Can You Be Addicted To Food?

yes and people don't use addiction as an excuse to eat alot either

sugar and choclates and deep fried fatty foods are heavenly and the science says it releases the pleasure harmones in the brain

i think obese people are getting short changed in this debate because they are oppressed by the big corporations who use addictive ingredients to get people to abuse food consumption because food isn't officially classified as an addictive substance

 

I know I'm addicted to some foods. For example, I'm really addicted to soda.

I also have mild withdrawal symptoms when I don't have my favorite vegetables.

Plus some additives to foods are also addictive as well, such as caffeine.

So I would guess that there are both physical and psychological forms of addictions to some types of foods.

However, this is just my opinion as I'm no expert on the situation.

 

Absolutely. You can be addicted to food on a number of levels physiologically and psychologically.

 

You can't be addicted to food.

You are dependent on food.

You can be addicted to overeating.

 

That is a very interesting question. But it's quite a big question. For once, I don't (think) I know the answer. But that won't stop me....

At a basic level, I've heard people say eating addiction exists and is much worse than other addictions, because you can stop drinking/drugs and avoid them altogether in order to control the addiction but you cannot avoid eating. Smokers often return to smoking when they smell someone else's cigarette smoke. I suppose food is like that. It's very easy to slip into bad habits.

And people form habits very quickly. I noticed that when we were running a tuck shop where I used to work (which was a terribly boring place) fundraising for Cancer Research. We used to go to the wholesaler on Wednesdays to buy the stock of junk food for the week. People got to know that and it got so they were at the window, watching for us to return with it, pacing like animals, desperate for a fix of food, but not any particular food, just something to tide them over the boredom.

If you get them to eat at a certain time every day for one week, you've cracked it. I was quite mercenary in that, to hook them into my shop I talk nicely and cheer them up while giving them free sweets from the most unpopular worst selling stock at a certain time every day. They were then in a habit and much more likely to come looking to buy.

But that is a habit. I don't think it is addiction. I think there is more to drugs, in that people are physically addicted, not emotionally. I don't use drugs and never have, but it's a big problem here and it seems if you are addicted and you don't take the drug, you are in physical pain? It pains me not to eat chocolate when I have a craving because I like it, but it doesn't give me pain or any physical symptom.

I think some overweight people have formed bad habits and don't know how to live their lives without them, possibly acquired from family practises. People eat for anything...it's your birthday (food), Christmas (food), let's go out for lunch and catch up (food), let's treat ourselves (food), under stress (food), too busy to think about food (eat high cal crap)... with some very small, sensible changes rather than a rigorous diet regime, they could reverse the whole problem. Eat smart, not fat. But people don't know how to do that..

I also think a lot of overweight people don't over eat as such. They eat the wrong things and don't control their eating patterns, which confuses the body's signals. You can eat 100 calories per day too much and put on 1lb per month over a year and have gained 12 lbs. If that continues and the cycle is not broken, you can end up in trouble very easily. It has to be consciously controlled for many people.

 

There are very real physiological responses that are experienced when eating certain foods. These go above and beyond the need to feed.

A food addiction doesn't automatically mean that person is going to be overweight.

 

agree some of it is very well habit but as with other addictive substances there is not always a withdrawal this is seen with cocaine people don't go through physical withdrawals where they shake and sweat and have pain like with crack or other stronger drugs

same with cigerette use or even caffiene which is proven to be addictive as well so for addiction to be defined it simply just has to be repetitive use and that is what eating is very much like

when eating beyond the threshold of sustinence which most people in developed nations often do food can very well become addictive imo

 

There is no such thing as an addiction to food.
There is no such thing as an addiction to smoking.
There is no such thing as an addiction to alcohol.
There is no such thing as an addiction to drugs.
There is no such thing as an addiction to gambling.

You THINK you are addicted but really, you can stop at any time you choose to. Those who claim they can't are weak and lack the willpower to do what they know is right.

 

There's even a song about it:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVCaT6FvI_8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVCaT6FvI_8[/ame]

 

Some things are mental as well as physical and stopping can be a real problem. I know. I was addicted to smoking and up to 4 packs a day. I had tried a number of times to quit but was always unable to. Then one day I had a neck operation and the anastetic they gave me made my throat so raw that I was unable to smoke for at lest a week. So I thought that if I got by for one week without smoking maybe I could do two weeks. That was 9 years ago. I haven't even had any pangs for a cigarette and don't want any either.

 

IMO you could have quit earlier. All you need to do is think about why you are quitting, and the benefits. Wait another five minutes, then another five minutes, and soon enough, an hour has gone by. If you can last an hour, you can last another hour.

 

I can guarantee you that it is a lot easier said than done. And I take it that you don't smoke. If that is true then you have no idea what you are talking about. With all due resspect my dear.

 

I do not smoke, drink, or do drugs. And nor would I ever do those things.

And I still believe that if someone wants to quit something, they can.

 

While that is fine, unless you are speaking from actual experience, I repeat that you have no idea what you are talking about.

 

Of course they lack it, because in the sense most people mean it, there is no such thing in the first place.

 

How very handsome. Do you ever lie, dissemble or make excuses?

If you answered "yes" to the above question, can you quit doing those things?

 

"Can You Be Addicted To Food? " yes and those people who are addicted to food are called Obese.

 

A process of mind over matter takes effort. Join the military. Take up martial arts. Run a marathon. There is no such thing as addiction, it is just “discomfort” extended to an absurd level designed to elicit sympathy from others. Pain and discomfort are discrete concepts that all people need to experience before they are capable of differentiating those concepts. Pain is real (i.e. your bone is broken, you are bleeding profusely). Discomfort (i.e. addiction) is the attempt to apply the concept of pain artificially.

 

Everyone has willpower.

 

True, but you can also be addicted to some foods ... I'm a chocoholic. I eat a little chocolate every day.....

I have to have my 2 cups of java every morn or I get (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)y... more so than usual......

I used to be addicted to Pepsi..... oh gawd, it was a battle to break that habit, but did it. Now I don't touch any kind of sodas and haven't for years...

Many people overeat b/c food is their comfort........

 

Holy cow, Mak! Time to enter the real world! You don't know what you're talking about........

Why do you think there's Alcoholic Anonymous?
Why do you think there's Gambler's Anonymous?
Why do you think there are drug rehabs all over the country?
Why do you think there are nicotine patches/pills and classes to go to to break the cigarette addiction?
Why do you think people seek mental help when they use food as their comfort? Loneliness & depression often causes this.....

It's simply b/c people need professional help to get over their addiction....

 

Yeah, I'm addicted to food. I can't seem to live without it. Can you Mak? lol

 

Of course there is no such addiction to food. Only fat weak-willed guzzlers would disagree, and thats only to invent a reason why they are so fat and don't do anything about it.

 

And just what proven evidence are you going to show that will prove what you have posted.

 

A fat person!

boom-boom