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Originally Posted by potatofree
I think "addiction" is overused as well. It seems to be used to cover those bad habits, like mammac-5 said, while I believe a TRUE addiction falls WAY on the more severe end of the spectrum.
I look at it like the difference between being a heavy drinker and a true alcoholic. I know MANY people who used to have a real problem drinking (myself included) who have been able to moderate their drinking and change their perspective. I used to drink to get DRUNK. Now, I have an occasional drink because I like the taste, and can LEAVE it at ONE drink.
IMO, a true alcoholic is someone who just can never do that.
I'm not saying there aren't real food addicts out there, I just feel most of us fall more in the "heavy eater" category, no pun intended. Either eating the wrong foods for our bodies, or just too darn much out of habit or emotion... but it would be a rare person, again, IMO, who can't learn to moderate their eating and regain health. When I think of "food addict", I think of the people who eat to the point of becoming housebound, drowning in their own bulk when ALL reason is gone. Literally eating themselves to death. Now to be driven to eat when you can no longer get out of bed....to me, THAT is a true addiction.
Just my 2 cents.
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This sounds like denial to me. You don't have to be house bound, or unable to get out of bed to be a food addict. I do not think that the word addiction is overused. I think people hear that word and think, "Not me, I'm not an ADDICT!"
An alcoholic is someone who cannot keep themselves from drinking to access. A food addict is someone who cannot keep themselves from eating to access, and therefor can become overweight or obese. I am a food addict, and I’ve never weighed over 150, except when I was pregnant. You don't have to be fat to be a food addict. Anorexics are food addicts - bulimics are food addicts.
I think that people overreact to the word addict or addiction, and then deny that this could ever be them. If you make poor choices when eating, and have eaten to access for the most part, (not to mention eating out of boredom, eating alone, eating when depressed, etc) then you probably have a food addiction.
An alcoholic could use the same excuse, "I'm not addicted, I just like to drink a lot." I think people who are in the 200 lb. category, who do not have a medical condition that caused then to unnecessarily gain, such as thyroid or other, are in denial about what addiction really is, and how it most definitely relates to them.
Sugar actually affects the same part of the brain as heroin or morphine, so we use it to feel better and have withdrawal when we don't get our “drug.” We only notice that we feel really good when we have sweet stuff, but don't make the connection to when we feel bad as withdrawal. Sugar evokes beta endorphin which absolutely makes you feel better - until it wears off and then you feel depressed, but you don't make the connection of the down being an aftereffect of the sugar. The problem comes in needing more and more and more often, or in thinking that the down feelings are signs of clinical depression rather than the sugar low. Sometimes people get them mixed up and think they are not getting better, when it is the food making them feel so bad. This is how people become overweight, and obese.
Articles on the topic:
http://www.mercola.com/2002/jul/10/sugar_addiction.htm
http://web.sfn.org/content/Publicat...ings/sugar.html
http://www.sugar-addiction.com/tabl...dd_series_3.htm
http://www.medical-library.net/site..._addiction.html