Food, like money, is meant to support survival. But in our disconnection, it has become a spectacle. Most modern eating patterns are detached from the body’s natural rhythms and from the cycles of the Earth. We eat for stimulation rather than nourishment. We drink coffee to override exhaustion, overeat to escape anxiety, and reach for rich, processed foods for the illusion of power, comfort, or pleasure.
What would it mean to return to food as a relationship rather than a transaction? To eat with the seasons. To taste the soil in our vegetables. To chew with gratitude and presence. Our addiction to food mirrors our estrangement from the body, from hunger, and from the land itself. Like all addiction, it is rooted in avoidance. Avoidance of fatigue. Avoidance of emotion. Avoidance of truth.
Food addiction is one of the hardest subjects for me to write about. I have explored it for years through essays on the goodsugar blog and in my book The goodsugar Diet. I am not a scientist or a psychologist. What I share comes from lived experience, observation, and what years of working with food and people have taught me. I am not presenting new science. I am sharing patterns I have seen repeatedly in real life.
Eating patterns are often where our first maladaptive behaviors begin, because food is the first substance we are given as children. From the start, eating alters our chemistry in ways we feel immediately. Gambling or shopping can trigger dopamine, but food works on multiple levels at once. There are routines around buying and preparing meals. Oral fixation and mouth sensation. The feeling of fullness in the belly. The short lived relief of being fed. And then the chemical response itself, which varies dramatically depending on what we eat.
Unlike other addictions, we cannot abstain from food. We must eat several times a day. That makes food addiction uniquely difficult. We are forced to learn moderation in real time, every day.
Food addiction takes many forms. For some, it shows up as restriction. Starving the body to maintain control over appearance or self image, often rooted in dysmorphia and fear. This can express itself as anorexia or rigid, obsessive food rules. For others, the pattern swings in the opposite direction. Compulsive overeating. Late night binges. Junk food. Excessive protein. Heavy fats. Refined carbohydrates and sugars.
Modern diet culture adds another layer. Food identity itself can become addictive. Obsession with keto, paleo, veganism, gluten avoidance, seed oils, or organic purity. Working in the food business, I see this fixation daily. The labels change, but the anxiety underneath often stays the same.
At the other end of the spectrum is near total neglect of food quality and quantity. This neglect is often unconscious rather than intentional self sabotage. Still, destructive eating can function as punishment, especially when fueled by guilt, shame, or a sense of unworthiness.
Whether the pattern is rigid control, compulsive indulgence, or careless neglect, the root is the same. Anxiety and unresolved emotional pain. Food becomes the outlet. Either to control discomfort, numb it, or disappear from it. In every case, the problem is not the food itself. It is the attempt to regulate inner distress through eating.
Food addiction belongs in a category of its own. Unlike gambling, alcohol, or tobacco, food cannot be eliminated. With those substances, recovery often requires complete abstinence. Even small exposure can lead to loss of control. With food, abstinence is impossible. Recovery must mean reshaping our relationship with eating until it reflects balance, awareness, and nourishment rather than compulsion.
There are exceptions. Some people can moderate certain behaviors. But for most of us, the truth is uncomfortable and clear. We cannot reliably control our addictions through willpower alone. Cravings do not respond to logic. For destructive substances like alcohol, tobacco, or gambling, abstinence remains the safest path. With food, the work is different.
We must build awareness. We must regulate anxiety. We must slowly rebuild habits so that eating supports life instead of distorting it.
That is the real recovery with food.
Primary Corrective Abstinence Actions
- Eliminate processed foods and drinks.
- Limit or eliminate stimulating beverages.
- Reduce the intake of animal products.
- Avoid eating late at night.
- Avoid overeating.