FOOD ADDICTIONS: Emotional or Physical?
Posted on March 19, 2010 by Lisa Ulshafer, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
A lot of emphasis has been placed on the emotional side of food addiction, yet can we actually be physically addicted to the foods we eat?
There are a lot of people in the world today who feel that they are addicted to food. A great deal of the focus around food has been placed on the “emotional” addiction. The question that is becoming more prevalent however is, “Can we actually be physically addicted to the foods we eat, outside of the realm of emotional eating?” Study after study has shown, absolutely!
The 3 major culprits….white refined sugar, white refined salt and white refined flour. If you took a tally of how much of these 3 substances you have consumed just in the past 24 hours, you may be unpleasantly surprised how much you have put into your body!
Now all 3 of these substances in their natural form, don’t pose a problem. It is in the refinement process that they can literally become deadly through the health problems that result through their improper consumption. It is through the refinement process that these natural foods become unnatural chemicals that our bodies were not built to process. The addiction lies not in these natural foods but the chemicals that they have become during the refinement process. Literally every nutritional element is stripped away;
The leader of the culprits and most damaging is white refined sugar. You know the one, it hides in your kitchen calling out to you every so often, or maybe everyday. That sweet tooth craving that pops up within you to rear it’s ugly head scouring the cupboards or fridge for a tasty little treat or a pint of Ben & Jerry’s! Refined sugar being the most significant of the three in the life of a Diabetic, places a greater importance on really taking a look at sugar in particular.
There are steps you can take in overcoming these food addictions:
STEP ONE: Acknowledging the fact that it exists.
If you think, “Hey, I’m not addicted to food, no way!”. Try going 3 days without these specific foods and see what you are like. Are you edgy, irritable, depressed, angry, consumed by thoughts of these foods? Addiction is a common way we use to suppress negative emotions that we haven’t resolved in a healthy way. For many, we are not even conscious of the fact that we are engaging in this process. By approaching the addiction both from a physical and emotional standpoint, we can start to free ourselves from having food control us and start having a healthy control over that which we put into our bodies.
STEP TWO: Become AWARE of what you are putting into your body.
Refined sugar comes in many forms. Check out the ingredients, learn them, know them, look for them and AVOID them. If you are drizzling sugar laden sauces over healthy vegetables, you are defeating the whole purpose of eating healthy vegetables!
STEP THREE: Make healthier choices.
Popping a handful of candy into your mouth to stabilize your blood sugar isn’t the healthiest of choices. Your pancreas and organs are already challenged by Diabetes, why place additional challenges on these organs by consuming chemicals? PAY ATTENTION! Be conscious of your choices. Reach for a natural source of sugar like fruit to aid you in your Diabetic lifestyle, or ANY lifestyle.
STEP FOUR: Resolving the emotional components.
Release the negative emotions that you are suppressing through food in a healthy way. There may be a lot of fear and resistance in doing so, but the longer you use food to keep these emotions suppressed, the louder they will become. Addressing what emotions drive you to put these foods into your body and releasing and resolving the emotions can be the greatest freedom of all.
The greater goal in overcoming a sugar or food addiction, or any addiction for that matter is not about losing weight or preventing cavities…the greater goal is to have mastery of our bodies. Once we have mastery of our bodies, we can begin to have mastery of our minds and ultimately mastery of our lives.
FACTS ABOUT SUGAR:
Fact #1: Sugar is the #1 food additive in the United States.
Fact #2: Sugar is the #1 addiction in the United States, more so than all other forms of substance abuse combined.
Fact #3: 100 years ago, Diabetes was #100 on the list of frequency of illnesses. Today Diabetes is #3 on that same list.
