Anatomy of a Food Addiction: The Brain Chemistry of Overeating - Softcover

When I took my first step toward recovery from binge eating in 1983, I had no idea that my life was unfulfilled because I was eating too much. What a wonder, then, that with each small step I took into recovery, my life gained more luster, my mind got clearer, and my energy grew. I didn’t realize that certain foods act in the body as if they are drugs, creating an addiction powerful enough to have held me in a pattern of binge eating despite my most fervent and spiritual efforts to break free. I call these foods "drug foods," which by themselves are not drugs, but through a series of chemical reactions eventually cause production of brain chemicals that can have a drug-like effect on the body. These chemicals cloud the mind, imprison the soul, and steal freedoms. All this from particular foods in interaction with a particular body type. This susceptibility stems from the fact that many people have an inadequate supply of certain chemicals that can, among other things, alleviate pain. We learn, even as small children, to stimulate the release of these chemicals by eating sweets and we do this for a much more significant reason than to get a particular taste. We do this because, soon after, we feel better. Thus, we discover how to manipulate our brain functioning by choosing to eat an abundance of certain types of foods. We make this adjustment without any consciousness of how or why it works; but, over time, such manipulation causes other brain changes, and we can unknowingly get trapped in a cycle of eating that causes more eating. This book explains that process.

Anne Katherine, M.A., CEDT, CMHC, is the author of Boundaries: Where You End and I Begin. She has a Master of Arts in Psychology from Peabody College and a Certificate in Addiction Studies from Seattle University. She is a Certified Eating Disorders Therapist by the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals, and a Certified Mental Health Counselor. She has 14 years of personal recovery from binge eating and 23 years of experience as a psychotherapist. Her practice, with Associated Recovery Therapists, is in Seattle where she leads her own program in Binge Eating Recovery.