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Food,
Addiction & Eating Disorders... the recursive loop
The term "addiction" is
just a description of compulsive eating behaviors that
lead sooner or later to harm. Human behavior is
determined to an alarming degree by strong drives to
obtain specific foods and chemicals. Elaborate
habit-structures are built around the goal of delivering
a regular supply of addictive molecules. Successful
programs for reducing addictive behavior work on
external behavioral structures, first to withdraw from
the addictive substances and then to maintain successful
abstinence. The control of addiction is strategic rather
than moral.
The
Recursive Loop
The basic pattern of using and abusing addictive
substances is a recursive loop. Normal eating is
controlled by recursive loops with cycles of hunger and
satiety. Normal hunger builds slowly and rhythmically,
but can be over-ridden by normal activities. If food is
not eaten, normal hunger builds in pulses of increasing
intensity, but a normal person can carry on with work or
play and does not develop distressing symptoms if food
is not available.
An
abnormal, addictive loop is more intense, exclusive and
leads to the wrong results. Cravings are intense
feelings of hunger, associated with strong and
distracting drives to ingest food or drink. A craving
can be distinguished from meaningful hunger if you have
already eaten and really do not require more food to
satisfy nutritional needs. Cravings may be interpreted
as urges to find missing nutrients, but the foods found
in compulsive searches are not biologically correct.
Instead, food cravings are a symptom of an abnormal
recursive loop.
Cravings build quickly, interrupting other activities.
In the abnormal state, missing the next "fix" leads to
withdrawal symptoms which can be distressing even within
a 2 to 3 hour period. Often the addictive food and drink
is not satisfying, and the most dysfunctional people
keep eating and drinking with only the briefest
interruptions.
Cravings lead to ingestion (or injection) and may be
followed by a brief period of stimulation with increased
energy, activity and satisfaction. The gratification is
short-lived and is followed by decreasing energy,
irritability and renewed cravings. The loop recurs with
specific timing; presumably timed by the effective
duration of the rain activity of specific substances
derived from the food or drug. The nicotine loop in
smokers may be in the range of 20 minutes. The timing of
food loops is variable and ranges from minutes to hours.
Closed-looping locks in recursive and repeating
behaviors, cravings, and compulsions, usually with
negative consequences, brain dysfunction and ill-health.
Addictive substances are good at inducing recursive
loops. Further input of the loop-inducer is achieved
through the appetitive system, which drives your
behavior toward the goal of getting some more (cravings
and compulsions). Once an addictive substance is added
to the list of chemicals in your environment you need to
get every day, you are at risk plunging into a
withdrawal state if the supply is cut off. Food
addiction is easier and cheaper than heroin addiction,
but it may be more difficult to resolve since the supply
may never be cut off except by heroic abstention.
With continued abstinence from the addictive drugs or
food, withdrawal over-reactions settle down to a more
stable level of function. With complete abstinence,
about 10 days are required for the brain-emitted
disturbance to settle. Slow withdrawal of offending
drugs and foods reduces the severity of withdrawal.
However, slow withdrawal is more difficult because the
remaining addictive foods or drugs maintain your
cravings and compulsions which preclude control over the
amount you eat. All addictive cycles face you with the
same conundrum: suffer "cold-turkey" withdrawal and get
out of the recursive loop quickly or suffer less acute
withdrawal and tempt yourself with the difficult, and
sometimes impossible, task of controlling compulsive
behaviors. Continuing stability of the addict requires
complete abstinence from the trigger foods.
Compulsive
Eating
Food addiction programs, well-learned on the molecular
level after a few repetitions, are linked by classical
and operant conditioning to sights, smells, sounds,
faces, and places. This conditioned linking mechanism
allows circumstances and events to take over as triggers
for compulsive eating behaviors. Often the smell or
first taste of foods containing addictive substances
trigger an eating binge that exceeds voluntary control.
This context-dependent addictive behavior must be
recognized before behavioral modification succeeds in
correcting compulsive eating disorders.
Recovering addicts may do well in neutral or new
environments which are free of the old signals and
contexts. However they can be triggered by returning to
the cafe, pub, family home or friend's place where they
practiced their additive behavior. Even look-alikes or
smell-alikes will challenge recovery years after
abstinence has been established.
Excessive eating is the most prevalent eating disorder
in our society. Overeating is the cause of many adverse
health consequences. Food choices play an important role
in disorderly eating patterns. Often, people with
delayed pattern food allergy or other food-related
illness are abnormal eaters. Most people report sugar
cravings and/or bingeing. "Sugar" means a wide range of
candies, cookies, desserts, baked goods, pop, ice cream,
and junk food. Sugar is only one component among many
that may cause trouble, but these foods definitely
trigger strong cravings and compulsive or binge eating.
Cravings for milk, bread, cheese, peanuts, fruit, or
potato chips are as common as cravings for sweets. Even
people with obvious milk allergy, who have a protective
aversion to drinking milk, will compulsively eat cheese
or ice cream, thereby maintaining their milk-allergic
illness.
http://www.alphanutrition.com/eatingdisorders/addictionintro.htm
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