2491: Is Food Addiction For Real? by Laura Hout with PsychAlive on Binge Eating Disorder & Obesity

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[00:00:58] This is Optimal Health Daily Episode 2491.

[00:01:01] Is Food Addiction for Real by Laura Hout with psychalive.org

[00:01:07] And I'm Dr. Neal, your very own personal narrator.

[00:01:10] Hey there, welcome to a Thursday edition of Optimal Health Daily.

[00:01:14] This is one of a few shows where we read to you from blogs for free

[00:01:18] so that you don't have to read them yourself except on Fridays.

[00:01:21] That's where I answer your questions.

[00:01:23] But with that, let's get right to today's post as we optimize your life.

[00:01:32] Is Food Addiction for Real by Laura Hout with psychalive.org

[00:01:38] People often ask, is there such a thing as food addiction?

[00:01:42] And the answer for many is a resounding yes.

[00:01:45] Experts dancing on the head of a pin dismiss overeating as a behavioral addiction

[00:01:51] much like gambling or internet use.

[00:01:54] Substance use disorders are somehow more legitimate garnering recognition and resources like insurance coverage.

[00:02:01] Meanwhile, people fighting food addiction struggle to get treatment

[00:02:05] that is until they experience obesity.

[00:02:08] And make no mistake, obesity in part is the outcome of binge eating and food addiction.

[00:02:14] After decades of diets that don't work,

[00:02:17] the ultimate treatment consists of drugs for diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure,

[00:02:24] arthritis and increasingly bariatric surgery.

[00:02:28] I've encountered these head of a pin arguments about food addiction in both clinical settings

[00:02:33] and family systems.

[00:02:35] For example, someone with an addiction to an illicit drug is taken more seriously.

[00:02:39] Yet cookies and cakes and candies are everywhere.

[00:02:44] Those of us who have battled binge eating disorder know exactly how this goes.

[00:02:49] What's the matter with you? Why don't you just stop eating?

[00:02:52] Our distress is amplified by the disdain we feel from others and the temptation we constantly face.

[00:02:59] Sloth, slobbingly, stupid, sickening.

[00:03:02] Our gluttony is proof of our moral turpitude.

[00:03:05] Ours is the visible addiction. We wear our shame on the outside.

[00:03:10] Is food addiction just another lazy excuse?

[00:03:13] For many of us, food is a substance just like alcohol or drugs.

[00:03:17] We crave it, we ingest it.

[00:03:19] We continue to use it despite persistent social or physical problems.

[00:03:24] We forego activities because we're ashamed of how we look or maybe were disabled

[00:03:29] and we continue to overeat even when it exacerbates underlying psychological issues.

[00:03:34] Last but not least, we can't abstain from food.

[00:03:39] Every day we must face our substance with caution and care.

[00:03:44] I'd argue that withdrawal criteria do apply when overcoming sugar cravings

[00:03:48] and this begs a big unanswered question.

[00:03:51] Is it really harder to give up drugs or alcohol?

[00:03:54] We can live full sustainable lives without drinking or getting high.

[00:03:58] We can avoid going to the bar, not so the dinner table.

[00:04:03] Dr. Matei argues any activity can be addictive from his compulsion for collecting classical music

[00:04:09] to his patients' addition to heroin.

[00:04:12] Through Matei's eyes, we see his patients as victims of traumatic childhoods,

[00:04:16] survivors whose unmet needs haunt them as adults.

[00:04:20] When their emotions become unbearable, they get high to free themselves

[00:04:24] and however temporarily, they soothe their hungry ghosts.

[00:04:28] This description fits the dissociative trance described by binge eaters I've assisted

[00:04:33] who describe being in a days, during and after a binge.

[00:04:37] Men and women alike say, I don't know what happened or I woke up in the morning with food wrappers all around me.

[00:04:45] In the labyrinth of binge eating, Hilda Doolin Lee and other women discuss how it feels to binge.

[00:04:51] One woman said, I don't know, I guess maybe a sense of relief more than anything.

[00:04:57] It's more than relief says another woman, I feel a sense of euphoria.

[00:05:02] The first bite is wonderful, another says.

[00:05:05] I feel soothed and comforted.

[00:05:07] Anxiety just disappears, everything is kind of quiet and calm and slowed down.

[00:05:13] But another woman says, after a while I don't feel anything, I don't even taste the food, I just feel numb.

[00:05:21] Yes, someone else agrees, disconnected, numb and no pain either, someone adds.

[00:05:27] I think that void, that disconnection is what I'm after all along, that numbing that bingeing brings.

[00:05:35] Why would we eat to go numb?

[00:05:37] By now many have heard of the ACE questionnaire but few know it originated in a weight loss clinic.

[00:05:44] Puzzled as to why his most successful patients were dropping out after losing weight, Dr. Vincent J. Feliti stumbled upon the answer.

[00:05:52] He accidentally asked a patient how much she weighed when she first had intimate relations but he had meant to ask how old she was.

[00:06:01] Her shocking answer was 40 pounds.

[00:06:04] It was then that Dr. Feliti realized that overeating and obesity were often being used unconsciously as protective solutions

[00:06:13] to unrecognized problems dating back to childhood. Feliti embarked on a mega study at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, analyzing the data of over 17,000 middle-class American adults.

[00:06:26] In his paper The Origins of Addiction, evidence from the adverse childhood experiences study, Feliti reported that, quote,

[00:06:34] three common categories of addiction are strongly related in a proportionate manner to several specific categories of adverse experiences during childhood.

[00:06:43] This, coupled with related information, suggests that the basic cause of addiction is predominantly experienced dependent during childhood and not substance dependent.

[00:06:54] This challenge to the usual concept of the cause of addictions has significant implications for medical practice and for treatment programs.

[00:07:03] End quote.

[00:07:04] My own experience with binge eating supports Feliti's conclusions about the impact of childhood trauma.

[00:07:10] Between 2nd and 3rd grade, my parents moved to a bigger house, changing neighborhoods and schools.

[00:07:16] Their marriage, afflicted by substance abuse, mental illness and domestic violence, reached a boiling point.

[00:07:23] Looking back, it's not surprising that the outgoing 7-year-old I'd been became a lonely overweight 8-year-old.

[00:07:30] School wasn't safe either. I was the new kid, the fat kid, taunted by classmates who gleefully discovered that my last name rhymed with loud, loud, snout, pout, crout and stout.

[00:07:44] Food was my solace. I was terrified. I was alone.

[00:07:50] Soon I began having nightmares where one or the other of my parents killed me. They separated when I was 11, the booze and violence escalated and I became a pawn in their divorce wars.

[00:08:02] At 13, I tried the Atkins diet and binge restricted my way through high school. When I was 18, my father killed himself.

[00:08:10] When I was 21, a partner dumped me and I regained 60 pounds. Yet none of these things were addressed when as a moderately obese young person, I was admitted to a medical weight loss program.

[00:08:23] I was promptly put on a liquid protein diet which was made from cows hooves as I recall, and left to wrestle my hungry ghosts.

[00:08:31] Why couldn't I stop eating? What was wrong with me? Food was my solace. Now, food was my nemesis.

[00:08:39] Food addiction and obesity. Clearly we need to help people who are overweight or obese in a more comprehensive, compassionate manner.

[00:08:49] Policy makers and insurers should help patients gain access to physicians, therapists and nutritionists before they become obese.

[00:08:57] Not all of those with a food addiction have endured childhood trauma either. In the 1960s I was an outlier. There weren't that many fat kids.

[00:09:06] Nowadays says Maureen Black PhD quote, kids are getting walloped at every level with cues to eat too much and move too little.

[00:09:17] We live in an Obesogenic environment filled with hyper palatable foods and seductive screens. Our kids play virtually while munching mindlessly.

[00:09:28] One look at the CDC's obesity data should convince us all. Obesity related illnesses are now the nation's number one public health crisis.

[00:09:37] We're literally killing ourselves if we don't take food addiction seriously.

[00:09:45] You just listen to the post titled is Food Addiction for Real by Laura Houtt with psychalive.org and I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:11:38] Dr. Neil here for my commentary I really respect today's author Laura for sharing her very personal story with us as she mentioned the idea that food can be a dick.

[00:11:48] It's often debated can something be addictive if we can't live without it as a dietician that specializes in body weight management I can tell you that in my experience it seems that there are those that truly seem to have a food addiction but like I talk about on this podcast.

[00:12:07] I think it was enough to make general claims based on our experiences alone instead we need to look beyond that like research studies or what health organizations have to say about the subject.

[00:12:20] The American psychiatric association published a practice guideline for helping those with eating disorders like binge eating and for those with binge eating disorder it's recommended that these individuals receive something called cognitive behavioral therapy meaning their therapist.

[00:12:36] Their therapist helps them monitor their thoughts and behaviors particularly thoughts that may trigger their binge eating behaviors then the therapist can help the person modify those thoughts and behaviors which may then lead to less frequent binge eating episodes sometimes medications like antidepressants can help those with eating disorders too.

[00:12:59] And this is true especially if the cognitive behavioral therapy they're receiving isn't helping the most important thing though is to be honest with your health care provider if you believe that you are someone you know is experiencing an eating disorder.

[00:13:13] All right that wraps up today's episode thank you so much for listening thank you for being a subscriber or follower of the show I hope you have a great rest of your day and I'll see you back here tomorrow for another Friday Q&A and where your optimal life awaits.