81: The 5 Things You Don't Know About Food Addiction

The Dr. Carolyn Coker Ross Show: Binge Eating Disorder, Stress Eating, Emotional Eating, Food Addiction

There are over 200 million searches on Google for the term “food addiction.” Food addiction affects a large number of individuals, even though it's not accepted as a true diagnosis (yet) by the medical profession. Using the Yale Food Addiction Scale, 5-10% of the general population test positive for food addiction. Over half of individuals diagnosed with binge eating disorder also meet the criteria for food addiction. When you struggle with food addiction, the basic principles of healthy eating can get buried beneath your beliefs, fears, and obsessions.

In this podcast, you will learn:

1. The signs that you may have a food addiction. 2. Specific practices you can use to overcome food addiction. 3. How you can get rid of the negative self-talk that makes food addiction worse.

HOMEWORK: 5 Things About Food Addiction and Practices that Will Help You Overcome Food Addiction

1. Yo-yo dieting makes food addiction worse

Practice: I will not diet. My body is an exquisitely tuned organism that knows how to manage its weight. I don’t need to restrict my food intake to make my body work correctly. 2. There's a difference between asking yourself: "What's wrong with me?" and recognize "What happened to you."

Practice: I will become more aware of when I am emotionally hungry and find other ways of coping with my emotions without always using food. 3. Your body has all the wisdom you need to overcome your food addiction.

Practice: I will interrupt any negative inner dialogue I have towards my body and replace it with a neutral thought.

4. Unconscious core beliefs can stand between you and your goal to put an end to your food addiction behaviors.

Practice: I will honor the part of me who did what she could to survive and instead of continuing with negative core beliefs, I will start journaling about guiding principles (gp) I can use for my new life. (Ex. instead of "I'm not worthy", a gp could be "I value myself."

5. Recovery from food addiction may be different than you expect

Practice: I will be gentle with myself as I learn new ways of being the best I can be.

Thanks for listening! Schedule a free consult to discuss your food and body image issues: https://findingyouranchor.as.me/CONSULT The Anchor Program is a 12-week non-diet program offering ONLINE group and individual sessions for the treatment of binge eating, emotional eating, food addiction, and compulsive overeating. Want to learn more about the Anchor Program? https://AnchorProgram.com How you can reach (guest): Where you can find me: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/real-healing https://www.youtube.com/user/DrCarolynRoss Be sure to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes and leave us a rating and a review!