The vast majority of people today suffer from some type of eating disorder. According to research, more than half of the people on the planet are obese, and more than 90% of them are due to overeating. At the same time, probably every person suffered from food addiction, permanently or temporarily.
Food addiction is a condition when a person gets full not because of hunger, but in order to improve his mental state. Food addiction develops most often in people who are prone to negative thoughts or are in low vibrational frequencies and sometimes have a depressive syndrome. For example, the work of G. Musante found that women suffering from food addiction develop depression. In order to feel better, these people are forced to turn to food for emotional nourishment. Research by N. Krasnoperova calls constant consumption of food a “sophisticated method of suicide.”
Diagnosis of food addiction
Researchers at the Rood Center for Obesity and Food Safety at Yale University have come up with a list of questions to help determine whether you have a food addiction or not.
In order to diagnose such an eating disorder in yourself, you can answer several questions:
- Do I spend a lot of time thinking about food?
- Is it difficult for me to stop when I eat something delicious?
- If it were not for the danger of gaining weight, what kind of diet would I prefer - fatty or lean?
- Is food a significant part of my life?
- Am I eating fast enough and passing often?
If you give an affirmative answer to any of the questions, then most likely there is a certain degree of food addiction.
As can be seen from the definition, food addiction has mental origins. That is, compulsive overeating, according to research, is a way for most people to cope with mental problems. For example, according to research by L. Kulikov, the top ten mental problems include dissatisfaction with appearance.
However, over time, dependence on food begins to be supported by physiological processes in the body. So, for example, if a pathogenic microflora has developed in the intestines due to the consumption of harmful foods, then it begins to influence a person’s choice in the process of choosing food. Each of the pathogenic microorganisms, together with others, form a kind of collective mind, which forms certain food preferences. A person begins to crave foods that are not good for his body.
And, conversely, if a person gradually weanses the habit of eating unhealthy foods, then over time he will stop craving them.
What are you “eating”?
There is an expression: “to seize.” “What are you eating?” - this is a question of what condition a person is trying to change with the help of food.
For example, a person is used to living by restraining his emotions. In the evening he is exhausted because during the day he had to suppress so much in himself. Due to accumulated discomfort, he begins to eat high-calorie foods. He quickly feels better. Then it’s true that heaviness in the stomach may appear, but these are minimal consequences.
Long-term consequences come later. This could be weight gain, obesity, loss of beauty. But at the very first moment a person feels quite pleasant from eating food. It changes its state from minus to plus. In this way, a person “eats” the feeling of discomfort associated with constant suppression of feelings.
Then the person tries to lose weight, and when he doesn’t succeed, he can come to a psychologist. At this moment of meeting with a psychologist, it does not matter to a person what state he was initially stuck in. For him, the answer to the question “how to get rid of food addiction?” associated with getting rid of the consequences that occurred due to use. A person will complain more about how bad he feels, how he doesn’t control himself, how he tries to stop, goes to a bunch of trainings, and nothing works, he still breaks down, how he experiences his failure in trying to regulate his weight.
Causes of food addiction
In addition to physiological, there are also mental, or energetic, causes of food addiction. The established consumer society, through active advertising (explicit or indirect), instills in people from childhood food habits that serve the interests of large food conglomerates, but not the person himself.
Such massive consumption by society of certain types of food products leads to the formation of a collective craving for their consumption. At the energy level, it is expressed in the form of strong influences on each individual person and in the formation of larvae - energy entities that have the rudiments of consciousness and the ability to partially control a person’s consciousness.
Therefore, it is quite difficult to resist such a collective desire alone. This is precisely why it is quite difficult to fight food addiction. However, if there is a strong desire to get rid of it, then it is quite possible to do so. You will probably find several positive examples of successful recovery from this type of eating disorder in your environment.
Where can you start?
Methods to combat addiction
Psychologists have invented special techniques to help combat emotional eating.
The first method: remember your favorite activity.
In a person’s life there is a place for hobbies, hobbies, everything that helps distract and brings satisfaction. We need to take advantage of this.
So, it's time to remember what brought joy before food came first on the list of priority activities. Music, floriculture, pets, swimming... There are many options.
If you do something trivial, it will seem boring and there will be no effect. You can turn on your imagination: replace simple swimming with underwater cycling, and traditional friendly feasts with a trip to a concert or to the gym.
The second method: learn to pause.
Even a five-minute delay before opening the refrigerator door will help you not break down during a stressful situation. It may seem simple, but effective.
Third method: play forfeits.
This is not a joke, but a serious way to help take your mind off going to the refrigerator. To do this, you need to take five small cards, writing a specific activity on each: watch a movie, clean the room, water the flowers, call your parents/girlfriend, take out the trash bag, etc.
The algorithm is simple. We wanted to have a snack. Instead, they took a card at random. You completed the task (and it doesn’t matter if the trash was taken out an hour ago, go again). We got distracted and forgot about food. Playing forfeits forces a person to take charge of the situation, and not blindly succumb to the desire to follow a bad habit.
Fourth method: isolate yourself from “junk” food.
A difficult trick to implement is not to fill the refrigerator with food, not to store snacks in the cupboards, and not to make a “stash” of sweets. It’s physically difficult, because you just want to buy more of everything in the store. It is not easy psychologically to leave yourself without support in the form of food, which will help lift your spirits in difficult times.
Low-calorie foods will come to the rescue. It is worth trying to replace the sausage with a kilogram of cucumbers, which contains 100 calories, adding to them half a kilogram of tomatoes, which contains 300 kilocalories. If you get nervous and eat at least one and a half kilograms of vegetable salad, 400 kcal will enter the body, instead of the usual thousands.
In addition, there will be no feeling of lack of food, because you can chew the salad, the receptors will send a signal to the brain, which will activate the pleasure center. This method allows you to gain health benefits, lose weight and get rid of stress.
Fifth method: use logic against tricks.
In stores, cafes, and restaurants, they resort to all sorts of tricks: gifts, discounts, promotions that charge people emotionally, creating a connection between food and a good mood. Getting used to such a connection comes quickly, forcing you to go for food again. By turning on logic and finding out the meaning of the tricks, you can get out of this food circle.
Five methods together or in turn will help solve the problems of “food alcoholism”. In advanced, “severe” cases, nutritionists advise taking serious measures: medications that help reduce appetite. However, it should be remembered that the drugs must be prescribed by a specialist.
Sixth method: all problems are in the head
Popular personalities who have managed to achieve impressive results and get rid of obesity say that changes need to start with self-acceptance and self-love.
At any weight you can look both good and bad. It all depends on how you perceive yourself.
But as long as you fight with yourself, go “from” and “not” to love yourself and your body, you are unlikely to succeed. You need to start by changing your attitude towards yourself. Consulting a psychologist or psychotherapist helps to cope with the situation.
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Getting rid of food addiction
The very first stage
– this is an increase in one’s awareness through receiving reinforcing positive information about proper nutrition during eating behavior. Obtaining information about the composition of foods and their effect on the body will motivate you to pay more attention to the nutrition process, and will also help you make the right choice on supermarket shelves.
Second phase
– this is a lack of access to those products to which there is an addiction. This means that, at a minimum, you should not have them in your home or work place. Then, when you have an attack of food addiction and search the refrigerator for something tasty, you simply won’t find anything. The first attacks are the most difficult, but if you survive them due to the absence of a harmful product at home, then it will become easier.
Third stage
is a substitution. You need to classify food cravings by type of food - crunchy, sweet, salty, and so on. And for each type of product, find a useful analogue. For example, replace cakes and pies with homemade baked goods without gluten, sugar and eggs. Sweet candies can be replaced with dried fruits or mango petals. You can also learn how to make healthy chips from pita bread, replace crunchy foods with healthy seeds and nuts, and so on. However, you need to understand that food addiction to sweets will not go away if you replace harmful foods with healthy ones. This is only a stage of minimizing harm to your body. Ideally, in the absence of food addiction, you can completely calmly live the day with or without sweets, without experiencing much emotional discomfort.
Therefore, the next fourth stage
- the most difficult. This is the stage of transforming the inner “I” and the external environment into a form that will saturate you emotionally enough without you needing additional nourishment. This means that you spend most of your time doing what you love, hanging out with people you love, living in a place you like, and so on. Once you have a high enough level of inner happiness, you are likely to forget that you ever felt the need for certain foods.
When you organize your life in this way, it is time for the fifth stage
. This is setting a goal that is very inspiring to you. When you strive to achieve it with all your heart, thoughts about the goal will crowd out everything else, and especially thoughts about food. In a state of creativity and creation, you will be amazed to remember that you were once so dependent on food.
I wish you success in overcoming these stages and finding new meaning for yourself!
Why does this happen, and how to get rid of food addiction?
It is no coincidence that experts call this problem “food addiction,” thereby to some extent equating it to drug addiction. The mechanism of almost all addictions is the same - the brain of “drug addicts” produces substances that a person is practically unable to refuse an increased dose of.
A person, driven by withdrawal symptoms, physical or emotional discomfort, strives at all costs to get a portion of a tasty dish, under the influence of which the brain produces a substance that causes a short-term feeling of euphoria and happiness. Due to emotional instability, women are much more susceptible to food addiction than men.
It is very difficult for people with such problems to deal with overeating and excess weight, since they feel the absence of their favorite food not only as ordinary hunger, but also as a strong emotional shock, and following a diet can cause them aggression, apathy, decreased interest in life, and deep depression.
Food for food “addicts” is not just a way to replenish energy reserves, but also doping, a kind of cure for “stuck” problems.
It is quite easy to distinguish between ordinary love for tasty food and psychological addiction to food. People susceptible to food addiction not only love to eat, they are incapable of an open and truthful view of the situation, and ignore a number of concomitant and very serious diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.
People dependent on food are capable of absorbing huge volumes of food, and at a high speed; they cannot independently grasp the moment when physiological saturation occurs, and continue to eat even when the stomach is very full. They are not able to refuse tasty things - food compensates for failures at work, in sex, in their personal lives, defects in appearance, whatever. Psychological dependence on food, as a rule, is a manifestation of a life devoid of positive emotions, interesting events and constructive communication. The more a person eats, the deeper he drives the problem through which he experiences stress.
How to get rid of food addiction on your own?
To be honest, overcoming food addiction on your own is a long and very difficult process. And it can only begin with a real awareness of the presence of a problem, acceptance of it
The main thing is to realize that the real need of an addicted person is not for food, but for the pleasure that food gives! And try to get pleasure in other ways - through communication, movement, sex, travel - there are many other ways that can make a person happy! The second stage of overcoming addiction is trying to distract your attention from “tasty” thoughts, switch them to more positive ones, to fashion that will become available after losing weight, to men who will begin to show increased attention very soon. The danger that lurks at the second stage is inevitable breakdowns. A habit does not give up its position instantly, a new way of life needs to be formed, worked on, and loved.
It would be wrong to consider a breakdown as a failure - look at breakdowns as temporary difficulties, unpleasant, but surmountable! Feelings of guilt can cause a new round of “eating,” but consciously accepting a breakdown as a small demarche on the path to victory is correct and positive!
But if all attempts to overcome addiction on your own still fail, be sure to seek help from specialists. As a rule, modern weight loss centers conduct consultations with the participation of a psychologist and nutritionist, which allows you to fully understand internal problems and prescribe an appropriate rehabilitation course and an adequate diet!
