More on Addictive Food and Willpower

Your extra weight is not your fault

It begins when we are children watching cartoons. There is a constant barage of commercials promoting fructose laden juices, sugar coated cereal, happy meals, chips, and soda. These foods have addictive properties and they change hormone output. We get hooked on these highly processed foods and begin the journey to obesity before we have the ability to protect ourselves.

Dr. David Kessler is the FDA director who saved tens of thousands of lives by taking on the big tobacco companies. He has struggled with his own weight and has spent years studying why he could not control his weight when he has been so effective in many other areas of his life. What he learned follows in the next paragraph. The links in this paragraph have been very valuable in my own weight loss efforts.

Highly processed food combines fat, salt, sugar, and carbs in ways that are irresistible for many of us. The food tastes so good and the texture is so wonderful that we will eat it when we are not hungry and the more we eat, the more we want. (pies, cakes, donuts, honey buns, tater tots, chips, French fries, hot dogs, hamburgers, potatoes and gravy etc.)  This food is addictive and many of us eat more to satisfy us. As with any addictive substance, we can’t just cut back on it. That is why portions are supersized. As with any addictive substance, it takes more and more of the substance to satisfy cravings.

Highly processed food is not real food. Real, whole food is not addictive, but highly processed food is very concentrated like cocaine which comes from the coca leaf.  Native Americans have chewed the unconcentrated coca leaf for thousands of years without developing addiction. Cocaine is many times more concentrated than the coca in the leaf. It is the concentration that makes it addictive, and it is the same with foods like sugar. You can eat fruit which contains fructose and not become addicted, but the very concentrated fructose in high fructose corn syrup added to soda makes you want more and more as with any other addictive substance.

You may object that you can’t become addicted to food which is necessary for life, but these highly processed concentrated foods are no more like real food than cocaine is like a coca leaf. Most of our sugar comes from sugar cane. I have been to a sugar cane field and cut a segment of a cane stalk. It is sweet but I would never overdo that. I will definitely overdo donuts, fudge, and cookies. Some foods activate the same pleasure centers in your brain as cocaine and cause the release of comfort chemicals such as dopamine, much like other addictive substances do. Some of us develop a tolerance to addictive foods. We must eat more and more of them to feel the same level of pleasure. “Many of the words that people use to describe how they feel with food are very much related to addiction, such as cravings, withdrawal and feeling out of control.”

These foods have another major problem. Ordinarily, when we eat, we put out a hormone called leptin that tells us we have had enough to eat. Fructose from high-fructose corn syrup  makes us resistant to the effects of leptin so we don’t get that signal that tells us that we are full. Since we don’t feel full, we continue to eat and gain weight which further increases the leptin resistance. Then leptin resistance increases with the weight gain. The more weight you gain, the more resistant you are to leptin and you are truly more hungry than slender people. It is a perfect example of a vicious cycle.

That is why eating real, whole, unconcentrated food is so important. Some of the foods that make us fat are addictive or at a minimum show some of the features of addiction. . Some of them lead to hormone changes that increase our hunger. You are not fat because you are weak or lack willpower. Certain foods are making you fat and if you don’t change what you eat you will continue to struggle. It is really that simple.

I love highly processed food. I love soul food and southern food and I weighed 307 pounds. I was living to eat. Now I eat to live for most meals. That is what food is for. I am not perfect. I live to eat a meal or two a week and I have still lost 70 pounds. No, the food is not as wonderful. The taste and texture are not so good that I will just keep eating, but the food is good enough and I am not hungry. That is all I need to achieve success. Real food exists to sustain our health. Food can be medicine. Highly processed food is poison that ruins our health and makes us fat.