Can You Be Addicted To Food?

Soo, I like chocolate, and all the fatty good tasting junk foods, but I'm also vain, and health conscious, so I do eat these things but in moderation. Instead of drinking pepsi everyday, I may enjoy it at a movie... instead of eating a big mac twice a week, I'll eat it once every 10 days etc etc. I work out and I weigh myself everyday. Before I had kids I weighed close to 150 and I was barely 21. Everyone has an aha moment and that was mine. When I saw 147/148 on my scale I was disgusted. I started working out and eating better and lost 20+ pounds. That was about 18 yrs ago, and I've kept it off, even after having rugrats, lol. I guess everyone has their own limit.

Sure it's addicting but I don't think it's something that's terribly hard to overcome. You don't get the shakes from pushing back from the table. People do what they WANT to do, people give up what they WANT to give up.

 

Proves the point really! Everyone can and should look after themselves as much as possible and fat people who claim there is a food addiction are just kidding themselves. These people never use scales and don't have mirrors in their houses too! For obvious reasons.... They can't bear to face what they have let themselves become.

 

My friend had a donkey he was training to live without food. He was getting quite good at it, managed a good few days, he thought he had it cracked, but unfortunately the donkey up and died.

Makedde
Makedde
Makedde

...you are no longer allowed to look at MacGyver.

 

Lol! Perfect example of addiction.....she'd end of a frenzied basket case if MacGyver was taken away from her cold turkey........

 

OR...no more posting at Political Forum, Makedde..

 

I've seen people go cold turkey with food and they do have physical symptoms. Then everything changes and they quickly become used to not eating. If I don't eat, I turn into a wild animal, get the shakes, can't think etc etc etc, but to lose weight I don't not eat. I eat different things, probably more of them and probably more often. That mitigates any withdrawal from the soft food, like croissants and cappuccino. I've been healthy eating for weeks now and just back to it after Christmas and the effects of over-eating are worse and more horrible than any effect from eating well. When you over-eat you can't even get peace to sleep, you're sluggish, you feel sick, heartburn...bleh.

I'm not knowledgeable, but think nicotine gets quite a grip and it seems to be very physical for some people. Caffeine is a bit dangerous apart from addiction, it can dehydrate and cause tachycardia, headaches, all kinds of strange ill effects so it is acting as a drug and having demonstrable physical effects and therefore may well be physically addictive rather than mentally.

I agree. I think lack of food has physical effects but agree it is very easy to acquire eating habits. I am trying to point out that it is the habit.... The habit is easy to acquire. I think it is not so much really about food.

Consider this regarding habit acquisition. I was on holiday for 2 weeks over the Christmas period. This meant socialising into the night and basically turning night into day for 2 weeks. I'm back at work since a week past on Monday, but I'm only starting to sleep through the night. Today, I sat in my armchair in the corner at work and went out like a light and I knew I had a meeting in 40 minutes, but I was knackered. I have in 2 weeks, acquired the habit of sleeping whenever my body wants sleep. Regardless of whether it is night or day or where I am. It's so quick to pick up new habits, but not very quick to ditch them once acquired.

I've just put my name down for a fundraising walk (Moonlight Walk in May with a big squad of friends, it's gonna be gr8 )and the next hit will be the gym as I'll have to prepare by pounding the treadmill every day to make sure I'm up to it. For 2 weeks, that will kill me. Then I'll start to want it...look for it...need that treadmill high

I think it's the habit that grips people, not a particular vice. We are creatures of habit and we find some comfort in habits. We like to have them.

 

Agreed.....

 

When I'm hungry , I eat .. that don't mean I'm a food addict ..do it ? lol

now , if we're discussing strawberry cheesecake or cat-head biscuts with sausage gravy , I'm guilty , LOL

 

Then surely you will have no problem answering these questions:

 

im not the person, but yes you can, its called self discipline.

 

So then you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about and have absolutely ZERO personal frame of reference in dispensing advice about them...do you?

Anything else you have ZERO personal experience with that you wish to arrogantly tell those who do exactly how to handle/deal with any problems arising from these things?

 

Then mind your own damm business.

 

I agree. When someone has had no experience or even dealt w/someone who had - for instance, a drinking problem - they have no business dishing out advice.

In the 80's I worked at an alcohol & drug treatment center - talk about an educational job! Alcohol itself is a disease and often an inherited one.... it can even skip generations......

I remember when I was addicted to Pepsi. I had a hell of a time getting off that stuff. All the dark sodas are addictive. Now I never drink any sodas - it's all rotgut stuff.

 

I shall not, if you dont want people to respond to stupid crap you say, maybe you shouldnt put it on a forum.

 

That's not addiction, HB. You can control what you eat. You can put down the chocolate when you know you have to. Same with the Pepsi.
I do know the battle to give up Pepsi, haha. I still drink it but I make sure I alternate with water. One Pepsi, one bottle of water, and so on.

 

One uncle was an alcoholic and had to quit drinking to get a liver transplant. He did.
Another uncle had to quit smoking to get a lung transplant. He did.
My grandpop died of lung cancer after smoking during the war. He was addicted, yet he quit. All cold turkey.

If they can do it, anyone can. Don't tell me I don't know what I am talking about. Watching your own family members waste away is more than enough for me to say I know what I am talking about.

 

Gamblers and alcoholics anonymous are places people go to in order to get sympathy and justification for their bad behavior.

Its bloody pathetic that there are people out there who leave their kids in the car to go gambling, or leave the baby at home alone while they go and buy grog.
Its pathetic that people whinge about having no money but can always seem to afford that pack a day habit.

Is drugs and alcohol more important than their own children? If you put your smokes or pokies ahead of your own family, you need to be locked up. Forget treatment, just take the kids away and lock the parents up.

 

I never said people can't 'do it'.

I said that you have not gone through it, so you have NO idea what it's like. NONE.



You wanna give advice...fine. That is your right.

But to say you have never done something and then claim you 'know what I am talking about' on the subject is, imo, ludicrous.


I have never gone through childbirth, but I have seen others go through it.

So, does that mean I know 'what I am talking about' and can now give women advice on how to handle postpartum depression?

 

If you have seen it, you would certainly be able to say how painful it appears to be. You have as much right to your opinion as anyone else -whether they have personal experience or not.

 

How do you know?

Do you know every person that ever went and know what all of them thought?

So they never go to these places because they desperately want to quit?

 

Please read my post again...I added to it.

 

I don't think they need to. The help and encouragement they need to overcome their 'addiction' doesn't come from a person, it comes from within.
You can attend meetings but you will never quit drinking or smoking if you don't want to first. In order to succeed, you have to want to change.

Think about weight loss clubs. Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, etc. It costs money to sign up, it costs money to stay a member of the club. They charge you per month, and depending on how much weight you want to lose, you could waste thousands of dollars on a club which just tells you what you already know - eat healthy and excercise.
Why attend a meeting and have a stranger tell you what you already know?

Why are people able to quit smoking because a stranger tells them to but they can't quit on their own with their own self motivation?

People who are obese and rush to the doctor for a gastric band always seem to claim they have tried every diet going but nothing has worked. Diets DO work - you have to stick to them. That is the problem. People can't be bothered doing the hard work so they rush to the doc for the easy fix.

A little self belief in oneself can enable you to do anything you want. I do not believe you need to attend a meeting to know that.

 

I am perfectly happy to have people respond intelligently. Threadbare platitudes which take no account of the line of inquiry being developed do not qualify, hth.

 

I'm glad I haven't a clue to most if not all you say and think.
An " addiction " is a craving or habit.Food is the most accessible
and easily acquired because all humans have to have food in order
to survive.And no,many people cannot just choose to stop.If only life
were as simple as you make it sound.
The mind plays a huge part in most addiction but also the body.
If the body craves sugar,then going w/o sugar or nicotine will cause
the body to feel weak if not sick.
Like the flu.One cannot will a flu away.
I don't have a clue as to " lack the willpower to do what they know
is right." What has right got to do with anything.
Is it wrong for some little old lady to want sweets { box of chocolates }.
Or her nightly glass or 2 of sherry.
No one gets out of life alive.Age causes most deaths.

 

This statement is from someone who has appalling nerve to sit in judgment about something you have no clue about.......

There's all kinds of good info out there about AA and you don't even bother to research it. AA is one of the best things recovering alcoholics can do for themselves b/c of the strength, the emotional support it gives it's members and many people needs AA for a long time - sometimes for the rest of their lives...... AA has saved many lives......

Altho I've never had any connection to GA or people who had to go there, I'll give the place credit for helping those w/the addiction of gambling.....

Well, we've been down this road b/f and I'm not wasting anymore of my time again discussing this w/someone who's only comments are judgmental and pious about something she doesn't know anything about......