how to break food addiction

Are you tired of obsessive thoughts around eating, bingeing and feeling guilty afterwards? If so, keep reading! I have tools and strategies that can help you banish those negative thoughts so you can learn how to break food addiction.

Trust me…I know where you’re coming from. My natural tendency is to revert to old destructive habits around food and eating, so I always have to remain vigilant.

The good news is that I can now recognize when I’m starting to slip into old behaviors and course correct early. I’ve also relied on some structured programs to help me create new, sustainable habits. This is something that you can do too so you can start to experience fork freedom!

First, let’s talk about food addiction. We use the word “addiction” loosely, so before I talk about how to break food addiction, I want to explain what it is.

what is food addiction

According to Food Addiction Institute, Addiction means the body has become chemically dependent on one or more substances and needs these substances to function “normally”. So when we are talking about a specific food as potentially being a substance of abuse we are saying that the body has become dependent on a particular food or eating behavior. The most common addictive foods are foods high in sugar, flour, fat, grains and salt or some combination of these. The most common addictive eating behaviors are bingeing, purging and volume eating. Food Addiction is a chronic and progressive disease characterized by our seeking the foods or food behaviors we are addicted to, eating/doing them compulsively and having a great deal of difficulty controlling these urges despite harmful consequences.

Addiction is a spiritual, physical and mental disease and it’s important to address all of these when getting healthy.

For the purpose of this post, I’m going to focus on the physical ways to break food addiction by replacing old habits with new, healthy ones.

ways to stop food addiction

The  best way to break old, destructive patterns is to create new habits.  I have found structured programs that teach new ways of eating can be extremely helpful when trying to stop food addiction and learn new habits.

There are two programs that I recommend for learning new habits around food in a structured way. Keep in mind that there are many programs that can work. I’m most familiar with the ones in this post and have seen how they helped me personally as well as many other people. 

The bottom line is you need to swap the old habits for new ones. Consume whole, unprocessed, nutrient-dense foods where you minimize or eliminate sugar and eat high-quality protein, healthy fats and unprocessed carbohydrates.

By doing this, you will reduce cravings over time which will break the food addiction cycle.

beat food addiction with Isagenix

For those who need structure and convenience to help develop healthy habits, the first program is Isagenix and I’ve used it for years. 

Isagenix is a nutritional cleansing system where you replace 2 daily meals with nutrient-dense whey or plant-based shakes and eat nutritious whole foods for your 3rd meal. Additionally, you eat high-protein snacks and take supplements to help with stress, digestion and energy.

There is also a cleanse component where you incorporate intermittent fasting but in a safe, easy way that helps eliminate toxins, curb cravings and burn unhealthy visceral fat.

This program is best for people looking to get healthy, eat more nutritiously and don’t have a lot of time to cook or meal prep. 

You will break food addiction patterns by building new healthy habits which will control cravings, give you energy and maintain better portion control.

If this sounds good to you, visit my site or email me at karen@forkfreedom.com. Also, check out my Isa-approved recipes, here. It’s important to note that I do receive a commission if anyone orders through me.

beat food addiction with Whole30

Another program which is great for resetting your nutritional habits is Whole30. I do not have any affiliation with this program but do highly recommend it from my personal experience.

The Whole30 is designed to help you break food addiction patterns. This is done by curbing your cravings, boosting your metabolism, healing your digestive tract, and calming your immune system.

You will eat foods that don’t compromise you from a psychological perspective (think bingeing and compulsive eating). Also, all foods will promote a healthy hormone response, gut health and are anti-inflammatory.

After 30 days you introduce different food groups back systematically and monitor your body’s response to them. This helps you develop a better awareness of your mind and body’s connection to food.

Because you are cooking fresh, whole foods for each meal, it is more time consuming and you will need to meal prep.

For more information on the Whole30 program, check out their website. I also have a section of Whole30 approved recipes, found here.

As I mentioned above, there are many structured programs available to help you stop food addiction. The best program is the one that works best with your lifestyle.

Change is hard but so worth it. Make sure to take things one day at a time and expect that the journey will have ups and downs. Over time, you’ll start to see that the “ups” far outweigh the “downs”.

If you have any questions or want to celebrate how you’ve overcome food addiction I’d love to hear from you. You can email me, or reach out to me on  Instagram or Facebook. I can’t wait to get to know you!