Research Proving Food as Addictive as Cocaine

Finally studies and the media are showing what us naturopaths have known for years. so lets start with

The Bad News

Food is addictive just like drugs. High sugary and high fat foods cause the body to release chemicals that affect the reward centers of the brain just like drugs.  Similair to drugs the body develops tolerance/addiction to these foods so that you have to continually eat more sugary and fat foods to get the same reward and pleasure activation in the brain. This is why these food are addictive. This makes it very difficult to resist those foods and stick to dietary especially with the holidays coming up. This pleasure activation/addictive quality causes us all to get caught in a trap. Eating high sugary/fatty foods causes feelings of relaxation stress reduction, and pleasure, but after awhile those feel good chemicals decline and the feelings go away and the cravings come back and so these foods are eaten again. Eventually the body develops tolerance just like to drugs where more food is needed to create those same feelings of pleasure, thus the addiction!! and now.... 

The Good News 

Just like with drugs, food detox/rehab is possible.  Completely cutting out these foods for a short period of time, such as in a 2 or 3 week detox or strict diet those pleasure centers can reset. if you have every done anything like this you have experienced it.  That is why when people first start a diet they feel miserable because they are depressed because thier pleasure centers aren't being activated, but overtime those pleasure centers readjust. That is why at first eating more fruits and veggies doesn't taste as good but if done over time and in addition to eliminating high fat and high sugar foods, Fruits and veggies start to taste good and sweet again.

The Game Plan

If you feel like you are caught in this addiction or pleasure trap, consider a detox/ diet change. This can be hard this time or year and may need to wait until after the holidays.

The diet should eliminate all high processed foods and only include fruits, veggies, nuts, beans, seeds, and lean meats and should be at least 2-3 weeks long to allow those pleasure centers to reset.  After that sweets can be put back into the diet in small amounts very slowly but be careful because for some people small amounts of these high sugary/fatty foods will cause a quick "relaspe" into the food addiction cycle.

So if you feel like this is happening to you and you need some help going through food "rehab" and getting out of this vicious cycle. Let me know!

Adam Graves ND, LAc

Want to read more about this subject check out this article in the huffington post