brain like nicotine and cocaine do. Your body was DESIGNED to eat so you may feel "rewarded" by doing so, making you want to do it again. People are generally predisposed to addiction. Not everyone who tries cocaine gets addicted to it, so everyone wouldn't get addicted to food either.0
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Actually, there is such a thing as an addiction to food. After all, like any addiction, eating triggers the pleasure sensors in your brain. Therefore, for some people who have an emotional relationship with food, and use it as a crutch, they do compulsively overeat just to make themselves feel better, of course in that case there are other factors that apply as well.
Just because it seems unheard of to you, doesn't mean that it does not exist. There are all sorts of addictions, having an addiction to food, is one of them. However, instead of focusing on the addiction itself, focus on the triggers instead. A lot of it dwells from ineffective coping mechanisms and not being able to bounce back from adversities.
Anyway just my two-cents.0 -
If she seriously ate food out of the trash, then I'm sure it was because it was something she thought tasted good and couldn't control herself (self-control). Hardly think it was a green bean laying on trash and because of a strong addiction to food, it got devoured.
[snip]
People who are addicted to drugs will commit crimes and even die for their drug. Alcoholics will lose their jobs, their relationships, their health. Sex addicts will destroy their marriages and families. Gamblers will lose everything they own in pursuit of their compulsion. Hoarders will destroy their homes. And food addicts will destroy their bodies and sometimes even eat themselves into immobility.
[snip]
Comparing drug addictions (withdrawal from which, can kill you in the more severe cases) to food and sex?
Who even needs to rebut that?
In cases of true addiction though, and I'm not one to judge what's real or isn't, the thing the person is addicted to isn't what's important. It's the reason behind it. Addicts tend to have a metaphorical hole inside them, some sort of emptiness. Some fill it with food, some fill it with drugs, some fill it with sex, and some even fill it with religion. That's the essence of addition.
Sure, you have a "hole" inside you which causes you to do drugs, religion, sex (just realized I was an addict btw).
I'm not talking about why you started. If I do drugs because of some "hole," I'm not immediately an addict.
I won't argue that this "hole" you refer to is why many individuals eat to excess.
That doesn't make it an addiction.0 -
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.
When a gambling addict (and this is labeled as an addiction in the DSM-V) quits gambling, do they have withdrawal symptoms?
You are confusing physiological addictions with behavioral addictions. Physiological addictions, such as addictions to heroin, nicotine, or whatever, can cause physical withdrawal symptoms.
Behavioral addictions may not.
If you can't stop yourself from eating something, you can put whatever label on it you like - lack of willpower, addiction, whatever. The fact is, you can't stop yourself from eating something.0 -
quote: 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...
Response: I have eaten food out of trash can, yes, many times. The idea is you throw it away so you won't eat it. But, then you dig it out of the trash can and eat it. So now, I have to throw something chemical on it or something very germy has to make contact if it's a trigger food for me in order to prevent me from eating it. However, I have also eaten lots of uncooked food just because it was there and nothing else was. I appreciate your making up arbitrary rules about what counts and what doesn't count about disordered eating. You are clearly an expert and a genius.0 -
People use the word "addiction" to justify a lack of willpower
All addictions are a lack of willpower.0 -
Well aren't you special. Just because you've never struggled with this does not mean it doesn't exist. If I had a pint of ice cream in my freezer, I would feel compelled to eat the entire thing RIGHT NOW. I wouldn't call it an "addiction," but it's definitely a form of disordered eating. It's just easier not to have it in my kitchen.
This is my opinion also.0 -
bump0
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I don't know if I believe in food "addiction", but I think it takes a very different mindset and relationship with food to become morbidly obese (as I was). For me, it was not just a matter of taking a huge serving and eating all of it (which I did), but a weird compulsion to eat more and more of everything. I could take A serving of ice cream, but if there was more in the freezer, I would feel compelled to eat it. I wouldn't consider it addiction, but it definitely stemmed from a bad relationship with food.
As I crossed from the obese to overweight BMI category, that "compulsion" has pretty much gone away. I don't know it it was the months losing the first 60 to build new "habits" or if having less fat on me played a part or maybe crossing into territory where it seemed "real" that I might actually reach a healthy weight. I really don't know. But I know that the last 20 lbs I have lost have been very different mentally than the first 60-food now feels controllable, where it really wasn't before.
This has been my experience also, though I am only down 30 pounds.
It took me about 2.5 months to feel like I had achieved some level of control over what I eat. Previously, when I saw free snack foods in the office I would think ,"OH MY GOD I WANT TO EAT THAT SO BAD" and now it is more like, "I don't eat that stuff any more."
Often I still break down and eat things I shouldn't that put me over my calorie limit though. I just start over the next day.0 -
I think food addiction is a completely legit illness . . . but I think it generally goes hand in hand with deeper emotional issues. I personally think it's a form of OCD, but that's just me.
And have you watched the show My Strange Addiction? People can be addicted to *anything.* Addiction is basically a way of saying that if you don't have or do something, you feel off or not right or like you're going to die or something like that. It doesn't matter if you won't actually die, it's the sense that you will that makes it an addiciton . . . if that makes sense.
At any rate, people who are addicted to food need to address the underlying issues before they're really going to be able to do anything about it. Treat the illness, not the symptom.0
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