Wondering if you have a food addiction?
Food addiction is a behavioral disorder that promotes excessive consuming of high-fat or high-sugar meals.
Brain imaging and other scientific research have established that the brain processes in persons with food addiction are comparable to those in people with other substance dependence, such as drug or alcohol addiction.
Instructions: Simply answer the questions on how you have behaved and felt during the past 6 months. Take your time and answer truthfully for the most accurate results.
This online screening is not a diagnostic tool. Only a trained medical professional, like a doctor or mental health professional, can help you determine the best treatment for you.
What is Food Addiction?
In the XXI century, the age of freedom, the prosperity of wellness and independence, food addiction takes its honorable place among the other fatal inclinations - addictions to drugs, alcohol, gambling, cigarettes, shopping, work, erratic sex, and videogames.
As the saying goes, pick your poison. So, what exactly is food addiction?
According to the World Health Organization, food addiction is an eating disorder in which a person consumes particular things for enjoyment rather than to achieve their nutritional needs. This psychiatric disease jeopardizes a person's physical and mental health, and it can lead to other eating disorders such as binge eating disorder, bulimia, and anorexia.
But how did food, which is necessary for any living creature's survival, become a destructive desire?
The answer is simple: food has a purpose other than simply satisfying physical hunger. It soothes the heartbroken, consoles the befuddled, calms the enraged, and satisfies the bored. Eating became an emotional condition quick cure in an age of hustling, social pressure, and never-ending stress.
Unfortunately, not a lasting one and irresistibly luring to have one more bite again and again.
Food addiction symptoms
Your emotions are the most visible indications of food addiction. When you're hungry, how do you feel? What about when you're hungry but don't have your favorite snack?
You're on the verge of food addiction if you find yourself unexpectedly needing a certain product - most likely something high in carbs, fats, and calories - and then satisfy your craving with a long-awaited release.
The problem is caused by taste enhancers in processed foods like fast food. They want you to associate eating delicious and calorie-dense foods with feelings of pleasure, contentment, and happiness.
However, to have a more exact overview of your food-mood connection, you should examine yourself more profoundly, for instance, with this food addiction quiz.
How to fight food addiction
You'll need an action plan to combat food addiction once you realize your eating habits center around calming your emotions. The good news is that it is quite achievable. The bad news is that it will probably take some time and effort.
You'll need to mix psychology and meal planning to break the chain of comfort food addiction. On the one hand, a well-balanced diet will properly nourish your body and improve your physical and mental health. Proteins, healthy fats, carbohydrates and fiber, vitamins, and minerals will give you more energy and help you feel better, so you'll eat fewer high-processed foods. Moreover, with a healthy diet, you may discover plenty of fruits, vegetables, and nuts as natural and delicious treats.
The cognitive-behavioral approach, on the other hand, will assist you in breaking the link between eating and the best and only pleasure. CBT psychology will help you overcome your need to numb your emotions with junk food. You'll learn to define your emotions and needs so that you may address them quickly and find calorie-free sources of pleasure.
How to stop eating junk food
Therapy, emotional analysis, and building new habits will make your relationship with food healthier in the long-term run. However, what can you start with? Here is your instant action plan:
Realize that junk food affects your body. There are no absolutely bad products, but there are foods that simply bring nothing good to you and leave you hungry again in 30 minutes. So, with fast food, you consume void calories.
Replace junk treats with wholesome alternatives. Cook home-made or check healthy food restaurants for healthier versions of your favorite burgers, pizza, pasta, and lasagna. Less salt, less sugar, less highly processed oils, and you are good. Complement the meal with fiber-rich salad and a glass of water to make the delicious option maximum healthy!
Don't cut your favs off completely. Plan your weekly menu, considering that once you may replace a healthy meal with fast food. But just once, and remember about salad instead of fries and water instead of soda, right?
Bottom line:
Food addiction is a significant eating disorder that has a detrimental impact on your life quality, not to mention your weight loss goals.
Food addiction is a detrimental coping mechanism for regular stress.
To overcome food addiction, use cognitive behavioral therapy and mindful meal planning to sever the link between food and emotional state.
The route to a healthier relationship with food may take some time and work, but you can always begin with tiny steps toward better eating habits, well-being, and happiness.
Eat whatever you want with intermittent fasting!
