What Is Food Addiction?

By Author: Andrew B
Total Articles: 6
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Food addiction is a form of overeating and is characterized by out of control eating or binge eating. Overeaters often consume food to the point where they're uncomfortably full. Such binge eating and overeating episodes are generally followed by very strong feelings of guilt and shame. A food addict often keeps his or her food addiction a secret and overeats in private. Food addicts usually eat normal in public or in the presence of friends and family in order to hide their disorderly eating habits.

A symptom of food addiction is eating a very large number of calories in a very short amount of time. This sort of overeating often leads to weight gain. While most overeaters try to lose weight they generally don't succeed. Instead they go through cycles of dieting followed by overeating. Many food addicts are diagnosed by therapists as having binge eating disorder.

Overeating has other serious consequences including diabetes, heart disease, depression and high cholesterol. There are also long term consequences such as stroke, arthritis, kidney disease, and bone deterioration.

Eating large amounts ...
... of food very quickly, preoccupation with body weight, constant feeling of hunger, mood swings, depression a history of weight fluctuation, a history of unsuccessful dieting, and eating little in public while being clearly overweight are all signs shared by sufferers of food addiction.

Often food addicts consume a huge amount of calories in a day resulting in an addictive high and feelings of release from emotional or psychological stress. Most of their overeating is often a form of emotional eating or eating to comfort tough emotions.

Therapy and counseling are common forms of recovery methods for food addicts. A critical part of therapy is working with the patient on creating healthier habits to deal with psychological and emotional stress instead of resorting to food for comfort. Another important part of recovery is helping the food addict become more aware of why and how much he or she eats. This is usually done through journaling and working on being more present minded.

While food addiction shares some commonalities with bulimia they are both very different eating disorder. Food addiction is characterized by overeating or binge eating. Bulimia is characterized by overeating or binge eating followed by purging. For bulimics common forms of purging include vomiting, fasting, excessively exercising, or using laxatives.

Food addictions, bulimia and other eating disorders are most common among younger women in their teens or twenties. It may take years of therapy to treat an eating disorder however therapy does seem to be a very effective treatment. There are even therapists who specialize only in eating disorders.

There are also many support groups for eating disorder recovery. Such support groups include overeaters anonymous and ANAD. Many support groups follow a strict 12 step recovery program. Others follow more flexible recovery plans providing advice and letting the food addict make progress at his or her own pace. In either case support groups are a great way to build peer support and accountability. Attending a support groups is great step to recovering from an eating disorder.
Andrew is the editor of the food addiction blog which contains information about food addiction treatment.