8 Common Symptoms of Food Addiction

Food addiction is a common problem in Western society.

It involves binge eating behavior, cravings and a lack of control around foods.

There are at least 8 symptoms that are typical for food addicts. We decided to run a survey among our readers and ask about each of them.

An email went out to a total of 17,094 individuals and 875 of them answered.

1. You Get Cravings Despite Being Full

It is not uncommon to get cravings, even after eating a fulfilling, nutritious meal.

You don't actually feel "hungry" because you just finished a healthy and nutritious meal, but yet there is an urge somewhere in your brain to eat something else.

This is pretty common and doesn't necessarily mean that you have a problem. Most people get cravings.

However, if this happens often and you have real problems controlling yourself, then it may be an indicator of something else going on .

2. You Eat Much More Than You Intended To

These are two remarks that people get to hear quite often when refusing an offering of unhealthy food for one reason or another.

Both of them are valid. One slice isn't going to do much harm and if you can eat cake in moderation then it's probably alright.

But for some people, there is no such thing as a bite of chocolate or a single piece of cake. One bite turns into 20 and one slice of cake turns into half a cake.

Telling a food addict to eat junk food in moderation is almost like telling an alcoholic to drink beer in moderation. It's just not possible.

3. Eating Until Feeling Excessively "Stuffed"

Let's say you've given in to a craving.

Now you start eating, bite after bite, until you feel full — that is, if you weren't already full when you started (see symptom #1).

You keep on eating, then you eat some more. When you finally stop, when your "urge" is satisfied, you realize that you have eaten so much that you feel completely stuffed.

4. Feeling Guilty Afterwards, but Still Doing It Again Soon

When you do something you know isn't "right," something that is against your values, principles or previous decisions, you often feel bad about it.

This is called having a guilty conscience and is a very common feeling. It's a feeling that is both good and bad.

If you have been trying to exert "willpower" to control your consumption of unhealthy foods, giving in to a craving can lead to a guilty conscience.

You may feel that you are doing something wrong, even cheating on yourself. This may make you feel weak and undisciplined.

5. Making Up Excuses in Your Head

When you have decided to abstain from junk food on a particular day but a craving shows up anyway, you can imagine two forces at play in your mind.

One is the logical, rational decision you made to abstain from junk food. Perhaps you decided to only “cheat” on Saturdays.

But the other force is the craving. Today is a Wednesday and you feel like having something sweet in the afternoon.

Right now you have an urge to have a piece of food that you had previously decided you weren't going to eat on this particular day.

At these moments, you start thinking about whether you should or should not indulge. You may come up with some excuse about why it would be a good idea to give in to the craving and have that piece of food.

6. Repeated Failures at Setting Rules for Yourself

When people are struggling with self-control in one way or another, they often try to set rules for themselves.

For example, only sleep in on the weekends, always do homework right after school, never drink coffee after two in the afternoon. Sound familiar? For most people, these rules almost always fail.

There are few things that are as hopeless as setting rules about eating, especially for those who have problems with cravings.

7. Hiding Your Eating From Others

People with a history of rule setting and repeated failures often start hiding their consumption of junk food from others.

They may prefer to eat alone, when no one else is at home, alone in the car or late at night after everyone else has gone to bed.

I used to drive to the store, buy junk food and eat it alone in the car. If I was home alone, I would eat it there, but I made sure to throw away and hide the packaging so that no one would be able to see what I had done.

8. Unable to Quit Despite Physical Problems

There is no doubt that the foods you eat have a significant effect on your health.

In the short term, junk food can lead to weight gain, acne, bad breath, fatigue, poor dental health and other common problems.

But in the long term, after years and years of continued abuse to the body, things can start to go really wrong.

A lifetime of junk food consumption can lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's, dementia and even some types of cancer.

Someone who experiences any of these physical problems and knows that they are directly related to their intake of unhealthy foods, but is still unable to change their habits, is in serious trouble.

source: www.healthline.com