Food addiction is real, and very similar to other hardcore addictions. According to Susan Pierce Thompson, PhD, people need to understand that obesity is not a moral failing, or the result of a lack of education. Once it is understood that people are dealing with an addiction, a different array of protocols becomes clear.
SPT: “So I have no problem looking someone in the eye and saying, “From my personal experience, I will tell you, on a chemical level, food is equally as hard as crack cocaine and on a social lifestyle, day to day cue response triggering level, food is so much harder. It will blow your mind.” So, yeah, food is harder. On balance, food is harder.”
A 2015 study from the American Journal of Public Health found that the odds of an obese woman reaching a normal weight within one year was one in every 282. But with the Bright Line Eating program (of which Dr. Thomspon is the founder), it is 1 in five, which is 55 times more likely.
Source: The 2020 Food Revolution Summit, with John and Ocean Robbins
Susan Pierce Thompson is an adjunct associate professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester and an expert in the psychology of eating.
