Food Addiction Recovery – #12
In food addiction you must beware of fad diets in particular and any diet in general really. Many dieters are eager to jump on the bandwagon of Dr. Atkins and others who championed low-carbohydrate diets not too long ago as some still do. I do not recommend this approach if you are still thinking of using it. Briefly, the reasons I don’t recommend this approach include the following for anyone let alone food addicts:
A. Hundreds of scientific studies have linked various cancers to the consumption of animal products. The high-protein/low-carb diets strongly encourage the consumption of animal products—in some cases, up to 90% of the diet.
B. These diets restrict foods known to provide powerful protection against cancer, as well as fiber (you should get from 25 to 30 grams per day of fiber in any food plan you adopt), nutrients, and phytochemicals (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, etc.)
C. These diets focus on foods known to cause heart problems—fats, meats, and dairy.
D. These diets cause ketosis in the body, a condition that results when your body gets insufficient carbohydrates. Your body makes “ketones” as an emergency fuel from the fat cells. Proponents of these diets claim that ketosis is a heightened fat-burning state, but ketosis is actually an unnatural state that places great stress on your kidneys, putting you at increased risk for kidney stones and abnormal liver function. Ketones also have the unpleasant side effect of giving you incredibly bad breath, smelly urine, and mental fuzziness.
Food Addiction And Atkins – Reconsider
As someone with a food addiction and if you think you would do well on a low-carbohydrate/high-fat/high-protein diet like Atkins recommended, I would urge you to reconsider. If you feel you must do something like this diet as a food addict, then consider a “Zone” or “Balance” type-diet of 30% protein, 30% fat, and 40% carbohydrates as a healthier alternative to a high protein/low carb diet. Zone type food plans can work well in food addiction.
If you are absolutely convinced you need to try one of these diets to deal with your food addiction, then go ahead. I would be the last one to tell you not to do it if this is what you think will work for you. For food addicts there really is no ideal eating plan to follow in food addiction and you need to find one that works for you. Just remember, eventually you will have to fall into a maintenance pattern of eating to maintain your goal weight. If you do not feel you can keep up this type of unbalanced eating for the rest of your life (and the health reasons I’ve listed above are good reasons not to try at least with Atkins), then it may not be a good idea to even start down that path. Also as a food addict there is a fundamental truth about any “diet” you select and it goes something like the following: To fixate on losing weight is not really where you need to be. Where you need to be is to fixate on lifelong weight maintenance and a broad set of skills rather than a “diet” as THE solution. Bottom line diets don’t work and food plans do is the end of the story.