No excuses

I don't have big bones, I don't have hormone problems, It's not a medical issue, It's that I eat too much of the wrong sort of food... Simple?

Alcoholics can stop drinking and avoid alcohol. Drug addicts can get clean and avoid drugs. Smokers can quit and avoid cigarettes. How do you stop eating and avoid food when you have a food addiction? 

Food addiction is not very well understood at the moment and unless you have experienced it, it can be difficult to understand. Research is however starting in this field to better understand the causes of obesity. Experiments conducted on both animals and humans show that same parts of the brain that are activated by drugs like heroin and cocaine can be triggered by the consumption of foods high in fat, sugar or salt. The pleasure centers and chemical reward system in the brain are activated in the same way as when using drugs.

Researchers at Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Science & Policy have developed a questionnaire to identify people with food addictions.
Some of the questions are as follows.

Do you:

• End up eating more than planned when you start eating certain foods
• Keep eating certain foods even if you're no longer hungry
• Eat to the point of feeling ill
• Worry about not eating certain types of foods or worry about cutting down on certain types of foods
• When certain foods aren't available, go out of your way to obtain them

The questionnaire also tries to gauge the impact of food decisions on your emotions. Do these situations apply to you?

• Eating food causes problems such as depression, anxiety, self-loathing, or guilt.
• You need to eat more and more food to reduce negative emotions or increase pleasure.
• Eating the same amount of food doesn't reduce negative emotions or increase pleasure the way it used to.

If you have ever found yourself sat with an grease stained pizza box, or empty biscuit packet on your lap and you can't explain why you eat it all, then you might have a food addiction.

Although food addiction isn't widely recognised by the medical profession in the UK, it is getting better. I will post more information and links to sites as I find them. 

Right now I don't have any answers but have decided to try 'cold turkey' with my worse foods. So as of two weeks ago I've not had take out, biscuits, cake or any other overly refined foods. I have plenty of food in the house and the ingredients to make small amounts of 'nice' foods when the cravings get too bad. What I have found helps is to make sure that the healthy foods are easy and quick to prepare. To this end our freezer is stocked with lots of veggies I chopped up and bagged ready for cooking. Also we have cooked and frozen lots of portions of low fat chilli and bolognaise.  Now healthy food isn't such a mission to make and if I am about to drive to the shops for junk food, I can make healthier versions in less time than it takes to go to the shops.