Unhealthy relationships with food....

Look up inside out weight loss. This is dealing with why you think about food all the time and what positive thing you are getting out of not losing weight. This information really got me thinking about issues instead of focusing on food. I lost all of my cravings and compulsive eating. I haven't lost a lot of weight yet. I still have to learn more of what and how much to eat, but tracking all of my food here has really helped me to see how many calories are in some of what I thought were fairly healthy favorites.

Read the following:

http://www.democracyinstitute.org/announcements/patrick-basham-and-john-luik-on-the-food-addiction-myth

Since all "food addiction" theories are based SOLELY on rat studies, I hope this finally puts the entire myth to bed.

In all the years as a clinical professional I've worked in hospitals and treatment centers and I have to tell you...NO ONE has ever been admitted for food overdose! I've seen alcohol and drug overdose cases, but never in my years of working with patients has food addiction ever been a condition that a hospital - or a psychotherapist - can actually code and bill for, because it isn't a real condition! Ladies, I'm not being *****y about this, just practical, realistic, and scientifically truthful. I would love to say I'm addicted to chocolate or cheesecake or fast food, but that would just be me lying to myself and avoiding the true stimulus driving my behavior. For those who adamantly cling to their belief that food is actually addictive, I feel sorry for you in that you are blocking yourself from acknowledging and therefore addressing the real reason behind why you eat (or over-eat) what you do. Blaming something else does not help your situation - or others when you push such beliefs onto them. In fact, those types of beliefs actually impede your and others' success. Since our beliefs shape our behavior and ultimately our environment, it's easy to see why some of you who are overly heated in this topic cannot let go of this simple truth. Letting go forces you to deal, and all too often that can be an unbearably painful concept. In time, if working with a therapist, hopefully the pain will be bearable enough to handle little by little.

Addictive personalities can be quite difficult to work with, and I applaud those of you who struggle with that condition and I wish the very best success for you. Those with addictive personalities will cling to one thing, and then the next, and the next, etc once one "vice" after the other is removed. It's like prying one's fingers off the ledge, only to have them cling to the nearby drain pipe with the other hand.

For those of you who think about food 24/7, this is not addiction, it is obsession. Sure, the body hungers for sustenance when blood glucose levels drop but that does not remotely justify the notion of addiction. Hunger and craving are two separate biological pathways. Even dehydration defeats the "addiction" theory: we can't live long without water. If dehydration becomes severe, the body ceases to desire fluids. Is this withdrawal and recovery? No, it is the body shutting down all systems one by one. It's called dying. When nutrition is withheld, hunger may initiate the desire to fuel the body and brain, but when hunger is ignored the body powers down and switches into starvation mode, tearing down muscle mass, and then finally fat mass, to reconvert it into fuel. After awhile malnutrition sets in and hunger will also turn off.

Yes, there is one component of food (caffeine) that can become addictive, like smoking or alcoholism, when ingested often enough in large enough quantities over time. The difference between true addictions vs. the notion of food addiction is that, when the body receives a truly addictive substance (cocaine, alcohol, meth, nicotene, caffeine) the body goes into withdrawal when that chemical is withheld. Addictive substances such as these actually replace certain hormones in the body; the body ceases to produce them on its own. When that drug is withheld, the body's pathway to re-synthesize this hormone will be stunted for a time - hence the withdrawal - until the body can once again regain its homeostatic function. This never ever happens with food. Food does not mimic any hormone, so withdrawal is impossible. NO ONE ever goes into "food withdrawal" because food addiction does not exist. It is just pure, simple logic.

The notion of sugar addiction is also a false one. Sugar ingestion ramps up the levels of blood glucose, initiating a large insulin response and a tingly feeling/energy burst in the body from the large quantity of sugar. Once glucose has been taken up into the red blood cells, the insulin levels drop dramatically and that is how a "sugar high" and how "crashing" occurs. The body does not crave sugar; it merely switches on the hunger cues in order to normalize glucose levels. What foods are known to quickly rebuild that ramp? Sugar! It's a no-win cycle, sort of like the cycle of a battered woman and her mate. It is the psyche which craves sugar. As I've said, the body craves only those chemical substances which mimic naturally occurring hormones. Sugar cannot mimic any hormone, therefore it is not an addictive substance.

This subject has taken up far too much of my time, and now I am done with it. This debate has been quite stimulating, thank you. I hope this has increased your understanding of the difference between true addiction and the myth of food addiction.

Please don't feed the trolls.

^^like