What is Food Addiction: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment

[00:00:00] is the Quint spotcast.

[00:00:07] Do you feel guilty or ashamed after you eat some foods?

[00:00:13] Do you hide what you eat or how much you eat from people?

[00:00:16] Do you eat something that you crave to the point where you're not just full, but your stuff excessively?

[00:00:22] If you said yes to any of these questions, we need to talk.

[00:00:25] And I'm going to come back to these questions in some time.

[00:00:28] But first sit down and listen because you or someone you know might be suffering from food addiction.

[00:00:35] What's food addiction?

[00:00:37] Food addiction is an addiction to junk food that's often as strong as drug addiction,

[00:00:41] and it can be as damaging if not more.

[00:00:44] Like any addiction, a food addiction can kill you prematurely by causing obesity, heart disease,

[00:00:51] high cholesterol and the range of lifestyle disorders.

[00:00:54] And if it doesn't kill you, it'll make sure that your life is miserable.

[00:00:58] So let's talk.

[00:00:59] Welcome back to Vishnu Ki Secret Life.

[00:01:07] The show where you learn something new about nutrition, fitness, life or lifestyle choices,

[00:01:12] usually through my own experiences.

[00:01:15] I'm also joined today by Nanny Sittleworld, she's an obesity lifestyle and disease consultant.

[00:01:20] And she's battled her own food addiction.

[00:01:24] At her heaviest, she weighed 160 kilos.

[00:01:29] For the longest time, food addiction has been met with jokes, doubt and skepticism.

[00:01:35] People would say things like, no, it doesn't exist, just have some self-control and just eat healthy.

[00:01:41] But this substantial research, which shows that food addiction can be as addictive as narcotics and other substances.

[00:01:49] And given how easily junk food is available at literally every corner, it's a very difficult addiction to fight.

[00:01:55] For example, a 2013 study from Connecticut College found that Oreos, you know Oreos, right?

[00:02:01] They let up the brain centers of rats even more powerfully than cocaine could.

[00:02:06] And that's pretty powerful.

[00:02:08] A 2014 study published in the neurofarmacology journal showed a very marksimilarity between the brain patterns of heroin's effect on a drug addict and junk food on a food addict.

[00:02:19] I was a complete junk food addict, sugar, fat, name it.

[00:02:27] That's Ninety Sittleworld. She's a clinical nutritionist in Bombay.

[00:02:31] She overcame her own food addiction to live a healthy life.

[00:02:35] Like I told you earlier, she used to weigh 160 kilos at her peak.

[00:02:39] She overcame all of that and lives a healthy life now.

[00:02:42] How a smoker, craves smoke or a drug addict craves dope?

[00:02:52] I could not stay away from fatty food and sugar. It was wild.

[00:02:58] I mean, I could do anything. I would lie to eat the food.

[00:03:03] I could, you know, every bit of my money was used to eat the food.

[00:03:10] I mean, it was a big joke. Ninety, what does she do with her money? She eats it up.

[00:03:22] I am also a food addict. I found out very recently because my brother, who's been struggling with his weight for most of his life, told me that he was an addict.

[00:03:31] He read about it online and he found that he had a lot of the symptoms or warning signs to keep an eye out for.

[00:03:38] And initially I reacted how I've always reacted to things. I was quite skeptical. I was quite cynical. I was saying things like,

[00:03:45] it's not an addiction. Just take some dedication. But then I ended up thinking about it because as you may know,

[00:03:52] or if you don't know, I returned to healthy routine very recently. But I haven't been able to stick to it.

[00:03:58] I've been falling off of a door over and over again. And it's not for lack of trying.

[00:04:04] So I went online and I tried to look it up. And yeah, I don't have just one or two symptoms of food addiction.

[00:04:11] I have all of this symptoms. Now, admitting that he's an addict has gone a long way in fixing my brother's health. He's much healthier now.

[00:04:20] In fact, I also recorded an episode with him on how to return to a healthy lifestyle. I'm going to leave a link to that in the show notes.

[00:04:27] It's not been easy to accept that I am an addict. Let alone tell others about it. So please keep this in mind while you listen to what I have to say.

[00:04:42] If you are someone you love, suffers from food addiction. You need to get them help before it's too late.

[00:04:48] When you're an addict, you just want to compulsively eat that food and nothing will stop you from reaching out to it and eating it.

[00:04:58] It could be the middle of the night. You could be at home and that food won't be there. You will go online and you will order it.

[00:05:07] Apart from the studies I told you earlier, the link between your brain's reward system and the high amounts of salt and sugar in most processed junk food is fairly well established.

[00:05:23] It's been proven that junk food can trigger a very similar reward system that many drug users get from feeding their addictions.

[00:05:30] A study in the frontiers in psychology journal says this.

[00:05:34] 30% of people who try heroin become addicts. The same goes for about 16% of cocaine users.

[00:05:40] One study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that when the definition of addiction is explained to people who are obese or overweight,

[00:05:47] almost 29% of them describe themselves as addicted to food.

[00:05:55] That means, I knew.

[00:06:00] It was really, really, really bad. When there was no way I could even move and then some awakening came in me where I started to eat sensibly well.

[00:06:19] Cravings came. I overcome them with the help of friends, with the help of support from family but the best is I wanted a good body, not in terms of shape,

[00:06:35] but in terms of feeling, healthy feeling, no pain because let me tell you, at 160 kilos that is what the food addiction had caused me.

[00:06:49] My body was wrapped in pain.

[00:06:52] And when let me tell you also, when I reached my perfect weight, I was not ready to accept it that I was at perfect weight.

[00:07:04] And I hit the rock bottom with so much low and I was so scared to eat any food that I felt was not good for me.

[00:07:15] It just made me break down and cry and say, I don't want to live like this, where I'm scared of food.

[00:07:23] And took a lot of time, I had to work mentally with myself for over two years to get out of those fears and get down to normal eating.

[00:07:41] Let's go back to the questions I asked you in the beginning. These questions are the first step to understanding whether you or someone you loved suffers from food addiction.

[00:07:50] Do you often crave some specific foods even if you're eaten till you're full?

[00:07:54] I did and I still do and it's called peanut butter and jam sandwiches, just to name one example.

[00:08:01] Next question, do you start eating some of these foods you're craving and then end up binge eating or over eating it, weigh more than you plan to or weigh more than you should till you feel completely stuffed.

[00:08:13] I did and I was doing this till last month. No, in fact I'd be a monist. I was doing this till last week.

[00:08:21] Question 3, do you feel guilty or ashamed about eating some foods and then still eat them?

[00:08:27] I do, I do, I really do and I start to see the pattern here.

[00:08:33] Fourth question, do you hide your consumption of unhealthy food or junk food from others? I do and I've done this from the time I was really young.

[00:08:42] So remember when I was in fifth standard, I bought 10 of those little, those little dolled what us that used to get at those small shops.

[00:08:50] I did this when I was in school. I was I think 10 years old. I hid the word us under a pillow on my bed.

[00:08:57] Then my father and my brother came to my room and they found it. And I felt really ashamed of myself and I felt really small on the inside.

[00:09:06] There were a lot of science of food addiction in my past. Even when I was quite young, I didn't really understand it and either did my parents.

[00:09:36] I never really thought about it but I had often feel ashamed about what I was eating and how much I was eating.

[00:09:42] But I wouldn't be able to stop. Like when I had summer vacation during school, I think this was when I was in the sixth to seventh standard.

[00:09:49] I'd spend every afternoon at home watching TV which is fairly common. I was alone at home most of the time.

[00:09:57] So I had a standard routine. I'll go out of the house, I'd go out before lunch, I'll buy two mango milkshakes and two packets of head and seek.

[00:10:05] And I'd have all of this while I was watching something.

[00:10:08] And obviously I'll make sure that I hid all this from my parents and grandparents.

[00:10:12] And I never really thought about what I was trying to cope with by doing this. Was it the fact that I didn't have any friends?

[00:10:19] Or that I didn't play outside or go out much?

[00:10:23] The multiple things that cost food addiction. It can be something as simple as body image.

[00:10:34] Someone has commented on how you look and that's it.

[00:10:38] It triggers a food addiction where you will only eat foods that will improve your body image.

[00:10:45] It could be more complicated, like an emotional turmoil. It could be anger, depression and even happiness will cost food addictions.

[00:10:59] I remember this one incident and I was maybe 7 or 8 years old.

[00:11:04] So I was always a chubby kid. I had wait to choose all the way back then from when I was a child.

[00:11:09] I was coming back from the playground where my brother and I had gone running early in the morning because even at that age we needed to lose weight.

[00:11:18] So I was crossing the road and some kid on the other side of the road.

[00:11:22] Yeld that me, he loudly yelled and called me fat.

[00:11:26] Like really loud across the street.

[00:11:29] And I swear to God I still remember it very clearly.

[00:11:32] And I was tired and I was waiting. I had just been running because I needed to lose weight.

[00:11:38] And that kid called me that when I was in that very exposed vulnerable state that really messed me up.

[00:11:44] In fact I think it's a big reason for why even today I get really conscious or intimidated about going to the gym or about admitting that I am working out for some weird reason.

[00:12:00] I think things like this and other times where people made fun of me being fat or you know just made fun of my weight.

[00:12:06] Might have had a role to play in all in how all this began.

[00:12:16] So anyway, back to our questions. Question number five.

[00:12:23] Do you feel like you're unable to control your eating of unhealthy food despite knowing that it's problematic or unhealthy?

[00:12:29] Yes, I absolutely have this problem where I might know something's unhealthy.

[00:12:33] I've eaten enough healthy food and not feel hungry and all things given I shouldn't be eating the stuff that we're talking about.

[00:12:40] But I do end up eating it and again, not just a little bit because moderation is a very tough thing for me to practice.

[00:12:47] And I end up in another cycle of shame and self-loathing and this is where the next question comes in.

[00:12:53] Have you repeatedly tried to quit or stop eating some foods or set rules about cheat days or cheat meals but failed to stick to it?

[00:13:02] Do you make excuses for why it's okay to give into your craving sometimes?

[00:13:06] These are the questions and I didn't say yes to any one of these questions.

[00:13:10] I said yes to all of these questions.

[00:13:12] Now if you or someone you love has answered three or more of these questions with the yes, you might have a problem with food addiction.

[00:13:19] So let's answer the why and the how. Why should you treat your addiction and how can you treat it?

[00:13:25] So why is simple you'll have more energy you won't face health issues like heart trouble diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol

[00:13:39] You feel better you'll be able to live longer and have a better quality of life.

[00:13:43] If you don't handle it you'll eventually end up with heart disease or diabetes or a range of other problems.

[00:13:50] You very well could. You will know better than anyone else what problems you will face just take the problems that you face right now and make them five or seven times worse.

[00:13:59] You have trouble climbing stairs and you go out of breath first well that's going to become knee pain heart trouble and pills for your health soon.

[00:14:07] You got high sugar and you got high cholesterol.

[00:14:09] Well continue with your food addiction and you'll end up needing insulin injections because of diabetes and medicines for high cholesterol.

[00:14:16] What could happen if we don't tackle your problem?

[00:14:19] You spiral it gets worse you hit rock bottom you can't do anything and a lot of side effects.

[00:14:28] If they can be weight loss they can be weight gain they can be depression and the end of it you may land up being hospitalized.

[00:14:37] And let's not even talk about the social situations you'll face this is from personal experience.

[00:14:41] You will always be the friend in the group who people make fat jokes about and you're expected to just learn to take a joke or be okay with it

[00:14:50] And because you already feel so out of place and left out unconscious you want your friends to like you and you end up acting like it's okay and laugh it off.

[00:14:58] But every single time it happens it hurts. You just don't let it show.

[00:15:10] Even professionally a comprehensive analysis of reports from 2000 to 2008 showed that nearly 54% of people who are overweight or obese reported facing stigma from colleagues

[00:15:22] And 43% said that they face stigma even from their employers.

[00:15:27] So do you want to treat your food addiction? Good, let's start.

[00:15:34] What I have done so far to fight my addiction is write down a list of the pros and cons of fighting my food addiction.

[00:15:41] On the pro side I've mentioned things like I won't be out of breath all the time.

[00:15:45] I'll feel more attractive I'll look better and I won't be tired often.

[00:15:49] On the cons side a lot of it was a stuff I wouldn't be able to do.

[00:15:53] I wouldn't be able to eat biscuits, I wouldn't give a cake or pizza or sugar or deep fried things. You get the idea right?

[00:16:01] I also would have to push myself a little bit out of my comfort zone and work out regularly and watch what I eat more carefully.

[00:16:08] Next I wrote down a list of trigger foods like foods that trigger me to binge or foods that I can't resist easily.

[00:16:15] These foods are the ones I'm trying to cut out completely or stay really far away from.

[00:16:21] And there's no point in trying to have self control and not eat these foods.

[00:16:24] Eliminate them, cut them out, remove them from your life completely.

[00:16:28] I'm doing this by not keeping any junk or unhealthy snacks at home.

[00:16:32] Like I used to keep my kitchen packed completely with these things and I would tell myself,

[00:16:37] I'll eat a little bit during a cheat day or a cheat meal.

[00:16:40] But that would never happen. It would end up being almost every day.

[00:16:44] Remember, this is addiction. Addictions not a matter of self control or well-power.

[00:16:49] On its own, addiction has been categorized medically as a disorder.

[00:16:54] It's unfair to expect your brain and body to fight a disease just through willpower.

[00:16:59] Would it tell a person who sustained a fracture?

[00:17:01] Hey, willpower is going to take a closer look at you.

[00:17:03] No, you wouldn't. If you did, you're an embezzle.

[00:17:06] So these are some of the steps that I have taken. What else can you do?

[00:17:11] Then lots of ways, of course the first one is self respect.

[00:17:16] The minute you realize that your body is a temple and you need to eat sensibly, moderately,

[00:17:25] it will automatically help you fight it and overcome it.

[00:17:30] And then you take the help of support groups and counseling.

[00:17:34] First and foremost, acceptance of awareness, education, counseling, support groups,

[00:17:43] health from family, friends, everybody.

[00:17:47] That is what will help you to cope with addiction.

[00:17:51] The other things that I have left to do are start grocery shopping, start cooking again and eating healthier

[00:17:57] and working out more regularly and more intensely. Also, I need to sleep well.

[00:18:02] But these are all big changes. I'm taking all these bigger changes once more step at a time.

[00:18:07] Like for working out, I'll tell myself I'll work out just two minutes every day.

[00:18:11] This is easier to commit to than working out thrice a week or five times a week.

[00:18:15] Start small if you have to and scale up.

[00:18:19] Other things that you should be doing are eating terms of nutritious food, reducing stress,

[00:18:23] maybe through meditation or deep breathing and sleeping well.

[00:18:27] Having more stress will make you crave junk food because junk food like most drugs is comforting.

[00:18:34] It's quick, it's easily available, it's really cheap and it's everywhere.

[00:18:39] Increased stress will also make it tough for you to quote and quote use your willpower and say no.

[00:18:44] During those times when you actually have to use your willpower.

[00:18:48] I also mentioned the importance of sleep in my previous episodes.

[00:18:51] I'll leave a link to my episode on Sleep and How to Get Better Sleep in the Show Notes.

[00:18:55] But apart from slowing down your mind and your body, inadequate sleep can also increase the cravings for junk food.

[00:19:01] Which is why if you stay a blade of night, you'll often have these certain cravings for something really deep fried or really sweet.

[00:19:08] And finally eating terms of nutritious food.

[00:19:11] Vegetables, meat and nuts will all keep you full and give you a chance of nutrition.

[00:19:16] And over time as you eat more and more of this food, your body gets used to this food.

[00:19:21] And then when you eat junk, you'll feel a temporary rush, maybe the sugar high or the deep fried taste or whatever it is.

[00:19:28] But like 10 minutes after you finish, you will feel pain and you will feel the punishing effects of the junk food.

[00:19:33] It's difficult but it's worth it.

[00:19:36] And before she leaves us today, Nene is got something to say.

[00:19:39] I know the pitfalls, I've walked the path, it is not easy, but let me tell you that the word impossible, spell as I am possible.

[00:19:52] If you have a more serious eating disorder or addiction, you absolutely must seek treatment and counseling.

[00:20:06] I'm going to leave links to a few addiction experts in the show notes.

[00:20:09] You can also write to us if you have any specific questions or feedback.

[00:20:13] We are available at podcast at thequint.com.

[00:20:16] You can also tweet out me personally if you'd like.

[00:20:18] I am available on Twitter at Vishnu says word.

[00:20:21] And I think that pretty much sums it up.

[00:20:25] Don't forget, this podcast is available in all platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Geosarven,

[00:20:31] Radio.com, Stitcher, Custbox, Pocket Custs and most other popular platforms.

[00:20:37] It was a pleasure to talk to you all again.

[00:20:39] I'm going to see you all in the next episode of Vishnu Key Secret Life.

[00:20:42] Till then, that's all we have for you on this edition of Vishnu Key Secret Life.

[00:20:46] Join us again next time for another episode of Vishnu Key Secret Life.