Food Addiction: How To Kick The Habit

Like everyone who ever gave up cigarettes, I had to go through the hellish period of withdrawal, the one where your body experiences cravings and your brain screams at you to give into them. Your mind tells you that the discomfort of withdrawal will last forever. Except that it doesn't.

At the other end of that admittedly dark tunnel is a phenomenal feeling of lightness and freedom. Suddenly you can breathe again. You notice that you no longer wake up with a disgusting, hacking cough. You're aware of smells that you never noticed before. You start to taste your food. You stop smelling like an ashtray. Your breath is clean and fresh.

You just have to get through the tunnel.

The thing of it is, food is just as addictive as cigarettes. We now know that manufacturers cunningly add ingredients designed to trigger circuits in the brain that command us to "eat more!" One of the most successful -- and truthful -- marketing slogans in food history was "Betcha can't eat just one." Load foods with sugar, fat and salt in just the right proportions and you've got a customer for life. You also have an addict.

Welcome to reality.

The subject of food addiction -- and reprogramming the circuits in your brain that have to do with food cravings -- has been on my mind a lot lately.

I don't think enough of us appreciate the extent to which we're addicted to the foods that are killing us. And that reprogramming our eating habits may require a lot more than just switching to the "low-fat" version of our favorite comfort foods.

One of the many reasons low-carb diets work so well is that low-carb diets by definition contain a lot less of the foods that cause cravings. Controlled carb diets contain far less wheat, sugar and flour. Foods that contain high amounts of these ingredients are far more likely to help us put on weight and keep us unhealthy than foods that have less of these ingredients. Low-fat versions of junk food are still junk food.

No wonder people on lower carb diets find it so easy to control their appetites.

Jamie Oliver has done a great thing by publicizing just how horrible the foods we're feeding our kids really are. He's also done a great thing by pointing out that it's not the kids who are to blame. Kids are amazingly adaptable -- and every nutritionist worth his or her salt will tell you that it's what you, the parent, does in the home that sets the stage for lifelong eating habits. If the only "snacks" available are raisins, grapes, apples and nuts, your kid may grumble but eventually that's what he'll reach for.

Make no mistake. Reprogramming the circuits in the brain that crave foods loaded with flour, sugar, fat and salt requires the same level of dedication and persistence required to kick cigarettes. It's not instantaneous, it won't happen overnight, and the road to "freedom" is bound to have some potholes.

But once you realize that those Pillsbury crescent rolls, deep fried raviolis, microwaveable "dinners" and Happy Meals are just as insidious as a pack of Marlboros you can begin to approach the task of "kicking" your addiction with the seriousness it deserves.

Begin by taking a week-long vacation from processed food. Commit to the idea that for one week, only 20 percent of your family's diet will come from food that has a bar code on it or comes out of a package. Shop the outer aisles of the supermarket. Stock up on beans, vegetables, fruits, nuts, some lean meat, fish and chicken. Resolve, at least for a week, not to eat any food "product" has a list of ingredients that contain more than two things you can't pronounce or recognize.

Conventional wisdom says it takes 21 days to make (or break) a habit, but truth be told you can significantly cut your cravings for high sugar, high calorie processed foods by eating "low glycemic" for a mere three days. (Low glycemic refers to foods that don't spike your blood sugar -- nearly all vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans and protein sources are in this category; nearly all cereals, breads, pastas, cakes and processed carbs are not.)

For inspiration, pick up a copy of Dr. David Kessler's "The End of Overeating" and look at the data on addiction and food. You'll never look at processed "food products" in the same way. Kessler also has some good tips for reprogramming your taste buds.

As someone who has been "freed" of cravings for cigarettes, I can tell you that it was worth every moment of the few weeks -- okay, months -- it took to "reprogram" my brain not to crave something that was killing me. And as anyone who has ever kicked cravings for sugar (and the dangerous combinations of sugar, fat and salt found in so many processed foods) will tell you, the same holds true for addictive foods.

Try it. And as Jamie Oliver would say, "Big love!"

For more info on nutrition and weight loss, visit Jonny Bowden's Web site and check out his latest book, "Living Low Carb: Controlled Carbohydrate Eating for Long Term Weight Loss."

Find out more about low-carb diets and how they can affect PCOS.