8 Common Symptoms of Food Addiction!

Common symptoms of food addiction you need to know about as it is a common problem in western society. It involves binge eating behavior, cravings and lack of control over food .

There are at least 8 typical symptoms of food addicts. We decided to survey our readers and ask about each one of them. An email was sent to a total of 17,094 people and 875 of them responded.

Common symptoms of food addiction:

1. Having cravings despite being full:

This is one of the main common symptoms of food addiction . Also, it’s not uncommon to get cravings even after eating a nutritious and satisfying meal.

For example, after eating a good meal of steak, potatoes and vegetables, you can have ice cream for dessert. You see, cravings and hunger aren’t the same thing. You don’t really feel “hungry” because you’ve just had a healthy, nutritious meal, yet there’s still a craving somewhere in the brain to eat something else.

2. Eat a lot more than you want:

This is one of the common symptoms of food addiction. Besides, what’s wrong with having a little slice of chocolate cake ? A little won’t kill you. Everything is good in moderation, right?

These are two observations people hear quite often when they turn down an offer of unhealthy food for one reason or another. Both are valid. A slice won’t do much harm and if you can eat cake in moderation then it’s probably okay.

But for some people, there is no such thing as a bite of chocolate or a piece of cake. One bite turns into 20 and a slice of cake turns into half a cake. This is an “all or nothing” phenomenon that is common among addicts of all types. There is no such thing as “moderation” – it just doesn’t work.

3. Eat until you feel excessively “full”:

This is another one of the  common symptoms of food addiction. Let’s say you’ve given in to a desire. Now you start eating, biting after biting, until you feel full – that is, if you weren’t already full when you started (see symptom #1). But it doesn’t stop there, unfortunately.

You keep eating, then you eat some more. When you finally stop, when your “craving” is satisfied, you realize that you’ve eaten so much that you feel completely stuffed.

4. Feeling guilty afterwards, but keep doing it again:

When you do something that you know is not “right”, something that goes against your values, principles or previous decisions, you often feel bad about it, so this is another common symptoms of food addiction .

This is called having a guilty conscience and it is a very common feeling. It’s a feeling that’s both good and bad because it means you really care. It’s bad, because it feels incredibly unpleasant when that happens.

If you’re trying to exert “willpower” to control your unhealthy food consumption, giving in to a craving can lead to a guilty conscience. You may feel like you are doing something wrong, even betraying yourself. This can make you feel weak and undisciplined. However, you soon do the thing over and over again.

5. Make excuses in your head:

When you decide to abstain from junk food on a given day, but a craving pops up anyway, you can imagine two forces at play in your mind. One is the logical and rational decision you made to abstain from junk food. Maybe you just decided to “cheat” on Saturdays.

But the other force is desire. Today is a Wednesday and you feel like eating something sweet in the afternoon. Now you have a craving to eat a piece of food that you had already decided you weren’t going to eat on this particular day. The logical decision you made to abstain becomes “challenged” by the new idea that you must go in today and eat whatever you are craving.

In those moments, you start to think about whether or not to give in. You can come up with some excuse as to why it would be a good idea to give in to the craving and have that piece of food.

6. Break your own rules:

Another of the common symptoms of food addiction  is breaking your own rules. Also, when people are struggling with self-control in one way or another, they often try to set rules for themselves.

For example, only sleep on weekends, always do your homework right after class, never have breakfast after 2pm. Sound familiar? For most people, these rules almost always fail.

7. Hide your food from others:

People with a history of setting rules and repeated failures often begin to hide their junk food consumption from others. They may prefer to eat alone when no one is home, alone in the car or late at night after everyone has gone to bed.

I used to go to the store, buy junk food and eat alone in the car. If I were home alone, I would eat there, but I would make sure to throw it away and hide the wrapper so no one could see what I had done. I felt ashamed of it and didn’t like the idea of ​​my loved ones realizing how weak I was and what I was doing to myself.

8. Unable to leave despite physical problems:

There is no doubt that the foods you eat have a significant effect on your health. In the short term, junk food can lead to weight gain, acne , bad breath , fatigue, poor oral health, and other common problems.

But in the long run, after years and years of continuous abuse of the body, things can start to go wrong. A lifetime of junk food consumption can lead to obesity , type 2 diabetes , heart disease , Alzheimer’s disease , dementia , and even some cancers.

Someone who experiences any of these physical problems and knows they are directly related to eating unhealthy foods but is still unable to change their habits is in serious trouble. Many people know that junk foods are harming them, but they are still unable to control their consumption.