I used to think food was a drug, and that I was an addict. I was always obsessively and constantly hungry. My brain said I needed food, even if my stomache was full and hurting.
Then I read the Low Carb Bible, and decided to try some of the restricted carb diets. I am insulin resistant (don't know when in my lifetime that occurred, and whether it was always there to a degree, or whether a high carb lifestyle caused it), and a doctor suggested I try healthy lower carb food plan such as South Beach or a modified Atkins (skipping induction because 25g of carbs was too low on the medications I was taking).
And for the first time ever, I didn't experience the constant "lust" for food. I even found myself forgetting about food for 6, even 10 hours at a time, and I began to wonder if carbohydrates, or even refined carbohydrates were the "drug" and lean protein, fruits, and vegetables could maybe just be food.
I still consider myself carb-addicted, and it's a lot harder to avoid refined carbs than I thought it would be, but at least I have some hope that I can learn to avoid trigger foods, without constantly being obsessed by them.
I think we can come to believe it is like a drug/addiction, but that's probably just the way peoples' minds have been programmed, after the various highs of binges. At the end of the day we are all humans and humans need food to live. In a way it's right to say that you can take pleasure in the things humans have to do to live, eg. breathing, sleeping, excreting, but no-one would say that they were addicted to any of these activities. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you eat to live, but your brain can trick you into thinking you live to eat
xXx
Research from the Brookhaven National Labroatory has shown that some people's brains react to the sight and smells of food exactly the same way as do the brains of cocaine addicts. so yes, I absolutely believe that in some cases food can be a true addiction.
Other studies have shown that carbs (refined or not, but the refined are worse) have proteins that "hook up" nicely to the dopamine receptors in some people's brains. Individuals with low levels of serontonin are prone to this. This is exactly the same mechanism that causes opiates to be so addicting.
That being the case, rather than give up and so "Oh, I'm addicted anyway", the weapons for breaking the addiction just might be the same as for drugs: AVOID those foods. That was the only way that I was able to lose weight. I truly cannot eat just one or a reasonable portion of some foods.
There's a lot of advice on this board to not deny yourself anything, to be moderate, control your portions. In my experience, some people (myself included) cannot do this with certain foods ever. The only way to hadndle this foods is to avoid them altogether or eat them only in situations (like a restaurant) where you CANNOT get more than a little.
Time Magazine ran a cover article about this some months ago with a picture of a brain PET scan on the cover.
I agree that for some people (myself included) that food (especially some foods) can have "drug-like" properties. Even normal weight people "self-medicate" with foods. Comfort foods are called so for a reason, and nearly always are high in carbohydrates and fat (plain green beans are rarely anyone's comfort food). Using addiction as an excuse to continue self-damaging behavior is no more logical for food than for crystal meth.
That being said, it is certainly a self-damaging cycle that can be harder to break than drug addiction. Drug-addiction recovery (even for the most addictive drugs such as heroine and crystal meth) has a higher rate of success than weight loss efforts of the morbidly obese. I think a good part of this is due to the fact that there is a lot more ignorance about weight loss than drug addiction, and a lot more misinformation out there. A person trying to abstain from trigger foods has a more difficult time finding social support. Family and friends are much less likely to push drugs on a recovering addict (even if they use themselves) than they are to push birthday-cake on an a compulsive eater. A drug addict generally a drug addict does not have to worry that their drug of choice may be hidden in their food and drink without their knowledge, and while most street drugs aren't difficult to obtain, at least they're not in ever grocery store and gas station right on the shelves.
When you have a problem controlling refined carbs, you have to become a detective, and read nutrition labels, ask how food is prepared, and avoid foods that contain your trigger foods (this isn't too difficult in a restaurant, but when you're a guest in someone's home, they tend to get offended).
That being said, the drug and drug addict comparison can be taken way too far. I don't think mashed potatoes or even cheesy poofs should be banned or that no one under the age of 21 (or maybe it should be over 21) should be allowed to eat cake.
It would be nice if obesity were as understood as drug addiction, and I think that day is coming (if researchers aren't cut off at the knees by accusations that they are trying to give people excuses for being fat), but for now we're unfortunately stuck with being both scientist and lab rat.
It would also be nice if the general population were a little more sympathetic to compulsive behaviors of all kinds, but misunderstanding and even hatred never go completely out of style, so I don't see that hapening either.
I agree that for some people (myself included) that food (especially some foods) can have "drug-like" properties. Even normal weight people "self-medicate" with foods. Comfort foods are called so for a reason, and nearly always are high in carbohydrates and fat (plain green beans are rarely anyone's comfort food). Using addiction as an excuse to continue self-damaging behavior is no more logical for food than for crystal meth.
That being said, it is certainly a self-damaging cycle that can be harder to break than drug addiction. Drug-addiction recovery (even for the most addictive drugs such as heroine and crystal meth) has a higher rate of success than weight loss efforts of the morbidly obese. I think a good part of this is due to the fact that there is a lot more ignorance about weight loss than drug addiction, and a lot more misinformation out there. A person trying to abstain from trigger foods has a more difficult time finding social support. Family and friends are much less likely to push drugs on a recovering addict (even if they use themselves) than they are to push birthday-cake on an a compulsive eater. A drug addict generally a drug addict does not have to worry that their drug of choice may be hidden in their food and drink without their knowledge, and while most street drugs aren't difficult to obtain, at least they're not in ever grocery store and gas station right on the shelves.
When you have a problem controlling refined carbs, you have to become a detective, and read nutrition labels, ask how food is prepared, and avoid foods that contain your trigger foods (this isn't too difficult in a restaurant, but when you're a guest in someone's home, they tend to get offended).
That being said, the drug and drug addict comparison can be taken way too far. I don't think mashed potatoes or even cheesy poofs should be banned or that no one under the age of 21 (or maybe it should be over 21) should be allowed to eat cake.
It would be nice if obesity were as understood as drug addiction, and I think that day is coming (if researchers aren't cut off at the knees by accusations that they are trying to give people excuses for being fat), but for now we're unfortunately stuck with being both scientist and lab rat.
It would also be nice if the general population were a little more sympathetic to compulsive behaviors of all kinds, but misunderstanding and even hatred never go completely out of style, so I don't see that hapening either.
Food is a drug
