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by: LoreleiFenton
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How many times have you heard people say that they can't stop eating cookies, or bread, or pasta, or candy? They may even laugh and say they are addicted to chocolate, as they pop the 10th truffle in their mouth. Well it's time we faced the facts. We are addicted to many of the foods we eat. And when you really look at it, it's not so very funny. You might even say, food addiction is a debilitating phenomenon.

'Debilitating,' you might say. 'That's a bit extreme, isn't it?' Well maybe not.

Now in our society, it is very true that thin is in and fat is out. However you may also be a person who is a size 14, and wants to be a size 8. And you may know that size 8 is a good, healthy place for you to be. However, you may not be able to get there because you can't, or won't, stop eating the cookies, spaghetti, and home-baked bread. And for you, not being a size 8 is a problem. If this is you, then you are probably fighting food cravings.

At this point you may wonder what it wrong with you. You may wonder why you have no will power. You might try diets and feel your mood swing, as you starve yourself and your blood sugar goes down. You may become irritable and grouchy as you 'white-knuckle it' with your family. Then you might give up and go eat all you want for a few weeks. You then might watch the pounds you lost come back on, with extra pounds as interest. And once again you are bound to feel there is something wrong with you.

Food addiction as it progresses will soon lead to extreme fluctuation in blood sugar due to the overeating of processed carbohydrates. This will cause bouts of lethargy and sleepiness, and irritability. Certainly obesity will set in, or perhaps a person's behavior will become bulimic. Now the journey for the food addict is perilous. It becomes a psychological addiction to stay thin, inside of the physical addiction to eat more. By the end metabolisms are destroyed, diets on longer work, self-esteem in this area has all but disappeared. And the food addicts very life may be in danger.

If you're lucky, at this point you will just continue your cycle of irritability, obesity, and carbohydrate abuse until your body depletes its insulin supply. At this point you will become diabetic and sentence yourself to a shortened life-span, and an old age of pain and misery. If you're not so lucky, you will convince yourself that it is better 'not to eat at all' than to fight the cravings, or to be fat. You will then become anorexic. If this is the case, judging by statistics, you probably won't make it.

And this is the direction in which we are headed, even as we joke about being addicted to chocolates.

I want you to know that it is possible to stop fighting food cravings. There are various programs of help for food addicts. The one I have attended is called Overeaters Anonymous. If your addiction is very extreme, you may want to attend a program called Food Addicts Anonymous. You will also need a food plan that does not include the foods that you are addicted to. And there are many other tools I can tell you about in later articles. But for now, suffice it to say, there are sources of help. And you can find them. You just need to you look.