We’ve all heard it said in many different ways. “Once I get started on dinner rolls, I can’t stop.” There’s not enough pasta in the world for me.” “Two cookies, are you kidding?” Let’s face it, some foods are addicting. And I don’t mean that in the laughable sense. Such as when we chuckle after eating our 3rd slice of cake, and explain “Well, I’m just addicted to chocolate cake.” I mean it in a very real and alive way. We are all addicted to many of the foods we eat. And it’s debilitating.
Now it may seem extreme to say that food addiction is debilitating. So let’s take a look and see what I mean.
Now in our society, it is very true that thin is in and fat is out. However you may also be a person who is a size 14, and wants to be a size 8. And you may know that size 8 is a good, healthy place for you to be. However, you may not be able to get there because you can’t, or won’t, stop eating the cookies, spaghetti, and home-baked bread. And for you, not being a size 8 is a problem. If this is you, then you are probably fighting food cravings.
At this point you may wonder what it wrong with you. You may wonder why you have no will power. You might try diets and feel your mood swing, as you starve yourself and your blood sugar goes down. You may become irritable and grouchy as you ‘white-knuckle it’ with your family. Then you might give up and go eat all you want for a few weeks. You then might watch the pounds you lost come back on, with extra pounds as interest. And once again you are bound to feel there is something wrong with you.
All of this is what I would call a low-level food addiction, or the onset of more serious problems. Later down the line the cycles often get worse and worse. Your relatively harmless binging may turn life-threatening and bulimic. If not, your binges may become so extreme as to cause obesity. This in turn has you lethargic all day long, as well as lackluster and prone to sleeping. Your disposition is grouchy because your blood sugar is constantly shooting up and shooting down. And after a while your metabolism is destroyed, along with your self-esteem, and no diets will work any more.
If you’re lucky, at this point you will just continue your cycle of irritability, obesity, and carbohydrate abuse until your body depletes its insulin supply. At this point you will become diabetic and sentence yourself to a shortened life-span, and an old age of pain and misery. If you’re not so lucky, you will convince yourself that it is better ‘not to eat at all’ than to fight the cravings, or to be fat. You will then become anorexic. If this is the case, judging by statistics, you probably won’t make it.
And this is the thing about which we joke at parties as we eat our 10th cookie.
Fighting food cravings is no laughing matter for a lot of people. But there are sources of help. There is a program called Overeaters Anonymous, which I attended for many years. There is also a program called Food Addicts Anonymous. Both of these will give you the support of other people on a similar path, as well as their experience strength and hope. You will also need a food plan that deals with food as an addictive substance. And there are many other tools I will give you in subsequent articles. But to those of you who suffer, I will just say, yes you can live a healthy happy life with food addiction. But you need to reach out.