223 - The Myth of Food Addiction

Thrive Beyond Size

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25d ago 31:49

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Michelle starts by naming the experience so many listeners know well: the panicky, out-of-control feeling around “forbidden” foods that seems to prove you’re an addict. She traces where that story came from—the early 2000s brain-scan headlines—and why “lights up the reward pathways” doesn’t equal addiction (music, hugs, laughter, and puppy greetings light them up, too). From there, she walks through what the evidence does show:

Dopamine ≠ addiction: Dopamine is about motivation and learning (“That was satisfying; remember that”), not proof of a hijacked brain. Drug-induced dopamine spikes are extreme and rewiring; food-related responses are moderate and self-limiting.
What the rat studies actually found: Binge-like behavior appears when access to sugar is restricted and then reintroduced; with free access, intake levels out. In humans, dieting and moralizing foods replicate this deprivation-binge pattern.
Addiction criteria don’t fit food: Medical addiction involves tolerance, withdrawal syndromes, persistent use despite harm, and inability to cut down. Systematic reviews report that foods don’t meet those criteria. Food is also essential—abstinence-based models don’t translate.

Michelle then maps the very human reasons it feels like addiction:

Restriction & deprivation (physical and mental) create scarcity, obsession, and urgency.
Emotional reliance on food as a primary coping tool can look compulsive—but it’s coping, not character failure.
Learned urgency/“last-supper” eating when a food is allowed only during a “slip.”

She also names the harm of the addiction label: added shame, escalation to stricter restriction (which worsens the cycle), and attention pulled away from the real drivers—diet mentality, unmet needs, and nervous-system dysregulation.

From there, the episode offers a compassionate, evidence-aligned path forward:

Lift the ban with unconditional permission to eat (expect an initial “pendulum swing”; it settles as scarcity fades).
Practice food neutrality (take the moral charge out of foods).
Pursue satisfaction so you can actually register “enough.”
Support your nervous system (capacity first; choice follows).
Add coping tools beyond food (connection, creativity, movement, rest).
Reframe the story: from “I’m addicted” to “Restriction is making me feel out of control; my body is protecting me.”

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