We all need to eat food to survive and to go about our daily activity. But the moment we consume more food than required for our day-to-day activities, the excess food we consume, turns into our worst enemy. The irony is that, those who love food love themselves but in over consumption lies their own destruction. This is why we say that self-love is the first step to food addiction recovery.
Understanding food addiction
Foods such as cheese, meat, chocolate, and sugar stimulate our brain to release the ‘feel good’ neurotransmitter called dopamine. In most adults, a small quantity of dopamine is released so that when the stomach signals fullness, the person stops eating. Dopamine is nature’s way of ensuring we eat and therefore survive. All humans and animals release Dopamine when eating.
However, of late, in a growing number of adults, the dopamine production has dramatically increased so that the signals from the stomach are too feeble and not acknowledged. Consequently, the more the person eats the more satisfied he or she feels.
Doctors, scientists and people in the know feel that the primary reason for this imbalance is modern day processed and packaged foods. These foods are engineered to stimulate the brain to release more than the usual quantity of dopamine and therefore create a dependence on those foods. This is why we are never satisfied with eating one or two chips – we want to eat the whole bag of chips.
Fat accumulation through excessive food
In a car, you cannot overfill the tank. Humans on the other hand, have a different way of handling energy. Our body converts the excess food into fat and simply stuffs it into every nook and corner it can find including the face, neck and even gaps in between the muscles.
The internal organs are squeezed by fat from all directions so much so they can barely function. This is when self-love turns destructive.
If self-love is important to you, then you need to use that same self-love to mend yourself and the reality is that, it is not all that tough because you can use that same self-love (via the Dopamine route), to not only eat into the accumulated fat but also curb your desire to overeat and thereby take the first step to food addiction recovery.
First step to food addiction recovery
Now that we’ve understood the role played by Dopamine as well as processed and packaged foods, let us see if we can stimulate the release of Dopamine without over consumption of food.
Medical science informs us that Dopamine is also released when we exercise. So, putting two and two together, we arrive at the following conclusions:
- If we eliminate processed and packaged foods, we can eliminate the harmful over production of Dopamine.
- If we exercise, the release of Dopamine will not only make us feel good, the energy burnt during exercise will have come from our reserves of fat.
- Once we eliminate processed and packaged foods, our self-love should enable us to switch over to healthier food choices.
The choice is therefore in front of us; allow our self-love to ruin our body or use it to heal and get back to good health. The latter will not only ensure good health, it will ensure 100% food addiction recovery.