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Is Your Food Addiction Definition Wrong? 3 Scientific Factors Why Sugar Actually Isn't Addicting
Feb 20, 2023
Summary of Food Addiction Definition:
It has been proven that rats can become addicted to sugar.
Oftentimes we say to ourselves that we are a Sugar Or Food Addict ...
But what if this was simply a case of mislabeling a natural phenomenon?
Here are 3 scientific factors which may cause you to reconsider your food addiction definition.
1. Studies that show food addiction in mice never control for dieting (starving the mice as part of the experiment).
2. Studies in brain scans reveal food addiction lights up SAME brain areas as falling in love.
3. Evolutionary biology suggests hunger and starvation cause binge eating
Here is another video of mine titled "Very Common Question - Why Am I Craving Sweets? Therapist Digs Deep Into The Root Cause Of Craving" which you can view here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJgL0O-LjBI
Stream-of-Consciousness Thoughts Post-Video Production:
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0:00
Today we're talking about food addiction and it's a topic that people feel very strongly about
0:07
and I'm going to present one viewpoint and you can disagree. What I'm going to do is try to tell you
0:15
a few, I'm going to take a head and heart approach. So first I'll tell you some science
0:20
I'll review some science and that's just to kind of open up your mind a little bit by questioning
0:27
some fundamental assumptions about scientific research done on rats and food addiction and the
0:32
opioid drug centers in the brain. I'm going to question some of that research. I'm going to show
0:39
you some research. That's to get you kind of thinking a little more open about the potential
0:44
that you are not a food addict, that you have the ability to be normal with food, that you are not
0:52
a sugar addict. And I know this, I know there's research perspectives, intelligent people out
1:00
there who can disagree on this and that's okay. And you might feel that it's something that's
1:10
medical. That is a disease that, um, you know, you might, we might, we might have entrenched
1:17
positions here. And so I'm going to approach it from a head perspective than a heart perspective. and um you know listen i hope this is of use for you if you like it leave it a thumbs up
1:26
leave a comment if you disagree or have questions or want to know the research i'm happy to dive
1:31
into it with you but um the first thing is the head the science there's a couple things i want
1:39
to talk about in terms of the science of food addiction um one questioning the centers in the
1:46
brain. Two, using Pavlov's dog, the salivating. Talk about that. And then three, survival. These
1:58
are all based on evolutionary biology. Let's go into the first one, lights up centers of the brain
2:03
This is where you hear the phrase that food, when eaten, lights up centers in the brain
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the same centers that drugs do, that opioids do, that heroin does. Basically, food can be as
2:14
addicting as heroin. And you hear the, you hear this phrase a lot and it's true. Like, don't get
2:21
me wrong. The same, you know, when you put your body in a neuro image, fMRI machine or neuroimaging
2:29
they can read the brain centers. They can, they can see that the, the, the same, like the
2:36
hypothalamus, the amygdala, the limbic system, all these different things in your brain, they're all
2:42
they light up around food and and the same ones when they test heroin people
2:48
you know they they light up so it's the same centers in your brain but
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in science we have a we have we got to look at does any are there any other normal situations
3:01
where drug centers of the brain light up in response to things that we deem normal and yes
3:06
They do. For example, there have been studies that show when mothers look at their children and the
3:14
children go yay like smile the same centers in the brain of the moms light up the exact same centers as a cocaine user does when they anticipate cocaine and then ultimately snort it The same centers of the brain Looking at an infant snorting cocaine
3:33
Right? Same centers of the brain. Another one is, um, is, um, what's it called
3:41
When you fall in love and break up. This is a pretty normal event
3:44
If someone fell in love, we wouldn't say they were addicted to another person. but the same centers in their brain would show that they're addicted
3:53
It's the same lighting up pattern. It's the same lighting up pattern as food
3:58
So we say that, you know, sugar and food, you can be addicted
4:03
but we never say that you're addicted to falling in love or that even when you, the same symptoms of withdrawal, right
4:11
That's one way we characterize addiction. Look at the centers in the brain that are being affected by withdrawal
4:16
They become depressed and low energy. And in those circumstances, it's still like addiction
4:27
But we never say that's with food. So food, we say, we're addicted
4:33
But we never do that with any other thing. And we do do it with something
4:37
We're addicted to shopping. We're addicted to gambling. But we never, we're, it's really, it's the dopamine centers of the brain
4:41
And what becomes so, why people can disagree on this is because it's one thing to know in your heart, in your head
4:53
It's one thing to know in your head and understand this theory intellectually that there's dopamine
4:58
And it's another thing to feel the intensity of it. Okay, and I have, I've not struggled with food addiction in the way that you may have, or in the way that you may know someone who's struggled with food addiction
5:14
My thing has been marijuana. Thinking I was an addict to forming a much healthier relationship with marijuana
5:25
Okay? So, if you label yourself an addict, oftentimes there's a learned helplessness
5:36
And this comes into Pavlov's conditioning, the dog, the bell, the dog, the saliva
5:43
Alright, it's dangerous to label yourself as a food addict. Because then you might be conditioning yourself to actually be helpless and become a food addict
5:55
so these thoughts are really important and let me show you so sometimes when you see food your body
6:02
reacts it starts salivating you start just you literally like your whole body reacts to food
6:10
and it's and it's instinctual it just boom happens you're out here now thinking about food you're
6:16
just minding your day doing errands and maybe you had breakfast before so you're not even hungry
6:21
you're not even thinking about and then bam, you're flooded with emotions. You've got to pull
6:26
over. You pull over, you get something to eat and, and bam, the cycle goes again. And you're like
6:32
what is happening? Um, this, so that, so that instinctual response, it might, you might think
6:41
it's food addiction. It might really feel like it because the power of your body is so instinctual
6:46
Just like when in Pavlov dogs they rang these bells and got the dogs to salivate instantaneously
7:00
So the dogs probably felt they were addicted, right? You can imagine a dog, oh god, like imagine a dog, I know dogs don't think this way, but
7:07
a dog, woof woof, bell bell, ooh food coming, or like saliva, so actually not even, no they're
7:13
not even thinking. Bell rang, saliva, bam. It's like a body reaction, but the thing is that that was learned
7:19
over time. These dogs, when they first started hearing the bell, they didn't drool
7:26
Over years of conditioning, it was quicker than years in this experiment, but over a certain
7:32
period of time of ringing the bell, and then the food would come right away, and the dogs would
7:38
feel better. Ring bell, food, feel better. Ring bell, food, feel better. The dogs started picking
7:43
up this pattern. Bell equals food equals feeling better. As soon as they heard the bell, they'd
7:48
salivate in anticipation they'd feel better. So if you had used food as a child to protect yourself
7:59
because that was the only way you knew how to protect yourself, you might've been conditioned
8:04
you have been conditioned over years to instinctively get the food to make yourself feel
8:09
better again and again and again and again and again and again and again. That's become conditioned
8:13
It feels like an addiction. But the beautiful thing about Pavlov's dogs is that they were able
8:18
to unlearn it. They are able to unlearn it. The essence of unlearning was separating stimulus
8:31
from response. There's a bell thing, and then there would be a salivation, and then there'd be
8:39
food. And so we're learning to separate the bell from the food response. We're going to salivate
8:44
but we don't need to get the food. We learn to manage that gap. And if you can do that
8:50
if you can lean into that, you gain your power back, but let's go on
8:57
Um, the last thing I want to talk about is, um, is, is what's it called? Um
9:07
the, the thing where you eat anything, the thing where you eat anything, that's just the easiest
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ways. You know, I'm going to link a video down below because I, because this concept is really
9:16
uh, kind of misunderstood, I'd say eating anything. I've been trying to clarify it
9:21
but, um, you know, it just takes a while to, for it to go through and this whole eating anything
9:27
it sounds crazy from a food addict. How would eating anything help anything
9:33
And the answer comes down to that food is a survival tool for you
9:44
And you need to trust that it's there. And that it's okay to have food
9:56
You've grown up with stress around food. And this stress and survival thinking permeates your conscious experience of food
10:08
You associate food with scarcity. You associate not having food with danger and emotional danger and abandonment and rejection and abuse maybe And food you associate with comfort and warmth and so part of you deeply deeply wants food but another part of you is so conflicted because maybe food
10:31
was locked up maybe you weren't allowed to have access to food maybe your self-worth depended on
10:36
food. Maybe you have all these judgments and sorting this out, sorting this huge mess out
10:48
is like learning to walk. You, you, you, you know how you, you walk a little bit and then you fall
10:54
down and you look up at your parent and then the parents like, Oh yeah, you're good. You do that
11:00
with emotional permission. You do that with trusting food. So you first give yourself
11:06
permission and then you eat some, I know it sounds scary. It really is, it's terrifying. I get it
11:12
It's terrifying. I get it. You eat some food you're scared about eating. You stay connected
11:17
and you're not sure if you did it. You're not sure if you did it. You're almost afraid that
11:24
I'm going to judge you. Someone's going to judge you. You're going to judge you. And
11:30
in this process, you know, at least if you're working with me, there's no judgment
11:38
You really can have this food. Yeah. And it's okay if you overeat, there's no judgment
11:47
And that no, that non-judgment is a new space for people, new space for many, many people
11:54
the non-judgment thing around food, it's, it's weird. It's very weird. Um, and when you don't
12:06
judge food, if you can imagine just like not judging food, not judging yourself for having
12:13
a food, not judging yourself for having a certain amount of food, just being totally okay with it
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all. Not, not, not, not creating doomsday scenarios that you're going to keep eating
12:26
this food. Just right here. It's okay to eat. Bam. Feel that feeling of trust in you
12:30
and getting those experiences where you are okay. You know, the reason we're afraid of
12:44
unhealthy foods, it's almost like we fear, we fear them, but by fear that they're going
12:48
make us fat. We fear that they're going to, there's all this fear that's oftentimes unexplored
12:53
And if you trust yourself, you'll, you'll learn to overcome it. So that's a, that I'm
13:03
trying to start to articulate my thoughts more and more about food addiction. Um, just
13:10
you know, the Coke, the centers in the brain are the same and you can unlearn it. It's a
13:17
learned response and yes, survival mechanisms do play into account, but when you are
13:25
kind of unfamiliar with these survival mechanisms, when you judge yourself, when you don't know how powerful food is and you judge yourself for failing
13:36
it's a incorrect viewpoint, I guess. And, um, and so bringing it, bringing it back into alignment
13:43
that it's okay to eat food. And starting from that place of non-judgment
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That'll be it today. Alright, peace
#Health Conditions
#Eating Disorders
#Mental Health
#Nutrition
#Substance Abuse
#Compulsive Gambling
#Recreational Drugs