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Food Addicts, Don’t Forget The Love

Sep21

I was reading Darya Pino’s column in the Huffington Post yesterday. It focused on a book written by former FDA commissioner, Dr. David Kessler.

According to the article, Kessler’s book, The End of Overeating, outlines the basic steps of habit reversal and advocates, among other things, “developing positive associations with healthier foods while demonizing the hyperpalatable foods we have been conditioned to crave…”.

Dr. Kessler uses two terms, hypereating and hyperpalatable, that I had never heard before. At first sound, hypereating sounds like overeating, eating quickly, or an eating disorder that makes you eat faster than the rules allow.

Hyperpalatable foods can only be those very tasty, fat-, salt-, or sugar-laden foods that seem to be the first ones food addicts grab when an emotional trigger clicks.

I can’t in all fairness take exception to Dr. Kessler’s opinions and suggestions without reading his book in its entirety. Out of context, you can make the spoken or written word mean anything you want.

I’m not so sure, however, that  using the same techniques that make you loathe cigarettes work when it comes to comfort food. I am an ex-smoker and I will never feel about my comfort foods the way I feel about tobacco.

The article caught my attention so I decided to mention it here. To read the entire article, click here.

Not everybody who is fat has a food addiction, this is true. And no professional wants to label people without first categorizing them or their ailment.

Nevertheless, a food addict has a food addiction, or multiple ones depending on how you look at things, and that’s just the way it is.

Only someone who has a food addiction, or has had one and healed it can be an expert on how it feels, what it does to your life, and how you live with it while learning how to heal it.

I say “heal it” because a food addiction is caused by unresolved emotional trauma that stays with you until your heart heals and the pain is banished.

While the brain circuits may respond in similar ways to certain stimuli, the underlying cause of a food addiction is what must be discovered and understood in order for true healing to take place.

You can’t think your way out of a food addiction. Mind control and reprogramming will not succeed unless your goal is to ignore and forget.

True, food addicts may eat foods that aren’t good for them, and in unhealthy amounts. But understand that we are eating for comfort, for that moment of peace when the emotional, and sometimes physical, pain is gone.

We don’t eat to forget. We eat to be free, and we pay a high price for that moment of freedom.

The sooner we get to the bottom of what is causing the addiction, the sooner we can string together those moments of freedom until we have a life again.

No diet in the world will ever work until the heart is healed. There is only one way to heal the heart and that is with love.

Are We There Yet?

Sep15

Patience is a friend to anyone living with a food addiction. Patience doesn’t mean waiting for somebody else to do something. It’s the secret ingredient in life’s great recipe for happiness.

One of the reasons food addiction, or compulsive eating, has become such a problem, and obesity along with it, is this idea of having to have everything now.

It reminds me of how children like to ask, “Are we there yet?” as if by saying it, they would be instantly transported to their destination without further adieu.

It’s like that with goals of any kind. Who would think of food addiction or obesity as a goal? And yet the frenzy with which so many Americans live their lives drives us to behaviors that reinforce the very negative behaviors we seek to avoid.

By asking yourself this simple question, “Are we there yet?” you can gain insight into where you are on your path to recovery or change. It’s a yes or no question, and that means you have to do some work.

Are we there yet? Are you where you want to be? Are you willing to do what it takes to get to where you want to be?

Since stress is unavoidable in some cases and self-inflicted in many others, it is up to us to work through it without endangering ourselves in the process.

Food addiction isn’t just about being fat. It’s about endangering ourselves by taking something we need to survive and turning it into a tool for self-destruction.

Food is very powerful. It’s purpose is to provide fuel for the  body. Without it, our survival would be greatly threatened. For the food addict, food is a double-edged sword.

Patience is like moderation. Both are states of balance. Moderation is not too much and not too little. Patience is not being worried about how things will turn out because you are doing what you need to be doing and are on target.

Patience is willing to wait for the result that you have deemed worth waiting for. There is no need to force a flower to bloom before it is ready.

When a person is suffering from a food addiction, they are suffering. Patience can help the recovery process and reinforce new behaviors.

Healing takes time and yes, there is frustration, and panic, and even despair.

Some journeys take a long time and lead us into uncharted waters. Sometimes it is hard to know how far we’ve come on the journey.

So be patient, and stop every so often and ask, “Are we there yet?” Soon or later the answer is bound to be “yes”.

Food Addiction and Obesity

Sep14

Everywhere you look there are men, women, and children who are overweight to the point of being obese. Obesity is a crisis in America.

But is everyone who is obese a food addict? Not necessarily. Remember that food addiction is caused by an unresolved emotional conflict that manifests itself in the form of compulsive eating.

The food addict eats because panic causes a hormonal imbalance in the body and there is an overwhelming urgency to eat as much and as fast as you can until the feeling goes away. Food is the drug of choice for the food addict.

A person can become obese by eating when bored, or just because something tastes really good so they just keep eating. Obesity for many is the result of habitual overeating for no particular reason.

It need not be connected with trauma, as it is in the case of a food addiction. It may be a case of consuming more calories than the body can burn as energy.

Emotional eating and food addiction can start when a person realizes that they are unable to lose a large amount of weight as quickly as they gained it.

Unable to deal with the excess fat and the humiliation that often accompanies it, emotional eating can easily become a coping mechanism.

When you’re fat, does it really matter to you if you have a food addiction? Do you care about your health? Or do you just want to not be fat anymore?

A person who knows why they eat compulsively may be in a better position than one who doesn’t know how they gained all that weight.

Food addicts are driven. When the addiction kicks in, we are on a mission. We eat uncontrollably for indefinite periods of time and then, as suddenly as it started, the urge just stops.

It’s kind of like a seizure. You know what’s going on but you can’t do anything about it. You just have to wait until it’s over.

Knowing what causes you to stuff yourself when something sets off an emotional trigger gives you a chance to deal with the emotion and possibly avoid the compulsive eating binge.

The more you can recognize what is happening when the panic feelings start to escalate, the more you will be able to confront the person or thing that is causing the panic.

When we can name our fear, it loses its power over us. Once you know what you’re dealing with, you can deal with it.

While not all food addicts are obese, and not all people who are obese are food addicts, the tables could certainly turn either way.

Perhaps the best way to confront your personal situation is by accepting yourself in your present state without judgment. Keep an open mind and heart.

Don’t label the symptoms. Identify the causes and go from there.