Food addiction: The numbing effects of chocolate, cheese, and meat

Key Point 4: Treat problematic foods as addictive foods

Rice attended one of my lectures in Chicago. He arrived early and asked if we could talk for a few minutes. He said he already knew which foods were healthy. His problem was an inability to control cravings for certain foods. Every night around eight or nine o'clock, he had a strong craving for sugar, especially chocolate. When the craving struck, he was like a passive passenger, driven by his stomach to the convenience store, where he would usually buy one or two chocolate bars, along with a soda, and then swallow them all. He told himself to go to sleep right away and that he didn't need this late-night indulgence. But he couldn't control himself. His question was: Is this food addiction, and what can he do to change this situation?

Indeed, some foods seem to appeal to us more than others. Sugar and chocolate, for example. We eat them not because we're hungry, but because somehow they constantly send us signals.

For some, this food might be cheese. You might be surprised to learn that quite a few people can't live without it-it's high in fat and calories. For others, especially men, the food that makes them ignore cardiologists' warnings is a large piece of meat.

We must acknowledge that no one would go to a convenience store at 9 p.m. to buy cauliflower, apples, oranges, and pea soup because of an unbearable craving. Nor would anyone say, "I can't stand it anymore, I'm going to cook some green beans," or "I feel so lonely, I want to eat a grapefruit." These foods don't have the same powerful impact on the brain as sugar, chocolate, cheese, and meat.

What's the reason? These foods all contain a special chemical that acts on the brain. In 1992, researchers at the University of Michigan conducted a test using naloxone. Normally, this drug is used to treat heroin overdose. It prevents heroin and other opioids from binding to receptors in the brain. The University of Michigan researchers wanted to see how naloxone would work, not on heroin addicts, but on people who crave chocolate. They gave 26 volunteers intravenous injections of naloxone and then gave them a plate of various chocolates. To everyone's surprise, no one touched the chocolates. The volunteers found that the chocolates tasted, smelled, and felt the same as regular chocolate. But somehow, they weren't as appealing as before.

I do not recommend using naloxone to treat chocolate addiction (although some researchers do suggest so). Instead, naloxone is a research tool that has demonstrated that taste and texture are not the only reasons chocolate appeals to us. Chocolate affects our brains-stimulating the same receptors that heroin works on-and when we use naloxone to block its effects on the brain, its appeal disappears.

It's not just chocolate that has been shown to have a mild, drug-like effect; sugar, cheese, and meat have also been shown to have the same effect. This addiction makes you constantly want to eat more.

Therefore, this is not just imagination. These foods can indeed be irresistible. But getting rid of this temptation isn't particularly difficult. On page 155, I'll tell you how.

Burning fat

So far, you've learned how to easily control your appetite. This knowledge will be a great help as you begin this challenge. But there's more to it than that. We'll go a step further and boost your metabolism so that excess calories you consume are converted into energy instead of being stored as fat. Combining enhanced appetite control with increased fat burning will be incredibly effective.