Food Is One of the Top Five Addictions

Addict Nation

Addict Nation: An Intervention for America is a book which examines the country’s leading addictions. Not surprisingly, food addiction is #2. (The other most prevalent addictions are prescription pills, crime and punishment, shopping, and technology.) What do the authors say about food addiction? Millions of Americans have been self-medicating with fat and sugar for so […]

Can Veggies Be Comfort Food?

Raw Baby Cracking Up

When we are stressed, depressed, lonely, downhearted, or suffering from any other kinds of bad feelings, we often tend to self-medicate with comfort food, in hopes that it will cheer us up. But comfort foods are so often laden with sugar, fat, carbohydrates, and special chemicals to make them taste extra yummy. Like mother’s milk, […]

Comfort Eating, Food Addiction, and the DSM-V Manual

Light Bedtime Reading

Not long ago we mentioned Jennifer LaRue Huget, the Washington Post reporter who began to take seriously the notion of food addiction after meeting Michael Prager. This is encouraging, because childhood obesity won’t be stopped until food addiction is understood to be as real as addiction to hard drugs, alcohol, and even the range of […]