What makes food addictive?
Whenever we eat or drink something pleasant to taste, our body releases dopamine. Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter, it is released by our neurons and plays a major role in the motivational component of reward-motivated behaviour. It makes us feel good.
What is an addiction?
According to APA Diagnostic and Statistical Manual,3 of the following 7 criteria need to be met for a substance to be addictive:
● Bingeing
● Desire to quit
● Craving
● Affecting life
● Irrational use
● Tolerance
● Withdrawal
The more we eat a certain food, let’s say chocolate, the more we get tolerant to the food because dopamine receptors in their brain get overloaded, so more dopamine is needed to have the same effect, we need more chocolate to get the same level of pleasure.
Why are women more prone to food?
Women are more likely to have difficulties with food addictions. Why is that? The answer is estrogen. Rising estrogen means rising dopamine.
Why is fasting efficient in giving up food addiction?
Intermittent fasting is a tool that is used to help with food cravings. First of all, we all know, if you’ve been bit by a mosquito, you’d better not scratch the bite, because it itches even more if you do. The same principle works with fasting and food cravings. If we follow the fasting regime, we help our reward centre become more sensitive to dopamine. The second point is fasting changes the body’s sensitivity to certain hormones, in the case of food addiction, the main hormone is leptin. The hormone leptin is the body’s satiety hormone which comes from fat cells and controls appetite. This hormone reduces dopamine firing in the reward centre. When we fast, leptin levels rise. It means decreased dopamine and as a bonus decreased appetite. Leptin has also shown to be a suppressor of sweet taste perception. With more leptin levels, there is a decreased sweet taste perception. What is the best fasting regime for the issue? It depends on the level of leptin and dopamine resistance. The more you crave food and the more you are obese, the longer should be fast. For the majority of people, twenty hours without food is more than is needed. Having the regime twice a week significantly helps decrease the addiction. For better results, the time of not eating should be longer rather than shorter. Generally until you feel REAL hunger, as this when leptin gives the signal to the brain, that it’s enough and it’s time to eat.
Written by Vera’s Vibe*, nutritionist. Full article with the resources available here:
[*Food addiction: How intermittent fasting can help? - Agua (substack.com)](https://agua.substack.com/p/food-addiction-how-intermittent-fasting)
Thank you for this post <3It helped me loads actually (I do 6:18)
However, if you have a mixed eating disorder like me (binge-restrict), you need to make sure you are eating enough during your eating window! Otherwise, your cravings and potential binge urges will come back even stronger :)
IF can also really bring amazing results for night eaters and people who tend to binge or overeat late in the evening or at night.
Anecdotally, it helps me with mine. I do feel it’s risky though, because fasting can also encourage disordered eating behaviors by promoting the thought process of depriving yourself of food/restrictive thought processes, or at least that’s what peers have told me that’s how fasting makes them feel.
I do omad or a short feasting window and the sensation of a large meal has helped me personally break an unhealthy relationship with food by seeing it as a source of nutrition, not a source of emotional support or pleasure. Fasting challenges you mentally as well as physically. It helped me reevaluate the need for my grazing habits or binging habits and change my thought processes, and now I can get the feeling of being very full for my one meal or meal and snack that my body and brain really like (dopamine), I can ensure my body is getting nutrition, I can get a treat, I can check all the boxes, and I can maintain a healthy body weight.
Don’t discount the influence of ghrelin (the hunger hormone.) For years I went to overeaters anonymous and food addiction support groups thinking I had an undiagnosed compulsive eating disorder and food addiction. Over a decade in those meetings and while they were supportive and helpful, my issues around food remained. I thought I was going to be stuck in that mental prison forever.
Turns out my hormones were just seriously out of whack and my body was continually flooding my brain with ghrelin. My surgeon said no amount of counseling or meetings or dieting would’ve ever worked because my issue was physical, not behavioral/ mental. If I’d never gone to chat to a doctor about the possibility of weight loss surgery I’d still be sat in OA thinking it was all my fault for not being able to stop wanting food. When really, my body just produced too much ghrelin.
Many year ago, I was in a twelve step group and mentioned being a food addict feels like being told I must have a bloody Mary for every morning, a martini every lunch, and a glass of wine every night but I can’t get drunk. Fasting has truly been a game changer for me.
I love fasting because I understand abstinence. I can abstain from eating for hours at a time, if I can eat to my full when I feast.