Food Addicts, Are You One of Them?

You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:5)

I heard someone say recently that Christians, and the Church in general don’t hesitate for a minute to condemn the use of alcohol, cigarettes, street drugs etc., and especially for the reason that they create addictions.

This person went on to say that they believe it’s just the Church’s way of covering up for their own addictions – food. They hide behind it under the guise of being “hospitable,” or “being nice” or my favorite “because we love them.” I’m not talking about eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia

I’m talking about literally being addicted to the food-like substances we consume all the time.

My Food Addiction

Let me say it first: “Hi, I’m Jackie and (I was) a foodaholic”. I say “was” because I am a firm believer to “call things that be, not as though they were,” and I’m also a firm believer in speaking life, and not death over myself – and you should be too. But years ago, when my first functional medicine practitioner started helping me in restoring my health, she had me keep a food log for a week. The following week when I went back in for my visit, she commented about how much sugar I consumed, as she was using her big red pen to circle a bunch of things on my food log to emphasis her point. I thought to myself (and most likely got a little defensive and possibly even spoke my thoughts out loud) “what is she talking about, I don’t eat much sugar at all?!” As it turned out, she was referring to all of the Cheez-its I recorded on my log that I had consumed that past week. Yes, ladies and gentleman – I was more accurately a “cheez-its-aholic!” Have you ever heard of one of those? Maybe you should be in my “support group” too.

I consumed Cheez-its for mid-morning snack, Cheez-its for mid-afternoon snack, and even Cheez-its for a bedtime snack (at least I was being honest with her – and myself!). I always had 2 extra-large boxes in my cupboard at all times – one was the opened one, and I was eating from it, the other was the “back up” box. There always had to be a backup box or I would feel a slight sense of panic. I needed to get to the store soon or I could be in a full-blown panic. At one time, their marketing message on the box actually said “Get Your Own Box.” Ohhhh, this was me, this was my message, loud and clear. You think I’m kidding? I’m not. You think I’m exaggerating? I’m not. Does this sound like someone in addiction to you? I was.

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Now, to my credit, I quit “cold turkey.” This became a tremendous awareness to me personally how addictive food can be. And let’s back up in this story a minute. You might be asking “where is the sugar part of this story?” Sugars do not have to be sweet. Probably just as many salty crunchy food-like substances (I can’t even call them foods, because they are not) turn to sugar as do sweet food-like substances. I am referring to the empty carbs and processed food-like substances. It’s sugars, empty carbs and really all food-like substances that are the big triggers for food addictions. Let me show you what I mean.

Let’s Stroll Through the Grocery Store

I will use my grocery store as an example, simply because I can sit here in my writing chair and very easily visualize the layout of my store, yours is probably quite similar.

I walk in and turn to the right – fresh produce – even an organic section. But fresh, real food (although still too many that are genetically modified but we’ll save that discussion for another day). Fruits, vegetables, fresh herbs, potatoes, mushrooms etc. So far so good. We move around to the bulk food section – some nuts and seeds, good. But… more bins than the nuts and seeds, are filled with all kinds of candies – chocolate, food dyes, coated in sugar — candy. Also, in the cooler section of the produce department are high sugar-laden packaged “protein” or “energy” drinks disguised as “healthy.” Next, the bakery dept. Nothing more needs to be said here.

Around the corner to the next aisle – processed breads – lots of it, pretzels, crackers and chips too. Sugar.

Next aisle: More crackers, cookies and snacks. Sugar.

Next aisle: Ah, a reprieve – the ethnic foods aisle (although the Mexican foods can certainly have their share of empty carbs in the tortillas alone).

Next aisle: canned fruits and vegetables – sugars in the syrupy “fruits.” But for the most part, not too bad in this aisle.

Next aisle: Baking aisle! Need I say more again?

Next aisle: soups and pastas – more sugars in the pastas (and most likely in the soups and sauces too.)

Next 4-5 aisles: Frozen foods – pies, pizzas, breads, ice creams, frozen meals – again, not much of nutritional value in these aisles except maybe some real, fresh and then frozen fruits and vegetables. But lots of – you got it – sugar.

Next: Cereal aisle – aaarrrggghh, run! Nothing but sugar here folks! And we are feeding this to our children every day, before school, for years. No wonder there is not only a childhood obesity problem, but a food addiction problem. And let’s not even address the supposed diagnosis of “ADD and ADHD.” Again, a topic for another blog.

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Across the back of the aisles are the cheeses, and meat counter. Then the dairy and juice section across the back wall – more sugars.

Beyond multiple rows of cleaning products, household products, pet food etc. is possibly the worst aisle in the whole grocery store – in fact it takes up both sides, of both the front and back sections of this aisle – sodas, soft drinks, juices and all kinds of other sugary drinks. This aisle alone is enough to kill anyone who consumes these products on a regular basis. Sugar. Big time addiction.

Then there are all of the end caps and free-standing shelving throughout the store – sugar, sugar, sugar. Both sweet & salty/crunchy products.

Honestly, I encourage you to truly open your eyes, and take a look around at your grocery store, or any grocery and the majority of what you will lay your eyes on is sugar. And this doesn’t stop until you are out in the parking lot really – even the checkout aisle is loaded with last minute sugar grabs. How about the cart in front of you in line at the check-out. Look to see what are in those carts. What is in your cart? How much of what is in there is sugar – in some shape or size or taste?

And folks, for the most part, we are just addressing sugar in this discussion – which is definitely, a very highly addictive substance. We haven’t even talked about all the other “dirty” ingredients in the food-like substances we spend our hard-earned dollars on and consume every day, day in and day out, years on end that is literally killing us. We don’t consume them because we think it is good for us. Not even so much because we desire to be full. But because we are addicted. If you weren’t, you would be fully satisfied to consume nothing but the foods that are real and nourishing and good for you, foods that God made for You – not man-made – fruits, vegetables, nuts & seeds, fresh & flavorful herbs, good fats, free-range, grass fed, organic animal products, real grains and water.

Food Addiction Challenge

Ladies and gentleman, I dare anyone to tell me that these beautiful United States doesn’t have a huge food addiction problem, and especially the Christian church. This is not being a good steward of our bodies, and it certainly is not being a good representation of Jesus Christ, that we are all called to be.

I challenge you: What is your “back up food?” Be honest with yourself. Are you addicted to food? What is it? What is Jesus saying to you about the foods you eat? Will you do something about it before it kills you? Because I promise you, it will kill you – even if it is a slow, miserable death, it will. It probably already is. This is not death I am speaking over you, it’s a dire warning to choose life!

Did you miss some of these earlier blogs? These could give you some great insight to the Truth About Wellness:
“How to Lose Weight Holistically”
“A Wholistic Health Approach to Your Diet”
“Wholistic Health is Not Too Expensive”