What is Food Addiction?
Food addiction is a phrase that is becoming more prevalent among diet culture propaganda. The assumption that food addiction is comparable to drug addiction disregards the inherent relationship between restriction and feeling “out of control” with food. New research has found that many of these widely held beliefs surrounding food addiction are inaccurate and can be harmful.
By: Autumn Rauchwerk
The “Food Addiction” Story
Have you or any of your friends or family members ever cut out certain foods or food groups — like sugar or processed foods — on a quest for better health? Many of us have been told that these foods are addictive, and the solution is to stop eating them or to very carefully control how much of them we’re eating.
Eventually, we think, we’ll stop craving chocolate or ice cream or salt and vinegar chips. We think that once we eat less sugar or less salt, our palates will adapt, and it will be easy to stick with eating “healthy” — a diet of vegetables, nuts, whole grains (if we’re permitting carbs), lean protein, maybe some fruit and dark chocolate if we’re feeling feisty.
The question is — if this was really the way to health, why does it feel so impossible for most people to stick with long term? Is it because we just aren’t strong enough, don’t have enough willpower? Is it because we can’t avoid all places that might serve these “addictive” foods?
Let’s Dig Deeper — What’s All This Really About?
To find the answer, we have to go back into our evolutionary past. As humans, we evolved to live in environments where access to food wasn’t always consistent. When we would go long periods of time without eating sufficiently or only eating one type of food because of a lack of food availability, our bodies learned to respond with something called “primal hunger.”
When food was available once again, this primal hunger allowed us to eat large quantities (more than we would need if we were eating regularly) in order to store up the calories for later periods of scarcity. Similarly, when we restrict food (even just mentally), our bodies think they are in an environment of scarcity and adapt accordingly — by craving the “forbidden foods” and doing what they can to consume as much of them as possible.
That’s right, the reason we feel out of control around these foods is actually because we restrict them — by not keeping these foods in the house, only allowing them at certain times, or feeling guilty for eating them.
In essence, diets (or any restriction of food types and quantities) don’t work. Perhaps they seem to work for a while — we feel “in control,” able to maintain a specific way of eating — but, most of the time, we can’t stick with our food rules long-term. When people feel deprived, aren’t getting enough calories to meet their individual body’s needs, or when they label certain foods as “good” and others as “bad,” their bodies react with a response to scarcity. Their bodies fight to get as much high-calorie food as possible, to have enough stores to survive when scarcity inevitably returns.
Okay, This Makes Sense, But Doesn’t the Research Say That Food is Addictive?
Many have argued that food is addictive because it lights up the pleasure areas of the brain, just like drugs do. In fact, laughing, holding a baby, and listening to music also light up these pleasure areas. Are we addicted to those things? Food having this effect is a survival mechanism — we need to eat enough in order to survive, and if eating it gives us pleasure, that will encourage us to eat enough to keep us going.
The existence of food addiction is not supported by scientific evidence. Beyond that, research has not found a specific element of food that might give it addictive properties. In a review of the research on sugar addiction, the authors concluded that addiction-like behaviors only happen when there is intermittent access to sugar. So, when people are trying to restrict sugar or only let themselves have it on special occasions, that is when they’ll feel out of control around sugar. When they allow themselves to have it without restriction, the addiction-like behaviors disappear.
The Answer: It’s Really About Self Trust
The answer is simple: regular access to the foods we were restricting. That survival mechanism, the “primal hunger,” or feeling out of control around food, goes away when we let go of the rules, the restrictions.
Healing our relationship with food is only possible when we learn to trust ourselves around all foods. In order to do this, we must release the idea that willpower is essential for healthy eating and let go of the idea that we can control the size and shape of our bodies (our body has a natural weight set point that it fights to stay at, and this set point is different for each person).
Adopting an approach shaped by Health at Every Size® and Intuitive Eating, where we allow regular access to all foods without placing value judgments on them, will not lead to long-term out of control eating. Rather, after an initial adaptation period, our body will step out of the scarcity mindset, and the high fat, high sugar, high salt foods we were once terrified of and infatuated with won’t have power over us.
This is because something called habituation occurs. In habituation, our bodies adapt to the things we are exposed to again and again. Once people get accustomed to having formerly “forbidden” foods in their home and allow themselves to eat these foods whenever they would like, these foods start to lose their power. In this process, we get in touch with which foods we actually enjoy, how different foods and quantities make us feel, and we learn to trust our bodies to tell us when, what, and how much to eat.
We won’t ever be “perfect” eaters — there’s no such thing, really — and that is as it should be. Trust that, when you stop restricting foods (or even just believing that how you’re eating is “bad” — a concept known as mental restriction), you won’t feel out of control while eating. The ten principles of intuitive eating are helpful in guiding this process. Working with a trained professional — a dietitian and/or therapist trained in intuitive eating — can help support your journey, especially if you feel really out of touch with your body’s signals or you’re using food as a main coping mechanism.
For Those In Eating Disorder Recovery
For those in recovery from eating disorders, this journey is a bit different. It is a goal for many folks experiencing eating disorders to get to a place where they can become intuitive eaters. However, in the initial recovery process, it is important for them to have support from a team of trained professionals — a doctor, a dietitian, and a therapist — who can help them eat in a way that nurtures their body and cope with the emotions that come up in this process.
At BALANCE eating disorder treatment center, our compassionate, highly skilled team of clinicians is trained in diagnosing and treating the spectrum of eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, compulsive overeating, and other disordered eating behaviors and body image issues. We offer a variety of programs and services targeted at helping clients overcome fear foods and develop a healthy relationship with food. We offer nutrition counseling with a licensed dietitian, meal support, a Food & Mood Group, and a variety of other groups and resources to help those seeking help for food concerns.
Our admissions team would be happy to answer any questions you may have about our programs and services. Book a free consultation call with our admissions team below or read more about our philosophy here.
This post was written by BALANCE Dietetic Intern, Autumn Rauchwerk.
Autumn is a dietetic intern at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she will complete her MS in Nutrition and Exercise Physiology in May 2021. She is also a Registered Yoga teacher and freelance writer. Autumn is passionate about helping clients develop a relationship with food and their bodies rooted in self-trust and learning to work with their bodies rather than against them. She loves sourdough bread, rock climbing, dancing, and meditation/mindfulness work.
Connect with Autumn: Instagram & autumnrauchwerk.com