Food Addiction, the Problem and the Solution

Thirty-four years ago, Dr. Debbie Danowski weighing 328 pounds realized that her life was unmanageable and she decided to enter a food addiction recovery program. Today Dr. Danowski maintains a 170 weight loss through a daily recovery routine. In this podcast, we discuss denial, powerlessness and the negative consequences of food addiction.   Getting the message out about food addiction is the dri...

In his book, Recovery Mind Training Dr. Paul Earley cites the statistic that addiction is a devastating brain disease affecting over 23 million individuals including their loved ones in the U.S. alone. He says that the single biggest driver around addiction is genetics and that there is a strong genetic link with addiction in families.  Dr. Earley describes how powerful and insidious the Addict Br...

When an overweight friend had a stroke, Tony W. realized that if he did not address his own weight and food issues, his health would continue to decline. Weighing 464 pounds, he had many obesity-related illnesses including neuropathy in his feet and five hernia surgeries. He grew up in a family and culture of fried foods and high-calorie foods.  Tony got sober from drugs and alcohol using a 12-ste...

Colleen Y. has been recovering from food addiction for over four years having physically released 150 pounds. Like many food addicts, her history involves eating in secret and planning her food binges. She experienced shame and embarrassment about her weight and food use and tried to control her food and weight through diets and lap-band surgery.  During a 2-month relapse, after she had become abs...

Once weighing 335 pounds, Lisa K. lost 150 pounds and recovered from her food addiction through treatment and ongoing 12-step work and recovery support. Early in her childhood she had a preoccupation with food and loved the sugar, fat and starch food combination. Growing up in an abusive home she learned not to feel emotions. Later as a teenager she became a food volume addict and was often teased...

Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson has the unique experience of being an addict along with having studied the science of food addiction. In her book Bright Line Eating, The Science of Living Happy, Thin and Free she discusses the concept of automaticity which is developing important new habits around the way we eat and behave. Her Susceptibility Scale quiz allows clients to determine on a scale of 1-10 how...

Dr. Guttorm Toverud has a Ph. D. in Counselor Education from the University of North Carolina and a master's degree in Agency Counseling from Appalachian State University. He specializes in teaching that recovery from food addiction is possible using a 12-step program having conducted workshops for 30 years with more than 10,000 participants. Dr. Toverud trains professionals to treat food addicts...

Dr. Robert Lustig has a degree from MIT, a medical degree from Cornell University and a law degree from U.C. Hastings.  He is bold in his messaging: Our metabolic health as a nation has been negatively affected by our nutrition---We are not eating real foods, whole foods.  Sugar is added to ultra-processed foods and it is making us sicker.  75 percent of our health care costs in the U.S. are due t...

Erin K, a recovered food addict was exposed to addiction and 12-step recovery as a child which she believes helped her realize that her food addiction could be alleviated through 12-step recovery work.  She knew early on that she did not use food for nourishment, but rather to soothe her anxiety and to feel normal. Erin’s powerlessness and her compulsive behaviors around food drove her life. It wa...

H. Theresa Wright, MS, RD, LDN, is the Founder and Director of Renaissance Nutrition Center, in Pennsylvania where she has developed programs to help people develop the skills to make lifestyle changes that lead to freedom from food addiction and encourage a “sane approach” to eating and living. Website:  Sane Food a nutrition therapist registered and licensed dietitian and nutritionist, for more...

Dr. Nicole Avena is a research neuroscientist, a pioneer, and a world-renowned expert in the field of nutrition, diet, and food addiction. She received her Ph. D. in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University and is uniquely qualified to address the biology of food addiction as well as its psychological aspects. In her books, Why Diets Fail (Because You're Addicted to Sugar) and Hedonic...

Sonja B. has been abstinent and sober from sugar, wheat, processed foods and compulsive food behaviors including volume eating, and nighttime binges, having maintained a 100-pound weight release for 18 years after hitting bottom in 2005. She had early evidence that she used food differently than others as a child and teenager and carried 75 pounds of extra weight in high school. Sonja went into tr...

Having struggled personally with food addiction, Amanda Leith entered a food addiction recovery program of the company she ultimately purchased and now leads, Shift, Recovery By Acorn, https://foodaddiction.com/. At Shift, Recovery By Acorn Amanda and her staff help clients struggling with food addiction to find physical abstinence and address underlying issues which produce life-changing results...

Dee C. is a recovered food addict having maintained abstinence from sugar and excessive food consumption for 37 years and keeping off 100 pounds of extra weight. We discuss the shame and secrecy surrounding the use of food to cope with our lives.  After many failed attempts at dieting, Dee talks about the misery of not being able to control food on her own and found the solution to her food addict...

Dr. Vera Tarman is the Medical Director of Renascent, one of Canada’s largest treatment centers for substance abuse where she works as an addiction specialist. Dr. Tarman cites the statistic in her book, Food Junkies:  the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that by the year 2030, 84% of the U.S. population will be overweight and 42 % will be obese. After recovering fro...

Mary F. has maintained a nearly 200-pound weight release for 31 years as she has recovered from food addiction. As an overweight child and teenager, she endured ridicule and verbal abuse. The shame associated with not being able to control her eating made her miserable and suicidal.  Mary talks about the powerlessness to stop eating once she started, and she discusses the secrecy around her addict...

Individuals can be predisposed to addiction through genetics says Dr. Marty Lerner, head of Milestones in Recovery  https://www.milestonesprogram.org/  In his book, A Guide to Eating Disorder Recovery, Defining the Problem—Finding the Solution, he outlines the nature of the disease of food addiction and how to recover. Dr. Lerner talks about the “perfect storm”, a person being an addict and seekin...

Anna Maria S., a recovered food addict, was a child of alcoholic parents.  Her childhood was one characterized by instability and sexual abuse. Though she was not aware of the sexual abuse until later in life, once she acknowledged the abuse and processed it, she was able to deal with it.  She began to cope with life stress by using food as a solution early at the age of 7.  After many failed diet...

Esther Helga Gudmundsdottir is a pioneer in the field of food addiction treatment and recovery. Motivated to continue to get the message out that food addicts cannot control their eating and body weight through diets and exercise alone, she began the Food Addiction podcast. Esther was personally battling food addiction for most of her adult life, carrying 130 lbs. of too much weight. She discovere...

The ASAM (American Society of Addiction Medicine) has found Addiction to be a brain disease affecting a person’s physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being and that recovery from the disease is possible through treatment in recovery centers and 12-step programs or similar support. Currently, there is overwhelming evidence and science for food addiction as a substance use disorder. Podca...