Food Addiction Denial: False Information and Irrational Thinking

By Philip Werdell M.A.

Denial is a major characteristic of addiction, and it is certainly a key problem when it comes to chemical dependency on sugar and other hyper-processed foods. Denial is an issue of consciousness. A major aspect of food addiction is that those who have it do not think they have it, and those who are treating it professionally do not think that it is a serious problem.

Food addiction begins with physical craving. Physical craving distorts the hunger instinct for some people, making these people want more food than they need. This physical craving is a biochemical brain change caused by extra sugar or other hyper-processed foods. When this craving occurs, food addicts experience a slow but steady increase in their attraction to their trigger food.

There are three levels of food addiction denial: 1) cognitive denial, which is when facts are inaccurate and reasoning is incorrect; 2) biochemical denial, where addictive foods, e.g., sugar, flour, caffeine, etc., create physical craving, mental obsession, and an addictive personality; 3) social or institutional denial, where people with power in institutions central to our society's food supply hurt consumers (sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally), then come up with arguments to normalize these practices and build them into the woodwork such that the very fabric of society becomes toxic. This book starts at the beginning and is primarily about cognitive food addiction denial. Biochemical and social/institutional food addiction denial are summarized in appendices A and B.

If you or someone you know is struggling with food dependency issues and questioning whether food addiction is real, this book is for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667853536

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Philip Werdell, M.A., author of this book, has worked professionally with over 5,000 late-stage food addicts. He is the founder of ACORN Food Dependency Recovery Services and the Food Addiction Institute.

© 2022 Philip Werdell, All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN 978-1-66785-352-9 eBook 978-1-66785-353-6

This book is dedicated to

Carl and Cassie Segal

for their decades-long support

of the Food Addiction Institute

and of this writing.

Contents

Why Food Addiction Denial?

Ten Common Statements Of Food Addiction Denial

Chapter 1

The Science of Food Addiction2

Chapter 2

Addictive Foods

Chapter 3

The Limits of Reason

Chapter 4:

Natural Sugar vs. Added Processed Sugar

Chapter 5

The Limits of Willpower

Chapter 6

Eating Disorders vs. Food Addiction

Chapter 7

Effective TreatmentThe Addiction Treatment Model

Chapter 8

Negative Consequences

Chapter 9

Limits of Bariatric Surgery

Chapter 10

Powerlessness

Postscript

The Limits of Science

Ten Correct Statements about Addiction to Specific Food

Appendix A:

Biochemical Food Addiction Denial

Appendix B

Social/Institutional Food Addiction Denial

Appendix C

Bibliography

Endnotes

Why Food Addiction Denial?

Denial is a major characteristic of addiction, and it is certainly a key problem when it comes to chemical dependency on sugar and other hyper-processed foods. Denial is an issue of consciousness. A major aspect of food addiction is that those who have it do not think they have it, and those who are treating it professionally do not think that it is a serious problem.

There are three levels of food addiction denial: 1) cognitive denial, which is when facts are inaccurate and reasoning is incorrect; 2) biochemical denial, where addictive foods, e.g., sugar, flour, caffeine, etc., create physical craving, mental obsession, and an addictive personality; 3) social or institutional denial, where people with power in institutions central to our society’s food supply hurt consumers (sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally), then come up with arguments to normalize these practices and build them into the woodwork such that the very fabric of society becomes toxic.

This book starts at the beginning and is primarily about cognitive food addiction denial. Biochemical and institutional food addiction denial are summarized in Appendices A and B.

Food addiction begins with physical craving. Physical craving distorts the hunger instinct for some people, making these people want more food than they need. This physical craving is a biochemical brain change caused by extra sugar or other hyper-processed foods. When this craving happens, food addicts experience a slow but steady increase in their attraction to the trigger food. So, for example, initial overeating of a little extra sugar over time creates an even stronger yearning for more sugar.

During this process, the brain sometimes develops compulsive thoughts that both anticipate the desire for more sugar and set up the conditions for even stronger physical cravings. These thoughts become obsessive and override normal cautionary warnings that remind a person that overeating leads to gaining weight—an undesired result.

Thus, cravings progressively lead to mental distortions. Mental distortions create a pattern of slow but steadily worsening overeating. All this happens at an unconscious level. Food addicts seldom realize any change in their thinking has occurred but wonder why they can’t control their eating. It doesn’t even occur to them that they might be addicted to certain trigger foods that cause them to overeat. They are in food addiction denial. Similarly, health professionals working with those who are food addicted often do not recognize that this brain change is key to the obesity they are trying to treat, as well as to other resulting secondary diseases caused by the obesity. These professionals are also in food addiction denial.

So why is food addiction denial important? Because a large percentage of those who are overweight or obese, as well as those with diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers, cannot be accurately diagnosed or effectively treated without attending to the issue of food addiction denial.

During my many years as a professional working with food addicts, l developed a fairly long list of reasons people gave for not being food addicted. Some they learned from professionals they had gone to previously for help.

This book addresses several myths—incorrect facts and irrational thoughts about food addiction. If it sparks your interest, read on!

Ten Common Statements Of Food Addiction Denial

Denial Statement #1: Food addiction is not real: There is no scientific evidence establishing food as an addiction.

Denial Statement #2: Food addiction cannot be treated like other addictions: You cannot stop eating completely.

Denial Statement #3: If the problem is eating specific foods, then stop eating them or eat less.

Denial Statement #4: Sugar is natural, and the body needs sugar for energy. Eliminating sugar completely to treat food addiction is unhealthy.

Denial Statement #5: Some people are able to lose weight and maintain it by diet and exercise; others should be able to do this also.

Denial Statement #6: If someone has lost control over their eating, they should go to a therapist or eating disorder specialist to resolve underlying issues.

Denial Statement #7: There is no evidence that food addiction can be treated effectively.

Denial Statement #8: No one ever robbed a bank to buy sugar or junk food; the personal and social consequences for food addiction are not as serious as they are for alcoholism or other drug addictions.

Denial Statement #9: Bariatric surgery is the only effective treatment for obesity.

Denial Statement #10: No one forces obese people to overeat; obviously, they are the ones who put the food in their mouths. Focusing on personal powerlessness over food is counterproductive; it brings a person down rather than building up self-esteem.

Food Addiction Denial

No. 1

Denial Statement #1: Food addiction is not real: there is no scientific evidence establishing food as an addiction.

Rebuttal: Tens of thousands of self-assessed—and often medically diagnosed—food addicts are keeping their disease in remission by treating themselves with an abstinence-abased model,¹ and the scientific evidence for food addiction is overwhelming.²

Chapter 1

The Science of Food Addiction

Medicine is a very pragmatic science. If the prescribed treatment for a disease works, that is evidence that the diagnosis is correct.

The initial research establishing food as an addiction is quite substantial. Uncounted early-stage food addicts couldn’t stop overeating until they eliminated added sugar and other binge food(s) completely.³ Since 1960, tens of thousands of middle-stage food addicts who could not achieve and maintain a healthy weight loss by dieting have gone to Overeaters Anonymous (OA) and five other food-related programs built of the addictive model of abstinence and peer support originated by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).⁴ Almost half have reached an average weight loss of nearly 50 pounds.⁵ Thousands of late-stage food addicts for whom diets, eating disorder therapy, and/or Twelve Step participation did not work have been detoxified and treated successfully in professional treatment programs. In outcome surveys, two thirds were abstinent at the time of the research, with half of these maintaining back-to-back food abstinence with Twelve Step aftercare support.⁶ The most convincing evidence to possible food addicts is the verbal testimonies of other self-assessed food addicts who have lost excess weight, reduced their cravings, and developed more positive self-esteem when they treated themselves as if they were food addicted. Researchers call this anecdotal evidence; but there is more rigorous and systematic research, as indicated below.

Since 1990, several independent lines of scientific research have each established the soundness of a diagnosis of food as a substance use disorder, i.e., food addiction, for some people. These include:

In-depth interviews of overweight adults unable to diet successfully show all the characteristics of an addiction: physical craving, loss of control, withdrawal, tolerance, progression, fatal, denial and treatable.⁷

At the Princeton animal research laboratory, mice were put through all the experiments well accepted to test for each characteristic of addiction. They found that animals can be addicted to sugar.⁸ This research was replicated and furthered by dozens of other universities and research institutes.⁹ This is most convincing to other research scientists.

At the University of Florida brain research center, CAT scans of overweight adults who lost control of their eating were compared with brain scans of active alcoholics and drug addicts. They were very similar;¹⁰ and again, the studies were replicated.¹¹ This evidence of food addiction is convincing to physicians and other medical professionals.

Researchers at UCLA School of Medicine found that many overweight adults—not previously alcoholic or drug addicted—have the same D2 dopamine genetic marker as many alcoholics and drug addicts.¹² This suggests some have a genetic proclivity to food addiction.¹³

A study at the University of Wisconsin found that Naloxone, an opiate blocker, reduced consumption of high-fat, sweet foods in obese and lean female binge eaters.¹⁴ Naloxone is an ingredient in a new medicine approved for binge eating disorder.¹⁵ About half those diagnosed for binge eating disorder are also positive for food addiction, according to the Yale Food Addiction Assessment Scale.¹⁶

Dietetics researchers have regularly found that intermittent excess sugar intake creates endogenous opioids.¹⁷ While the opioid created by digestion of sugar is only mildly addictive, many food addicts eat massive amounts of sugar.¹⁸ This type of endogenous chemical reaction inside the body is different from the chemical change in the brain caused by sugar’s passing through in the circulatory system.

In France, researchers found that sweetness, i.e., sugar or artificial sweeteners, is much more addictive in research animals than cocaine.¹⁹

The food industry uses rigorous militarily developed research methods for new foods to find which additives—and in what amounts—create the bliss point in consumers.²⁰

Big Food has also found that the addictive pull of one food substance, like sugar, flour, fat or salt, reinforces the chemical dependency of other addictive foods.²¹ A massive number of these industrially produced foods are now commonly called junk foods.

The good news and the most persuasive case that food addiction is a disease is that when some overeaters are treated as though they are addicted to food substances, the problem goes into remission for a majority of them.²²

Key evidence regarding the neurobiology of food addiction that was established between 2001 and 2009 was reconfirmed in new studies in 2013 and 2018.²³

The major relevant medical associations now accept food as an addiction. The American Society of Addictive Medicine (ASAM) includes food substances as a source of chemical dependency in their evidence-based definition of addiction as a brain disease.²⁴ The American Psychiatric Association (APA) now asserts that many with eating disorders also show characteristics of food as a substance use disorder.²⁵ The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) has a white paper recommending science-based treatment of food addiction. This paper’s recommendations suggest the same principles of addiction treatment that are followed in food addiction self-help, food related Twelve Step organizations, and the professional food addiction programs mentioned above.²⁶

Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse at the National Institute of Health, indicated at the 2012 American Psychiatric Association’s national conference that there is a consensus among scientists that food addiction is real.

So food addiction is definitely real,²⁷ and there definitely is a solution.²⁸

Food Addiction Denial

No. 2

Denial Statement #2: Food addiction cannot be treated like other addictions: You cannot stop eating completely.

Rebuttal: This is a misunderstanding of the treatment language for substance use disorders. Food abstinence means completely eliminating the specific food(s) that create physical craving and chemical dependence.

Chapter 2

Addictive Foods

When alcoholics stop drinking, they do not stop drinking all liquids. They still drink water, tea, coffee, milk, juices, etc. They just refrain completely from drinking alcohol.

When drug addicts stop using drugs, they do not stop using all drugs. They still use aspirin, penicillin, and other medications prescribed by a doctor. They just abstain completely from street and prescription drugs which are addictive.

Similarly, food addicts do not stop eating. They must continue eating a nutritionally balanced diet. They just abstain from their binge foods, the specific foods upon which they have become chemically dependent. Dozens of foods have been shown clinically to be addictive,