Sunflowerlife

Not sure if you were able to read old posts but this kind of came up last week- basically from all my experience with self help around binge eating, I have found that there are 2 schools of thought:

1) This approach believes that when we heal the emotional issues behind food and stop restricting food groups, we can learn to eat all foods in moderation. This one doesn't work for me because I am a food addict which means my brain processes refined carbohydrates (bread, flour products, all sugar, even many low carb ones) the same as it does alcohol.

2)The Food addiction theory agrees there is an emotional/spiritual side to the eating disorder but also recognizes the biochemical nature of the disease which I expressed above: High gylcemic, highly palatable, refined carbs/sugar have the same reaction in the brain as alcohol does. The only way to avoid the reaction is to abstain from these foods. This is from The Food Addiction Institute's website:


"Points to remember:

Food addiction is a chronic disease characterized by a person’s seeking foods the individual is addicted to and for whom use of that food is compulsive, and difficult to control, despite harmful consequences.

Brain changes can occur over time with compulsive eating. This can challenge an addicted person’s self-control and interfere with one’s ability to resist intense urges to eat these foods (sometimes described as cravings.) This is why people who suffer with food addiction can often relapse, even after long periods of successful abstinence.

Relapse is the return to eating these foods after an attempt to stop. Relapse indicates the need for more or different treatment. It may also mean that another food is triggering the relapse.

Certain foods such as sugar can affect the brain's reward circuit by flooding it with the chemical messenger dopamine. This overstimulation of the reward circuit causes the intensely pleasurable "high" that leads people to consume a particular food or particular foods again and again.

Over time, the brain can adjust to excess dopamine, which reduces the high that the person feels compared to the high felt when first eating these foods—an effect known as “tolerance.” This often results in seeking to eat more of these foods, in an attempt to achieve the previous levels of satisfaction.

For a great many people, abstinence is the solution."

Here's a quiz for you:
https://foodaddictioninstitute.org/quiz/

Having said that, if you go to an OA meeting you will find all walks of life: Some people can eat a slice of bread a day and be fine. Some, like myself, can be triggered by sugar alcohols which technically shouldn't even effect blood sugar. Some abstain from all flour and sugar- some can eat potatoes, some cannot.

Do you feel at this point that you could eat, say a cookie and be done? Or is it like asking you to drink a glass of wine and then stop? I think you will know in time which category you fall into. The other day, for example, I thought I could handle eating 2 small bites of my son't leftover protein cookie. Two hours later I was eating everything I could get my hands on in the kitchen.