What Causes Food Addiction?
There are many factors that may contribute to food addiction, including social, biological, and psychological reasons.
Social factors that may contribute to a food addiction a disruption to the family function, stressful life events, peer pressure, child abuse, a lack of support, and social isolation.
The biological causes of food addiction may be as a result of certain medications, a hormonal imbalance, family history of addiction, and abnormalities in the structure of the brain.
As far as psychological factors are concerned this could be as a result of being the victim of a distressing event, including physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. It can also stem from an inability to cope with stressful situations,
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How healthy is your relationship with food? Do you want to eat well, exercise regularly and get healthy but struggle to maintain your consistency? Have you tried every diet out there and had short-term results that never stick? Do your old habits sneak back in when you allow yourself to slip, or is it that the diet you chose wasn’t a sustainable long-term option?
It’s important to look at your mindset before you can address change, because there is a psychological component to your overall health.
When someone says addiction what is your immediate thought? It’s likely you first think of drugs, then alcohol, perhaps caffeine and sugar will come to mind. While the latter can be addictive substances, that isn’t the issue. There is a difference between dependence and addiction.
For example, if you drink a lot of soda and then decide to cut down but struggle to do so that is a dependency, not an addiction. Your body is physiologically dependent on the substance that results in withdrawals when you remove your soda. Those symptoms can last as long as a month, but once you get through that period the symptoms are gone and usually so are the
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• Is food fuel and nourishment?
Seeking food as nourishment is a healthy relationship, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re restrictive and limit what you eat. You can still be flexible and enjoy an indulgence.
When you have an unhealthy relationship, you turn to food for comfort, to fill a void. You make bad choices for the wrong reasons. Your choices are at odds with your goals because even though you know the right choice, you don’t make it.
Know that the food itself isn’t at the core of your problem, you have an internal issue.
If you think that you can beat it on your own and moderate your food take you need to understand that it is an ability, not a tool. Before you have the ability to moderate you first need to address the internal issue which is at the core of your issue. Moderation can manage cravings, while willpower attempts to crush them. The former is a far more sustainable approach.
Your cravings are just superficial, because there is an underlying issue spurring you to satisfy it and you’re choosing to comfort it with food. The true craving may be adventure, a healthy relationship, love, a job that you love, human connection, or any matter of things. When these go unfulfilled your stress increases and you turn to food to feel happy