A Realistic Look at Fighting Food cravings
How many times have you heard people say that they can’t stop eating cookies, or bread, or pasta, or candy? They may even laugh and say they are addicted to chocolate, as they pop the 10th truffle in their mouth. Well it’s time we faced the facts. We are addicted to many of the foods we eat. And when you really look at it, it’s not so very funny. You might even say, food addiction is a debilitating phenomenon.
Now why do I say that food addiction is debilitating?
Let’s take a look at fighting food cravings. You are a size 14. You want to be a size 8. Now we can talk all we want about how society favors thin people, and the model for beauty is skin-and-bones. And all of this is quite true. I don’t dispute it. But the plain and simple fact is, you want to be a size 8, and you can’t get there. It’s you who wants this. It’s not anyone else. And the kick in the teeth is you know you could be there. You know your body on some level wants to be there. But you can’t stop eating all of the cookies, pasta, and bread in order to get there.
Many people with food addiction experience self-esteem problems. They think they are weak and have no will-power. They go on crash diets. They white knuckle it and become irritable and grouchy with their loved ones. Many will give up after a while, and begin to eat even more than they ever did. Most will then gain more than they ever did. Quite often these same people will become convinced that they are less capable than other people, and this greatly affects their sense of self.
All of this is what I would call a low-level food addiction, or the onset of more serious problems. Later down the line the cycles often get worse and worse. Your relatively harmless binging may turn life-threatening and bulimic. If not, your binges may become so extreme as to cause obesity. This in turn has you lethargic all day long, as well as lackluster and prone to sleeping. Your disposition is grouchy because your blood sugar is constantly shooting up and shooting down. And after a while your metabolism is destroyed, along with your self-esteem, and no diets will work any more.
If you’re lucky, at this point you will just continue your cycle of irritability, obesity, and carbohydrate abuse until your body depletes its insulin supply. At this point you will become diabetic and sentence yourself to a shortened life-span, and an old age of pain and misery. If you’re not so lucky, you will convince yourself that it is better ‘not to eat at all’ than to fight the cravings, or to be fat. You will then become anorexic. If this is the case, judging by statistics, you probably won’t make it.
Still we joke about food addiction all the time.
Fighting food cravings is no laughing matter for a lot of people. But there are sources of help. There is a program called Overeaters Anonymous, which I attended for many years. There is also a program called Food Addicts Anonymous. Both of these will give you the support of other people on a similar path, as well as their experience strength and hope. You will also need a food plan that deals with food as an addictive substance. And there are many other tools I will give you in subsequent articles. But to those of you who suffer, I will just say, yes you can live a healthy happy life with food addiction. But you need to reach out.