As a holistic lifestyle practitioner I define addiction as the inability to stop doing anything that you know causes you harm. Many of us know that eating certain foods is negatively impacting our health, creating chronic and preventable health issues yet we still consume the foods and convince ourselves we are “treating ourselves” when we do.
Some Preventable Diseases Caused by Food Addiction
Heart Disease
High Blood Pressure
High Cholesterol
Diabetes
Gout
Hormone Imbalances
PCOS
Endometriosis
Fibroids
Dementia & Alheimerz
Vertigo
Arthritis
Blood Disorders
Nerve Damage
Cancers
Erectile Dysfunction
Low Testosterone
Kidney Disease
Liver Disease
Obesity
IBS & Dysbiosis
Diverticulitis
Autoimmune Disease
The list of preventable disease continues…
Where did this practice of destroying ourselves as a way of treating ourselves come from and how can we overcome it?
The idea that you can be addicted to food has recently gained increasing support. That comes from brain imaging and other studies of the effects of compulsive overeating on pleasure centers in the brain.
Experiments in animals and humans show that, for some people, the same reward and pleasure centers of the brain that are triggered by addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin are also activated by food, especially highly palatable foods rich in sugar, fat & salt.
Like addictive drugs, highly palatable foods trigger feel-good brain chemicals including dopamine. Once you experience pleasure associated with increased dopamine transmission in your brain’s reward pathway from eating certain foods, you may quickly feel the need to eat again.
Epigenetics, Disease & Food Addiction
Epigenetics is the study of how behaviors and environmental factors like diet, stress and toxins cause changes that affect how genes work without altering the underlying DNA sequence. Unlike genetic changes, these modifications – such as DNA methylation and histone modification – are often reversible and determine whether genes are turned on or off.
When the Dr. tells you certain conditions are genetic what they aren’t telling you is that what your Grandparents ate, parents ate and were environmentally exposed to impacts your DNA and gene expression. Just like what you eat and are exposed to will further impact your own DNA and that of your children and grandchildren. This is coded in at least two generations prior. Women are born with all the eggs we are ever going to produce. The quality of those eggs however can be improved or diminished by our lifestyle choices.
Pharmaceuticals can’t cure you. Only Holistic Lifestyle changes puts you on the path to curing yourself.
Food Addiction Check
If any of these apply to you, you may have an addiction to unhealthy foods and need support changing your relationship with it.
- Are on medication and are eating foods that are harmful to your condition.
- Are not on medication and are eating foods that will increase your risk of needing medication in the future
- Keep eating certain foods even if you’re no longer hungry
- Eat to the point of feeling ill
- Worry about not eating certain types of foods or worry about cutting down on certain types of foods
- When certain foods aren’t available, you go out of your way to obtain them
- Eat certain foods so often or in such large amounts that you eat instead of working, spending time with your family, or doing recreational activities.
- Avoid professional or social situations where certain foods are available because of fear of overeating.
- Have problems functioning effectively at your job or school because of food and eating.
When certain foods are unavailable to you, you experience
Anxiety
Agitation
Depression
Self-loathing
Guilt
Obsessing
When you think about your attachment to certain foods you find
You need to eat more and more food to reduce negative emotions or increase pleasure.
Eating the same amount of food doesn’t reduce negative emotions or increase pleasure the way it used to.
How to overcome food addiction
To overcome food addiction (and any addiction really) you first have to:
1) care soo deeply about the gift of your life that you are committed to doing what’s necessary to change your relationship with food.
2) you then need to seek guidance and support in creating a plan to replace your unhealthy habits with healthy ones
3) you then need to develop the discipline to follow through on the plan and remind yourself why you’ve committed to making these positive lifestyle changes.
4) you then need to start each day with a self care ritual that supports your commitment to collapsing your addiction to food and increasing your depth of care for yourself and your life.
Resources I offer to support you:
You deserve to be healthy & whole. Get guidance & support here
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