1. You keep eating even if you are full

By itself, the desire to continue eating after you have already finished with a full meal does not indicate upset. For example, it's okay to sometimes want ice cream after with potatoes and vegetables. However, if this happens systematically and you cannot control yourself, then it is probably a question of addiction. Binge Eating Disorder and Food Addiction.

The brain requires new portions of food not to restore energy reserves, but to receive the reward hormone dopamine.

In severe cases, you simply cannot stop until the food runs out or you begin to experience terrible discomfort. The belly is full and seems to explode if you eat another bite.

2. You eat more than you planned

You've probably come across people who easily refuse the second portion of something delicious. Moreover, they may not even eat the first portion if they did not plan it in advance.

For some, this approach to food looks like a feat. And if you take a piece of cake and then find yourself in front of an empty carton, it's definitely addiction. The same mechanism works here Current considerations regarding food addiction, as with drug addiction: the concept of "moderation" simply does not exist. And accordingly, talking about eating a little less is almost the same as asking an alcoholic to drink less often.

3. You feel guilty, but you continue to overeat

You not only eat too much, but also realize that it is wrong and harmful. But remorse doesn't make the situation any easier.

You find yourself in a vicious circle, in which you feel good and joyful only when you have a plate of goodies in front of you. The rest of the time you suffer. Isn't that a signal to go out and eat again to feel happy?

4. You come up with excuses to eat

You have decided to take the path of moderation, but sooner or later the craving for food will make itself felt. And a bidding will begin in your head, during which you come up with a million arguments why you can break your promises.

For example, today is a holiday, you had a bad day that needs to be "sweetened", or, conversely, a good one, and this should be noted ... In short, you have a million reasons to eat forbidden things, and they all sound so logical, so rational that there are no reasons resist.

5. You hide food from others

When your relationship with food is not going well, you realize that it would be better to hide it from others. You can sneak to the refrigerator at night, hastily eat a chocolate bar on the way from the store to the house, carry a stock of harmful products in the car.

This point directly echoes the previous one, the only difference is that the strength of the feeling of guilt increases many times over.

6. You are looking for excuses to break loose

Sometimes people who quit smoking deliberately create a stressful event so that they can return to the cigarette. For example, they initiate a scandal with his wife, who insists on giving up her bad habit in order to go to the balcony with a clear conscience, and then say that it is her fault, she brought it.

With food, such situations are also possible, and if you simulate situations in order to overeat with a clear conscience, and then shift the blame for it to someone else, then this speaks of addiction.

7. You overeat despite health problems

Sooner or later, undisciplined eating will lead to health problems. In the short term, it can be overweight, acne, fatigue, in the long term - diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer's disease, problems with the cardiovascular system.

And in this case, too, it will be appropriate to compare with drug addiction: you know that your addiction is slowly killing you, but you cannot break out of its networks.

8. You give up meetings and parties because of food

You can no longer turn a blind eye to the problem, and you begin to avoid meetings and holidays where food may be. For example, you do not go to celebrate the birthday of your beloved grandmother, because you know that you will not resist her fat cutlets and an appetizing cake. And this will lead to another round of overeating and guilt.

How to deal with food addiction

Get tested

Take a comprehensive examination. It is possible that your food addiction is due to disorders in the body, for example, in the endocrine system. In this case, the doctor will prescribe a course of hormonal drugs.

See a psychologist

You can tell a person as much as you want to show will, but any addiction is a serious problem, and it needs to be solved with specialists. will help you figure out what you are saving yourself from with food, what unspoken difficulties you are trying to solve.

Find like-minded people

For any addiction there are "Clubs of anonymous ...", where you will meet people with the same problem at different stages of its solution. Such organizations may be called the "overeating club" or "gluttonous anonymous club".

It is important that the group members focus specifically on health - physical and psychological. But gatherings of people who are preoccupied with losing weight and cubes on their stomachs are best avoided, no matter how they are called. Because your problem is in your head.

Make a meal plan

Obviously, you have tried to eat a hundred times already, made plans and immediately broke them. Therefore, the one hundred and first time must be approached responsibly. First, don't cut your diet too much. If the body does not have enough nutrients, food addiction will only be spurred on by physical hunger.

Secondly, choose a diet that is comfortable, but such that you always feel full. Third, prepare food in advance and arrange in portions so that you are not tempted to eat more than you measured on the scale.

All this does not guarantee that there will be no breakdowns, but it will be a little easier for you.

Eliminate annoying factors

Choose a few non-food options to deal with. It is better that these were not emergency measures, but preventive ones, with a long-term effect. The less nervous you are, the easier it will be to keep track of your hunger and gut feelings.

GRADUATE WORK

Discipline: biology with the basics of ecology

Topic: FOOD DEPENDENCE

Introduction

Chapter 1. Statement of the problem

Relevance

How do we eat?

What are we eating for?

Chapter 2. Food addiction

Chapter 3. Drug Products

Addicted to chocolate?

Sugar

Meat

Bulimia (bulimia nervosa)

Compulsive overeating

Chapter 6. Research

Eating behavior questionnaire

conclusions

Bibliography

Applications

Food Addiction Inventory Questionnaire

Introduction

The need for food is primary, natural, biological. According to Maslow's pyramid, natural needs occupy the minimum level of needs, that is, until they are satisfied, the needs of the next level cannot be satisfied. However, a person's daily diet contains more than just the amount of calories required to survive. Also, the time of meals, the amount eaten, the preference of some products over others depends on the person. That is, eating behavior is determined not only by natural needs, but also by knowledge gained in the past. Such biological needs - needs based on experience and knowledge - are referred to as physiological needs. Physiological needs include habits. Eating habits are determined by the traditions of the family, society, religion, the advice of doctors, fashion, any personal reasons. Eating habits also depend on the mental and emotional state of the person. Food plays important role in the formation of the emotional state of a person at a very early age. The child calms down when breastfeeding and remembers that eating gives a feeling of comfort and security. The fear of starvation is the basis for the feeling of insecurity, although death from hunger is quite rare these days. That is, even in infancy, we associate the feeling of security with satiety.

As a child, our compulsory program included borscht and cutlets. They were of no interest to us. But sweets and chocolate bars served as the embodiment of some kind of holiday. Hence the understanding that sweets are joy, a rare joy. And if there is an opportunity to get something sweet, you need to use it.

If sweet, sour, salty or bitter water is dripped onto the tongue of an infant, he will show a positive reaction only to sweet water. The reason for this addiction is that evolution has given us the instinctive understanding that sugary foods are a reliable source of energy, while bitter tastes are associated with hazardous foods. Other scientists suggest that the love of sweets is laid even in the womb and is associated with the taste of amniotic fluid. Perhaps both points of view are correct, because they do not contradict each other.

In addition, the site has been found to have an addictive effect. If you offer a child a large dose of sweet things in the form of sweetened tea or juice from the very beginning, he will tend to refuse drinks with a lower sugar content in the future.

Scientists have found that you can get used not only to sugar, but also to salty, fatty and glutamate-containing foods. Scientists at the University of Kiel fed laboratory rats with the taste enhancer glutamate in different amounts. Result: the higher the dose of glutamate, the more voracious the animals became. In particular, the males developed a downright brutal appetite: they ate 2 times more and drank 3 times more often than usual. On the other hand, if the dosage of the named substance was decreased, the food was refused to eat.

In a study by Priston University in New Jersey, mice fed a diet high in sugar and fat reacted to a significant reduction in their diet like drug addicts: they became jittery, restless, and distracted. It was clear that sugary and fatty foods could be as addictive as morphine or nicotine. Psychologists explain this effect by the fact that without fat and sugar, the production of endorphins - "hormones of happiness" is not stimulated, and in their absence, the body begins to "breakdown".

This conclusion is supported by neuroscientists at the Wisconsin College of Medicine, who found biochemical changes in the brains of rats that were fed a diet rich in fats, salt and sugar, similar to those that occur with the use of morphine or other drugs. Rats prefer fatty foods and simply cannot stop until they have eaten everything. It is likely that such a state of "obsession" also appears in humans, since there is much in common in the gene pool of rats and homo sapiens. Thus, it turns out that in food containing a lot of sugar and fat, and in an irresistible desire to constantly eat it, and lies the real culprit of the existing epidemic. excess weight.

Also, nutrition, as a phenomenon, has a social aspect. The style of food is associated with communication, with the company. The habits of a company are the habits of every member of that company. If a company often goes to McDonald's, then each of this company gets used to this lifestyle. Concepts of beauty in society, fashion strongly influence eating behavior.

Eating food to satisfy hunger is the simplest form of eating behavior. However, in humans, nutritional need is also a means:

discharge of mental and emotional stress;

communication, when food is associated with being in a team;

sensual pleasure;

maintaining certain rituals or habits (religious, national, family traditions);

compensation for unmet needs (the need for communication, parental care, etc.);

rewards or incentives for the taste of food;

satisfaction of aesthetic needs.

So what is food addiction?

Food addiction is an eating disorder.

Food addiction is a mental disorder in which a person eats food not in order to satisfy the feeling of hunger, but in order to cheer up and get pleasant emotions. For people with food addiction food helps to cope with anxiety, anxiety, it helps relieve stress.

They talk about food addiction even when a person attaches too much importance to food and his own weight. Food addictions are characterized by a violation of the diet, a person eats too much or too little.

Constant concern with food, their weight, dissatisfaction with their bodies, completely subjugate their lives, affecting the emotional state and the general quality of life, causing tension and anxiety.

Food addiction is a psychological addiction on the one hand, and on the other - satisfying hunger. As food acquires more and more addictive potential, artificial stimulation of hunger appears. An overeating person changes the metabolic balance. The feeling of hunger appears immediately with a drop in the concentration of glucose in the blood after the next meal. Physiological mechanisms are mismatched. The person eats too much and too often. At some stage, he begins to be ashamed of overeating and seeks to hide the fact of addiction. He begins to eat alone, in between any vigorous activity. All this leads to dangerous consequences for health: metabolic disorders and loss of control, weight gain, as a result of which a person consumes an amount of food that is life-threatening.

Food addiction refers to those forms of behavior that outwardly do not contradict legal, moral, ethical and cultural norms, but at the same time violate the integrity of the individual, retard development, make it one-sided and seriously complicate interpersonal relationships. K. Leonhard (1997) believes that "when gluttony, a person's thoughts are constantly striving to satisfy an insatiable appetite, and accordingly his whole way of life develops." A vicious circle arises, as a result of which completeness limits a person's activity and, as a result, primitive bodily needs come to the fore.

food addiction behavior disorder

Chapter 1. Statement of the problem

Relevance

Do you often have a sudden urge to eat? How often, when you see a chocolate bar, you can restrain yourself without grabbing a tidbit? How often do you want to eat a delicious sandwich when you imagine a delicious sandwich in your fantasies? You will not get up from the table until you have eaten everything that is on it, even if you ate in the process of absorbing food? Do you feel guilty if you grabbed the "extra" piece? Passing a fast food restaurant, hearing a pleasant smell, you can't help but look in?

Recently, cases of obesity have become more frequent. The increase from the previous number of patients is 10% over 10 years. Experts have calculated that if this trend continues, then by the middle of the twenty-first century, almost the entire population of economically developed countries will be obese. Obesity is the result of overeating.

Most often, overeating is the result of an eating disorder. Eating behavior should be understood as a value attitude towards food and its intake; taste preferences, diet, diet of an individual, nutrition in various life situations... In other words, eating behavior includes attitudes, behaviors, habits and emotions about eating that are individual for each person.

The relevance of my work lies in the fact that food addiction is not considered by many doctors to be a problem that needs to be studied. But the problem is becoming more pressing. Many of us have no idea how addicted they are to food.

Food addiction is considered not only to overeating, but also bulimia and anorexia ...

How do we eat?

There is a pleasure center in the human brain that is essential for human survival. It is he who makes us continue the race and not interrupt our genetic line, he also makes us eat food. If we did not enjoy food when we feel hungry, then we would not care about the vital needs of the body. This center of pleasure, as it were, forces a person to want to eat, communicate, move and have offspring. Every time the action is more enjoyable than expected, the brain releases a hormone that stimulates feelings of satisfaction - dopamine. Dopamine is associated with everything from unexpected treats to romantic flirting. Anything the brain perceives as pleasant causes dopamine to act on all brain cells and postpones the memory of the source of pleasure. So, the memory of delicious chocolate lives in our head, and we strive to experience this sensation over and over again.

It turns out that when the center of pleasure in the brain attracts us to hearty food (what is necessary for survival), then it performs its function. In ancient times, food choices were limited. What about today? There are so many sweet and fatty things around!

What are we eating for?

Nutrition is one of the most important physiological needs of the body.

Nutrition is necessary for the constant renewal and construction of cells and tissues, to replenish the energy consumption of the body and substances that form hormones, enzymes, and other regulators of metabolic processes and vital activity.

The metabolism, function and structure of cells, tissues and organs depend on human nutrition.

Nutrition is a complex process of intake, digestion, absorption and assimilation of nutrients in the body.

So again: what gives us food?

Construction material, energy, influence on the psyche.

Two nutrition strategies

Let's define two nutritional strategies that conflict with each other: the appetite strategy and the hunger strategy. One of them leads us to overeating, and the other maintains the necessary balance in the body. They have different goals. The appetite strategy is associated with the goal of getting pleasure with food, getting positive emotions. This strategy is often used to relieve stress.

Appetite strategy:

I see a product (maybe in imagination).

Imagine its taste, smell (or smell)

Desire (appetite) appears.

I eat until the feeling of satiety appears.

Hunger is a signal of the need to replenish the reserves of a substance in the body, which fades away after the introduction of the necessary portion of food. Of course, it is important that the food has a pleasant and edible appearance, and the smell and taste are pleasant. However, the main goal is that food should be healthy. Not just abstractly useful, but useful at the time of its use. Feelings of hunger are a clue that the body needs to take in a very specific food. And it is important to correctly determine what kind of food should be in terms of composition.

Hunger strategy:

There is a feeling in the mouth, in the larynx, in the stomach (hunger).

An image of a specific product appears in my head.

There is a desire to eat this product.

I eat just as much as long as the feeling of hunger persists.

It is important to distinguish between true and false hunger.

True hunger - for a person, a relatively small amount of food contributes to the satisfaction of the body's need for food. False hunger is a constant desire to eat or enjoy a particular taste. False hunger can appear very soon after lunch, when the real feeling of hunger is impossible, since the digestive process is not over yet. It can also occur on certain emotions (boredom, anxiety, resentment). Food addiction is characterized by the fact that a person is satisfied not with physiological hunger, but with a psychological one - people are trying to get positive emotions with the help of food.

With food addiction, a person constantly eats, too much - much more than the body needs. Such constant overeating causes unpleasant consequences for health: excess weight, hypertension, diabetes, edema, problems with the stomach and cardiovascular system - a list of possible consequences of food addiction.

There are two reasons for false hunger:

) Increased acidity of the stomach.

Low stomach acidity is often experienced as physical hunger. It is often very painful and it is quite difficult for a person to resist and not eat something in order to let the pain subside.

) Decreased blood glucose levels.

The second reason for false hunger is a sudden rise and then a sharp drop in blood glucose levels. The reason for this is the carbohydrates in the diet, which cause insulin and glucose levels to rise too quickly. This relationship between carbohydrates and blood glucose / insulin levels is measured by the carbohydrate glycemic index (GI).

High GI foods will lead to an insulin response that is too strong. Low GI foods cause insulin and blood glucose to rise slowly, which feels like an even level of physical energy and mental clarity.

Chapter 2. Food addiction

How to recognize a food addict?

It is worth noting that food addiction is more common in women than in men.

So what is typical for a person with food addiction?

The first is the fear of being overweight. It is partly driven by fashion. The boom for thin people began a long time ago, in the 60s of the last century. Previously, this thinness was achieved with the help of clothing, for example, with a corset. Diet is in vogue now. Many women are unhappy with their weight, their figure, and limit themselves to food. This is expressed in different ways in different social groups. For example, in the United States, this phenomenon is common among white women in the middle and upper strata of society. An eating disorder can be talked about when worries about their own weight are stronger than that of a normal woman from the same social environment. The onset of an eating disorder can be facilitated by a person's personal qualities, such as perfectionism (pathological desire for excellence), narcissism, excessive perception of the opinions of others.

The second is self-restraint in food. This is a consequence of the first - the fear of being overweight. This is most pronounced in anorexia. A person develops various dietary rules for himself, which are often unreasonable. First of all, they reject those products from which you can get fat, in their opinion. In bulimia and binge eating disorder, periods of self-restraint alternate with bouts of binge eating.

Third - bouts of gluttony. These are episodes of loss of control over food, during which a person cannot resist the desire to eat a certain product or to eat continuously. These attacks are short-lived, but they can last for the whole day, and then the person eats often, but little by little. Moreover, preference is given to food that is easy to chew, that is, cookies, crackers, chips, sweets, ice cream, etc. Scientists believe that bouts of binge eating are usually preceded by attempts to restrict food.

The fourth is the desire to unload. A person commits any actions that lead to attempts to eliminate the results of an attack of binge eating. There are many ways to unload: a sharp restriction of calorie intake, intense exercise, induce vomiting, taking laxatives. Usually, self-limitation in calories and physical exercise are not aimed at unloading, but, in principle, at combating excess weight. Then we cannot always consider them as a way of unloading.

So, the characteristic signs of food addiction:

Feelings of fear about eating

Use of countermeasures (fasting, vomiting, excessive exercise)

The reason for eating is not internal signals of the body (hunger), but external

Excessive control and uncompromising eating habits (rigid diets)

Chaos of food (periods of fasting and binge eating)

... "Stress seizing"

Fear of weight gain

Constant thoughts about food

Distorted attitude to your own body.

Causes of food addiction

The first reason we can call the joy that a person receives from food, from the process of eating. The addict consoles himself with food from stress, from resentment, from a bad mood. It is not for nothing that the saying "please yourself with food" has appeared.

The second reason is the so-called conflict of personalities, that is, the conflict of what you can eat with pleasure and tasty, and at the same time not overeat. In a person, it is as if two opposite personalities are fighting, one of whom wants to eat for his own pleasure, the other wants to be slender. Such a split is often laid down in childhood and only grows over time. Hence the "swing" is formed: people first successfully go on diets, and then at one point they break down and gain weight even more.

The third reason is "parental programming". Our parents, grandmothers and grandfathers remember well the wartime, the terrible famine. At the time, feeding children was considered a blessing. Times have changed, but the habit is gone.

Psychological trauma can be another reason. Maybe a person once had something that the psyche could not "digest". And now the protective reaction is to store food "just in case."

The fifth reason is self-belief. Many have heard the phrase " good man there should be a lot. ”The food addict could“ program ”himself by repeating this phrase.

The sixth reason is the assimilation of idols and standards. It often happens that if a person likes one of the people, then he tries to be like him.

The seventh reason is self-punishment. Bulimia and anorexia are the most common expressions of self-punishment. A person feels a sense of guilt, he did not manage to do something, he offended someone ... And he begins to destroy his body ...

The eighth reason is genetics. The results of studies of the nutritional characteristics of children of parents with overweight and children of parents with normal weight indicate that not only the characteristics of the constitution and metabolism, but also the nature of food intake are inherited. Children of obese parents usually prefer fatty foods, do not like vegetables, and are more likely to overeat.

Why does a person lose control while eating?

Glutton Trap # 1: Multicolor whets appetite

It has been proven that the richer the color of the product, the higher the likelihood that it will be eaten or drunk.

Scientists at the University of Illinois conducted an experiment: participants in the study were asked to choose a package with sweets - either multi-colored or sorted by color. As a result, 69% chose a box of colored chocolates. "The subjects felt great and chose a box of colored chocolates that they associated with pleasure, joy, satisfaction and good taste," explains study leader Barbara Kahn. In the next experiment, participants were presented with two boxes of chocolate balls, one containing balls of seven colors, the other ten. From the second, 43% more sweets were eaten. "The more colors we see, the more we eat," says Kahn.

Trap # 2: blues

Blues and stress lead to an overwhelming desire to eat something fatty or sweet. From a physiological point of view, this is due to the production of the hormone cortisol. With physical exertion, as well as during stress, adrenal release is significantly increased - in order to initiate a mechanism for treating possible damage. In addition, the hormone affects fat metabolism and sugar metabolism, which enhances our appetite.

A scientist at the University of Helsinki found that in men, the occurrence of stressful conditions that arouse hunger is associated primarily with work, in women, on the contrary, with their personal life. "He" is attacked by a wolfish appetite when something goes wrong in work, and "her" - if dark clouds hang over family or family relationships. Men always experience professional successes or failures deeper, and women - the problems of their personal life.

Trap # 3: Fast, Fast!

In our time, the food culture has changed significantly. Now grandmothers and mothers do not stand at the stove for a long time, people prefer "faster" food: be it frozen pizza or a sandwich.

There is one significant problem with fast food: when we eat fast, we do not notice the feeling of fullness.

Nutrition professor Kathleen Melanson of the University of Rhode Island seated thirty subjects twice in front of a mountain of pasta with tomato sauce and asked to eat until they felt full. The first time the women had to eat as quickly as possible, the second time they had to put a spoon aside for a couple of moments after each bite. The results are undeniable:

while eating slowly, they ate 579 kilocalories in 29 minutes;

with a quick meal, the women ate an average of 646 kilocalories in 9 minutes.

"In less than a third of the time, they ate 67 kilocalories more than in 29 minutes," Melanson summed up. "If you count the total number of them in three meals, you get an impressive figure" - namely, more than 200 kilocalories per day and more than 6,000 kilocalories per month. This corresponds approximately to the energy consumption in three days. That is, those who eat quickly consume three more daily rations each month than people who eat slowly.

Trap # 4: give me everything!

American expert in marketing and applied economics Brian Wonsink found evidence that a person eats more, the larger the dishes in which the food is. During the experiment, the scientist treated the visitors to popcorn, which was in cups of different sizes. The trick was that the popcorn was already five days old, respectively stale, tough and tasteless. But the participants in the experiment who received large cups did not stop it: they ate 53%, or 173 kilocalories, more than those who got small cups. When they were then asked if they could imagine that they would eat so much just because of large sizes most of the glasses answered: "No". Some even said: "It is impossible. This cannot happen to me." Other experiments have shown that those who bought at a sale or good discounts especially large packs of food, everyone ate.

If you treat a person to a bowl of soup, into which you quietly pour it all the time, he will sip it until, in the end, he eats a double or even triple portion. So great is the urge to leave the plate empty.

Chapter 3. Drug Products

Have you ever wondered if the tobacco industry and the food industry are related? And if they are, how?

Two scientists - Miki Chopra, a sociologist at the Western Cape University of South Africa, and Ian Darnton-Hill, a nutritional professor at Columbia University in New York - compared the two industries and found no significant difference. They concluded that "the global epidemic of overweight and the global epidemic of smoking are extremely similar."

Food manufacturers make more money from sugar and animal fats than from vitamins and minerals. And these animal fats and sugars can be addictive. Darnton Hill and Chopra warn: "People do not respond to signals of fullness when they consume large amounts of sugar and fat." The predominance of these substances in food is already reminiscent of the strategy of the cigarette industry to mix various chemicals into tobacco to enhance the addictive effect of nicotine.

An addiction to food, drugs, or anything else implies a strong motivation to consume the object of the addiction. This intense compulsive desire, which underlies addiction, differs from physical addiction at least in that the latter is characterized by withdrawal syndrome. Many addictive substances tend to generate both compulsive desire and withdrawal symptoms (eg, nervousness in a smoker, shaking hands in an alcoholic, convulsions in an addict when refusing a dose). These withdrawal symptoms are associated with different brain centers than those responsible for addiction. At the same time, there may be no withdrawal syndrome. The point is that even if a person does not wake up with shaking hands and in a cold sweat from having missed a dose, he may be addicted, addicted to sugar, chocolate or cheese.

Addicted to chocolate?

The cravings for chocolate are far from its delicate flavor and texture.

Scientists at the University of Michigan decided to conduct an experiment. The goal was to uncover the secret of chocolate. The experiment involved 26 people. They were given the drug Naloxone (an opioid receptor antagonist used as an antidote for opioid overdose). Then the volunteers were offered a basket of sweets: chocolate cookies, Snickers bars, M&M s "biscuits drizzled with chocolate. On any other day, the sweets would have disappeared in an instant. But naloxone suppressed their effect. And they became unsightly for volunteers. By blocking the opiate effect of chocolate in subjects with naloxone, the scientists found that" M & M s and Snickers were eaten in half, and Oreo chocolate chip cookies were eaten 90 percent less.

Chocolate stimulates the brain's opiate receptors, and blocking these receptors turns off the main attraction of chocolate.

Factors provoking chocolate addiction

The first factor causing chocolate addiction is psychological. During the chocolate commercials, which are often broadcast on television, many people have a strong desire to snack on chocolate. Moreover, if a person has chocolate at home and the thought of this delicacy haunts him. However, psychological addiction is just the tip of the iceberg, and the true causes of chocolate addiction go much deeper.

The fact is that the main component of any chocolate is cocoa, which contains substances that stimulate the production of dopamine, a hormone that causes a feeling of happiness. As a result of studies carried out by the famous British psychologist D. Benton, it was revealed that chocolate is an excellent antidepressant and helps to stop and prevent the development of depressive conditions.

Another factor contributing to chocolate addiction is the high sugar content of the product. In those moments when we feel tired and exhausted, blood sugar levels drop, and our body sends signals in the form of the need for chocolate in order to replenish the missing amount of sugar and restore vitality.

Chocolate also contains phenylethylamine, or PEA, an amphetamine-like substance, but ten times less than cheddar cheese or salami. In very small amounts, chocolate contains substances related to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana. What do chocolate and marijuana have in common? Here's what the scientists found. Brain cells normally produce the chemical anandamide, which is related to THC. Some of the substances in chocolate delay the breakdown of anandamide in the brain, so the pleasant effects of this substance on the brain last longer than the natural norm.

Thus, chocolate is not just one drug-like substance, it is a pharmacy warehouse: some light opiates, caffeine, amphetamine-like substances, the equivalent of a smoke of marijuana - everything is packed in a delicate sweet taste.

Is it true that chocolate makes us happier? Partially yes. As a result of a study of a group of people who identified themselves as "chocolate addicts", it turned out that after eating chocolate, they definitely feel a sense of satisfaction. At the same time, their pleasure was overshadowed by a sense of guilt, which is not typical for those who indulge in chocolate occasionally.

Sugar

In a depressed state, people are especially drawn to sweets. Once in the body, sugar instantly passes into the bloodstream, and a person feels calm and blissful. But after a short period of time, the sugar level in the bloodstream decreases: the insulin produced to cleanse the body of consumed sugar begins to get rid of glycogen stores (sugar already contained in the blood), and the liver begins to send a signal to the brain asking for help - and the person again feels tired and melancholy.

A vicious circle arises: the more sugar a person consumes, the lower the blood sugar level, and the greater the need for a new dose of sugar-containing foods.

It looks like a drug. Sugar intake is accompanied by a short euphoria, which is quickly replaced by apathy and irritability, from which a person wants more and more of the same sugar.

A study was conducted in which rats were kept on a diet that included 25% sugar. When sugar was removed from the rodents' diet, symptoms of withdrawal such as shaking and grinding teeth.

It is important to note that if a woman consumes sugar during pregnancy, then her child develops sugar dependence even before birth.

If a baby drops sweet, sour, salty or bitter water on the tongue, he will show a positive reaction only to sweet water. The reason for this addiction is that evolution has given us the instinctive understanding that sugary foods are a reliable source of energy, while bitter tastes are associated with hazardous foods. Other scientists suggest that the love of sweets is laid even in the womb and is associated with the taste of amniotic fluid. Perhaps both points of view are correct, since they do not contradict each other.

In addition, it has been found to have an addictive effect. If you offer a child a large dose of sweet things in the form of sweetened tea or juice from the very beginning, he will tend to refuse drinks with a lower sugar content in the future.

Thus, if a person initially gets used to high dosage sweet, it will be difficult for him to reduce it in the future. It doesn't matter if the product contains sugar or agave juice, honey or aspartame - a sugar substitute. During puberty, a person discovers other flavors for himself, but the degree of his addiction to sweets remains the same as he was laid in infancy and supported in childhood by constant "training".

Women are primarily prone to sweet consolation. There are many reasons for this. For example, as a rule, women have a weak feeling dignity, which, as we learned above, enhances the desire to enjoy delicious food. In addition, in childhood they are often more comforted with sweets than men. They regularly receive chocolates or sweets when they cry or are simply sad. Unlike boys, who receive sweets mainly as a reward for some good deed, for example, an A. in math or for washing their plate. Girls, therefore, remember that sweets are what helps to overcome a bad mood, therefore, in adult life, when they feel sad, they resort to the right remedy. It is not for nothing that crises in personal relationships on the female side result in a "holiday" of chocolate, cakes and puddings.

But that is not all. A research group at the University of Glasgow found that women after consuming a large amount of sugar do not give up a full meal and do not reduce portions. A sweet and fatty cake for an afternoon snack does not in any way affect the fact that you have another solid meal in the evening.

This fact shows that their natural appetite control is probably already out of control.

Sweets do little to comfort men. The stronger sex prefers meat and fatty foods. They rarely have a great desire to eat chocolate or other sweets, they like a pork leg or a large piece of cheese.

According to statistics, men consume meat on average 20% more than women. Considering their mental health, their "consolation with meat" is similar to eating sweets in women.

"Anyone who is not very fond of eating sweets can achieve peace of mind with the help of fat," - says the neuroscientist Guter.

Why is sugar consumption dangerous?

First of all, sugar reduces the body's supply of vitamin B1, as it is required for its absorption. B1 deficiency leads to neurasthenia, depression, fatigue, muscle weakness.

In addition to B1, sugar removes calcium and other minerals from the body, depletes protein reserves.

Sugar weakens the immune system by inhibiting the ability of white blood cells to kill germs.

Sugar consumption leads to dental disease because it creates an ideal environment for the spread of microorganisms that destroy teeth, and also due to a decrease in the internal circulation of fluid in the teeth.

Sugar aggravates heart disease, shortens life expectancy, and contributes to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and duodenal ulcers.

Cheese

American scientist Dr. Neil Barnard argues that cheese addiction can be caused due to the fact that in the process of digesting cheese protein and casein, the substance casomorphin is produced, which in its composition is very similar to morphine. And just as in the case of opium, this substance, when exposed to the brain, triggers mechanisms in it that allow you to experience increased pleasure. With frequent consumption of cheese, the brain gets used to these signals, clearly associates them with the product - and now a person cannot do without a piece of cheese.

In addition, other drugs can be found in cheese, for example, phenylethylamine, which produces a psychedelic effect (it is also found and can be addictive to chocolate and sausages).

Meat

Most doctors urge people to limit or eliminate meat consumption. There are good reasons for this. A huge number of fatal diseases are associated with a predominantly meat diet. Cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney disease, obesity, food poisoning and many other ailments are many times more common among meat-eaters than among those who do not eat meat.

The nutritional value of meat is due to its constituent complete proteins containing essential amino acids (valine, leucine, isoleucine, lysine, methionine, threonine, tryptophan, phenylalanine), and lipids, which include essential polyunsaturated fatty acids. In human nutrition, meat is one of the main sources of phosphorus; with meat microelements and vitamins enter the human body. The extractive substances of meat improve the taste of food, stimulate appetite, increase the secretion of the digestive glands.

The appeal of fatty foods is biologically justified. Fat is the highest calorie part of any food (there are nine calories in one gram of fat, for comparison, there are only four calories in a gram of carbohydrate or protein). It is assumed that as our biological species develops, those people who knew where there are more calories, i.e. were drawn to more fatty foods, had a better chance of survival in conditions of lack of food. Nature never suspected that in the future, the desire for fatty foods would lead us into the arms of hamburgers, fried chicken and other menacingly fatty and cholesterol-laden foods. About 20-70% of the calories in meat comes from pure fat. Love for meat, and at the same time for fried potatoes, onion rings and any other food with a high fat content is due to the hardships of the evolutionary path of humanity, which forced us to prefer high-calorie foods. Not the least role is played by the banal force of habit. Scientists believe that as soon as we get used to fatty food, seeing it on our plate every day, we begin to love and want it.

Interestingly, there may be another side to the meat habit. Experimental results indicate that, like sugar and chocolate, meat may also have drug-like properties. When researchers used naloxone to block opiate receptors in volunteers, meat products lost some of their appeal. For example, a group of scientists from Scotland found that when the opiate effect of meat was neutralized, the attractiveness of ham for participants decreased by 10%, cravings for salami decreased by 25%, and purely gastronomic interest in tuna fell by 50%. Apparently, something like the following happens: when the meat is on the tongue, opiates are released in the brain, encouraging a person - rightly or by mistake - for a high-calorie food choice and, therefore, pushing a person to introduce it into a habit.

Scientists are looking for another clue to the addiction to meat. It turns out that meat triggers an unexpectedly strong insulin release, like cookies or bread. This fact surprised nutritionists. In turn, insulin is linked to a surge in dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is released under the influence of any drug: opiates, nicotine, cocaine, alcohol, amphetamines, etc. Dopamine activates the pleasure center in the brain.

It is known that carbohydrates - sweet and starchy foods - are broken down into naturally occurring sugar molecules during digestion. As these molecules enter the bloodstream, they stimulate the release of insulin, a hormone that transports sugar into cells. Protein also triggers an insulin spike. During scientific research The volunteers were offered a wide variety of food, and for the next two hours, blood was drawn from them for analysis every fifteen minutes. Meat causes a marked rise in insulin levels. In this case, beef and cheese cause a higher release of insulin than pasta, and fish - more than popcorn.

Lyrical digression: meat from test tubes is coming soon!

In 2008, one animal rights group offered $ 1 million to someone who, by 2012, would propose a way to make meat from a test tube that was indistinguishable from the present. However, it does not have to be expensive to be successful in the market. In theory, this is a good idea, but so far no one has been able to complete the task.

Scientists began to develop this idea a long time ago, about ten years ago. The technology was originally conceived to produce food for astronauts.

How it's done? Stem cells are obtained from a biopsy of a living animal (or a piece of flesh from a killed animal) and placed in a three-dimensional growth environment - a kind of scaffolding made from proteins. Infused with a nutritious mixture of glucose, amino acids and minerals, stem cells proliferate and differentiate into muscle cells, which eventually form muscle fibers. These fibers are then harvested as a minced meat product.

It is possible, but not now. More time is needed for research confirming that such meat is suitable for humans.

Chapter 4. Types of eating behaviors

Currently, there are three types of eating behaviors:

restrictive eating behavior

emotiogenic eating behavior

external eating behavior

Restrictive eating behavior

This behavior is characterized by chaotic, inconsistent dietary restrictions (to cut calories to achieve or maintain a desired weight) that are not tolerated by patients, leading to the development of "dietary depression". People who limit themselves to food ignore the internal signals of hunger (or thirst) and stick to a low-calorie diet that is supposed to lead to weight loss.

"Dietary depression" is the emotional instability that occurs in the face of strict diets. A person constantly develops a feeling of fatigue, increased fatigue, irritability, anxiety, aggression, a feeling of inner tension, dejection, etc. "Dietary depression" leads to refusal to continue to follow the diet and to relapse of painful overeating. This can lead to the emergence of feelings of guilt, decreased self-esteem, disbelief in the possibility of healing.

Many studies show that during distress (the type of stress characterized by the greatest severity, which has a significant negative effect on the body, disruptive effect on human activities and behavior), those who follow a diet increase the amount of food they eat, and those who do not observe it. on the contrary, it decreases. There are a number of hypotheses explaining this phenomenon.

)Avoidance theory. Dieters want to be treated favorably. They are convinced that other people are critical of them and pay close attention to their behavior. This in turn leads to negative self-esteem and depression. The intensity of such negative experiences decreases with episodes of overeating, during which the focus of attention is narrowed to simple actions and sensations. It has been experimentally found that physical threat significantly lowers food intake in non-dieters and slightly increases food intake in dieters, while ego threat slightly suppresses appetite in non-diets and strongly inhibits eating behavior in people with restricted eating behaviors. ...

2)Boundary model - was proposed to explain the process of nutritional regulation. According to this model, between the states of hunger and satiety, which control food intake and have a physiological basis, there is a space that is influenced by cognitive rather than biological factors. The border of hunger and satiety is determined individual characteristics person. People who are on a diet will have a lower hunger limit and a higher satiety limit than people who do not diet. It turns out that people who follow a diet seeking to control their weight "impose" on themselves another upper limit, which is located much below the biological saturation limit and has a purely cognitive origin. When a person who seeks to follow a diet fails, he is left alone with only the biological limit of satiety, which is higher for him than for a person who is not on a diet. This phenomenon has been termed "counter-regulation," implying that dieters do consciously regulate their food intake and tend to overeat when their self-control is weakened by stress.

)Disguise hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, the dieter uses overeating to mask distress in some other area of ​​his life. That is, he attributes this distress to overeating. As a result, the real problem is masked by the problem of overeating.

)Distraction Hypothesis: Dieters become so addicted to food that it distracts them from worries and problems.

)Comfort hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, food consumption induces a state of comfort. The food is for comfort.

Restrictive eating behavior and dieting are not exactly the same concepts. Dietary restrictions can be classified according to the degree of their flexibility and on this basis it is possible to judge the risk of breakdown (episode of binge eating) and the success of the diet. Restrictive eating behavior is characterized by such features as strict calorie counting, strict rules for excluding certain foods from the diet, and frequent use of the diet. This rigid and uncompromising dietary approach increases the likelihood of overeating. And flexible control includes more large-scale options behaviors such as forward planning nutrition, limiting portion sizes, slowing down the eating process, while limiting consumption is not rigid. People with a more flexible dietary approach tend to realize that binge eating episodes are likely for them, and take this fact into account by compensating for binge eating episodes.

Emotional eating behavior

Emotional eating behavior is characterized by eating against a background of emotional discomfort. Usually people respond to stress by losing their appetite. But there are those who react the other way around, with excessive food intake. Such people seem to "seize" stress. Emotional eating behavior is a kind of pathological form of protection from stressful conditions, highly socially oriented, mentally immature individuals, prone to anxiety-depressive reactions. The biochemical basis of emotiogenic eating behavior was studied, which is associated, as studies have shown, with a deficiency in the central nervous system of monoamines, primarily serotonin. Patients with emotiogenic eating behavior prefer high-calorie, carbohydrate-rich foods. The increased intake of carbohydrates leads to the consequent occurrence of hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia. High insulin levels increase the permeability of the blood-brain barrier to tryptophan. Tryptophan is a precursor of serotonin, so the level of the latter in the central nervous system as a result normalizes, patients experience emotional comfort. It must be borne in mind that serotonin deficiency leads not only to the development of emotiogenic eating behavior, it also causes a number of comorbid obesity disorders: depression, phobias, aggressiveness, obsessive-compulsive manifestations, insomnias, psychovegetative disorders, pre-mental stress syndrome, seasonal affective disorders, algic syndromes. Moreover, the use of carbohydrate foods by the same mechanism can reduce the severity of these disorders. And vice versa, the abrupt elimination of such food leads to a maximum increase not only in appetite, but also in the indicated disorders; the patient develops the aforementioned "dietary depression".

Within the framework of emotiogenic eating behavior, there are:

paroxysmal form (compulsive eating disorder)

night meal syndrome

seasonal affective disorder

Distinctive feature paroxysmal formis paroxysmal food intake. Episodes of binge eating occur during limited periods of time (no more than two hours), during which the patient eats a significantly larger amount of food than during normal times. During attacks, the patient loses control over food intake, eats faster than usual, without feeling hungry, stops only after the appearance of an unpleasant feeling of fullness in the stomach. Episodes of overeating take place alone due to the fact that the patient feels the inadequacy of his behavior and is ashamed of it; against the background of an attack of overeating, he has a feeling of self-disgust, depression or guilt. The attacks are repeated at least twice a week for six months. These patients lack the inappropriate compensatory behavior typical of bulimia nervosa (vomiting, large doses of laxatives and diuretics after seizures), so they tend to gain weight. The frequency of binge eating is closely related to emotional sphere; negative experiences provoke new attacks. Moreover, if for people with permanent emotiogenic eating behavior food serves as a source of some positive emotions, then patients with a paroximal form experience their attacks extremely painfully, are embarrassed by them, experience shame and guilt, then it aggravates depressive tendencies and forms a vicious circle.

Night Eating Syndromewas first described in 1953. Diagnostic criteria for this syndrome:

evening and / or nocturnal hyperphagia

morning anorexia

sleep disturbance

The main clinical feature of these patients is the inability to fall asleep without having eaten, the reception is usually very tight. Patients prefer high-calorie foods. Worsening sleep and increased episodes of nighttime eating occur against the backdrop of negative emotions. Their sleep is superficial. Appetite in the morning is significantly reduced or absent, the sight of food can cause disgust. In the afternoon, appetite increases significantly. A pronounced feeling of hunger leads to overeating at night. Saturation is formed extremely slowly. Eating in the first half of the day can cause drowsiness, lethargy, decreased performance, and limiting the evening meal leads to a violation of falling asleep. It is noted that the overwhelming majority of people suffering from night meal syndrome (80-90%) are women.

Patients are characterized by pronounced infantility, the greatest pathological changes in the motivational-behavioral sphere with hypertrophy of primary biological motivations (food, drink, sleep) and underdevelopment of higher levels of the motivational sphere. These patients are depressed, anxious, prone to overestimate the severity of the existing disorders. Aggressive reactions (usually latent) are possible, social adaptation is impaired. There is a pronounced dependence of patients on the assessments of others, a desire for approval, admiration, attempts to compensate for the lack of an attractive appearance with hysterical reactions.

Main clinical characteristics seasonal affective disorderis the onset of symptoms in the dark and their disappearance in the daytime. The clinical picture of seasonal affective disorder is manifested by depression, hypersomnia, daytime sleepiness, and premenstrual tension syndrome. With this form of emotiogenic eating behavior, a reduced mood background is accompanied by an increased appetite and decreased satiety, and there is a craving for sugars and fatty foods.

The role of neurotransmitters in the development of seasonal affective disorders is not excluded. It can be assumed that the melanocortin system or serotonin deficiency in the dark season is involved in the formation of seasonal affective disorders.

External eating behavior

External eating behavior is that the stimulus for eating is not a physiological feeling of hunger, but external factors, such as the type of food or person eating, advertising of food, etc. The decisive factor is the availability of the products. This feature lies at the heart of eating "for the company", snacking on the street, eating too much at a party, buying excess food. An increased response to external stimuli to food intake is largely associated with a lack of full-fledged satiety. The feeling of satiety arises later in time, the habit of fast food contributes to the delay in the feeling of satiety.

Chapter 5. Types of food addictions

There are four main types of food addictions: bulimia, anorexia, binge eating disorder, unspecified eating disorders (anything that does not fall into the other categories). V International classification Eating disorders (ICD-10) are designated by the code F50.

Bulimia is understood as a disorder characterized by an irresistible desire to eat, overeating (in a short period of time, a bulimic person can eat a large amount of food) and at the same time the desire to lose weight or at least not gain weight, which is achieved by extreme methods: fasting, vigorous physical activity, laxatives, vomiting.

Anorexia nervosa is a deliberate restriction of food in order to lose weight in connection with the belief in the presence of imaginary or sharply overestimated obesity.

Binge eating, the so-called "food binge", occurs as a response to stress and leads to psychogenic obesity.

Obesity is not a disorder itself, but a consequence of it, in particular, obesity is primarily a consequence of compulsive overeating.

The eating disorders discussed above do not reflect the full variety of disorders. There are many other options for their manifestation. Below I would like to consider them in more detail.

Bulimia (bulimia nervosa)

Bulimia - bovine hunger - a violation, which is based on the syndrome of overeating, followed by cleansing the stomach. Synonyms: abnormal weight control syndrome, food chaos syndrome, special eating behavior.

Bulimia can be determined by some signs:

.Attacks of binge eating, periodically recurring.

2.Taking inadequate measures related to the fight against excess weight, for example, induction of vomiting, enema, laxative, diuretic.

.A person's figure and body weight have a strong influence on their self-esteem.

.Fear of obesity.

Psychologists distinguish two possible courses of bulimia: "with cleansing behavior" and "without cleansing behavior." Bulimic patients with "cleansing behavior" use not only fasting, but also vomiting, enemas and medications to maintain weight. Patients of the second group maintain weight only due to strict dietary restrictions.

You need to understand that bulimia is not your usual overeating. With ordinary overeating, a person is satiated with food and does not feel fear of obesity and does not use compensatory actions, he enjoys the quality of food, its intake; a person suffering from bulimia absorbs food at a rapid pace, practically without chewing it and not paying attention to taste, while he often eats incompatible foods at the same time; in a healthy person, food does not suppress other needs and, finally, the cause of usual overeating is external (upbringing, ethnocultural characteristics, etc.), while the cause of bulimia is psychological.

With bulimia, increasing the value of food and overeating become the only pleasures in life that seem boring and uninteresting to the addict. Food for a person acts as an alternative to everyday duties, everyday problems.

Like other food addictions, bulimia manifests itself mainly in women (in 90-95% of cases), begins in adolescence (at the age of 15-22) and is the result of intensive dieting.

Bulimia has three groups of causes, including organic, social and psychogenic.

The organic causes of bulimia include various metabolic pathologies, diabetes mellitus, tumor or toxic brain lesions that affect the hypothalamus region. Genetic factors also affect the disease: some congenital diseases can affect the structure of the brain.

Social reasons include the attitude of the society in which a person lives to body weight. For example, in countries where weight is a significant criterion for assessing a person, the number of bulimics increases. If a woman constantly adheres to a strict diet, fearing to gain extra pounds, she thereby increases the risk of developing bulimia, because the constant fear of getting better causes stress, which is most easily relieved by food.

The psychogenic group of causes includes various psychological trauma or depression, which is most easily removed by a simple pleasure - food. The psychogenic cause can be low self-esteem, negative attitude to life and other psychological factors. Often bulimics, fearing obesity, artificially induce vomiting after eating.

Health problems that develop as a result of bulimia affect the digestive system, cause tooth loss (as a result of compensatory actions), kidney disease, and heart failure.

Interestingly, the weight of people with bulimia does not differ from the norm, which is achieved by compensatory actions. In this case, it happens that the weight even begins to decrease, and bulimia smoothly flows into anorexia ...

Anorexia (anorexia nervosa)

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which a person voluntarily refuses to eat. A person obsessed with the idea of ​​losing weight, partially and then completely refuses to eat in any form, which, subsequently, leads to death.

Today this disease has affected the entire modern society. Mostly women suffer from it, but there are also men. Initially, a person applies various diets, reduces the amount of food consumed, then gradually refuses food completely. And this mechanism cannot be stopped without outside help. Having significantly lost weight, a person does not stop and still refuses to eat. Firstly, this happens because a person, no matter how much he weighs, considers himself to be fat. Secondly, even if he is satisfied with his new weight, he is terrified of gaining extra pounds again. In addition, they exhaust themselves with physical exercises, even if it becomes very difficult and their state of health does not allow it.

The following stages of development of anorexia nervosa are distinguished:

) the initial stage, at which there is a pronounced dissatisfaction with one's figure, its excessive completeness, the desire to lose weight develops against the background of an orientation towards the developed ideal;

) the stage of active correction, at which there is a decrease in the value of nutrition and the formation of deviant behavior: specific methods of weight loss are being developed (changing the diet, adhering to a strict diet, resorting to physical exercises, taking laxatives, enemas, artificial provoking of the gag reflex); speech behavior changes - in conversations the individual constantly refers to the topic of losing weight, discussing diets;

) the stage of cachexia, which is characterized by the appearance of signs of dystrophy: weight loss, dryness, pallor of the skin, etc.

The causes of anorexia can vary. Factors influencing such human behavior are hereditary, biological, psychological, social.

Hereditary factor. If one family member has had anorexia nervosa, the other is more likely to get sick. But it is so small that it is more a psychological factor than a hereditary one: imitation of the behavior of a loved one.

Biological factor. Some scientists argue that the part of the brain responsible for appetite and pleasure is subject to some changes. Disruption of this part of the brain causes depression, impaired appetite, anorexia nervosa.

Psychological factor. Most affected people are perfectionists. For them, there are either thin or fat. And since they do not want to be fat, they have only one way out - to be thin. For them, there is no ideal of beauty, they strive to lose weight as much as possible, because if they do not do this, they will certainly begin to get fat. They are not interested in someone else's opinion, all attempts to bring them to their senses are perceived as envy, deception. These people are prone to depression, despondency.

Social factor. Most often, anorexic people come from families of very strict rules or inferior and dysfunctional families. In the first case, stereotypes of nutrition and appearance are imposed in the family, and a slight deviation from these norms due to the individual structure of the body and organism is perceived negatively. In the second case, it can be a mockery of one of the relatives over the flaws in the figure, or the fear of a person to be like one of the parents who does not meet his ideals.

Very often, the development of anorexia nervosa is associated with a turning point in life. This can be a change of place of study, work, parting with a loved one, etc. The age of puberty is also very dangerous for the development of this disease, since mainly girls aged 14 to 20 suffer from this disease. The person begins to change outwardly, shape and weight change. And this event is perceived negatively, denying its nature. Therefore, it is very important that loved ones are close and attentive to what is happening with their child, sister, brother, relative.

The consequences of anorexia can be dire. Up to death. Modern society knows many examples when great people and women died at an early age exhausted by this terrible disease, destroying their lives with their own hands.

Consequences of anorexia:

Excessive weight loss, muscle mass

Slow down puberty

Complications of the gastrointestinal tract (diarrhea, constipation, gastritis, ulcer)

Cardiovascular disease (abnormal heart rhythm, low heart rate, cardiac arrest)

Diseases of the kidneys and genitourinary system (urinary incontinence, infections, renal failure)

Diseases of bones and teeth

Reproductive system disorders in men and women (impotence, infertility, loss of sex drive)

Dry skin and skin conditions

Chronic fatigue, irritable state, insomnia, convulsions

Depressive states, suicide

In fact, a person suffering from anorexia can go through all these consequences and, ultimately, just die. But even if a person stopped in time, then the echoes of this terrible disease will be for a very long time, and maybe all his life, affect his health.

Eating disorders are considered to be borderline mental disorders in ICD-10 and usually do not require involuntary hospitalization. However, anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate among all patients with mental disorders. Mortality in anorexia nervosa, according to foreign authors, reaches 30-40% with a follow-up duration of more than 10 years and increases with the duration of observation.

Compulsive overeating

Many people suffer from binge eating disorder, the disease is widespread. As a rule, with this disorder, there is increased weight, often obesity. But in some cases, even people without weight problems can be susceptible to this disease. It's no secret that many people occasionally overeat. In addition, they are well aware that more has been eaten than is required.

However, if a person eats a lot, this does not mean that binge eating is taking place. According to experts, those people who overeat always know that they are not able to control their appetite.

Signs that define binge eating disorder.

The line between compulsive overeating and just good appetite is rather unstable, but there are certain signs that indicate that the patient has this disorder. First of all, these people eat very quickly. They continue to eat until they begin to feel discomfort. Always choose large portions, even when not hungry. They prefer to eat alone, as they are well aware that they are eating too much, and they are embarrassed by their overflowing plates. After eating, such patients become depressed, feel guilty and weak-willed.

Binge eating disorder is often associated with another disorder, bulimia nervosa.

Who is affected by binge eating disorder?

According to statistics, up to two percent of Westerners are affected by this disease, which means that approximately four million people are affected. Of this number, up to fifteen percent are mildly obese, and many are making attempts to get rid of the problem on their own, using certain therapeutic programs. But basically, this disorder is characteristic of people with severe obesity.

Women suffer from compulsive overeating more often than men, there is no difference by ethnicity. Obese patients with this disorder are usually overweight at a young age. They can monitor their weight for a certain period of time, go on diets, but most often then they gain weight again.

Unspecified eating disorders

1.Nervous orthorexia

This term was first introduced by a physician from America Stephen Bratman. He said: "The pleasure of food - component life of a person, and any attempt to give up this pleasure is perceived as a deviation from the norm. "

At first, a person simply decides to lead a healthy lifestyle and switches to a healthy diet. But sometimes the thought of leading a healthy diet captures a person so strongly that everything else ceases to interest him. A person is afraid to eat something extra, wants to eat only organic food, only natural. He refuses many foods - primarily meat, butter, bread, sweets.

This behavior affects not only the physical state of a person, but also on the mental. He turns into a neurotic, very thin, who suffers from insomnia, wild fatigue and a bad mood.

Chronic malnutrition affects the heart in the first place, because the amount of potassium in the body decreases against the background of malnutrition. And a lack of calcium leads to premature wear and tear of the joints. Of course, the intestines do not work well and the stomach suffers.

.Prader-Willi syndrome

This is a rare genetic disorder in which approximately 7 genes from chromosome 15 inherited from the father are not expressed. At about the fourth year of life, the child has an increased appetite. He eats but is not satisfied. Then a lag in mental development begins to be observed. It is very important to diagnose the disease on time, otherwise the patient may "gorge himself to death." Drug treatment ( hormonal drugs) and with the help of diet therapy.

Geophagy

Geophages eat what is inedible: ash, paint, earth, and so on. This also includes the habit of pregnant women to eat chalk. Basically, geophages get the minerals they need, but you can eat both helminth eggs and pesticides.

.Selective eating disorder

Refusal to eat specific foods, that is, using only a limited list of foods and unwillingness to try new types of food. The principles for choosing products can be any: from their color to species.

Chapter 6. Research

Food Addiction Inventory Questionnaire

It is believed that the people most prone to food addiction are women. I conducted a survey among my acquaintances and their acquaintances. In total, I interviewed 31 people, including 17 women and 14 men. A questionnaire was used showing the propensity for food addiction (see Appendix 1). From the point of view of the authors, a normal person should score no more than 5 points, ideally 0. That is, 5 is like a threshold. The questionnaire includes 18 questions and implies “yes” and “no” answers.

Table 1. Propensity to food addiction depending on gender.

The graph shows that the propensity for food addiction in men is within the normal range, or on the border, but rarely goes beyond the limits. For women, the indicators are very different, but the result is either above the threshold, or closer to the threshold. Interestingly, in three cases, the result was below zero. I believe that this is due to the fact that either the person, answering the questions, told a lie, or he limits himself in food, or he is so independent of food that he simply does not think about it.

I also looked at the propensity for food addiction depending on age.

Table 2. Propensity to food addiction depending on age.

I examined 31 people aged 16 to 53 years. The graph shows that the greatest results come at the age of 17-20 years. At an older age, the propensity for addiction is already lower. I decided to look at the propensity for food addiction depending on age in men and women separately.

Table 3. Tendency to food addiction in women, depending on age.

The graph shows that young girls (16-19 years old) have the greatest results. This is due to the fact that often girls begin to follow their figure too actively, which leads to anorexia, or, on the contrary, constantly seize emotions, because of this they grow fat.

Table 4. Tendency to food addiction in men, depending on age.

The graph shows that men are rarely prone to food addiction. Of those men that were interviewed by me, only two had a result greater than 5 (17 and 25 years old). Of course, this is unreliable data, since 14 people is, in principle, a small sample. But still, on this basis, it can be assumed that such answers will not be isolated. I can conclude that such responses are associated with stress, at 17 years old - due to exams and personal relationships, at 25 years old - due to work and relationships with the opposite sex.

Eating behavior questionnaire

The Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) will help identify eating problems. This questionnaire, developed by Dutch scientists in 1986, allows you to find out the reasons why a person overeats.

There can be three main reasons.

The first is the inability to resist tasty food, its appetizing smell and appearance (external eating behavior).

The second is the habit of eating up emotions (emotional eating behavior).

The third is the desire to severely restrict oneself in food (restrictive eating behavior), as a result of which a person either sits on a rigid diet, then breaks off from it, overwhelmingly rewarding himself for past deprivations and inhibitions.

I interviewed 22 people, including 12 women and 10 men.

The questionnaire contains 33 questions, the first 10 questions on restrictive eating behavior, the next 13 questions on emotional eating behavior, the last 10 questions on external eating behavior.

I Restrictive eating behavior... The average score in this section is 2.4. If a person does more, then he limits himself too much in nutrition. If less, then he does not control himself when he eats.

Table 5. Restrictive eating behavior. Sex addiction.

The graph shows that in most cases women limit themselves in nutrition, sometimes too much. Unlike men, who do not attach importance to the amount of food.

Table 6. Restrictive eating behavior. Dependence on age.

The graph shows that the older a person is, the more he limits himself (with some exceptions). You can also distinguish the age of 18-19 years.

Table 7. Restrictive eating behavior. Age dependence in women.

The graph shows that women, in principle, usually limit themselves in nutrition. There are those who do not limit themselves in food, but, as a rule, there are not very many of them. Judging by the graph, we can say that restrictive eating behavior in women depends little on age, although the older they get, the less fixated on the figure, therefore, they limit themselves less.

Table 8. Restrictive eating behavior. Age dependence in men.

Judging by the graph, we can say that at the age of 25-30, men limit themselves to food. Perhaps this is due to the fact that by this age they have gained a lot of extra pounds, since before that they do not monitor their nutrition. It is at that age that they try to build relationships with the opposite sex.

II Emotional eating behavior.Questions 11-23 determine how much a person is prone to seizing on emotions. The average result in this part is 1.8.

Table 9. Emotional eating behavior depending on gender.

The graph shows that women are more prone to seize problems and emotions. This is due to the fact that they usually perceive the situation more sharply than men.

Table 10. Emocyogenic eating behavior depending on age.

The most pronounced emotiogenic eating behavior occurs at the age of 16-19 and 25-35 years. I think this is due to the fact that during these years people experience the greatest stress (in relationships, at work, at school).

Table 11. Emotional eating behavior depending on age in women.

In women, in principle, emotiogenic eating behavior is strongly expressed. Judging by the graph, we can say that it becomes less pronounced with age.

In adolescence, girls are more emotional than in older age. In addition, at an older age, women are better at controlling their emotions than girls.

Table 12. Emotional eating behavior depending on age in men.

Men, on the contrary, in their youth control their emotions, and at an older age they do it less.

III External eating behavior.

This behavior determines how much a person succumbs to the temptation to eat something tasty.

The average score in this part is 2.7. If a person gains more, it means that he tends to overeat for the company, in restaurants and cafes, he cannot deny himself food if it looks appetizing and smells good.

Table 13. External eating behavior depending on gender.

The graph shows that both men and women tend to succumb to the temptation to eat. In women, this is a little more pronounced.

Table 14. External eating behavior depending on age.

The graph shows that the result reaches the highest values ​​at the age of 16-20 years. Boys and girls often go to eat in a company, most often in fast food outlets. The food looks good there and smells good.

Table 15. External eating behavior depending on age in women.

Girls and women usually tend to go out to dinner with a company. Often, in order not to offend a friend, they eat more than they want. They are also susceptible to beautifully presented dishes.

Table 16. External eating behavior depending on age in men.

As you can see in the graph, men rarely eat good looking and smelling food, they rarely eat for a company. And if they are greedy, perhaps this is due to the fact that they themselves prepare.

Findings from research

From the research I have done, I can say that women are more prone to food addiction, since they are much more dependent on their own appearance, on the opinions of others. They are also more emotional. If they have problems, they get stressed and eat it up. In addition, in childhood they are often more comforted with sweets than men. They regularly receive chocolates or sweets when they cry or are simply sad. Unlike boys, who receive sweets mainly as a reward for some good deed, for example, an A. in math or for washing their plate. Girls, therefore, remember that sweets are what helps to overcome a bad mood, therefore, in adult life, when they feel sad, they resort to the right remedy.

Chapter 7. Consequences of being overweight

1. Cardiovascular diseases. Obesity increases the risk of myocardial infarction - after all, in order to drive blood through a large circle of blood circulation through a solid volume of muscle tissue, the heart of an obese person has to work with increased stress. In addition, fullness makes it difficult to expand the chest. It is difficult for a fat man's heart to push blood into the pulmonary circulation, since the blood vessels in the lungs are in a compressed state. Constantly experiencing a lack of oxygen in the blood, overweight people are at risk of developing hypertension and stroke.

Oncological diseases. Obesity increases the likelihood of colon, breast and uterine cancers, as excess adipose tissue causes an increased amount of estrogen in the body.

Lipid metabolism disorders. An increase in cholesterol and triglyceride levels leads to the development of pathologies of the pancreas, gallbladder and cardiovascular system.

Type II diabetes. With it, the sensitivity of cells to the action of insulin is lost (in contrast to type I diabetes, when the production of this hormone by the pancreas is reduced). Previously, type II diabetes was called insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, or adult diabetes. It develops mainly in people over forty years old, and eighty percent of the sick are obese. Most of them can get rid of the disease by moving on to a healthy lifestyle: losing weight to normal, following a diet and doing physical exercises.

Diseases of the joints, ligaments, spines and back. They are very typical for overweight people. The knees, ankles and back are most stressed.

Complications of pregnancy. Overweight women often carry very large babies, which leads to serious difficulties in childbirth. Often, these women develop pregnancy diabetes, have problems with blood pressure and have seizures. Obesity is dangerous not only for the health of the mother, but also the child.

Postoperative complications. Obese patients are difficult to tolerate surgery. Healing processes are sluggish. Patients suffering from overweight, do not respond well to anesthesia and are prone to developing infections. They have an increased risk of blood clots.

Aging. Due to the excessive load experienced by the body, the aging process in obese people is difficult and complicated by various ailments. Premature aging is common.

conclusions

Food addiction is becoming an increasingly acute problem in our time. Previously, obesity was considered a good sign of health, but now it is the opposite. More and more girls are chasing fashion. People experience more stress at work and in their personal lives.

Plus, the food industry is capitalizing on our needs. They make ready-to-cook foods and add monosodium glutamate to food. In the store, the most important products are in the back of the store, while chips and Coca-Cola are near the entrance.

People do not monitor their diet, or they follow too enthusiastically.

In general, the problem needs to be eradicated, since food addiction leads to great health problems, and sometimes even death, as in the case of anorexia.

Bibliography

Books

1.I.G. Malkina-Pykh "Eating behavior therapy" 2005.

2."How to defeat food addiction" - M .: Eksmo Publishing House, 2010.

.Neil Barnard "Overcoming Food Temptations" 2007.

.Gillian Riley "Eat less. Stop overeating." 2012.

5.Jörg Ziplau, Annette Saberski "Eat or Die! How the Food Industry Makes Us Addicts" - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2010.

.Frank Minirth, Paul Mayer, Robert Hemfelt, Sharon Snead, Don Hawkins "A Drug Called FOOD" - Triada Publishing, 2011.

Articles from magazines

7.BUT. Nikolaeva, Moscow City Psychological and Pedagogical University, "History and current state of research on eating disorders (cultural and psychological aspects)", Journal "Clinical and Special Psychology" No. 1 2012

8.Barabash P.I. "Strategic approach and algorithms for rational nutrition in the psychological correction of excess weight", scientific and methodological electronic journal "Concept" - 2013. - No. 05 (May).

.B.Yu. Prilensky, A.V. Prilenskaya "Stages of development of food addiction", Tyumen State Medical Academy, Tyumen Medical Journal No. 1, 2010

.M.S. Artemieva, R.A. Suleimanov, "Social and legal aspects of treatment of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa", Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Peoples 'Friendship University of Russia Bulletin of Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. Series: Medicine. 2009. No. 4

.A.V. Vakhmistrov, "Clinical and psychological analysis of various forms of emotiogenic eating behavior", MMA them. THEM. Sechenov, Almanac of Clinical Medicine. 2001. No. 4

12. Siegelbaum D.J. In search of a hamburger from a test tube. Time magazine, 23.04.2008<#"justify">13.Article "Who Chooses Clay and Glass Dishes for Lunch"

Url:<#"justify">14. Article "Bulimia"

URL: # "justify"> 15. Article "Compulsiveness and its genetic roots"

Url:<#"justify">16.Compulsive Overeating Article

Url:<#"justify">17.Article "Chocolate addiction"

Url:<#"justify">18.Article "Addiction and other harm from sugar"

Url:<#"justify">19.Volkova Guzel Evgenievna, "Eating behavior, emotional and personal characteristics and mediators of energy metabolism in obese patients", dissertation for the degree of candidate of medical sciences / State Institution "Endocrinological Research Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences". Moscow, 2011

Applications

Food Addiction Inventory Questionnaire

Answer the questions with "yes" or "no" answers

1.Can you formulate the goal you are currently striving for? Do you feel a sense of vital "emptiness", meaninglessness, aimlessness?

2.Are you satisfied with your personal life?

3.Are you able to determine when you feel hungry while eating and stop eating?

4.Do you always clearly define the cause of your bad mood, mental discomfort?

5.Is it possible to say that after the appearance of satiety, life takes on meaning for you?

6.Would you like someone else to be responsible for you, kind, strong and powerful?

7.Does it happen that you "feel bad for no reason"?

8.Do you feel the urge to eat in order to calm down, find balance?

9.Do you eat to relieve tension, stress?

10.Do you eat as punishment, to “prove” your shortcomings, to “spite yourself” in order to “be even worse”?

11.Do you often experience aggression, anger that you have to hide?

12.Do you often experience apathy, boredom, emptiness of life?

13.Do you often have no one to complain to? Is it difficult for you to get rid of resentment? Are you often offended?

14.Does it happen that you eat, simply because "there is time and opportunity for this", "in reserve"?

15.Do you ever eat just to get strength to work or to recuperate after work?

16.Do you ever eat because of other people (out of a sense of duty, to please, to be in society)?

17.Do you ever eat "out of spite", out of a sense of contradiction when trying to influence my appearance and nutrition?

18.Is there something in your life, someone that you do not accept, from which you strive to escape, what you want to avoid, but have not yet succeeded in it?

Add the “yes” answers to questions 5-18. This is number A. The sum of the answers "yes" to questions 1-4 is number B. Subtract B from A.

Appendix 2. Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire

The Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) was created in 1986 by Dutch psychologists at the Faculty of Human Nutrition and the Faculty of Social Psychology of the Agricultural University (Netherlands) to identify restrictive, emotional and external eating behavior.

How to pass the questionnaire... To get a reliable result, take the test quickly, without hesitation.

Answer each question

"never",

"very rarely",

"often" or

"Often".

If your weight starts to grow, do you eat less than usual?

Are you trying to eat less than you would like during breakfast, lunch, dinner?

Do you often give up food and drink because you are worried about your weight?

Are you careful about how much you eat?

Do you deliberately choose food to lose weight?

If you overeat, will you eat less the next day?

Are you trying to eat less to keep from gaining weight?

How often do you try not to eat between meals, as you watch your weight?

Do you often try not to eat in the evenings because you are watching your weight?

Do you think about how much you weigh before you eat anything?

Do you feel like eating when you are annoyed?

Do you feel like eating when you have nothing to do?

Do you feel like eating when you are depressed or discouraged?

Do you feel like eating when you are lonely?

Do you feel like eating when someone has let you down?

Do you feel like eating when something gets in the way or when your plans are disrupted?

Do you feel like eating when you anticipate something unpleasant?

Do you feel like eating when you are anxious, anxious, or stressed?

Do you feel like eating when "everything is wrong", "everything is falling out of hand"?

Do you feel like eating when you are afraid?

Do you want to eat when you are disappointed, your hopes are destroyed?

Do you feel like eating when you are anxious, upset?

Do you feel like eating when you are tired, anxious?

Do you eat more than usual when the food is delicious?

Do you eat more than usual when the food looks and smells especially good?

When you see and smell delicious food, do you feel like eating?

If you have something tasty to eat, will you eat it immediately?

If you are walking by a bakery, do you want to buy something tasty?

If you are walking by a cafe, do you want to buy something tasty?

When you see others eating, do you feel like eating?

Can you stop if you are eating something delicious?

Do you eat more than usual with the company (when others are eating)?

When you prepare food, how often do you taste it?

Calculate the points: for each "never" - 1, for "very rarely" - 2, for "sometimes" - 3, for "often" - 4, "very often" - 5 (with 31 questions - the opposite is true).

The answers to the first ten questions define restrictive eating behavior. The average score is 2.4. If your figure is much less, then you have poor control over what and how much you eat. If much more, you are too hard on yourself and, possibly, prone to anorexia.

Questions 11-23 define the emotiogenic line of behavior: are you inclined to seize emotions or not. The lower the number, the better (average score 1.8). If it is very high, think about what to do in order not to pounce on sweets from sadness and boredom.

The last ten questions make up the scale of external eating behavior. It determines whether you easily succumb to the temptation to eat something tasty. The average score on this scale is 2.7. If you have earned much more, it means that you tend to overeat for the company, in restaurants and cafes where the dishes look appetizing, and even on a diet you cannot deny yourself a deliciously smelling freshly baked bun. Watch yourself carefully in these situations.

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Has it ever happened to you that after a meal you are completely full, your stomach is full, but you still want to eat something just to have fun? Does it happen to you that you have already eaten at home, but suddenly find yourself at a party or in public catering places where you are offered something to drink or eat, and you are overcome by the fear that if you do this, you will definitely gain extra pounds? Does it happen that you do not notice how you eat a kilogram of candy in one sitting and do not even feel that you have overeat? If you answered yes to at least one of the questions, then most likely you have food addiction.

Types of food addiction

Do not be very scared and run to the doctor or register yourself as disabled. It is possible that such eating behavior is not typical for you all the time, but it happens very rarely and you can count such situations on your fingers. But if this happens often enough, and you are aware that you cannot control yourself and control it, then you should think about your health seriously.

We all know that there is alcohol or nicotine addiction, drug addiction and gambling addiction, the so-called gambling addiction, but few people realize about food addiction. In fact, it is difficult to imagine dependence on what all humanity is dependent on. Food is what every living being needs to sustain life. The difference is precisely in what we eat in order to live, and people with food addiction live in order to eat. No matter how loud it sounds, but it is so. I say this with complete confidence, because I myself have experienced it and I still experience it, although much less often.
So, let's figure out what types of food addiction are and what separates them.

The most common type of food addiction is common Binge eating or Gluttony... In religious literature, this is called gluttony and is equated with a great sin, like murder or theft. Many in our time suffer from this ailment, without even noticing it. A person consumes food much more than he needs, giving himself up to taking food completely, arranging a whole action out of this, devoting a lot of time and attention to eating. Moreover, very often a person does not realize that he is overeating and that his weight is growing rapidly, and even if he notices, he does not concentrate his attention on it, because the absorption of food in large quantities is very pleasant, and the rest is not important.

Another type of food addiction is (translated from Greek - bovine appetite). The person exhibits an irrepressible appetite and consumes large amounts of food in one sitting or throughout the day. Moreover, the understanding that he overeats clearly and clearly appears before him, but he is not able to stop on his own. Very often, a person eats to such an extent that the stomach can not stand it and empties on its own. But basically, the patient himself empties his stomach so that all the food eaten does not have time to be absorbed by the body. Unlike the first type of food addiction, a person suffering from bulimia is very afraid of gaining excess weight and in every possible way to get rid of excess calories. This is usually accomplished by artificially cleansing the stomach or intestines using.

The last type of food addiction - (translated from Greek - not an urge to eat). A person with anorexia completely or partially refuses to eat for fear of gaining excess weight. At the onset of the disease, a person refuses some foods completely, avoids them and is even afraid. Later, reduces the amount of all food consumed, and, in the end, may completely skip meals. Food, in principle, makes them hate and fear. They avoid going to public places where they might be offered food.

Signs of food addiction

All types of food addiction that I described above are presented in the very last stage of their development, that is, an already existing disease is evident. Like any disease, food addiction has its own symptoms and if you notice any of them in yourself or your loved ones, you should pay close attention to this and determine the degree of the disease.

So, how food addicts behave and how they feel:

• Think thin and handsome are one and the same
• They don't care about their appearance and don't want to notice their excess weight
• Uncontrolled cravings for food in general, or for certain foods
• Constant feeling of anxiety about meals
• Attachment to certain foods and feelings of dissatisfaction and rage about the lack of that product in the home
• Repeated meals throughout the day (every hour or more)
• Intentionally avoiding meals and visiting places where food is offered
• Impatience with eating, eating food quickly
• Uncontrollable anxiety about skipping meals
• Feelings of guilt caused by eating food
• Self-flagellation and low self-esteem
• Depression
• Frequent headaches
• Gastrointestinal problems

These are just a few of the symptoms that speak of an incipient or progressive disease. Each patient has his own symptoms that are not inherent in another. Only you yourself can feel that your life and all your thoughts depend on food. If you live from breakfast to lunch, from lunch to dinner and nothing else interests you, then this is the first sign that you are gradually starting to get sick. Food addiction is not born in one day or even in one year. This is a very long process that usually begins in childhood.

Causes of food addiction

All signs of food addiction are already the consequences of the disease, so to speak, its extreme forms. And the reasons for food addiction are purely psychological. Unlike drug addiction, which is caused by a physical effect on the nerve centers of the brain, food addiction is more of a psychological nature. Although, of course, food also affects our brain and makes us produce substances that cause feelings of euphoria and satisfaction.

Despite this, psychological factors are the reasons for this dependence. However, I cannot say clearly that food addiction is caused by any particular feeling. Each person has completely different reasons. Someone has a childish resentment against their parents, someone has a resentment against a husband or wife, etc. One thing I can say for sure - a feeling of dissatisfaction with oneself, one's appearance and low self-esteem are inherent in everyone suffering from food addiction. Some people know exactly what triggered the problem, some find it difficult to figure out the reasons for the addiction on their own. For this, it is best to contact a professional psychologist or psychotherapist. In the treatment of food addiction, it is very important to understand what exactly entailed these consequences. Fighting the disease with purely physical methods (hiding food, replacing harmful products with useful ones) is not effective. It is more important to understand the psychological reasons and motivate a person to get rid of this addiction.

Why is food addiction dangerous?

If you suffer from food addiction, then you understand that this is the most disease and it brings as much suffering as, say, a toothache. Imagine that this toothache is constantly accompanying you, before bed, in the morning, at work, at home, wherever you are. Not only do thoughts about food prevent you from working and existing normally, they also carry purely physical consequences.

Food addiction in the form gluttony and overeating dangerous obesity, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and many more diseases that obese people are susceptible to.

It is dangerous in that uncontrolled eating of large amounts of food always leads to problems with the work of the stomach and intestines, there have been cases of rupture of the walls of the stomach. Constant emptying of the stomach leads to problems with the esophagus, destruction of tooth enamel, diseases of the oral cavity. Frequent use of laxatives disrupts bowel function and leads to dehydration.

Anorexia most often it entails eating disorders, hormonal imbalance, cessation of the menstrual cycle and infertility, deterioration of the quality of the skin, hair and nails. The extreme consequences of anorexia are dehydration and death.

As you can see, the consequences of any food addiction are very dire and sometimes irreversible, and ultimately lead to death.

How to get rid of food addiction on your own

Of course, food addiction is not a runny nose and it is very difficult to get rid of it yourself forever. This requires a lot of effort and long work not only on oneself, but also the work of specialists in the field of dietetics, psychology and physical culture. However, we know many examples when people independently got rid of even drug addiction. Because the main problem of any addiction is, first of all, in the head. And it is with her that you should start if you want to get rid of addiction on your own.

Step 1

So the first direction you need to take is motivation... Motivation is very important in overcoming yourself and your own fears. A person sometimes can motivate himself so strongly that he is capable of actions unusual for him, while showing courage and courage, strength and pressure, courage and fearlessness, in which they are not aware.

The main and first step on the road to recovery is to motivate yourself. You can be motivated by your loved ones, your loved one. But sometimes the people around you are not aware of your problem and cannot motivate you. You have to take matters into your own hands. First, understand that food addiction is not just a habit, it is a bad habit and sooner or later it will lead you to serious health problems, sometimes incompatible with life. Set yourself a goal to get well for the sake of someone or something, but first of all for yourself, for the sake of life itself, healthy and happy.

Step 2

After you find a purpose to live for and strive to get rid of food addiction, you need to make up for yourself power supply system that will allow you to eat right. Start by writing a list of foods you can eat every day. Read the literature, browse the Internet and you will find a bunch. After that, make a list of foods you can eat 1-2 times a week. These are foods that are also healthy, but in small quantities, which do not give you satiety, but contain useful substances. It can even be a variety of sweets. Then make a list of foods, perhaps your favorites, that you can pamper yourself with once a month. It is very important that you do not place any hard limits on yourself. You should not give up on your favorite chocolate and decide for yourself that in your life you will never be able to taste it again. This is not true. Even if fast food will be present, but in such quantities, in which it will not be able to harm either your body or your figure.

Step 3

The next important stage of rehabilitation is hobby. Food addiction is not so much dependence on the food itself, but on the emotions that eating it gives you. It is unlikely that any of you will eat raw cabbage all day and worry about it. Most likely, these will be foods that you like to eat, taste this food, and have fun. By and large, food addiction becomes a problem when the lack of positive emotions from the outside is replaced by positive emotions from eating. Therefore, during the recovery period, it is very important to receive positive emotions from something else besides food. You just need to keep yourself busy with something interesting. This will help you not think about food all the time and get positive emotions. Do what interests you. Join a drawing, sewing, or any sports section. Sports, by the way, is another way to get rid of food addiction. During vigorous exercise, the body produces hormones that affect the pleasure and appetite suppression centers in the brain. This is true, tested by myself.

Step 4

AND final stage, the most difficult and longest is work on your self-esteem. People suffering from any form of addiction are people unsure of their uniqueness, of their personal integrity, suffering from low self-esteem, subject to constant self-flagellation. The main thing is to understand that it is not your body and your body that makes you who you are, but your consciousness forms the wrong idea about food and your essence. Stop scolding yourself, stop hating your body. It is beautiful and unique. If you are overweight or are afraid to gain it, then do not seize your grief, do not force your body with hunger. It's a vicious circle. Falling in love with yourself is very difficult and requires a lot of effort and time. But the work is worth it. Reward yourself for any victory, even the smallest one. And don't punish yourself for any oversight. Just forgive yourself for everything and move on to your goal. You have no one closer and dearer than yourself. No one will ever take care of you if not yourself. This is your life and you have one. And there are a lot of interesting and pleasant things in it, besides food.

I suggest you watch the video of the project "Nothing more" Dr. Gavrilov on how to deal with food addiction.

Text: Olga Kim

Many argue that you must be able to enjoy food, and gluttony is one of the most pleasant sins. But for some, food becomes a semblance of a bad habit, an addiction. What is terrible food addiction and can you cope with it?

The essence of food addiction

Food addiction is practically no different from the same alcoholism or drug addiction, since it has the same psychological roots with them. Just as an alcoholic needs to drink constantly, and a drug addict needs to take a dose, so an “edomaniac” cannot deny himself food. This process is practically uncontrollable, and a forced ban can lead to emotional outbursts of a person.

Food addiction (and in particular this applies to excessive cravings for sweets) is expressed in the consumption of food in excess of the amount required by the body. Overeating leads not only to excess weight, but also to diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, problems with the gastrointestinal tract and cardiovascular system.

Just do not think that if you constantly eat the same product, then this is food addiction. This is called simple food addiction. But if you don't care what you eat and your portions increase with enviable regularity, then the very food addiction is on your face.

Food addiction occurs, usually due to inability to cope with stressful situations. Usually, when you are nervous, worried and feeling out of place, the desire to eat something is considered quite logical, especially in women. But when in any, even the slightest nervous situation, you start thinking only about food, then there really is a problem and you need to urgently fight it.

How to deal with food addiction?

If you notice that you have signs of food addiction, and you really want to get rid of it, then follow the described recommendations.

• Create a special notebook where you will write down everything that you eat and drink during the day.


• Get on the scale every morning on an empty stomach and every night before bed. Write down the results in the same notebook.


• Compare your weight in the morning and evening to understand how much you eat in a day.


• Continuously review your recorded results to determine which foods are bringing you the most excess weight. This will be an excellent incentive to “slow down”.


• When you pack yourself a huge plate of food and order numerous dishes in a restaurant, wonder why you did it? Most likely, the feeling of greed worked, because everything looks appetizing. But you must gradually reduce your measure. And this will happen when you learn to eat exactly as much food as your body needs.


• Get used to eating plenty of breakfast and lunch, but dinner with light dishes. This is in order not to force your stomach to work around the clock.


• Concentrate on the food, chew it slowly, and enjoy the flavor of the dishes rather than the eating process.

Food addiction, although it can be equated with alcoholism and drug addiction, but getting rid of it will be much easier. Here you need to start controlling yourself and your desires. Realize that there are so many more interesting things in the world besides delicious food.

(including in South Africa), articles and interviews of various researchers began to appear in the media explaining this problem from the point of view of the phenomenon food addiction... Moreover, they directly classify certain foods as poison or "addictive substances." In connection with this situation, there are also calls for a ban on the excessive consumption of sugar and highly refined foods, as well as on the excessive consumption of tobacco and alcohol. Is the situation really that dire, or is it just a "tempest in a teacup"?

Does food addiction really exist?

The term "food addiction" is often referred to in various reports of obesity, it is a phenomenon that the public refers to, but the medical community has only recently begun to use this term. It seems now that dietitians, psychiatrists and psychologists are beginning to recognize that there are still conditions that can be recognized as food addiction.

The essence of the theory proposed on this topic is that delicious foods cause addiction in some people, since the reactions underlying addictive behavior and the brain center responsible for overeating are located in the same part of the brain, i.e. are directly related to each other.

A team of researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Florida analyzed data from studies of binge eating in animals. Scientists have found that behavioral changes in response to overeating are similar to the neurochemical changes observed in animals exposed to drugs (cannabis, tobacco, alcohol). An article published by researcher Davis and co-authors in the journal Appetite also says that "there is growing evidence of food addiction in overeating animals."

Compulsive overeating. Food Addiction in Children: Causes and Treatment

Yale food addiction

Davis and her team at York University in Toronto, Canada, also tried to find out if the Yale Food Addiction Scale (the first tool developed to identify people with food addiction) is a powerful measure. Examining the results of an experiment proving the effectiveness of this measurement tool, with the participation of 25 obese people aged 25 to 45 years, the scientists found that the diagnostic criteria for food addiction had the following characteristics:

• binge eating disorder (uncontrolled overeating);
• attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder;
• impulsivity and nervousness;
• emotional reactivity;
• the need to calm down with food.

Davis and her colleagues concluded that this knowledge supports the use of this scale as a tool, a tool for identifying obese individuals who are particularly vulnerable to environmental factors risk. The Yale Food Addiction Scale and all of the research into it could open the door to new therapies for thousands of people struggling with overeating, overweight or obesity.

What foods are addictive?

According to Corsica and Pelkat, researchers at the Chicago Medical Center, neurochemical changes involving dopamine and so-called endogenous opioids, as well as neuroanatomical changes in the limbic system in the brain, support the theory that certain foods are addictive. For those who wish lose weight it is useful to know exactly what these foods are.

Here are the foods that are most addictive:

• sweets and refined carbohydrates;
• fats;
• foods that combine fatty and sweet;
• highly processed products (highly processed);
• too salty food;
• products containing food colors, additives and stabilizers.

American endocrinologist Dr. Robert Lustig also calls for strict restrictions on sugar intake.

Danger signals, or what to look out for

The following characteristics should be known to every person suffering from food addiction, because they are a kind of danger signals:

• preoccupation with food / food - as an obsession;
• loss of control and composure before or during a meal;
• suffering from forced eating, in which food provokes a whole cycle of overeating, regardless of what negative consequences may arise;
• "attachment" to food, the connection of feelings of pleasure and comfort with food, as well as helplessness and inability to stop overeating due to the fear of losing these feelings;
• developing physical cravings that keep you eating all the time.

Contradictions

Currently, there is a huge amount of controversy regarding the classification of individuals who gain weight or become "food addicts". On the one hand, some experts in the field of psychology and psychiatry believe that overeating is a type of addiction. At the same time, other researchers believe that food is a psychoactive substance that induces habit, but also withdrawal.

Until recently, food addiction in all its manifestations was not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is used by the American Psychiatric Association as a guideline for diagnosing mental disorders. However, it is possible that this concept will be included in future editions of the guide, and obesity, overweight and overeating will be classified as mental disorders.

How to deal with food addiction?

The most important step in tackling food addiction is to immediately consult with a dietitian, psychologist, or an Eating Disorder Clinic. For example, in the United States, support is already being provided for such organizations to help people with food addiction.

Here are tips to help you overcome food addiction as well:

• Determine what situations cause, provoke cravings for food; try to avoid them as much as possible.
• To overcome the urge to eat, drink plain water. However, don't overdo it.
• Try to do a simple set of exercises regularly.
• Learn to relax using special techniques: deep breathing, yoga, meditation.
• Try to distract yourself with something as soon as cravings arise (for example, a walk, chatting with friends).

It is hoped that Gluttony Anonymous societies will be formed in all corners of the world to provide timely support and numb the pain of patients suffering from food addiction.

Psychotherapy for food addiction: coding, trainings, drugs, food diary