Understanding Food Addiction: Causes, Symptoms, and Recovery Strategies
People with food addiction struggle every day with a loss of control or inability to stop eating certain foods. Understanding the causes and signs can help lower your risk.
By Michelle S. Hunt, PsyD, LCADC, Clinical Psychologist, Licensed Clinical Alcohol and Drug Counselor, Virtua Complete Weight Management Program
People with food addiction struggle every day with a loss of control or an inability to stop eating foods high in carbohydrates, fat, salt, sugar, or artificial sweeteners. They also experience painful feelings of shame and embarrassment about their food behaviors.
Food addiction is a complex condition that shares similarities with other types of addiction, such as drug, alcohol, shopping, or gambling addictions. However, help is available.
Understanding the causes and signs of food addiction can help you lower your risk and change potentially problematic behaviors.
What is food addiction?
Food addiction is a physiological, psychological, and behavioral disorder characterized by a loss of control over the consumption of "highly palatable" foods (high in sugar, salt, and fat). Like substance abuse, it triggers the brain’s reward system, releasing "feel-good" chemicals such as dopamine and creating a cycle of cravings and withdrawal.
To help you hang on to or recreate those good feelings, your body and brain will begin to crave highly palatable foods. Because your brain will adjust its receptors to compensate for the rush of chemicals, you'll eventually need to consume increasingly larger quantities of highly palatable foods to get the same feel-good reaction.
Who is at risk for food addiction?
Because everyone must eat to survive, anyone can develop a food addiction. Overexposure to highly palatable foods can increase your risk of developing a food addiction—and people who are overexposed at a young age are at even higher risk. People who use food to cope with stress or to change their mood are also at higher risk.
Studies also show that specific genes put people at a higher-than-average risk of developing any addiction. The more “addictive” genes a person has, the more likely they are to struggle with addiction to food, another substance, or a behavior.
What are the signs of food addiction?
Common signs that a person is struggling with food addiction include:
- Loss of control: Inability to stop eating even when full
- Physical cravings: Intense urges for high-fat, high-sugar foods
- Emotional distress: Feelings of guilt, shame, or embarrassment after eating
- Tolerance: Needing to eat more of a specific food to feel a "reward"
- Social isolation: Avoiding social events to eat alone or hiding food habits
Many people who have food addiction also experience weight gain. However, some do maintain a normal weight.
If you're experiencing food addiction and stop eating certain foods, you may experience withdrawal symptoms, including:
- Cravings
- Headaches
- Irritability
- Restlessness
How do I prevent food addiction?
Food addiction is difficult to prevent because it’s impossible to avoid food. However, one of the best strategies is to avoid overexposure to palatable foods by eating a healthy, balanced diet rich in natural, unprocessed foods. Eating a balanced diet and recognizing the warning signs of food addiction will help you act quickly if you suspect a problem.
3 steps to overcome food addiction
- Detoxification: Remove "trigger" foods (like processed sugars) to reset your brain's reward system.
- Behavioral modification: Identify environmental triggers, such as eating at specific restaurants or eating ice cream before bed, and create new habits.
- Mindful management: Plan your meals, use meal-tracking tools, and practice mindfulness to eat more intuitively and recognize your hunger cues.
Although some people can gradually reintroduce small amounts of problem foods into their diets, others must avoid them indefinitely to maintain control over their food addiction. You should pay close attention to how your body responds to your problem foods to decide which long-term management strategy is right for you.
Find support in overcoming food addiction
Virtua's Complete Weight Management team offers a personalized approach to weight loss, including the behavioral support you need to address the psychological and emotional factors that contribute to weight gain. Request a consultation today.
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