Food is necessary for our survival, and it is an essential for our wellness. Asides the fact that food serves as a source of enjoyment and pleasure, food also provides sustenance.

There is also a gratification which food gives via smell, texture and taste. However, for some people, food addiction can be as worse as being addicted to drugs or alcohol.

For people who are suffering from food addiction, they are addicted to food which are extremely rich in sugar, fat and salt. Foods in this category usually trigger chemical reactions in the brain which produce feelings of gratification.

This reaction is compared to the response an addict who is addicted to alcohol and drugs would experience.

Food addicts rely on the pleasurable feelings which are gotten from taking certain foods, which requires a need to eat even when there are no feelings of hunger, thus resulting in a vicious cycle.

As the individual continues to eat food which produce pleasurable feelings, they over eat, and they take beyond what is needed for a balanced nutrition and satisfaction.

This can result in physical, social and emotional consequences which are unpleasant for the individual. If you have someone who is struggling with food addiction, you should be aware that there are lots of implications which could result in that aspect of their lives.

If food addiction is not tended to, it can destroy a person’s life gradually, producing both chronic and damaging symptoms. When you have a good idea of how food addiction affects the various aspects of your life, you will be motivated to seek help.

Below are some of the effects which comes with food addiction:

• Malnutrition
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Heart disease
• Headaches
• Stroke
• Osteoporosis
• Kidney and Liver disease
• Impaired sex drive
• Reduced self-esteem
• Depression
• Panic attacks
• Suicidal tendencies
• Anxiety
• Sadness

Food addiction help requires you to seek appropriate help and care. This would enable you to get the resources which would be quintessential in solving your addiction problem.

One of the major causes of obesity, is food addiction, making a good number of children overweight. Children who are overweight usually have “Energy Imbalance”. This suggests that they take in more calories than they use when they are undergoing any physical activity. Hence, they gain more weight, or they have weight which is higher than the conventional healthy state.

These children might not be affected by any emotional issues which influences their overeating. Their weight could come down to a healthier weight range, if they are tutored on how to eat healthy, and the benefits. Hence, they would be more physically active.

However, those who are suffering from emotional eating patterns, could have a degree of depression. Hence, the child might be eating more food than usual, as a means to catering for their emotional needs. For instance, the child could use food to bring himself comfort, he could also use food to control his mood, and feel better whenever he wants to.

Teaching your children about the gains of eating healthy is advantageous, because it helps them to have a good relationship with their diet. Children who take in too much food, are at risk of coming down with health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure and the likes.

However, it is quite hard to keep them from it because of the advert for junk food which is dominating the media.

For you to prevent food addiction, there are some steps you can take:

• Make healthy snacks handy: Always ensure that your child takes healthy snacks, such as vegetables, cheese and fruits. Always keep them in areas where your children can easily reach them.

• Do not keep junk at home: Since you do not want your children to eat junk food which could make them addicted, then it is essential that you do not bring it into your home. However, it does not imply that you make it totally absent in your home.

• Never bargain with junk food: One mistake which parents often make is, they use junk food to bargain with their children, for them to eat healthy food. This should not be the case. It is however better to encourage them to eat more of healthy food.

GETTING OVER YOUR FOOD ADDICTION

Addiction is simply the uncontrollable overdo that is put into practicing an act or taking a substance. All forms of addiction, whether behavioral or substance, all ends up in unhealthy living and adverse mental conditions. Substance addiction that refers to drugs, food, alcohol and many others are some of those that develop rapid effect on the addict.

Considering how dreadful and catastrophic the outcomes of food addiction can be, getting over it should be of top most priority and importance to the addict. However, the case is not always like that, because addicts often feel ashamed of their addictions and then keep them secret from people who can help them.

Causes of food addiction

Remedies to addiction are not always one-way directional; not all addictions are treated the same way. Most times, the environment and the people around a person could lead one to becoming addicted to food. When you tend to have people who are mentally or emotionally disturbed, who do not have the interest in checking out or getting involved in recreational activities. Persons like that could become indolent and decide to full up the time of being idle with anything. The choice of food may seem to be the best choice because eating could be a bit interesting at times.

Aside for the environmental factors, bad parenting could also be a cause. Some parents believe that they always have to satisfy their children, whatever it takes, regardless of what they ask for. In their quest of always satisfying their wards, they may find food to be always pleasant in making their kids feel good about themselves and about their parents as well. Gradually as the children grow up they may become addicted to eating, since that is what they were trained with.

Therapeutic relief from food addiction

There are methods that you can access by yourself in combating our food addiction; some of such methods are getting friends and family to know about it, procuring addiction literatures, and having an intentional desire to stop. If the addiction is still in a preliminary state, outpatient rehab could be considered for treatment.

Outpatient rehab is not available for home treatments, therefore there would be shorter treatment session, but it is still suitable for tender addictions recovery. Other extreme addictive conditions should do well to take an inpatient rehab, in other to get the best treatments for and for longer sessions.

In getting rid of food addiction, try to fix yourself up with meaningful and adventurous activities. Those idle times that are spent on food, should be diverted to things that are more rewarding and profitable.

Any addiction promotes an unhealthy lifestyle, but the ones that involve substances, such as a food, alcohol or drug addiction, are some that impose the most immediate threats to the addict. These addictions have rapid biological effects on the addict that change their bodily chemistry for the worse. A food addiction is dangerous and detrimental to the addict, and overcoming it should be a high priority, but how does one bring a food addiction under control? A food addiction is more than just a bad habit. It is a way of life for many people, and a particularly unhealthy way of life.

Self-help methods, such as addiction literature, work well for mild addictions and for independent people who value teaching themselves. For concerning but less severe addictions, outpatient rehab is a recommended form of treatment, but it is not residential so treatment sessions are shorter and more spread out. For extreme food addictions that are putting the addict in danger, inpatient rehab is highly recommended. This form of live-in, concentrated addiction treatment is the most intensive, aggressive and effective means of ending any addiction, and inpatient rehab programs that specialize in food addiction and eating disorders are available.

In order to beat any addiction, including food addiction, a particular key to success lies in filling your time with meaningful activities, hobbies, purposes and goals. Having a life of meaning will inspire a food addict to make a full recovery through the desire to experience and embrace life at its fullest.

In times of weakness when you feel in danger of relapsing or binging, turning to members of your support system for encouragement can make the difference between success and failure. Pulling your support system close to you is vital when recovering from a food addiction. This may be your friends, family or a food addiction support group that you have sought out. People you are close to and trust will be an important asset to your food addiction recovery.

Binging on food is triggered by the same impulses that trigger a person to binge on drugs and alcohol. The reasons for overusing food are very similar to the reasons for overusing other substances. We have other harsh descriptions for it, such as gluttony, overeating and piggishness, but when it comes right down to it, being addicted to food is actually a type of substance abuse. Not many people think of a food addiction as a type of substance abuse, but that is exactly what it is.

Many elements of food are addictive, such as salt and sugar, and when people who cannot control their cravings very well get these urges, over eating ensues. When they are done, they receive temporary feelings of satisfaction from over eating and tell themselves that it will not become a pattern. Like all substance abuse patterns, over eating begins with cravings for food.

Every time a person overeats, a pattern is established more and more firmly within their neural network. That pattern is the release of brain chemicals that tell the person they are starving and they cannot handle themselves if they do not binge again soon. This cycle is almost impossible for the person to resist and always results in continued overeating until the individual has a personal breakthrough. The cycle of overeating dictates that the following cravings will be even stronger.

Obesity is a bigger problem in North America than it is in any other region of the world. However, in order to view it correctly, it must be understood as substance abuse and harmful to personal health. If you or somone you are close to is struggling with a food addiction, seek the help of a mental health professional right away. Food addiction is much more socially acceptable than other forms of addiction, such as alcoholism or drug addiction, so there are more cases of it than other types of substance abuse.

You may be suspecting yourself or someone you know of having a food addiction. Lately, you have been noticing certain signs and behaviors that could indicate a compulsive overeating problem. But everyone loves the foods of their choice. How do you distinguish a food addiction from a healthy love of food? Below are several signs to watch for in order to identify a food addict:

• When eating certain trigger foods that are particularly pleasurable, the addict will consistently eat more than they intend to eat, exceeding their desired portion.
• A food addict will continue to eat even when they are not hungry, ignoring their bodily signals that are telling them they are full, even to the point that they are physically ill.
• The thought of having to quit or cut back on eating certain favorite foods causes stresses and worry in food addicts.
• A food addict will go to great lengths to obtain the food they want when it is not available, such as calling around to stores and restaurants to locate it at any time of day.
• For food addicts, eating becomes such a time consuming daily activity that time for work, school, personal relationships, goals and hobbies is lost.
• The desire to eat is so overpowering for food addicts that they may even avoid certain social situations so that their overeating problem is not discovered.
• Eating interferes in the daily obligations of food addicts, such as school or work.
• Refraining from eating or not having the option to eat causes feelings of anxiety, agitation and hunger pains in food addicts.
• Emotional issues result from overeating in food addicts, such as guilt, anxiety, depression and self-loathing.
• Food addicts do not eat a consistent amount of food, but rather increase their food intake over time in order to inrease the pleasure of eating or supress negative emotions.
• Food addicts build a tolerance for the amount of food they take in and increase the amount of food they eat to continue experiencing the same pleasure feelings.

Food addiction is much more common than most people realize. Because we need food to survive, we are required to make daily decisions about what and how much to eat. We have a built in psychology about food which dictates the decisions we make about eating. Food addiction and sex addiction are often considered the two hardest addictions to control because they are both tied to a basic carnal human need, and the line between want and need can be blurred. A food addict is constantly needing to practice self-control, because whenever meal time rolls around they must try to engage in healthy thinking about food.

Food addiction is defined as the compulsive eating, usually overeating, of food. The root causes of food addiction are tied to the same factors that every other addiction is caused by: environment, behavior, psychology and emotions. There is not a single route to any one addiction; every individual’s story is unique. Some people develop a food addiction in response to abandonment issues, while others may have grown up with very little food restrictions and do not know how to limit themselves as adults. Those who are afflicted with a food addiction usually struggle with weight issues and frequently struggle with self-esteem issues.

Food is also the most frequently substituted addiction, meaning a person giving up another addiction is more likely to turn to food than any other addictive substance or behavior in order to cope. This is called trading addictions – a practice that is thought of as counter productive and discouraged by addiction treatment specialists.

Fortunately, food addiction is widely treatable as most addiction treatment centers feature programs specifically for food addicts. Rehabilitation counselors are very familiar with the triggers and feelings associated with food addiction and can guide an addict through recovery using cognitive behavioral therapy and food-addiction treatment counseling models. If you or someone you love is addicted to food, do not hesitate to reach out to an addiction treatment facility today.