Addicted to food, really?

Yeah....heroin addicts aren't really addicted either. They just have no freaking willpower...those buggers!

You know, there's a reason that medical and mental health professionals refer to "addiction" in the case of heroin and not in the case of food.

Says who?

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

Something is an addiction if it screws up multiple areas of a person's life, basically (work, family, health, friendships, relationship, etc.). It is indeed possible to be addicted to food or to a particular food. However, I think people throw that term around a lot when what they really mean is that they like food or a particular food a lot and eat too much of it, not they are actually engaging in behaviors that would fit the clinical definition of addiction.

It seems to me that everyone is addicted to food. I think what people mean with the carb binging is that eating carbs is a pleasurable experience, probably dopamine release, and they are addicted to the pleasure of eating sweet things.

thats an interesting thought...I like sweet things too, but I can have one to two servings and be done with them....

I can have one or two drinks and be done. Does that mean alcoholism isn't real?

I'm addicted to breathing. Anytime I stop, I go through severe withdraws and pass out.

It's not addiction....it's GREED, plain and simple.

It's not addiction....it's GREED, plain and simple.

Greed?? care to elaborate?

that seems a bit much....

agreed.

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.