A food addict is certainly not a universally recognized addiction. In fact, most people laugh when they hear the term ‘food addict’. Yet, those same people likely feel very sympathetic for someone labeled as a drug addict, or smoking addict or gambling addict. Being addicted to food just doesn’t seem logical to the mainstream public.

For those of us that are very overweight, or have a close relationship with a very overweight person, it isn’t hard to understand the problem of food addiction. We’ve experienced it or seen it in action. I’m not talking about people that are 20, 30, 40 or even 50 pounds over weight. I’m talking about the people that are 100+ pounds overweight - something other than a big appetite seems to be happening here. In fact, a food addiction seems to put its victim at more of a disadvantage than many other forms of addiction.

Many addictions allow the addict to have an all-or-nothing option to deal with it. That is, if someone wanted to quit smoking or drinking, they could quite and never have to touch another cigarette or beer. Granted, this would be hard for a smoking addict or alcoholic to do, but they wouldn’t have the added temptation of having to confront it on a regular basis. On the other hand, a food addict has to eat some food to live - we all do. It’s completely valid to ask how successful would a smoking addict or alcoholic be if they had to smoke one cigarette or drink one beer each day? They just wouldn’t be very successful. It’s the same mechanism that doesn’t allow a 2 pack a day smoker to turn into a 3 cigarettes a day smoker without some serious hard willpower.

Food addiction should be taken seriously. Its victims are left in isolation having to fight two daily battles – #1) with food and #2) with the public that seem to offer no sympathy.