Food Addiction

[Consolatio]

I just finished the video titled "Overcoming Addiction - The Root Cause of Every Addiction" and it really resonated with me. I have very few memories of a time when I wasn't addicted to food, but I was an adult before I realized a) I am addicted to food; and b) The addiction is a habit that I can affirmatively change. 

The problem with food addiction is that there isn't a "right" way to live, because our bodies need food. It's not heroin, booze, porn, or gambling. I can't just stop eating. I'm becoming comfortable with the idea of sitting with emptiness vs. acting on a craving and trying to stuff it down, but I'm not sure how to execute that when I can't feel the line between "I have a craving for food just to be full" and "I didn't eat enough today (or enough of a certain nutrient) and my body actually needs more nourishment." Does anyone have any insight into this? 

[Prabhaker]

@Consolatio

Whenever you are half-hearted in anything, it lingers longer.

If you are sitting at your table and eating, and if you eat only half-heartedly and your hunger remains, then you will continue to think about food the whole day. You can try fasting and you will see: you will continuously think about food. But if you have eaten well – and when I say eaten well, I don’t mean only that you have stuffed your stomach. Then it is not necessarily so that you have eaten well. You could have stuffed yourself. But eating well is an art. It is not just stuffing. It is great art: to taste the food, to smell the food, to touch the food, to chew the food, to digest the food, and to digest it as divine. It is divine; it is a gift from the divine.

There are people who are obsessed with fasting, and there are people who are obsessed with stuffing themselves. Both are wrong because in both the ways the body loses balance. A real lover of the body eats only to the point where body feels perfectly quiet, balanced, tranquil; where body feels to be neither leaning to the left nor to the right, but just in the middle. It is an art to understand the language of the body, to understand the language of your stomach, to understand what is needed, to give only that which is needed, and to give that in an artistic way, in an aesthetic way.

Animals eat, man eats. Then what is the difference? Man makes a great aesthetic experience out of eating. What is the point of having a beautiful dining table? What is the point of having candles burning there? What is the point of incense? What is the point of asking friends to come and participate? It is to make it an art, not just stuffing. But these are outward signs of the art; the inward signs are to understand the language of your body, to listen to it, to be sensitive to its needs. And then you eat, and then the whole day you will not remember food at all. Only when the body is hungry again will the remembrance come. Then it is natural.

[Tancrede Pouyat]

You're looking at it the wrong way. It's not a question of what you're addicted to, it's a question of whether or not you're addicted to stuff. But still, let me get deeper into it. 

I think that you most certainly need to master your physical health. That includes nutrition, but also exercise and sleep.

Also understand too many carbs and too little protein make you hungry (there's some science behind that, Google it).

And lastly, but most importantly, you need to fully understand and become deeply at peace with the fact that you are empty, and that you've been running away from this truth for your entire life. So there's a strong likelihood that you will continue to do so out of habit. You need to make a habit of facing this, meditate for at least 20 minutes every day, and keep meditating for the rest of your life !

[Live Life Liam]

On 13/11/2016 at 2:43 AM, Consolatio said:

I just finished the video titled "Overcoming Addiction - The Root Cause of Every Addiction" and it really resonated with me. I have very few memories of a time when I wasn't addicted to food, but I was an adult before I realized a) I am addicted to food; and b) The addiction is a habit that I can affirmatively change. 

The problem with food addiction is that there isn't a "right" way to live, because our bodies need food. It's not heroin, booze, porn, or gambling. I can't just stop eating. I'm becoming comfortable with the idea of sitting with emptiness vs. acting on a craving and trying to stuff it down, but I'm not sure how to execute that when I can't feel the line between "I have a craving for food just to be full" and "I didn't eat enough today (or enough of a certain nutrient) and my body actually needs more nourishment." Does anyone have any insight into this? 

Eat food that isn't addictive. People might not agree with me but certain foods definitely are as bad as heroin and there is a reason you have cravings for the worst food possible. Your an ADDICT! Gluten foods and wheat can be (Addictive), high saturated fat foods/Dairy (Addictive), Processed Sugar and Chemical Junk Food (Addictive). These are scientifically proven and its crazy how much this information isn't as widespread as it should be. Trust me I know there are emotional and deep internal issues that influence your bad eating habits but on the same level your body is physiologically dependent on the worst food possible due to years of eating it when its not natural at all for humans. You have been eating this way for so long you don't even know that its the major cause of your cravings.

If your living in a first world country its barley ever the fact that you didn't eat enough but that we have been convinced that certain food is good for us when it isn't as its addicted us to such an extent we don't realise its the type of food we eat that can make us have these cravings even when we are FULL. 

What I recommend is really looking into the diet you are currently eating and experiment with many different ways of eating. You need a change and that's what the cravings are telling you

BTW I apologise if you eat healthy natural food like Fruit, veg, nuts, whole grains and possibly meat or fish (if your not vegetarian or vegan) but everything else we have not adapted to well and simply will make us have deep cravings and make us unhealthy.

I wish you the best! I really hope this helped