Got a question about intuitive eating, the anti-diet approach or making peace with food and body? Each month, I will be answering a reader question about these topics here in order to help you on your own Discover Food Freedom journey.
I’m excited to kickstart things with the following question, which is one that comes up time and time again with my clients.
“I feel like I am addicted to junk food (chocolate and chips). Why is that and how do I stop the addiction?”
Thanks for this great question, and before I answer, just a standard disclaimer: These answers are for informational and educational purposes only, aren’t a substitute for individual medical or mental health advice, and don’t constitute a provider-client relationship.
The belief that food is addictive is deeply entrenched in diet culture. And I get it, when I myself was stuck in the disordered eating trenches, I genuinely thought that I was addicted to “junk food” and especially sugar (hello Ben & Jerry’s ice cream!) and that the only way out was complete abstinence. It felt like I could not allow myself even a tiny bite, because the second my taste buds got the sweet hit of sugar, all good intentions and willpower went out the window.
Everywhere we look, sugar and other kinds of “junk foods” are demonised. We are even told that sugar is more addictive than cocaine — I’m sure you've heard of those studies? Unfortunately, what happens when we buy into this story is that we become afraid of consuming these foods, and consequently label them as forbidden foods that are to be avoided at all cost.
There’s a few things I want to say on this topic to help you reframe your "I'm a food addict” story. But before I do so, I’d like you to ponder on a few questions:
Are you or have you previously been on a diet?
What did this diet tell you about the “junk foods” that you think you are addicted to?
When you eat these foods, what is your inner dialogue with yourself?
Do you allow yourself to enjoy and truly savour the food? Or are you berating yourself whilst you’re consuming it, vowing to never have it again?
My hunch is that the foods you deem as “addictive” are exactly the foods that you don’t allow yourself to have and have labelled as “bad”. Is that accurate?
The thing is: food is only addictive to people who are either physically or mentally denied of it.
There is something called the habituation effect, which essentially shows that the more a person is exposed to a particular thing the less appealing it becomes. This is a universal concept that applies to many situations - simply think of the initial novelty of a new handbag or phone and how its shininess eventually wears of. Before you had those items, all you could think of was owning them, but once they are in your possession they start to become less interesting.
The same is true with food. I'm sure you have already experienced this to some extent. For example, consider how you load up on Christmas cookies around the start of the silly season and feel like you can't get enough of them. By the end of it, however, you are sick and tired of cookies and can't stand to see, smell or eat another one of them. Sound familiar? That is the habituation effect in action. The novelty has worn off, and you are able to see a previously alluring food from a more reasonable, rational perspective.
There's some solid studies behind this too, and they show that food habituation is a neurobiological learning process, in which repeated eating of the same things causes a decrease in both behavioural and physiological responses.
There are even studies showing that eating “forbidden foods” aka foods you think you are addicted to and hence don’t allow yourself to have, actually decreases binge eating. How is this possible if food/sugar addiction were real? It’s because of the habituation effect.
This is where the teachings of Intuitive Eating come in.
We actually all have an Intuitive Eater within us. It’s just that by the time we’re adults, we have had so many outside forces interfere with our instincts about food, from messaging around which foods are “healthy” or “junk” (and therefore “good” or “bad”) to the media demonising certain foods.
Through learning to reject the diet mentality, honour the inner wisdom of your body by tuning in to your innate satiety cues, giving yourself the unconditional permission to eat all foods (+ practicing this through the process of habituation), and learning to navigate your inner world without food as a crutch, you eventually arrive at a point where you trust yourself around all foods again. Even the one’s that you so deeply thought you were addicted to.
I know for myself that once I did this work and started letting myself eat bowls of pasta or ice cream or things I previously labelled as “junk food”, with no thought to the old diet rules, something magical happened…I was able to be in the present moment while eating and get true enjoyment from the food. And as a result, I was able to stop when I felt truly satiated and content. And just like that…I could eat a scoop of Ben & Jerry’s and put the rest back into the fridge, something that would have previously never been possible!
It’s important for me to say that this process takes time.
As a general rule, the longer and harder you have dieted, the longer this process might take. And therein lies the problem: out of fear of weight gain, most people don’t let themselves get to the biological and emotional neutralisation that only comes from trusting the process and doing it long enough until all physical and mental restriction has been worked through.
If this is you, my recommendation is to work with someone who can hold your hand throughout this delicate process. From my own experience and the experience of all of my clients, I have faith that you too, with the right help, will be able to heal your relationship with food and arrive at a point where you no longer feel out of control around the foods you believe you are addicted to.
I hope that’s a helpful start, and is helpful for anyone who carries the same limiting food believe.
