When food becomes more about emotional hunger than physical hunger, you could be at risk for developing a food addiction. A dysfunctional relationship with food can involve over-eating or starving. In either situation, food is a weapon turned on the self in ways that are unhealthy and sometimes life threatening to an individual.
These aren’t the occasional situations like over-eating at a holiday buffet or joining in on the late night pizza party. That kind of over-eating is situational and you can get back to normal eating with minor effort.
Food addiction goes beyond those situations – it’s a craving that drives a person to eat well beyond what it takes to satisfy basic hunger cues. With food addiction, the real hunger is emotional, not physical.
The dynamics of food addiction are similar to that of alcohol addiction or smoking. Each of those addictions involves a craving for something that’s damaging to the body in excess.
You can go cold turkey to give up smoking or alcohol as part of changing behaviors, but you can’t give up food. Refusing to eat leads to another kind of eating disorder, so it’s no improvement.
Unlike alcohol or smoking, food isn’t what’s harmful – it’s the way food is used that causes the problem. Food addicts actually get little pleasure from eating. They aren’t pigs without discipline they’re people who are locked in a negative relationship with food, often suffering guilt after a binge.
Food addicts often hide food and eat secretly so that friends and family won’t know how much they’re eating. They sometimes eat foods that are stale, overcooked, undercooked or half frozen.
Food addiction is never just about eating habits. It’s as much a psychological issue as it is a physiological one. Not all food addicts are overweight, either! Many are underweight to normal weight.
If the food addiction becomes bulimia with binging and purging, then the individual may not gain weight because of induced vomiting or excessive use of laxatives.
Like a drug addict constantly on the lookout for a fix, the food addict is always thinking about food. This person will talk incessantly about food, finding a place for lunch, getting a snack at break time or stopping at a fast food drive through on the way home from work before dinner!
Food addicts need medical and psychological help to overcome this disorder. You need a complete physical to identify and treat any problems such as diabetes, food allergies or thyroid.
You also need counseling with a mental health professional who specializes in eating disorders. Changing the way you deal with food starts with filling the emotional void that’s driving your food addiction.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I know that when I am under a great deal of stress I start to eat for comfort and not because of hunger. I am just grateful that when the stress passes, that I can stop eating. However, for those who cannot, counseling can definitely be beneficial, especially in identifying the triggers of food addictions.
I had the similar feeling when i had breakup with my sweetheart. I started eating more than my hunger. So, emotional factors usually makes a man to change his eating habbits. Sometimes, i have noticed that i start eating uninterruptly when i am drunk.
Stress is onr of the major cause of food addiction. The society of today is under stress more than ever before. People eat to release pressure. Untill I got involved with a community
of people and started to help others instead of focussing on me, I began to notice a major change in my life. Depression is a killer when it comes to eating. Get involve with other peoples’ struggles and you will see changes.
This article is very interesting and really can widen your thinking when you see people who are over-weight or just eating and not controlling it, many people just think it is easy to eat the right foods and control your weight. Like you said its not as easy as that and in fact you need to look for the under-lying issues as to why you are turning to food whether it be stress, emotional problems, family problems etc. This article is very educational.
I do not think so that stress is an important factor here. Rather one side of people do not eat anything because of their works. The reason for them is the work pressure. The other extreme is that the people eat a lot. It is because they live to eat. Mostly they have junk foods which is not good for health.
It’s like when I’m stress, I eat but I think what I eat doesn’t sink in my body, I go hungry every now and then. I really do think on the solutions of my everyday problem but that doesn’t push me from eating a lot.
At times there is some craving for sweet things, a chocolate or something,but I have overcome it as I am prone to putting on weight. I have reduced almost 70 pounds, so I earlier was a food addict now I am not.
I am too worried for my son, whatever is in the article seems so true, I am watching my son go through all this. He loves to eat, he all the time talks about food, he hide things and eats behind closed doors too. I think I will have to consult a doctor, HE NEEDS ASSISTANCE.
How old does someone have to be in order to be considered a food addict? I know a 9 year old that so fits the criteria of a food addict, but her parents refuse to look at it at that way, and refuse to offer her only healthy foods, stating “that kids need candy and junk as a part of growing up”.
Well done article- I specialize in food addiction and eating disorders with women and teens, and it’s a really complex set of challenges. It’s hard to modify/abstain from food, given the necessity of nourishing ourselves many times daily and our culture’s obsession with food.
There are a few common underlying themes with eating disorders in my experience (and I am in recovery from my own e.d., as well).
1. Perfectionism- always feeling “not enough”
2. Difficulty in Speaking Up in Relationships
3. Overall difficulty modulating negative thoughts and emotions
4. Overnurturing others, undernurturing own needs.
Like you, I offer an online membership site with loads of resources and online support, plus other features within a safe and loving community.
Love to see other good recovery sites-
Lisa C. Briggs
http://www.IntuitiveBody.com
http://www.IntuitiveBodySanctuary.com
http://www.FreedomFromBinges.com
I have a 15 year old daughter with type one diabetes that eats anything, and I mean any food. Meat scraps, garbage etc. She digs everything and will swallow whole and denies eating it even when blood sugars are to high to read. This has been going on for over 9 months that we know of. We need help…
I agree, please get help for your daughter, not only medical help but psychological help.
Eating disorders combined with type 1 diabetes call for both medical and psychlogical intervention.
My speciality is drug and alcohol addiction, but I have worked with diabetics who manipulate their sugar to go to the Emergency Room in seeking drugs, or some young women will fast and not eat so they can drink without weight gain.
I am certainly not saying any of these scenarios apply in your case, but please check things out as there could be a lot of downside potential.
Bill
As I stated in my original comments, I can get into this type of behavior quite easily when I am under stress. As I read the other comments, I started to wonder how many men are affected by an eating disorder but refuse to divulge it, much less even admit they have a problem.
I can definitely get into this habit when I’m stressed. It’s awful when I notice how much I can eat when I’m upset or stressed. This is a great article. I’m definitely going to share it with one of my friends who does those crazy binges and she will literally eat everything in site until she’s sick to her stomach.
I have been working on reducing the sugar and carbohydrate intake in my daily diet with positive results. I find I don’t crave sugar as in the past. I switched to whole wheat, brown rice and healthy grains instead of the empty white flours, rice etc. The whole wheats and grains are so much more satisfying and I find I don’t eat as large of portion. This is a life long process in making the change to being healthier.
Most people don’t really consider food addiction to be real, but those people have never had to fight the urge to eat an entire box of oatmeal creme pies just because you’re bored…or angry…or tired…or lonely. I appreciate your article. We need more folks to explain the realities of food addiction.