Food Addiction–You May Have One

Do you have a food addiction? Let’s just hope all the Christmas eating is whetting your appetite and you can get back on healthy eating once again.

Eating healthy and keeping fit seems impossible for many people, especially this holiday season. Despite your self-imposed limits and your best intentions, you may even find yourself eating large amounts of food, and many of them may not be that good for your body.

What you just don’t know is, while that lechon or that cake may be difficult to resist, certain foods can cause you to have addiction.

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Food addiction

You may say that you are a french fries addict, a coffee addict, or a chocoholic. However, food addiction is a real, serious, and clinical problem. In other words, food to a food addict is drugs to a drug addict.

This is because food addiction affects the brain in the same way that drug addiction does. However, it should not be mistaken for other eating disorders, such as bulimia, anorexia, binge eating disorder, and compulsive over-eating.

How food addiction develops

A few of the most common food addiction sources are junk foods, sugary foods, and those containing wheat. And unlike misconceptions, food addiction is not a lack of willpower, a moral failing, or plain old gluttony. It is actually what happens in the brain–a structural change in your brain’s pleasure centers as it becomes hijacked by an unnatural surge of dopamine.

Symptoms of food addiction

1. Frequent cravings for certain foods despite feeling full or having just eaten a meal.

2. Eating more of the craved food than you first intended to.

3. Eating the craved food to the extent of feeling “stuffed.”

4. Feeling guilty afterwards, yet finding yourself wanting to eat it again.

5. Making excuses for eating what you’ve been craving.

6. Repeatedly trying to quit or setting limits or rules, but coming up unsuccessful.

7. Hiding the fact of consuming the craved food from other people.

8. Continuing to consume despite knowing and feeling its harmful effects.

Effects of food addiction

Food addiction is a real and serious problem. It can cause a plethora of diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, heart diseases, arthritis, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and many others.

You can try to go to a nutritionist or dietitian to seek professional help, change your diet, have a healthier lifestyle, and avoid addictive foods again. However, like all other forms of addiction, there is that tendency of relapsing.

You can seek professional help with a psychologist, psychiatrist, or even a rehab professional. Find out your treatment options or go ahead and call or text us at 09175098826 (Manila) or 09177046659 (Cebu).