Food addiction. Algorithm of occurrence

1. Fear: one of the most common factors, which is divided into several sub-items:

• Fear of malnutrition - addicted people fear that if they eat adequate portions of food, they will feel negative emotions and / or hunger.

• Fear of overeating - a person, realizing that large portions will lead to weight gain, eat minimal portions, while the desire for food is as high as possible.

2. Chronic overeating: eating large quantities of products that are repeated processing, stimulates the release of natural opiates (endorphins). These hormones are responsible for our great mood. Constant production of these hormones in large quantities causes dependence. This condition becomes habitual for a person, and he feels withdrawal syndrome (the desire to get pleasure again and again) when the level of hormones decreases.

3. Food restriction: a factor that is also quite common. Suppose I tell you that from tomorrow you will never eat ice cream again. What are you doing today? Buy ice cream, of course. And more. Traction and a sense of satisfaction from eating becomes more after a short period of abstinence, for example, from 3 to 7 days. That is why most limiting diets inevitably end in failure.

4. Stress: many people say that during the period of stress their appetite increases, and it is almost impossible to keep from their favorite food (especially sweet or smoked foods). The habitual portion increases several times.

Indeed, various forms of stress trigger the development of addiction. Dependency may not manifest when a person is doing well. But as soon as he has any troubles, she immediately makes itself felt. The fact is that during stress, the level of the hormone cortisol increases, resulting in increased appetite and slowed down metabolic processes. And a person wants to get dope (snack), not only to improve the emotional state, but it requires the body.

5. Depression: during a person’s depression, the feeling of appetite, hunger and satiety changes, and also the sleep pattern is lost. Normal sleep helps us control and sort our needs. People who sleep little or chronically do not get enough sleep, often are overweight and increased appetite.

6. Weak mechanisms of satiety (hypothalamus malfunction): the so-called hypothalamic syndrome. A person very clearly feels the signals that he is hungry, but very little feels that he was full. With this diagnosis, the saturation is mechanical - that is, we gorge ourselves when we feel that the stomach is completely filled with food. Sometimes to light pain. Systematic overeating leads to overweight.

7. Automatism: some bad eating habits can become so ingrained that they repeat at the level of reflexes. In fact, these habits are passed down from generation to generation. Family recipes, a typical holiday table, etc. Over time, we can’t imagine our diet without these dishes, and they become food addicts.

Are all products equally addictive?

Definitely not. During my practice, I have never heard of dependence on fresh cucumbers, steam cutlets or buckwheat porridge. The secret is that some foodstuffs go through a long and multi-stage processing process, which gives them special taste qualities that are not found in natural food. Different types of ice cream, burgers, sauces, etc. cause a release of pleasure hormones (endorphins), due to this property, these products potentially cause dependence.

On this occasion, conducted some research. If you give a rat natural food for it, it will not eat more than its norm. But if you add sweet and fatty foods to her diet, she will begin to overeat.

How do these products go into the category of food addiction?

• The more food you eat, the more we eat. Syndrome is an empty plate, which many have been dragging since childhood. We automatically eat up everything we are offered, and, on a subconscious level, we want to hear praise.

• Food processing and its energy value. The right combination of fats, sweeteners, flour, caffeine and salt provides a strong taste. After all, just a bag of sugar or a spoonful of olive oil does not cause the desire to eat them, is it? The processed food contains a combination of ingredients that are not found in nature. As a rule, this combination has a very pleasant taste and makes you want to try this product again and again.

• The variety of shapes, colors, tastes and textures affects us, encouraging us to eat more. Ice cream with topping or chocolate chips like more than simple vanilla.

• The composition of the product also matters. Harmful food, as a rule, has a small amount of useful vitamins and minerals. Therefore, the body, wanting to get its daily allowance of nutrients, requires more food.

• Easy access to a harmful product is a powerful factor. The more difficult it is to buy a harmful snack, the less often there is a desire to go after it to the edge of the city.

• The influence of society. If people in the family or in a circle of friends eat junk food, then surely a person under the pressure of society will eat with them. A vivid example: many people quit smoking after a law was passed prohibiting smoking in cafes, bars and restaurants.

• Individual preferences.

Think and give yourself the answer to the following questions. It is very important to find out what food makes you addicted, because each person has their own particular preferences.

Which product from the proposed list do you want especially?

What product do you think about when you are not experiencing physiological hunger?

What would you like to eat more, despite the fact that you already ate?

What product do you first refuse, and then begin to regret and be very nervous about it?

What foods cause you to have emotional associations? For example, what you like from early childhood, or a product that immediately calms you down.

• Fast food (hamburgers, cheeseburgers, shaurma, etc.)

• Hard cheese

• Smoked sausage

• Boiled sausage

• Sausages

• Sausages

• Sweets with filling

• Milk chocolate

• Cakes with butter cream

• Buns

• Cakes

• Waffles

• Cookies (fat over 15%)

• Ice cream

• White bread

• Beer

• Salty Roasted Peanuts

• Pancakes

• Fritters

• Patties

• Deruns

• Roast potatoes

• Dumplings

• Vareniki

• Pizza

• Biscuit

• Muffin

• Chips

• Sunflower seeds

• Melted cheese

• Sweet carbonated water

If you have marked more than 5-7 positions, this indicates not only ingrained eating habits and a high level of food addiction, but also an unbalanced diet, which led to weight gain. In this case, you need to contact a specialist who first of all will save you from the irresistible desire to use these products and build a diet, in which even without strict restrictions you can lose those extra pounds.

In the next blog article we will talk about how to overcome food addiction. What steps need to be taken to get freedom from food once and for all?

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