Addicted to food, really?

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.

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.

The ignorance and arrogance in a lot of these replies is mind blowing. That is all.

I think some people may have some valid issues with food addiction but I think way too many use it as an excuse as to why they can't lose weight....

This

I agree with you lol.. It's not like food is crack and we're jonsing.. we just had no willpower to do what we had to to lose the weight! :drinker:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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