Latest / Common Sense Health / Food Addiction and Shame
Transcript
- Stephen Thomas BSc. Hons: I watched an interview with Richard Osmon For those that don't know, he's a TV star in the UK. I think a very funny man and an author of some good books. He was on a podcast called How Do You Cope? And I came away genuinely pleased. He was brave enough to say the quiet's bit out loud. Food addiction is real and the shame around it can be worse than the eating itself. Because here's the thing. If you tell people you've struggled with alcohol, there's normally sympathy and understanding. And the same if you tried to give up smoking. But if you say you've got a problem with food, the public response can be sort of, all right, mate, we've all had too many biscuits. Well, Osman nails the difference with painful clarity. It isn't I ate a bit too much at dinner for him. It was the secrecy, the compulsion and the sort of behavior you'd rather no one ever saw you doing. So he describes it in a way many people will instantly recognize. He actually said it was a huge problem for me and it was secret. It was very, very shameful. And he talks about his private rituals too. Buying more on the way home, eating when no one can see you, doing the mental gymnastics that always ended up the same way. That is not a lack of willpower. That is the addictive loop. And importantly, he didn't just decide to be better. He got help. And he said, it was so weird. It meant I had to go and see someone just to deal with that particular issue. But therapy, as it often does, went deeper than just the symptom. said he knows it's a symptom of something else. And that's a bit obvious, really. Food isn't always the problem. Food is sometimes the solution, a very effective, very temporary solution to stress, trauma, loneliness, or simply the relentless business of being alive. He called it the shame engine in some way. Osman says something I wish he'd was stitched onto every packet of diet, culture advice. The absolute driver of any addiction is the addiction itself and it is the shame you feel for being addicted. In other words, you do the behavior, you feel disgusting and then that disgust becomes fuel for doing it again. If you've ever wondered why just try harder fail so reliable, start here. Shame doesn't produce freedom. Shame produces hiding. Hiding produces more compulsive behavior. And round we go. Eating is not simple anymore. And that's not your fault or my fault. That's another reason to think about because it's different to all the other addictions. You can't opt out of food. Osmon puts it bluntly. With alcohol, you can just give it up. With food, well, you cannot because we are surrounded by it. And then he points the finger at something we all know, but rarely say plainly. There's a multi-trillion dollar industry that's combining fat and sugar in certain ways to make you eat. Well, modern food isn't merely convenient. A lot of it is engineered for texture and mouth feel reward, repeat purchases. And yes, it can feel addictive because many products are designed to keep you coming back for more. So if you're struggling, you're not weak. You're living in a world where the environment has changed. and it's changed really fast. Enter the gut bacteria to take a little right turn. The tiny tenants with the big opinions in your body. Now, for an analogy, I can't get out of my head. Now, humans build environments to support our goals. Well, bacteria do that, too. Your gut microbes are not passive passengers. They're a living ecosystem and they adapt to what you feed them and they help shape the internal environment that they live in. And there's credible science suggesting the gut can influence the brain via what's called the microbiome gut brain axis. And this is through metabolites, through gut hormones, immune signaling and the vagus nerve. And reviews of this literature describe how microbes can modulate food intake behavior and reward related eating. The link in the description to the studies, by the way. So does that mean bacteria create your carb cravings? Well, not in a cartoonish possession by sourdough way, but it does mean the body has multiple layers of signals that can influence appetite and preference. And the microbiome is one of those. There's also experimental work pointing to gut brain connections that can drive appetite for energy dense foods like fat. And in the food addiction discussion, the microbiome is increasingly considered as a plausible contributor, among many other reasons. So if you're trying to change your eating, That can be oddly comforting. Why just said isn't just you and it isn't just psychology, it's biology, environment, learning, stress, sleep, social context. And yes, quite possibly a microbial ecosystem that has grown accustomed to a certain menu and would like to speak to the restaurant manager. So what actually helps going back to the podcast and Richard Osmon? Well, the most practical thing he shared isn't the diet or a hack or a supplement, it's honesty. He said the best coping strategy you can have is to be honest with the people around you. And if something goes wrong, said, if you have an episode, be even more honest. Tell them this is what just happened. And that's the antidote to shame, not punishment, connection, not secrecy, but truth. Not I'm disgusting, but I'm human and I need some help. Because where the cravings are coming from trauma or modern food engineering, gut brain signals or all the above, shame is still the accelerant. And the moment you remove the accelerant, the fire simply has less oxygen. If your cravings feel like they have their own personality, you might not be imagining it. Between the food industry, your stress, nervous system and your gut microbiome's lobbying for their favorite snacks. It can sometimes feel like your body is running a committee meeting. chaired by a nine year old with a multi pack of KitKats. So the goal isn't to win forever. The goal is to stop the spiral sooner with more compassion and less secrecy. And to remember that in twenty twenty six, eating isn't a simple moral test, it's a complex modern context. So I hope you enjoyed that little chat. I've tried to get this out quickly because that Richard Osmon thing is on that podcast. been up for about four days and I think it's fascinating actually and it touched the nerve with me because this is something that maybe goes back to my childhood which I rarely share so when I was very young I came from quite a poor upbringing and we didn't have enough money for food many times and I always went to bed hungry and by my bed the wallpaper what I used to do at night was pull off a little bit of wallpaper and actually chew on that at night so there was this huge patch where there was there was no wallpaper against my bed Now I'm not asking you to get out your smallest violin in the world. It's just a story. And I think even that now at age 61, I still have some issues with food myself, where if I see food that I really used to enjoy, even though I'm carnival, it does make me think maybe I could have a bit of that. But I know that most of the foods I want to eat when I see that sort of thing from my past that I used to enjoy won't do me any favors. But definitely I do understand this thing about addiction and shame and not wanting to tell people openly how you feel about it. And hopefully with people like Richard Osman being bit more open and the food scientists being revealed to be doing what they're doing at the food companies, which isn't a conspiracy theory. It's absolutely known that that's what they're doing. Addiction may be something that we can start seeing less of and at least we can start chipping away at it with videos like this, which is why I've got this out. It's very late at night, but I've only just seen this and I thought I'll try and get this out for tomorrow. Hopefully you enjoy it. I will try and also do a sister sort of thing in my sub stack, which talks about this as well. So if you've enjoyed this, thank you for staying till the end. If you're not a subscriber, please subscribe. It does help to keep the lights on and pay the bills. And if you want to share this with someone who you think. might have a food addiction problem that they don't want to address, then this might be the thing that helps them. So do share. think that would be something that is appreciative. If it's touched the nerve of you personally, please drop a comment because actually I'd like to find a lot of stories about this because the more people we talk to who say, yes, actually I did secretly kick cats in the car and I didn't tell my husband or whatever, which is something I've definitely heard amongst the people that I've consulted with over the years. I think We might be able to chip away at this food addiction thing. Anyway, thank you very much. Hope you enjoyed it. And I look forward to seeing you on another video.