Clarissa sits down with Dr. Patel, a pediatrician and lifestyle medicine physician in Ontario, to talk about ultra-processed food, screens, and children’s health. He shares three family case studies where kids improved markers like pre-diabetes, fatty liver, and cholesterol through changes to what’s in the home, parents modeling new habits, and less screen time. They also cover the six pillars of lifestyle medicine and how to invite parents to take responsibility without blame or shame. The episode closes with simple first steps for busy families.
Episode 295: Dr. Thomas Sambrook | Why We Eat When We’re Full – Food Cues & the Brain
Dr. Vera Tarman talks with Dr. Thomas Sambrook, a psychology lecturer at the University of East Anglia, about why the brain keeps responding to food cues after we are full. His research found that people still showed a strong reward signal to cues for a food they had just eaten their fill of, even while saying they no longer wanted it. They discuss habit versus addiction, the pull of advertising and cues, and practical steps like cue hygiene and replacing a habit instead of only resisting it. The takeaway is a shame-free, biology-based explanation for eating when not hungry.
Episode 294: Luis Mojica | Stimulants, Depressants & Balancers – A New Way to Understand Food Cravings
Luis Mojica, a somatic practitioner and nutritionist, explains how trauma and a dysregulated nervous system can sit underneath food cravings and binge eating. He shares his own history of using food to cope and introduces his framework of stimulants, depressants, and balancers, which looks at what a food does to your state rather than labeling it good or bad. The conversation covers volume eating of whole foods in recovery, the role of shame, and a simple one-minute nervous system practice. Content includes discussion of sexual assault, bullying, and disordered eating.
Food Junkies Recovery Stories Episode 38: Felicia Sussman
Felicia joins CJ for an honest conversation about recovery and the complicated role food played throughout her life. For years food stayed tangled up in the recovery she was seeking, and she shares how she kept learning and found new ways to care for herself. The contrast between her earlier life and the energetic, hopeful one she lives now makes this a story of resilience and hope.
Episode 293: Clinician’s Corner | Shame, Shadow & the Parts We Don’t Show
Molly and Clarissa return for a Clinician’s Corner on shadow work, exploring Carl Jung’s idea of the parts of ourselves we learn to hide. They discuss how suppressed emotions and traits, including positive ones like joy and ambition, can drive compulsive eating and other addictive behaviors. Projection, envy, and discomfort with compliments come up as clues to what has been buried. The episode also previews the Shadow Work module in Sweet Sobriety’s new Liberation program.
Episode 292: Lucy Loch | Food Addiction in Older Adults – What New Research Reveals
Lucy Loch, a University of Michigan doctoral candidate who studies how addictive-like eating develops across a lifetime, joins the show to discuss new data on food addiction in older adults. Her National Poll on Healthy Aging study found that older women meet food addiction criteria at higher rates than older men, even though overweight men showed a larger jump in risk. The conversation also covers a surprising finding among underweight older adults, the two-way link between isolation and food addiction, and why geriatric care rarely screens for it. They also look at how decades of diet-product marketing shaped the women who trusted it.
Food Junkies Recovery Stories Episode 37: April Oscarson
CJ sits down with April Oscarson for a reflective conversation about recovery. April brings a calm, introspective perspective on healing, growth, and who we are becoming, and the discussion leans toward meaningful questions over quick answers. It is a quieter, more existential take on what recovery asks of us.
Episode 291: Dr. Matt Bernstein, MD | Metabolic Psychiatry, Ketosis, and Food Addiction
Psychiatrist Dr. Matt Bernstein, CEO of the metabolic psychiatry program Accord, discusses how brain energy metabolism — not just neurotransmitters — may underlie depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and even Alzheimer’s risk decades before symptoms appear. He explains how ketogenic and low-carbohydrate approaches can reduce food noise and cravings for people in food addiction recovery, and compares these dietary interventions to GLP-1 medications. The episode also covers the risks of rapid, unsupported psychiatric medication tapering.
Episode 290: Dr. Carolyn Dean | Magnesium, Yeast Overgrowth & Sugar Cravings
Physician and naturopath Dr. Carolyn Dean, author of “The Magnesium Miracle,” explains how widespread magnesium deficiency may drive fatigue, brain fog, and cravings that don’t resolve even with a “clean” diet. She connects magnesium status to candida/yeast overgrowth and sugar metabolism, and discusses why some people on restrictive diets like keto or carnivore may unknowingly be managing yeast overgrowth. The conversation covers soil depletion, supplement bioavailability, and where to start addressing deficiency.
Episode 289: Brian Baumal | Perfectionism, Shame, and Food Addiction Recovery
Registered psychotherapist Brian Baumal, who has over 14 years of food addiction recovery himself, discusses the moment an intense reaction to a piece of chocolate revealed the scale of his own food addiction. He and the hosts explore the difference between adaptive and toxic perfectionism, how to distinguish an addictive relapse from a shame-driven slip, and why using structure and tools in recovery isn’t a sign of weakness.
Episode 288: Susan Peirce Thompson, PhD — Six-Year Outcomes, GLP-1s & the Identity Shifts Behind Lasting Recovery
Cognitive psychologist Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson, founder of Bright Line Eating, discusses her 2025 study reporting six-year outcomes from an abstinence-based food addiction recovery program. She shares her own path from drug addiction to food addiction recovery, the honest story behind her book “ReZoom,” and what her research suggests about long-term, clinically meaningful weight loss through abstinence-based approaches.
Episode 287: Dr. Jason Fung | Is Fasting Safe for the Food Addict?
Nephrologist and bestselling author Dr. Jason Fung explores whether fasting is safe for people in food addiction recovery, challenging the calorie-centric model of obesity in favor of a hormonal one. He breaks down homeostatic, hedonic, and conditioned hunger, warns against using fasting as post-binge punishment, and shares his take on GLP-1 medications and public policy’s role in addressing ultra-processed food addiction.
