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Fast Food Addiction - Can Anyone Else Relate?
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candylilacs wrote: »Sugar is the enemy -- 84.1 million adults have prediabetes. https://cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/diabetes.html
News flash - sugar intake does not cause diabetes.
Obesity, however, is strongly linked to it.
As is sugar intake.
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GaleHawkins wrote: »candylilacs wrote: »Sugar is the enemy -- 84.1 million adults have prediabetes. https://cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/diabetes.html
News flash - sugar intake does not cause diabetes.
Obesity, however, is strongly linked to it.
As is sugar intake.
This is from the link you put up and I gotta ask why doesn't it say anything at all about sugar intake as part of the preventing program, wouldn't it be a big part of it if sugar intake caused diabetes, why is it not worth even being mentioned. Seriously not trying to be a jerk but just logically thinking wouldn't it have at least been mentioned here even once?
Curriculum for CDC-Recognized Diabetes Prevention Lifestyle Change Programs
Topics Covered in First 6 Months
Welcome to the Program
Be a Fat and Calorie Detective
Three Ways to Eat Less Fat and Fewer Calories
Healthy Eating
Move Those Muscles
Being Active - A way of Life
Tip the Calorie Balance
Take Charge of What's Around You
Problem Solving
Four Keys to Healthy Eating Out
Talk Back to Negative Thoughts
The Slippery Slope of Lifestyle Change
Jump Start Your Activity Plan
Make Social Cues Work for You
You Can Manage Stress
Ways to Stay Motivated
Topics Covered in Second 6 Months
Fats - Saturated, Unsaturated, and Trans Fat
Food Preparation and Recipe Modification
Healthy Eating - Taking it One Meal at a Time
Healthy Eating with Variety and Balance
More Volume, Fewer Calories
Staying on Top of Physical Activity
Stepping up to Physical Activity
Balance Your Thoughts for Long-Term Maintenance
Handling Holidays, Vacations, and Special Events
Preventing Relapse
Stress and Time Management
Heart Health
A Closer Look at Type 2 Diabetes
Looking Back and Looking Forward13 -
paperpudding wrote: »i actually think it is quite trivialising to real physical addictions like opiates,alcohol, nicotine to say this
It's like Norco and Vicodin. I've taken it and I feel no addiction to opiates.
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I'm confused now. What's like Vicodin, a McD's french fry? Seriously?7
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Is the argument now that fast food/sugar addiction is real and opiate addiction isn't? I'm completely confused.12
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It boils down to habit. OP has gotten into the habit of eating fast food (as a lot of people who "think" they are addicted do) and just equates it to addiction. When I was in college about 10 years ago, I stopped at Burger King every weekday on my way home from school. That is what I ate because I was in school all day every day and then had to study for hours in the evening. It was an extremely hard habit to break, but I broke it. You just need to change your routine so you aren't going to get fast food every day. It is not an addiction. I didn't have withdrawals when I stopped. Mentally I had the urge to get in the car and drive 15 miles to the nearest Burger King every day, but I made a conscious effort to not go, and made sure I had food at home to eat.14
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I'd actually separate OP's issues, which might well be some kind of eating addiction and currently are probably related to her weight loss program (which is really restrictive) and not having gotten to the point of working through how to reintroduce a variety of foods and not fall back into old habits, which hopefully will be a part of it, from those claiming that fast food (or, bizarrely, sugar, which seems off-topic) are akin to heroin (or perhaps worse than given recent developments in the thread).3
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I don't know if there is such a thing as a fast food addiction. But I will have to say that as I was reading all these comments, and I'm not making light of this subject, but my mouth started to water. No joke.
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lemurcat12 wrote: »I'd actually separate OP's issues, which might well be some kind of eating addiction and currently are probably related to her weight loss program (which is really restrictive) and not having gotten to the point of working through how to reintroduce a variety of foods and not fall back into old habits, which hopefully will be a part of it, from those claiming that fast food (or, bizarrely, sugar, which seems off-topic) are akin to heroin (or perhaps worse than given recent developments in the thread).
Yep, because unless I have my threads confused, OP did come back and clarify her situation, and has a far better handle on it than the folks who came in here to white knight while railing against the evils of sugar, Big Fast Food, random unnameable toxins, and the falsehood of opioid addiction proven by science. This thread needs a facepalm or something.9 -
I don't know if there is such a thing as a fast food addiction. But I will have to say that as I was reading all these comments, and I'm not making light of this subject, but my mouth started to water. No joke.
My mouth watered the other day when I was reading an article about traditional Japanese ramen. I think that speaks more to the power of the human imagination and our love for foods we perceive as delicious/potentially delicious, not an indication of addiction (I've never even had traditional ramen so it's impossible for me to be addicted to it . . yet!).6 -
janejellyroll wrote: »I don't know if there is such a thing as a fast food addiction. But I will have to say that as I was reading all these comments, and I'm not making light of this subject, but my mouth started to water. No joke.
My mouth watered the other day when I was reading an article about traditional Japanese ramen. I think that speaks more to the power of the human imagination and our love for foods we perceive as delicious/potentially delicious, not an indication of addiction (I've never even had traditional ramen so it's impossible for me to be addicted to it . . yet!).
Someone can say the words Tacos and Margaritas and I will literally have drool in the corners of my mouth! haha6 -
I think tbe OP believes they got fat eating fast food 4 days a week instead of too many calories. This is a mistake some people make sometimes that makes it difficult to reach their goal and maintain. I would encourage the OP to look more at calories and not type of food so much.
I think the OP have gone on a very restrictive diet plan and like many who do restrictive diet plans if they eat off plan they want more of the forbidden food Very restrictive diet plans are often unsustainable long term. Not addiction but unsustainable lifestyle. I don't see anything from the OP the suggests a real addiction.
Having trouble moderating some foods is a problem many share. It may be a behavior/emotional issue not xyz food has something in it that I have to have. Strategizes for dealing with problem foods include abstaining, having healthier/lower calorie versions, learning to have smaller portions. If there is an issue with an eating disorder or emotional eating getting some professional help may be in order.8 -
candylilacs wrote: »paperpudding wrote: »i actually think it is quite trivialising to real physical addictions like opiates,alcohol, nicotine to say this
It's like Norco and Vicodin. I've taken it and I feel no addiction to opiates.
Most people don't but it only takes a few days to get physically dependent on it. Restriction of fast food and sugar is way way way way more pleasant than withdrawl from opiates even after only being on them a few months when you are not an addict. I've done both and never ever want to experience dilaudid withdrawl ever again and i wasn't addicted. There is no comparison between fast food or sugar and opiates.11 -
So is gambling addiction just a habit since there isn't physical withdrawal?4
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fromnebraska wrote: »So is gambling addiction just a habit since there isn't physical withdrawal?
I am sure there are psychological withdrawl symptoms (which can become physical) with stopping gambling for addicts.
The physical withdrawl I was describing wasn't about addiction though. I was just pointing out how crazy it is to compare sugar and fast food to opioids. If you are on round the clock dosing for more than a few days you will experience withdrawl to various degrees (ranging from a headache and perhaps flu like symptoms if you are on them a few days to full out you want to die with convulsions, sweating, electric zaps, shaking, pain amplified by 1000, etc). If you stop eating fast food and or sugar, even if you have been eating it your whole life, you will not experience anything at all like that. My post wasn't even about addiction because what I was describing isn't addiction but rather depence.3 -
fromnebraska wrote: »So is gambling addiction just a habit since there isn't physical withdrawal?
A gambling addiction is a behavioral addiction. It isn't specific. An addict will play blackjack, sit at a slot machine, bet their nephew about a college football game, any opportunity to gamble that presents itself. They will steal quarters from a child's piggy bank to buy a lottery ticket. Pawn their wedding ring to play the ponies.
That's different than saying I'm addicted to food from a particular type of restaurant. There's nothing specific to ALL fast food, but different from all other foods. There's not one particular ingredient you can say you are addicted to in fast food that isn't in lots of other foods and causes physical withdrawal, so it's not a physical addiction. And it's not a unique and unnecessary behavior (you have to eat, and you are fine eating other things) that you are willing to destroy your life to continue, so it's not a behavioral addiction. It's a bad habit, and one that someone who frames it as that can take responsibility for and change.8 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »I'd actually separate OP's issues, which might well be some kind of eating addiction and currently are probably related to her weight loss program (which is really restrictive) and not having gotten to the point of working through how to reintroduce a variety of foods and not fall back into old habits, which hopefully will be a part of it, from those claiming that fast food (or, bizarrely, sugar, which seems off-topic) are akin to heroin (or perhaps worse than given recent developments in the thread).
Yep, because unless I have my threads confused, OP did come back and clarify her situation, and has a far better handle on it than the folks who came in here to white knight while railing against the evils of sugar, Big Fast Food, random unnameable toxins, and the falsehood of opioid addiction proven by science. This thread needs a facepalm or something.
I vote for a stick of dynamite.
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fromnebraska wrote: »So is gambling addiction just a habit since there isn't physical withdrawal?fromnebraska wrote: »So is gambling addiction just a habit since there isn't physical withdrawal?
No, not just a habit.
I would say it is a behavioural disorder - like eating disorders and other destructive pyschological disorders like cutting oneself.
That isnt to say these aren't real - they certainly are - but not physical addiction.
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lemurcat12 wrote: »I'd actually separate OP's issues, which might well be some kind of eating addiction and currently are probably related to her weight loss program (which is really restrictive) and not having gotten to the point of working through how to reintroduce a variety of foods and not fall back into old habits, which hopefully will be a part of it, from those claiming that fast food (or, bizarrely, sugar, which seems off-topic) are akin to heroin (or perhaps worse than given recent developments in the thread).
Yep, because unless I have my threads confused, OP did come back and clarify her situation, and has a far better handle on it than the folks who came in here to white knight while railing against the evils of sugar, Big Fast Food, random unnameable toxins, and the falsehood of opioid addiction proven by science. This thread needs a facepalm or something.
Yes -- I think it's a huge shame, because even though with OP I think a lot of it was the restrictive diet, I do think that there could have been a good conversation about the pull of habit, how to deal with those kinds of urgings and cravings, so on, and various ways to handle the temptation of palatable foods.
OP's comment made me immediately suspect it was not just about fast food, which is why I asked if she felt like she could have a homemade burger, and of course she explained she was on a diet where that was not possible. To then try to make this -- as some have -- about some magical properties of fast food seems really off base.
OP may be dealing with more than most of us (I don't think someone who is 400 lb, as OP was when she started, is dealing with precisely the same things as someone who needs to lose, I dunno, 20, even if the 20 lb overweight person thinks that her love for fries is JUST EXACTLY LIKE addiction), but despite her word choice I doubt it's limited to fast food but that it could be something similar to an addiction (or maybe compulsive overeating is a better term), and her chosen way of dealing with it may be working because it eliminates temptation for a while --
kind of like that potatoes only guy -- but that eventually she will need to figure out how to deal with tempting food.
The "it's a drug, it's all about the specific foods, just cut it out" people don't seem to be helpful.
Also, the argument that fast food is like opiates (which IMO is absurd) is rather off topic, the question was how to deal with cravings from tempting food, basically.
I find it frustrating that this thread went so off topic as to end up in Debate, and I blame those who have some axe to grind and want to insist that liking food is exactly like being a drug addict. While, yes, some others took issue with OP's use of the term addiction, it was in a context of giving helpful advice and saying how they handled it. I note that when people popped in to say "yes, it is too an addiction," not only did their supposed cites not match the claims, but they were focused on creating an argument and did not give helpful advice to OP. I think that's really a shame.6 -
Nobody here (or anywhere else) is addicted to fast food. Some may find it hyper-palatable and easy to overindulge on, but it has no symptoms of addiction and won’t cause physical withdrawal if you don’t have it.
However the way our brain reacts to certain foods is the same as a drug addict reacts to drugs. This has been scientifically proven and has numerous studies behind it. Just cause something isn't physically addicting or doesn't have physical withdrawals, doesn't mean it isn't addicting. There are drugs that are mental addiction's. Methamphetamine being one of them. These billion dollar companies are paying millions to develop foods that are "addicting" as in foods specifically designed to make you want more. Even to the point of them hiring psychologist's. I will admit a lot of this has to do with will power however by definition it could be considered an addiction.
@OP Just brush it off and keep moving. To keep yourself from feeling restricted you could try eating fast food here and there. Now if you can't control yourself from doing it every day or going over on your calories... Then I would say don't do it. There was a documentary called "fathead" where the guy ate nothing but fast food. Lost weight and actually got healthier by blood work results. His doctors actually being astonished.20
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