Food addiction is a type of behavioral or process addiction. These types of addictions can be confusing because healthy people also eat, shop, have sex, watch TV, play video games, and use social media. The behavior itself isn’t inherently unhealthy.
That’s why I don’t define addiction solely by how often someone engages in a behavior. With food, for example, it’s difficult to define addiction based on calories, calories per pound, or frequency of eating.
Instead, I help people understand addiction using the framework I rely on: turning to something outside of yourself to escape an intolerable emotion.
Understanding the Definition of Food Addiction
Rather than asking, “Do you have a food addiction – yes or no?”, the more useful questions are, “Are you using food to avoid or numb bad feelings? Are you turning to food to deal with difficult emotions?” If so, I would call that an addictive process.
It’s very common for someone with stress, whether from a bad marriage, dealing with a terrible workday, or just struggling emotionally, to find themselves standing in the pantry, gorging on chips or sweets. That’s what I focus on when looking at food-related behaviors.
Does Food Addiction Affect The Brain Like Substance Addictions?
Yes, food – particularly sugar and dense calories – absolutely affects the brain in the same way as, and sometimes even more intensely than, hard drugs like cocaine.
Sugar and dense calories light up the so-called addiction pathway. They are especially powerful because the body recognizes them as extremely rewarding. That’s why when we come across these foods the brain releases a flood of dopamine — we’re wired to gorge on them.
Any animal in the wild needs to quickly recognize valuable sources of energy and act fast. In that context, it makes sense. But in modern life, it backfires. We now have constant access to fast food, microwave meals, and high-sugar items like cheesecake. Even for people living in poverty, these calorie-dense foods are often the cheapest and most accessible.
How to Overcome a Food Addiction and Regain Control
When people ask me what the first steps are for someone who thinks they might have an addiction, I usually suggest starting with a simple pause before eating.
In the beginning, the goal isn’t to stop or fix anything – it’s just to start noticing your relationship with food.
You may find that sometimes you’re eating because you’re genuinely hungry. But you might also realize – as is very common – that you eat even when you’re full.
The key is to ask: What is it I’m trying to satisfy? Because when we eat, we’re always satisfying something.
Sometimes that’s physical hunger, but other times it’s a form of escapism or an insatiable craving for something comforting or pleasurable. In those cases, we may be dealing with other emotions — like stress, discontent, or the feeling that we “deserve” something to make up for a bad day.
So, the idea is to begin recognizing your relationship with food and how you’re using it at different times.
Understanding the Steps to Effectively Overcome Food Addiction
To overcome food addiction, the approach needs to be twofold. The first part is tolerating the feeling.
So even at the end of a really stressful day, it’s not that we have to eat or do something else to escape the feeling. It’s incredibly powerful to be able to practice self-control – to be able to feel bad and still just leave it.
We recognize that when dogs are trained well, you can put a treat in front of them and tell them to “leave it,” and they do. That shows a kind of mastery we admire. Yet often, as humans, we struggle to do the same. So we need to ask and challenge ourselves to act with greater mastery.
The second part of how to overcome a food addiction involves addressing the emotions that drive the behavior. Sometimes it’s a feeling we can do something about – it might involve having a certain kind of conversation, or making a decision to change our situation.
Other times, we’re in situations we can’t change much. Even then, there are philosophies we can explore that help us not feel so upset or agitated by what’s happening.
That’s a very complex process that takes nuanced guidance and work to resolve.
How Can Someone Recover From Food Addiction While Still Eating Every Day?
This is the tricky part. Of course, the ideal is to eat only healthy things, and only when we’re hungry – so that part is a given. What makes this interesting are the questions that come up around when it’s okay to eat something as a form of relief or escape, since it’s hard to imagine living such a regimented life that we never do that.
When I teach people how to handle addiction, I never claim that you either have an addiction or you don’t. By my definition – where addiction is using something outside ourselves to feel better – we’re all somewhere on that spectrum every day.
Whether it’s a TV show, social media, or chocolate, I believe there’s a place for escapism in our lives. So what we need is to have an honest conversation in our own heads about what’s a good compromise, what’s sustainable, and what works in our personal community.
For example, you might have a couple of enjoyable things to eat each day. And instead of berating yourself and saying you’ve relapsed – or shaming yourself for using food to escape – I view that as a deliberate, negotiated decision. The end goal is not to be robotic and perfectly healthy.
Achieving a Meta-Level of Health
The basic level of health with eating is simply: eat healthy food when you’re hungry. But that’s not the highest level. The meta-level of health is where there’s room for joy, fun, and even a little deviation – because life needs that.
That’s part of why people get confused or don’t know what to do when it comes to addictions: they don’t recognize the need for relief, escape, or even some healthy indulgence. So it’s important to build in breaks with eating – moments where we’re not holding on so tightly that everything must be perfect.
It’s the art of doing that balance that makes life more fun, interesting, and varied. The act of negotiating with yourself around what a healthy version of indulgence looks like is, to me, the higher version of health.
The ultimate version of health isn’t: “never eat dessert again.” It’s being able to have some dessert, but with mastery – being deliberate about when and how much. So of course, have cake at a wedding. Have a little something enjoyable after a tough day. But also be able to stop. That’s the kind of mastery we’re looking for.
It’s about recognizing that an ongoing tension exists – and that this tension is actually healthy. It’s the balance between being very strict and healthy versus allowing yourself some indulgence. The key is approaching this balance with intention and mastery.
Self Recovery Works for Food Addiction
Self Recovery is an online, science-based program I created to help individuals struggling with food addiction – as well as other types of addiction – by addressing the underlying emotional triggers rather than just the surface-level behavior itself.
The program offers a flexible and private approach, combining medical and psychological insights to guide participants through understanding cravings, managing emotional pain, and developing healthier coping strategies for lasting recovery.
Want to learn more? Discover how Self Recovery can help you.
