Many Doctors Believe Food Can Be Addictive

Doctor Hand

Can food be addictive in the same way as, for instance, heroin? Many doctors believe that it can. While some people are not very addiction-prone, others are, but are too busy being junkies involving some other substance, and food doesn’t do a thing for them. Not every person who eats is a food addict. But […]

Embrace Your Hunger

Free Drinking Refreshing Water

We have mentioned Oprah Winfrey‘s chagrin when she had been told by her doctor that she would need to “embrace hunger.” Many of us would be better off learning to feel pleasant anticipation of a good meal rather than a craving for junk food. We could experience for ourselves the truth in the old saying, […]

Medical Science and Food Addiction

HFCS Lobby Sponsors Obesity Conference

(Part One of a Two-Part Post)(View Part Two) by Robert A. Pretlow, M.D. Why Does The Obesity Community Reject Addiction? In September 2009, I conducted a plenary session presentation at the European Childhood Obesity Group (ECOG) scientific meeting in Dublin, Ireland, in which I proposed that comfort eating and resulting addiction to highly pleasurable foods […]

Paula Goodyer and the Taste of Addiction

Junk Food

Paula Goodyer writes about health for The Sydney Morning Herald and Cleo Magazine, among others, and has published three books. She is a recipient of the Walkley award, the Australian journalistic-excellence equivalent of the Pulitzer. In her “The Taste of Addiction” article, Goodyer considers the ideas of Dr. David Kessler, who is highly suspicious of […]

Heart Hunger Not Satisfied by Junk Food

Moment to Oneself

Linda Spangle, R.N., is an expert on heart hunger, the emptiness that leads to emotional eating, which is pretty much the same as comfort eating. Her website, Weight Loss Café, offers several helpful articles about emotional eating. Today we’re looking at one called “When Your Heart is Hungry.” It offers several concrete suggestions for the […]

Childhood Obesity and Government Regulation

Pretzels Cold Drinks Pizza

The editors of Scientific American have compiled an interesting article about childhood obesity, which appears in the May issue. The stark reality is that one out of every three kids in America is overweight, and many people believe the government must do something about it. Those of us whose memories of our school days include […]