5 Signs of a Food Addiction
Do you tend to eat too many chips late at night? Do you find it hard to stop eating your favorite food to the point that you feel unwell afterward? You could have a food addiction if you answered yes to either of these questions.
Food addiction is more common in the United States than you might think. A study published in January 2023 states that 1 in 8 Americans over 50 have a food addiction.
Highly processed foods have excitotoxins and other additives that cause you to crave more and eat more than you should. Overeating foods high in fat or sugar sends signals to the brain areas responsible for pleasure. In the same way that drugs and alcohol affect the brain’s pleasure centers, overeating produces dopamine and other chemical releases too.
But, just like there’s help for alcohol and drug addictions, there’s help for food addiction, too. If you have a food addiction, you can get a sober coach in Los Angeles or one of our other locations to help. So, let’s look at five signs of food addiction to determine if your eating has crossed the line into addiction.
1. You Keep Eating Until You Feel Uncomfortable
Do you eat until you’re stuffed or sick? Eating food until you feel bad clearly indicates a food addiction. Occasionally, people overeat on the holidays, and this is normal. But if you eat until you feel sick every day or a few times a week, you may have a food addiction.
2. You Have Food Cravings or Tolerance
If you crave or obsess about a particular food every day, you may have a food addiction. Cravings are your brain’s way of letting you know it want more dopamine.
Have you developed a tolerance to your favorite foods? For example, if you used to eat a pint of ice cream after dinner, but now you feel like you need to eat two at a sitting to feel satisfied. If you’ve developed a tolerance for certain foods or seem to never get enough, it’s probably a food addiction.
3. You Eat So Often or So Much That It’s Interfering With Your Life
Are you eating so much that it’s interfering with your day-to-day life? For example, do you snack so often that you can only finish some of your work in time? Are you eating while you try to spend time with the kids? Do you avoid social gatherings that don’t offer food? If you consume food so often that it’s causing you to miss out on important things in your life, it could be a problem.
4. You Fail To Set and Keep Rules About Eating
Have you set rules about foods and keep breaking them? People with a food addiction often set a rule only to break it. Let’s assume your rule is only to eat junk food on the weekends. But then you find that you eat it daily, even before breakfast.
Or if you say that you will eat fruits and vegetables twice a day and then eat junk food instead, you are failing to keep your healthy food choices. If you have trouble sticking to your rules about food, you could be addicted.
5. You’re Unable To Stop Overeating Despite Health Problems
If you have diabetes or some other health issue and you should be watching your diet but can’t seem to watch what you eat, you could have a food addiction.
Overeating junk food can cause weight gain, acne, fatigue, and other health issues. But if you already have problems with your health, eating processed and sugary foods makes you unhealthy. Still, if you continue to eat, you have a food addiction and may need help before it leads to more health concerns.
Try a Sober Coach Today
If you have any signs of a food addiction, you should look into hiring a sober coach to help. Sober on Demand can offer you an addiction sober coach in Los Angeles, New York, Florida, and other convenient areas across the United States.
If you have a problem with food addiction, a sober coach will help you stop eating so much and begin to get your health back on track. Reach out today for a sober coach to help you stop eating so much junk food.
