One growing concern in the times we’re living is food related disorders. There are more people struggling with problems like bulimia, anorexia and orthorexia, just to name a few.
Among the issues that stem from an unhealthy relationship with food is food addiction.
When you’re addicted to food, you’ve lost control over how much you’re eating to the point where it starts to disrupt your life. Also, the foods you consume will be high in sugar, salt and fat which can seriously damage your health quickly.
The thing about food addiction is, it won’t always show and that means some people will end up obese or on the verge of obesity while others will still be able to maintain a healthy weight, even though they’re far from being well.
For us to understand what exactly food addition is, we need to know the root causes. There are a number of causes you need to know about including these five.
1. Genetics
Our genetics play a huge role when it comes to physical traits. We share similar features to our great grandparents, parents, siblings and other relatives.
Besides the physical part of it, genetics have also shown to influence our personality inclinations. Some people have an addictive gene that runs in the family, which means they’re more susceptible to picking up addictions including food addition.
2. Brain dependency
The brain is probably the most powerful organ we have in our physical being. If you don’t know how to take control, it will actually dictate your actions, which is exactly how many addiction develops.
So as a person feeds their body with these comfort foods and unhealthy snacks more often, the brain continues to release rewarding chemicals such as dopamine. With time it will carve this need for a chemical high, which you will then satisfy with more food and the cycle continues.
3. Psychological trauma
Unhealed trauma, especially those that occur during childhood years, manifest themselves in different ways later on. Some people pick up excessive drinking, self-harm or even workaholism.
There are also many victims who end up developing food addiction. Eating becomes this source of temporary comfort if they don’t get the proper help they need.
4. Stress coping
People also respond to stress differently, whether in positive or negative ways. Eating uncontrollably is one of the routes people take in order to silence stressful thoughts.
Slowly the cycle of stress and eating forms into an addiction, which then becomes hard to break free from.
5. Societal pressures
Beauty ideals have haunted society for a long time. In many traditional societies, a heavier woman was seen as more fertile and desirable and actually even now, there’s still some communities that encourage women to eat unhealthy amounts of foods to fit in.
In modern society this trend can be seen as well. Some people who desire to have a “thicc” body take extreme measures such as overeating and misuse of weight gain drugs.
This is very risky and societal beauty standards is one of the biggest contributors to this problem.
