Compulsive Eating

Compulsive eating is your diets biggest enemy

How does it start?

In some cases, people simply overeat out of mindless habit, like always sitting down with a bag of chips in front of the TV at night. But often times, it’s the result of underlying emotional problems. Having a negative body image can play a big role. Most compulsive eaters don't even know they're doing it. A bag of chips at night while reading or watching TV. A container of ice cream while watching a movie. 

For many people, compulsive overeating is part of a cycle that starts with a restrictive diet. May calls it the “eat, repent, repeat” cycle. You might begin a diet because you feel bad about your weight or size but find that it’s too hard to stick to -- especially if you use food as a coping tool. Eventually, you hit a breaking point and binge on “forbidden” foods, and then the guilt and shame set in, and the restrictions begin again.

The cycle can be hard to break. “Even people who say they’re not on a diet often have ingrained ideas about ‘good’ or ‘bad’ foods,” says Marsha Hudnall, president of Green Mountain at Fox Run in Vermont, a center for women who struggle with overeating. “But when you have a substance that is naturally appealing and soothing and comforting, and you make it off-limits, it just becomes more attractive.”

Can people be “addicted” to food?

In recent years, food addiction has become a popular idea among some scientists. Those researchers say that certain foods high in fat, sugar, and salt are addictive, causing changes in the brain similar to those made by drugs. Studies in animals have shown that rats that binge on sugar, for example, can develop signs of dependency.

But the idea of food addiction is controversial. For one thing, the standard treatment for addiction is abstinence, and that’s not possible with food. Also, “dieting is a very strong component of the binge eating cycle,” May says. “From that standpoint, it’s counterproductive to label certain foods as negative.”

There’s no doubt that eating can stimulate the release of feel-good chemicals in the brain, Hudnall says. “But that doesn’t make food an addictive substance. There’s evidence that it’s actually the behavior -- the restrict/binge cycle -- that causes the signs of dependency, not the food itself,” she says. Some researchers have even stated that the term “eating addiction” is a more accurate term than “food addiction.”

Personally, I think it's more about the "feel good" feelings you get from comfort food. Comfort food is a calorie problem for dieters. It's not really comfort food unless it's high in calories. Not from sugar but from carbs. Popcorn with lots of butter doesn't really contain any sugar but it has lots of carbs. Chips has little sugar but lots of carbs. So the point is that watching calories will help you control carbs. It's not only the sweet things that contain calories. Read the labels and remember if your trying to lose weight, 1500 calories is about right for the average person. A little less for a women. You can adjust that number depending on your size and activity level.