Food addiction is a disease of the mind, affecting both
physical and mental health. Food addiction is an enemy of
longevity. All centenarians have a moderate diet.
Luigi Cornaro was one of the most celebrated centenarians,
who lived from 1464 to 1566 AD. He was famous for his
longevity wisdom on the art of living long related to
calorie restriction. By his standard of daily consumption
of only twelve ounces of solid foods and fourteen ounces
pure grape juice, very few of us would become centenarians
because many of us simply overeat.
Yes, we are living in a generation of food addiction.
So, what is food addiction?
Food addiction is an unhealthy relationship with food. This
unhealthy eating behavior interferes with your health,
happiness, relationship, and your life - food addiction is
detrimental to your longevity.
But why are many of us addicted to food? Or, why do we
overeat?
Well, you may overeat if you are not happy with your body.
You don't like how you look, so you use diet as a
controlling factor to achieve your ideal body shape. You
begin to addicted to certain types of food that you think
may help you achieve your goals.
You may feel guilty about who and what you are, or
something you have done. Your guilt precipitates in your
food addiction.
You may feel lonely, unloved, or frustrated. This initiates
your addiction to comfort foods.
You may be obsessed with fad diets to control your weight.
Fluctuating between weight loss and weight gain may lead to
your switching from one diet to another, and subsequently
eating and avoiding certain foods. The imbalance in body
and mind may tip you over to food addiction.
You may have emotional problems, which cause chemical
imbalance of dopamine, a neurochemical responsible for
regulating your appetite.
You may have too much stress in you life (but who
doesn't?). Your failure to cope with your stress may cause
your serotonin (neurochemical) level to decline. In order
to elevate its level, you body needs to eat, and you become
addicted to food.
You may have genes predisposed you to food addiction, such
as sharp sensory response to food. The sight and smell of
food simply raises your level of dopamine.
You may have preference for certain types of food and
drink, which induce addiction, thanks to those food
manufacturers who have ingeniously ingested food
flavorings, taste enhancers, and other emulsifiers into
their products. Unknowingly, you become a victim of food
addiction.
You may have set unrealistic expectations for yourself, and
your inability to live up to those expectation lead to
frustration, which is often a recipe for the development of
food addiction.
You may have guilt about eating. Such imbalance in thinking
and behavior often sets off a vicious circle of food
addiction and eating disorder.
Food addiction is common, especially in the affluent
western world, where there is always an array of foods to
satisfy the most discriminating taste.
Food addiction is compulsive eating - that is, eating when
you are not hungry.
Food addiction often leads to binge eating, which is eating
large quantities of food, and often without remembering
what one has eaten.
Food addiction is a complex mental disease. It is a
reaction to your emotions, to your distorted thinking. If
you have food addiction, you need to admit that you have
the problem. Denial will only aggravate your food addiction
problem.
You may have a food addiction problem if you have the
following: eating too much and too often; eating at night;
binging; vomiting; and food fixation (i.e. always planning
what to eat next, anticipating eating).
Food addiction has everything to do with your mind. To
control your mind, or to let your mind control you is the
issue with food addiction. Your obsessive thoughts and
behavior about food have very little to do with food;
surprisingly, they have everything to do with "control."
Ironically, if you are addicted to food, you may strive to
control your eating to compensate for the lack of control
you may feel in other areas of your life.
(This is the first of a series of articles on "eating and
longevity.")
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Stephen Lau is a researcher, writing medical research for
scientists. His publications include "NO MIRACLE CURES" a
book on healing and wellness. He has also created several
websites on health and healing.
http://www.longevityforyou.com
http://www.zenhealthylifestyle.com
http://www.chinesenaturalhealing.com
http://www.rethinkyourdepression.com
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