Food – Addicted or Obsessed?

I don’t think I’m addicted to food; I would say that I’m obsessed with food.

Dictionary.com defines addiction as “the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.” From the same site, obsession is defined as “a persistent idea or impulse that continually forces its way into consciousness, often associated with anxiety and mental illness.” the difference being that if I were addicted to food I would be experiencing withdrawal symptoms, which I’m not. Though, I guess if you want to split hairs, I do consider myself ‘enslaved to the practice’ of eating as much as I am enslaved to the practice of breathing air.

I think about tasty food (and good beer) all week long. The cliché “you don’t know how much you miss something until you lose it” definitely applies to how I feel as I continue my goal of losing weight. You could say a side effect of dieting would be a heightened obsession for food.

Another side effect I’ve noticed is a heightened sensitivity to noticing food. As I watch tv, I catch myself thinking “Oh my, there certainly are a higher number of food commercials on, I wonder why that is?” but after thinking about it longer, I doubt that there is actually more food ads, instead I think I’m just noticing them more. But seriously, ever notice how many there are? Sure, you’ve got your standard fast-food ads from big names like McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, Subway, Arby’s. Then the lesser known places like Culver’s (with their delicious Butter Burgers), Taco John’s, Jimmy John’s, Long John Silver’s. Dariy Queen even has a ton of ads for their burgers, though I don’t know of anyone that thinks DQ when they are jonesing for a burger. And of course, pizza places practically get their own category with Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Papa John’s, Papa Murphy’s, Little Caesars (I know! I’m shocked their still around too!). Restaurants are always showing their best food porn…places like Applebee’s, Perkin’s, Red Lobster, Baker Square, Buffalo Wild Wings. And those are just commercials I remember seeing recently! Don’t even get me stated on food product commercials like Pop-Tarts, Go-Gurt, Triscuits, Doritos, Cheetos, Fiber One, Toaster Strudel, Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches, take home pizzas like DiGiorno (would have mentioned it before, but ‘It’s not delivery’ ZING!).

Makes you wonder, when was the last time a food commercial like “Apples, they grow on trees! Try one today!” was on TV? Oh, and why are there so many Asian restaurants but no TV commercials for them? These two things are, of course, unrelated…I think.

Kids these days won't stand for just bright red colors and simple fructose. They want color like a rainbow vomited on their food and sugar that's already been processed!

I’m extremely happy that my slow-carb diet (from Tim Ferris’ book “The 4-Hour Body”) allows for one day off a week to go wild and eat whatever I want, but I’m even more happy that it’s working. It allows me to reason with my obsession in a way that works for me. I’m able to tell myself to keep strong and not cheat on my diet because come Saturday you can go wild. Every week is the longest and shortest week and there have been a couple of times where I’ve slipped and indulged my food obsession. I’m not perfect, but I do my best.

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