One of the posts in my queue has been my take on the concept of food addiction. This is not that post. But I saw this in my reader yesterday and just wanted to tease up a bit of the subject.
Emily Boller writes, re “cheating” vs following diets 100%:
It’s much easier and simpler to give 100% right from the beginning and keep the pilot light of addictive cravings extinguished, than to be continually fighting obsessive compulsions that are brewing beneath the surface. Been there. Done that. And it’s hard, hard work to keep cravings from becoming an all-consuming monster. In fact, it’s exhausting because it’s a next-to-impossible feat to accomplish!
Plus, it only takes the tiniest spark to ignite the pilot light of cravings to full power again, and that’s THE most dangerous place to live!
My experience (so far) has been different. Typically once a week I eat or drink what I want. Often that’s Thai food, but sometimes it’s cookies after dinner. And then the next day, I go right back to my regular way of eating.
For me, there are two ways that eating SAD foods typically become problematic. The first is when I tie lots and lots of SAD meals together … aka the cruise ship phenomena (also known as ‘home for the holidays’ ;). The other is when I eat these foods as a coping mechanism.
In both cases, my response is simple: get back to eating nutrient-dense foods as quickly as I can.
I got to test this awhile back when I had a life crisis I wasn’t expecting and my old overeating demons got the best of me (starting with three Tanqueray and Minute Maid light lemonade pre-dinner drinks ;).
My theory was that aside from not giving in, the next best thing was to stop after one and before letting the old patterns get re-established. So although I was not at all hungry the morning after, I just treated it as any other day and ate my regular diet. Worked like a charm.
Since then, I’ve used this strategy pretty well. Weight loss (albeit slow) is steady and I’m feeling pretty great.
Would I be better off without these deviations? Perhaps. But I like the idea of having this flexibility for pretty much the same reason I don’t do VLC.
As they used to say, your mileage may vary. If this doesn’t work for you, don’t do it. But I think if you’re eating as nutritious a diet as you can and doing some stress management work, you may find that an occasional SAD food needn’t ignite your cravings.
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our modern culture -- especially diet. Beth writes about ancestral health, health policy, & mindfulness. And cats! 
Agree 100%, Beth.
-Steve
I’m on the fence about this one, and this week was supposed to be when I made a strategy to start back in on for many days to come. I certainly get into an addictive-type cycle with straying from the line, but I can’t reconcile myself to the idea of NEVER having “SAD” foods ever again NOR to making myself feel bad if/when I do have them. Perhaps a strategy like yours, with a single day (or meal?) per week with an indulgence I’ve anticipated all week, would make sense.
I’ll be watching the comments!
I agree with her that fighting cravings can be an all consuming monster. I used to struggle every minute of every waking hour to avoid overeating. But I disagree with her that staying on “plan” all the time will suppress cravings.
My overeating is triggered by following dieting rules. So the only way to keep the cravings at bay are to have no restrictions, no food is off-limits and no quantity is too large. (Note: my shift in eating behaviour has taken a long time, months of work with a cognitive behaviour therapist.)
Of course, this doesn’t mean that I junk food all day; but now that I’m not battling cravings 24-7, I choose salads over sandwiches and fruit over cookies.
The psychological impact of dieting is rarely discussed (or picked up by the media).
Yah. No. I have more than one issue.
What you are describing is overeating, not addiction. The craving for week, months is the difference. If you do not crave it severely, it is not addiction. Do you have the iron will to resist cravings, rekindled repeatedly? Try having one cigarette, and repeatedly quieting. It is worse that cigarettes. Unless it that bad of craving, you are not dealing with addiction, but something else.
Food Addiction is a bitch, and if you have it and get clear, it would be just stupid to go near it. Once we kick addiction, the big millstone is go, and then we get to deal with a series of little ones. Weight loss, those final few pounds are not comparable to addiction.
Hyperinsulinemia / Insulin resistance / carbohydrates / leptin resistance also produces a mild urge to eat, but is less sever and dissipates over a few hours. This can be handled as you describe. These are very different animals; both may lead to overeating.
Of course, there is overproduction of ghrelin, other hormones, gut peptides that needs also be resisted or tapered off of. These may be producing excess hunger, greater hunger that out need. For some of us, hunger all the time is the our normal condition at constant weight.
This dose not include palatability issues, reward issue, habit, social, custom, or all those other reasons to overeat, which the next day, one can simply dust the crumbs off and go on with life.
I do not care, what do I know.
Fred, I am pretty confident that I would have easily qualified as a food addict a year ago. I certainly am very familiar with the concept of craving for weeks or months.
Before I started this last go-round of weight loss, I had lost over 50 lbs, had gone home for Easter, and in a matter of just a few months, had gained it back and then some.
This go-round, I’ve already been home for the holidays twice, had a major life-issue happen re my professional life, and just dealt with a scary medical issue … all with only the one episode of resorting to food to cope. Yet this time I’ve did not have the problem of completely falling off the wagon.
I credit two things: the nutrient-dense diet that, at least for me, reduces cravings in a major way, and the neurofeedback therapy I had from last Oct thru April.
I do not mean to belittle other’s experience with addictive substances or suggest they aren’t true. But I do think that part of the challenge is our incomplete understanding of the best ways to treat addiction.