Food Addiction

Short definition of addiction.

Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors.

Addiction is characterized by inability to consistently abstain, impairment in behavioral control, craving, diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships, and a dysfunctional emotional response. Like other chronic diseases, addiction often involves cycles of relapse and remission. Without treatment or engagement in recovery activities, addiction is progressive and can result in disability or premature death.

http://www.asam.org/for-the-public/definition-of-addiction

The bolded part is where my husband is at. After the cycles of relapse and remission, then comes guilt to not be able to control the cravings.

It is severely affecting his health and well being. He keeps trying but fails.

My husband has had sugar poisoning on a couple of occasions from having to have sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar........he used to eat it straight from the sugar bowl from a spoon.

Fruit triggers.............certain vegetables triggers.

What treatments has he sought? Why keep sugars (table sugar, honey, syrup, etc.) or candy or sweets, etc. in your house? Will he really binge eat vegetables to get the sugar? Would it be harmful if he did?

This seems like a pretty rare condition, does he see a medical and psychiatric specialist?

He has been seeking treatment off and on since he was diagnosed as a child. We don't keep it in the house. We don't even keep artificial sweeteners in the house because they are a trigger for him.

He sneaks and eats while at work..............going and coming (have found empty wrappers in his truck) that he tried to hide.

Certain vegetables trigger the sugar cravings, which then leads to binge eating fruit, which leads to endless cakes, cookies, doughnuts, etc.

He has had several episodes of sugar poisoning that he had to go to the hospital for.

Yes, he sees both medical and psychiatrist. The psychiatrist has stated that food addictions are much harder to break due to food being a necessity to life and it doesn't take much to trigger the uncontrollable cravings.

Here lately he has been doing well and is telling me when he eats stuff that the Dr has told him he shouldn't have.

As I mentioned earlier...............this has been going on since he was a child. His mom used to catch him sitting on the table eating sugar out of the sugar bowl by the spoonful. YUCK.

I'm not going to get involved with all the definitions and scientific studies that I'm sure are in this thread. I do not personally believe that food is a physical addiction the way drugs and/or alcohol are, that's just my opinion.

However, if you claim to have a food addiction, then seek treatment for it, the same way any other addict would. I refuse to give sympathy or support to someone who is not actively trying to help themselves. You want to call it a real addiction? Get treatment. Stop saying "I'm addicted to food, that's why I can't lose weight" and get help. And no, I'm not directing this to anyone in particular.

You know, I can not and will not ever put food in the same category with alcohol or narcotics. Our bodies are designed to consume food, but not alcohol or narcotics. Our bodies require food to survive, but not alcohol or narcotics.

Psychology might cause someone to develop a similar reaction on the brain when eating that they might experience by consuming alcohol or narcotics, but the biochemical reactions are completely different.

What really worries me is people embracing the theory of food addiction, and subsequently, enabling anorexics. I mean, think about it. Addiction is all the justification that an anorexic needs to avoid food completely.

I think most people here would agree that actual food addiction does exist. I think of it as being like sex addiction; when the urge hits, the person needs a fix, and while they may have their preferences, pretty much anyone will do. Sex addicts often report engaging in acts with people they would not consider desirable or attracted to under normal circumstances. I believe actual food addiction presents in the same way, in which the person may have certain foods they like but in the midst of an urge they will pretty much go for anything they can get their hands on.

The problem I have with food addiction as most people use the term on MFP, and in the articles you posted, is that they use the term to describe a compulsive behavior in which they eat specific foods. Those foods generally have sugar, fat, and are hyper-palatable, which leads to the "I'm addicted to sugar" claims. I do not think that is food addiction. A habit or learned behavior from watching a parent eat for comfort or being given snacks for comfort or reward as a child? Yes. A compulsive behavior related to anxiety, stress, or OCD tendencies? Sure. But a person with a true food addiction wouldn't be able to just not be around the specific food and be ok. They would be engaging in the behaviors Ed described above. They would not be on here saying "oh, I'm addicted to cookies, once I open a package I can't stop, so I just don't buy them anymore." That's not food addiction. I'm not saying that someone who is having trouble with compulsive behaviors doesn't deserve compassion, support, and help to rectify the issue, but it's not the same as being addicted.

I think there's two things here. I have certainly experienced 'food addiction' that you talk about in the sense of HAVING to eat when I had severe bulima in my late teens and literally anything would do... I remember being at boarding school one night and eating dry pasta out of the packet as it was the only food I had access to and I just had to eat, I felt like I had no control whatsoever. And other similar times, plus getting into debt, stealing food and money to buy food, raiding bins... I was suicidal, I desperately wanted to stop but I just couldn't, it was truly awful. (And having subsequently experienced drug addiction, my experience was far more traumatic relating to food.)

But I do also think that you can have addiction-related issues with palatable foods too, which I agree is somewhat separate but I don't think that it makes it entirely different. It's like one person being addicted to one substance over another, as opposed to just anything. That's my opinion, anyway. Hyper-palatable foods in general in my opinion have an addiction potential due to how they affect certain neural pathways etc etc. And a lot of people do exhibit those behaviours regarding them... yes overeating is different to food addiction and people overeat without it being an addiction, but some people do also definitely display addictive behaviours towards hyper-palatable foods - as I think Ed was actually describing. I also have experience of this (and for me it was very food-specific, like literally one specific food that caused me huge huge problems, from the age of 11 for over 10 years; and I did exhibit the kind of behaviours you would often associate with hardcore drug addiction). It's not nice. But no it is not the same as just saying that you have a tendency to overeat or find it hard to moderate/avoid certain foods.

So I do think it exists but I also agree that can be applied too widely. I suspect there is also a range of severities. And a lot of it is probably just semantics/definition too.

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...

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)

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:

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.....

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 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.

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:

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.