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 addiction in recovery. She believes when she finally became completely honest and embraced the...

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 from food addiction herself by maintaining a 100-lb weight loss for more than 12 years,...

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 addiction. We address not only physical recovery but also emotional and mental recovery. For many years...

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 seeking brain pleasure-center hits of dopamine and having the available substance, food can lead to the...

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 diets Anna Maria was desperate and weighing 286 pounds, she was on the eve of gastric bypass surgery,...

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 discovered the solution to her problem in recovery and a twelve-step program which changed her life and...

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. Podcast listeners would include those who might either identify as food addicts, believe they may have...