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Summary
On episode 134 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Dr. Brian Odlaug, a researcher with a PhD in public health from the University of Copenhagen who has co-authored four books and more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on addictive, impulsive, and compulsive disorders, including the book Why Can’t I Stop?
Brian argues that behavioral addictions, including food addiction, are far more common than most people realize, but they stay hidden because of shame and secrecy, and because society pays much more attention to substance addiction.
The conversation gets practical, covering how to recognize a food addiction, why it isn’t simply a willpower problem, and what someone and their family can actually do about it.
Links
- https://40plusfitness.com
Key Takeaways
- Behavioral addictions are far more common than most people realize. Research estimates 10 to 15 percent of the population experiences a behavioral addiction in any given year, as many as 48 million people in the US alone, yet these conditions stay hidden because of shame and secrecy.
- Substance addiction gets the attention; behavioral addiction hides in plain sight. Drug and alcohol problems are widely recognized, but food, gambling, shopping, and sex addictions often go unnoticed until they cause financial or health damage.
- Food addiction has no official diagnostic criteria, but it has a recognizable pattern. Odlaug points to overconsumption despite negative consequences, failed attempts to cut back, rising tolerance, withdrawal-like irritability, and strong cravings as the hallmark signs.
- Brain imaging shows food addiction shares the same reward circuitry as substance addiction. Studies show the same prefrontal cortex, memory, and emotional processing regions activate in people with food addiction as in those with substance addictions, giving the condition a biological basis rather than a simple failure of willpower.
- Telling someone to “just stop” ignores the biology. Because there’s a chemical and neurological component, blaming a lack of self-control in people who struggle with food or other behavioral addictions misses what’s actually happening in their brain.
- Practical steps for someone with food addiction: eat at set mealtimes instead of whenever a craving hits, don’t eat alone, remove trigger foods from the home, and identify the stress or mood triggers, celebration or a bad day, that set off overeating.
- Replacing the addictive behavior matters as much as removing it. Reintroducing activities the person used to enjoy, walks, hikes, time with friends, keeps treatment from feeling like an endless grind and gives them something to move toward.
- Family members play a direct role in recovery. Modeling healthy eating, not indulging around the person, helping with meal prep, and suggesting fun, healthy activities together all support someone working through a food addiction.
- Roughly 5 to 8 percent of people will face a food addiction at some point in their life. That prevalence is a reminder that this is a common, treatable problem, not a personal failing, and no one struggling with it is alone.
“It might not be that easy. There might be a biological basis to their problem that we can point to.”
Dr. Brian Odlaug