Food Addiction

Acg67

Something else I want to throw out there is Casein. The full name of casein is casomorphin. It is an opiate found in dairy products. It is designed to have baby mammals enjoy nursing and come back to it. Human milk has 2.7 grams of casein per liter of milk. Cow's milk has 26. It takes roughly 10 pounds of milk to make 1 pound of cheese or ice cream. The process of making cheese or ice cream does not diminish casein. It concentrates it.

Can you show me where it's said, " The full name of casein is casomorphin"

Slacker16

This thread is new and exciting.

If anyone's looking for a little reading, this is a recent (if not too easily digestible) review of clinical results related to the neurological side of substance abuse and obesity:

http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fncir.2013.00152/full

Cliffs:
- addiction is characterized by long-term alteration in the brain's reward mechanism
- substances and activities are considered addictive if the cause such alterations
- such alterations have been observed in obese individuals but no causal relation has been established
- animal studies indicate a causal relation might exist, but it is uncertain to what extent they apply to humans

J72FIT

Do I think food addiction is real? No.

Do I think Eating Disorders are real? Yes.

What are these articles talking about? The answer would be an eating disorder.

Binge eating is a disorder. Not an addiction.

And it is a disorder that stems from chronic extreme restriction. Your body is only looking for homeostasis. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Again, IMO...

Really? Chronic extreme restriction - bit of a leap!

Not at all...

BigVeggieDream

Something else I want to throw out there is Casein. The full name of casein is casomorphin. It is an opiate found in dairy products. It is designed to have baby mammals enjoy nursing and come back to it. Human milk has 2.7 grams of casein per liter of milk. Cow's milk has 26. It takes roughly 10 pounds of milk to make 1 pound of cheese or ice cream. The process of making cheese or ice cream does not diminish casein. It concentrates it.

Can you show me where it's said, " The full name of casein is casomorphin"

My bad. Casein turns into casomorphin upon digestion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casomorphin

RhineDHP

This link seems relevant to the discussion:


Does Food Addiction Exist? A Phenomenological Discussion Based on the Psychiatric Classification of Substance-Related Disorders and Addiction.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22647300 (redirect to http://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/338310)

sloth3toes

So would you say someone that would move money around from accounts to free up funds to pay for their addiction, or sell stuff or pawn things to get money to fuel their addiction, or buy their items that feed their addiction and make elaborate hiding places in the house and garage so their family would not find them, or belligerently abuse family members for over a decade when they attempted to intervene in your life to try to help you from an addiction you would swear you did not have, or become so depressed from the constant struggles you would go through that life just didn't seem like it was worth living so you sat in a chair with a loaded hand gun with the trigger cocked and the barrel in your mouth, crying and pleading to an emptying room that you needed help and no one was listening?? Does any of those constitute that someone may be dealing with an addiction??? or is this just a Disorder for the person suffering these symptoms???

I notice that Ed's posts are often skipped over. Almost like the proverbial elephant in the room.

This thread AGAIN???

CyberEd312

So would you say someone that would move money around from accounts to free up funds to pay for their addiction, or sell stuff or pawn things to get money to fuel their addiction, or buy their items that feed their addiction and make elaborate hiding places in the house and garage so their family would not find them, or belligerently abuse family members for over a decade when they attempted to intervene in your life to try to help you from an addiction you would swear you did not have, or become so depressed from the constant struggles you would go through that life just didn't seem like it was worth living so you sat in a chair with a loaded hand gun with the trigger cocked and the barrel in your mouth, crying and pleading to an emptying room that you needed help and no one was listening?? Does any of those constitute that someone may be dealing with an addiction??? or is this just a Disorder for the person suffering these symptoms???

I notice that Ed's posts are often skipped over. Almost like the proverbial elephant in the room.

You have a good eye..... lol I notice that too.... :glasses:

CyberEd312

So would you say someone that would move money around from accounts to free up funds to pay for their addiction, or sell stuff or pawn things to get money to fuel their addiction, or buy their items that feed their addiction and make elaborate hiding places in the house and garage so their family would not find them, or belligerently abuse family members for over a decade when they attempted to intervene in your life to try to help you from an addiction you would swear you did not have, or become so depressed from the constant struggles you would go through that life just didn't seem like it was worth living so you sat in a chair with a loaded hand gun with the trigger cocked and the barrel in your mouth, crying and pleading to an emptying room that you needed help and no one was listening?? Does any of those constitute that someone may be dealing with an addiction??? or is this just a Disorder for the person suffering these symptoms???

I notice that Ed's posts are often skipped over. Almost like the proverbial elephant in the room.

You have a good eye..... lol I notice that too.... :glasses:

Ed,

In regards to your post I personally have seen those situations many times with drugs but not with food.

I believe that the dependence on drugs is both psychological and physiological. The creation of new dopamine receptors in the Brian takes chemical dependence to a level that so many people can't get past or are afraid to attempt to venture out of. If that individual does succeed to overcome their dependence they are mentally altered and physically altered forever. With alcoholics the physical dependence is so extreme that even going an extended time frame out of their normal routine without a drink reeks havoc on them physically. I have personally seen these withdrawals mimic a massive heart attack at a level that is scary. It's the one withdrawal I know that can actually kill you. I don't feel or believe that people that suffer from what they call food addiction compare. All those sets of groups take will power to overcome their issue but food is not on part with the physical dependence of the others.

All of the those symptoms that I listed above was taken from personal experience. I was that guy ready to eat that bullet and sat in the very chair I am sitting in with a .380 in my mouth for 3 days and the only thing that kept me from pulling the trigger was a friend of mine lost his job (pulled out and moved to mexico), and eventually he had to move his wife and 2 kids into a one bedroom apt. (lost both cars, their house) and was in a state of severe depression. He finally snapped and sent his wife and kids to the store for groceries with her mom, after they left, he sat on the floor in the kitchen and put a 12 gauge shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. They came home a couple hours later and his wife and 2 young kids found him there..

I had that image plastered on my brain the whole time and finally decide I just could not do that to my family. They did not deserve that. So my wife came home found me sitting in the chair with the hand gun and I told her this is what it has come down too and that I just could not live another day like this. So she took a week off work and whatever she asked of me I said yes too. No matter how hard it would be, and I have spent the last 5 years in therapy (a mental therapist to address my issues with social phobia, severe depression, the loss of my folks 6 months apart after caring for them for several years, etc), my addiction to food (all foods not just sugar, with me it was anything and everything I could get my hands on), and physical therapy do to the fact I was consuming over 10,000 calories a day, weighed 560 lbs., was unable to walk from room to room (standing was a choir). I ate food not to sustain life but for filling the voids in my life.. It tasted good and never judged me. It didn't matter what it was, could be peanut butter and jelly sandwich with ham and cheese and ketchup on white bread (yes I ate that) with a bag of doritos, ordering in 21 in. pizza's (plural, did this several times a week and this was on top of eating regular meals with my family) eating my fair share and taking the rest of it and putting it in tupperware and hiding it in the closets (which I opened up wall panels to hide the pizza from my family finding it) then taking the boxes and cutting them into small pieces and hiding them in the trash in the garage. As long as I could continue to bury my feelings with food and I had room I ate. It all tasted good but when I finally stuffed myself to the point I would want to throw up, I would feel the guilt set in and do the whole why is me, why do I do this to myself, etc... But that only lasted til I was able to eat more then I would resume eating...

You can call it whatever you want and everyone is entitled to their opinion on whether this is an addiction or a disorder or whatever. My point in all of this is regardless to what you want to call it, "It is a real problem!! period" it is bad enough that I could have just as easily blew my head off and would not be sitting here typing this today or at the rate I was putting on weight, had I not shot myself it would not have matter because my health was going down fast anyway. I had an inoperable liver and my kidneys were shutting down so I was on borrowed time anyway... So anyone that says it isn't a real addiction in whatever form you want to call it, I would have to disagree with you and I am as entitle to my opinion having lived what I went through as anyone else having their opinion...... If I can go through the things I went through, no one can tell me that I was an anomaly. Their has to be more people out there dealing with similar issues like mine and those people need help too. Had my insurance not ok my treatments both mentally and physically there is no way I would have made it back on my own... I needed every bit of help that was offered me and I used it and still am to this day. My control is tested daily, I have no issue eating the volume of food I use too. My stomach hasn't shrunk that much, I have temptations I fight everyday. I pass the same pizza place that I ordered all those pizza's from twice everyday on my way to the YMCA. Not a time goes by that I drive past that I don't think back to those days. It is a constant test of my will but I am winning that battle but it is still one day at a time.... Just my 2 cents....

Edited to add the biggest difference now is all those feeling of depression and phobia and loss that I was using the food to bury have all been worked out (for the most part) and now I am just left with the food.... It still tastes good and if I let myself, I could easily eat for the pure enjoyment of it... But I practice control daily, do I slip up? Heck yes but I try not to let it define me anymore and I try daily to stay in control.....

mjudd1990

The DSM V includes binge eating disorder which is characterized by eating much more than the average person would in a 2 hour window coupled with feelings of guilt, lack of control, etc. Eating the food likely serves as temporary pleasure and activates mesolimbic dopamine receptors which are the targets of any addictive behavior and create the "psychological dependence" on a given substance or behavior, even if no actual physical dependence can develop. Whether or not this constitutes true food addiction may simply be splitting hairs.

ohiowhthse

I believe there is an addiction element with food. Same as alcohol, drugs, over exercising to the detriment on one's own body. Personally I have a problem saying no to foods I shouldn't eat, knowing they not good for me, but eating them anyway. Often eating when not hungry etc. For me it's became more of awareness of why I'm eating, and mentally building myself limits. I love to eat, love different foods, and the way food makes me feel at that moment. There is regret, dread, and shame after over consumption and or wrong food choices. Similar to those other issues, yes. To clinically define it as a food addiction I do, for myself. Whether someone else does or not I don't truly care, they aren't walking my shoes everyday.

craftywitch_63

The DSM V includes binge eating disorder which is characterized by eating much more than the average person would in a 2 hour window coupled with feelings of guilt, lack of control, etc. Eating the food likely serves as temporary pleasure and activates mesolimbic dopamine receptors which are the targets of any addictive behavior and create the "psychological dependence" on a given substance or behavior, even if no actual physical dependence can develop. Whether or not this constitutes true food addiction may simply be splitting hairs.

The DSM classified homosexuality as a mental defect until 1974, although most psychiatrists/psychologists seem to have disagreed with this assessment as early as 1952 - the year the first DSM was published.

craftywitch_63

Something else I want to throw out there is Casein. The full name of casein is casomorphin. It is an opiate found in dairy products. It is designed to have baby mammals enjoy nursing and come back to it. Human milk has 2.7 grams of casein per liter of milk. Cow's milk has 26. It takes roughly 10 pounds of milk to make 1 pound of cheese or ice cream. The process of making cheese or ice cream does not diminish casein. It concentrates it.

Can you show me where it's said, " The full name of casein is casomorphin"

http://yumuniverse.com/addiction-to-cheese-is-real-thanks-to-casomorphins/
http://www.pcrm.org/good-medicine/2003/summer/breaking-the-food-seduction
http://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/home/eng/peptide.asp
http://itsnotmental.blogspot.com/2011/08/brain-health-cut-out-casein-doped-with.html
http://freefromharm.org/health-nutrition/addicted-to-cheese-and-ice-cream-the-opiate-qualities-of-dairy/

Granted, the fourth reference is a little sketchy, but the rest are sound, especially the second and last references. I can find more if you are not convinced.

craftywitch_63

So would you say someone that would move money around from accounts to free up funds to pay for their addiction, or sell stuff or pawn things to get money to fuel their addiction, or buy their items that feed their addiction and make elaborate hiding places in the house and garage so their family would not find them, or belligerently abuse family members for over a decade when they attempted to intervene in your life to try to help you from an addiction you would swear you did not have, or become so depressed from the constant struggles you would go through that life just didn't seem like it was worth living so you sat in a chair with a loaded hand gun with the trigger cocked and the barrel in your mouth, crying and pleading to an emptying room that you needed help and no one was listening?? Does any of those constitute that someone may be dealing with an addiction??? or is this just a Disorder for the person suffering these symptoms???

I notice that Ed's posts are often skipped over. Almost like the proverbial elephant in the room.

You have a good eye..... lol I notice that too.... :glasses:

Ed,

In regards to your post I personally have seen those situations many times with drugs but not with food.

I believe that the dependence on drugs is both psychological and physiological. The creation of new dopamine receptors in the Brian takes chemical dependence to a level that so many people can't get past or are afraid to attempt to venture out of. If that individual does succeed to overcome their dependence they are mentally altered and physically altered forever. With alcoholics the physical dependence is so extreme that even going an extended time frame out of their normal routine without a drink reeks havoc on them physically. I have personally seen these withdrawals mimic a massive heart attack at a level that is scary. It's the one withdrawal I know that can actually kill you. I don't feel or believe that people that suffer from what they call food addiction compare. All those sets of groups take will power to overcome their issue but food is not on part with the physical dependence of the others.

All of the those symptoms that I listed above was taken from personal experience. I was that guy ready to eat that bullet and sat in the very chair I am sitting in with a .380 in my mouth for 3 days and the only thing that kept me from pulling the trigger was a friend of mine lost his job (pulled out and moved to mexico), and eventually he had to move his wife and 2 kids into a one bedroom apt. (lost both cars, their house) and was in a state of severe depression. He finally snapped and sent his wife and kids to the store for groceries with her mom, after they left, he sat on the floor in the kitchen and put a 12 gauge shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. They came home a couple hours later and his wife and 2 young kids found him there..

I had that image plastered on my brain the whole time and finally decide I just could not do that to my family. They did not deserve that. So my wife came home found me sitting in the chair with the hand gun and I told her this is what it has come down too and that I just could not live another day like this. So she took a week off work and whatever she asked of me I said yes too. No matter how hard it would be, and I have spent the last 5 years in therapy (a mental therapist to address my issues with social phobia, severe depression, the loss of my folks 6 months apart after caring for them for several years, etc), my addiction to food (all foods not just sugar, with me it was anything and everything I could get my hands on), and physical therapy do to the fact I was consuming over 10,000 calories a day, weighed 560 lbs., was unable to walk from room to room (standing was a choir). I ate food not to sustain life but for filling the voids in my life.. It tasted good and never judged me. It didn't matter what it was, could be peanut butter and jelly sandwich with ham and cheese and ketchup on white bread (yes I ate that) with a bag of doritos, ordering in 21 in. pizza's (plural, did this several times a week and this was on top of eating regular meals with my family) eating my fair share and taking the rest of it and putting it in tupperware and hiding it in the closets (which I opened up wall panels to hide the pizza from my family finding it) then taking the boxes and cutting them into small pieces and hiding them in the trash in the garage. As long as I could continue to bury my feelings with food and I had room I ate. It all tasted good but when I finally stuffed myself to the point I would want to throw up, I would feel the guilt set in and do the whole why is me, why do I do this to myself, etc... But that only lasted til I was able to eat more then I would resume eating...

You can call it whatever you want and everyone is entitled to their opinion on whether this is an addiction or a disorder or whatever. My point in all of this is regardless to what you want to call it, "It is a real problem!! period" it is bad enough that I could have just as easily blew my head off and would not be sitting here typing this today or at the rate I was putting on weight, had I not shot myself it would not have matter because my health was going down fast anyway. I had an inoperable liver and my kidneys were shutting down so I was on borrowed time anyway... So anyone that says it isn't a real addiction in whatever form you want to call it, I would have to disagree with you and I am as entitle to my opinion having lived what I went through as anyone else having their opinion...... If I can go through the things I went through, no one can tell me that I was an anomaly. Their has to be more people out there dealing with similar issues like mine and those people need help too. Had my insurance not ok my treatments both mentally and physically there is no way I would have made it back on my own... I needed every bit of help that was offered me and I used it and still am to this day. My control is tested daily, I have no issue eating the volume of food I use too. My stomach hasn't shrunk that much, I have temptations I fight everyday. I pass the same pizza place that I ordered all those pizza's from twice everyday on my way to the YMCA. Not a time goes by that I drive past that I don't think back to those days. It is a constant test of my will but I am winning that battle but it is still one day at a time.... Just my 2 cents....

Edited to add the biggest difference now is all those feeling of depression and phobia and loss that I was using the food to bury have all been worked out (for the most part) and now I am just left with the food.... It still tastes good and if I let myself, I could easily eat for the pure enjoyment of it... But I practice control daily, do I slip up? Heck yes but I try not to let it define me anymore and I try daily to stay in control.....

Congrats to you for finding help. From your posting, it seems it would be a shame to lose you. Keep fighting the good fight! :flowerforyou:

mjudd1990

The DSM V includes binge eating disorder which is characterized by eating much more than the average person would in a 2 hour window coupled with feelings of guilt, lack of control, etc. Eating the food likely serves as temporary pleasure and activates mesolimbic dopamine receptors which are the targets of any addictive behavior and create the "psychological dependence" on a given substance or behavior, even if no actual physical dependence can develop. Whether or not this constitutes true food addiction may simply be splitting hairs.

The DSM classified homosexuality as a mental defect until 1974, although most psychiatrists/psychologists seem to have disagreed with this assessment as early as 1952 - the year the first DSM was published.

Early DSM were not even close to being as objective and evidence based as DSM IV and V. The whole point of the last two versions was to increase the reliability of making a psychiatric diagnosis so that if the same patient is seen by multiple docs then the likelihood that each would arrive at the same diagnosis is high. It's still far from perfect though, and vailidity remains an issue as the vast majority of people with a single psychiatric disorder more than likely have one or more comorbid disorders. The brain is the most complex organ system in our bodies and I don't think it will be possible to make 100% definitive psychiatric diagnoses until we are able to understand how our genetics and neurological biochemistry actually makes up our thoughts and emotions.

BigVeggieDream

The DSM V includes binge eating disorder which is characterized by eating much more than the average person would in a 2 hour window coupled with feelings of guilt, lack of control, etc. Eating the food likely serves as temporary pleasure and activates mesolimbic dopamine receptors which are the targets of any addictive behavior and create the "psychological dependence" on a given substance or behavior, even if no actual physical dependence can develop. Whether or not this constitutes true food addiction may simply be splitting hairs.

I can attest to this being true. When I binged I would feel really good during the binge and for about 1/2 hour after and then the self-loathing would set in.

SunofaBeach14

I promised myself I'd stay out of these threads . . . :flowerforyou:

tedrickp

There is a reason it's not recognized and you certainly aren't helping your cause. Serious people don't take this subject seriously, so yes you have rather intelligent people giggling over your post and you don't have the sense to question yourself.

Well actually, plenty of really serious people take this subject seriously.

Top notch researchers and scientists in fact. Alan Aragon just dedicated about 7-8 pages for a guest article in his latest research review.

This is definitely one of those subjects, that a large part of MFP is suffering some in-group bias on.

To qualify - Im not even sure I believe in food addiction - have never used it as an excuse....but for people to be so outrightly dismissive is really closed minded.

neanderthin

I promised myself I'd stay out of these threads . . . :flowerforyou:

Me too............here have an oreo.