The other day I was sitting in my apartment after work and all I could think about was getting a Blizzard from Dairy Queen. I wasn’t hungry, yet I couldn’t stop thinking about giving into my craving. I tried to do different things to take my mind off of it; I did some laundry, ran errands, watched TV, and I went for a run outside. But no matter what I did, I could not get my mind to stop thinking about getting a Butterfinger Blizzard. Finally at about 9:30 at night, I caved into my temptation. Fifteen minutes after I finished eating, I was overcome by this sudden feeling of guilt. I know that eating a Blizzard is not healthy for me, I know eating lots of junk food was the reason that I weighed over 300 pounds a couple of years ago. I have worked so hard to lose the weight and get my body into shape, yet I find myself unable to overcome this one little temptation. All of a sudden I started thinking to myself, “Can compulsive eating be classified as an addiction?” Is compulsive eating any different from the “typical” addictions such as gambling, alcohol, drugs or nicotine?

The American Heritage Science Dictionary defines addiction as “A physical or psychological need for a habit-forming substance, such as a drug or alcohol. In physical addiction, the body adapts to the substance being used and gradually requires increased amounts to reproduce the effects originally produced by smaller doses.” Essentially, natural foods such as fruits and vegetables keep the chemicals in your body in balance. Eating foods with salt, saturated fats and refined sugars cause a biochemical imbalance which ultimately ends up causing the body to become addicted them. The pleasure our body’s receive from eating these foods can become addictive if these foods are not eaten in moderation. If we eat these foods too often our body’s become accustomed to this chemical imbalance and will go into withdrawal when the substance is missing from our system; a withdrawal that is similar to an alcoholic that tries to go a few days without drinking. We crave these foods and we end up giving into our “sweet-tooth fix” even though we consciously know that it may be affecting our health.

Researchers are speculating that there may be a correlation to elevated neurotransmitter levels in the brain from compulsive overeating of “comfort foods.” Dopamine is a specific kind of neurotransmitter that is associated with love, wanting, addiction and pleasure. Dopamine is commonly referred to as the brain’s pleasure system, and eating processed high calorie foods is typically a pleasurable experience. The problem is that these processed foods are empty calories that have very little nutritional value. Too often we use food to make us feel better in our times of need. Comfort food gives us an immediate pleasure and we become emotionally dependent to these foods. And the more we eat these comfort foods the more addicted we become. This addiction can eventually lead to a powerless feeling that can slowly destroy your self-esteem.

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