Question: How can I tell if I’m addicted to food, or just enjoy eating? Are all people who enjoy eating “addicts”?
Answer: This is a very good question. Enjoying food is definitely not the same thing as being addicted to food. Our brains are wired to enjoy food – that is a primal survival mechanism. In fact, we enjoy foods that are high fat and high sugar for that very reason – these foods are energy dense and ensure our survival by making us want to eat more for immediate energy and storage purposes. Even the food addict who is in recovery still enjoys their food.
What makes the enjoyment addictive is the key question. When the enjoyment has become so large that it dominates other natural pleasures, a problem is flagged. We are either in a deficit (so we need the excess food i.e. very hungry) or we are in a disordered pattern of eating. The natural ebbs and flows of pleasure are misaligned: Notice that when you are hungry, the plate of Brussels Sprouts and glass of water is very enjoyable, but when you are full, you no longer desire them. The desire to eat ebbs when it is no longer necessary to ‘fuel up’. But when you still desire to eat, and you are not hungry – something else is operating that keeps you wanting to continue to eat or to ‘enjoy’ the food.
There are many neurochemical and hormonal reasons for this disorder, and one of them is the neurochemistry of addiction. The person may be rooted into an addiction loop that makes them crave food even when they no longer need it, in fact, even when they are no longer enjoying it. They still want it anyway. The major way an addiction doctor can determine if a person has a food addiction (versus is just enjoying food), is by looking at the eating patterns and food behavior. The doctor is looking for a dysfunction in the normal ‘ebbs and flows’ of wanting and not wanting food. We use questions from the DSM IV which determine addiction. Here are just a few:
- Do you crave and obsess over food, even when not hungry?
- Have you tried to abstain from food and found that you could not (i.e. a diet)?
- Have you ever eaten foods that you know are bad for your health? Even when your health is deteriorating (i.e. Diabetes)?
- Have you ever found that you could not control your food intake? Could not stop after the first bite?
An excellent questionnaire that you can use is the 20 questions that the Food Addicts in Recovery group uses. If you answer yes to just a few of these, you might be a food addict, rather than just enjoying your food.
1. Have you ever wanted to stop eating and found you just couldn’t?
2. Do you think about food or your weight constantly?
3. Do you find yourself attempting one diet or food plan after another, with no lasting success?
4. Do you binge and then “get rid of the binge” through vomiting, exercise, laxatives, or other forms of purging?
5. Do you eat differently in private than you do in front of other people?
6. Has a doctor or family member ever approached you with concern about you’re eating habits or weight?
7. Do you eat large quantities of food at one time (binge)?
8. Is your weight problem due to your “nibbling” all day long?
9. Do you eat to escape from your feelings?
10. Do you eat when you’re not hungry?
11. Have you ever discarded food, only to retrieve and eat it later?
12. Do you eat in secret?
13. Do you fast or severely restrict your food intake?
14. Have you ever stolen other people’s food?
15. Have you ever hidden food to make sure you have “enough?”
16. Do you feel driven to exercise excessively to control your weight?
17. Do you obsessively calculate the calories you’ve burned against the calories you’ve eaten?
18. Do you frequently feel guilty or ashamed about what you’ve eaten?
19. Are you waiting for your life to begin “when you lose the weight?”
20. Do you feel hopeless about your relationship with food?
Copyright © 2000-2010 Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous
I am a food addict too, and I encourage you to join a 12 step program for food addicts. There are many groups available (some have online meetings or phone bridge meetings) and the groups I have been a part of, have been essential to my recovery. You don’t have to go it alone, and I have found that life really is better when I’m not obsessing about food. Take care and good luck!
Thank you for this. I have long thought I might be an addict, but people just laugh in your face when you suggest it. I answered yes to most of these questions, which is disturbing. I want to get help, but I’m really …. I actually don’t want to stop eating, because I like it. What else would there be in my life if I didn’t have my food? Well I suppose I’d have more money. And be able to wear nice clothes. And have confidence. But that moment I click over in my head, it’s like all those benefits just disappear and all I can think about is the food I’m craving. I don’t know.
That is the question most people struggle with – where would I be without my drug? It isn’t until the drug stops working and the consequences (weight gain, diabetes) start mounting, that people stop. And then… once they have truly stopped – they often find it is not as hard as they thought. Check out my facebook group: I’m Sweet Enough: Sugar Free for Life Support Group for more info and support.