Confessions of a Food Addict

I was playing radio roulette today and came upon a local rightwing radical kvetching about Food Nazis pointing out that sugar and fast foods are addictive. Duh, of course they are.

I'm on my sixth week counting calories, which is no where near as much fun as counting coup...

...or even counting sheep.

Nothing blows up the calculations like stopping for a quick lunch at some fast food joint. Between sugary drinks and fried just about everything, to feel full eating fast food requires consuming three meals worth of calories in a single sitting.

My modest goal is to average 1500 calories a day, not a starvation diet so much as a "stop pigging out like a damn fool" diet. The average fast food combo meal is north of 1300 calories. Get a large shake and you can double that.

My personal addiction is pizza. I love pizza for dinner. Cold pizza makes just about the best breakfast in the known universe. It's not the taste - it's just cheese, tomato sauce, and bread after all - there is something spiritual about pizza. Or, more accurately, consuming pizza releases natural opiates in me. And pigging out releases a flood of serotonin, a mood altering drug. It takes a hell of a lot of discipline to control my pizza urge.

Sugar is worse. It actually operates like an opiate - giving a high feeling (sugar rush), has analgesic properties, and if you stop eating sugar you will suffer withdrawal.

So, yes, food, especially self-destructive food, is addictive. It's logically constant that if someone supports regulating the use of feel good chemicals like cannabis because you fear it may be destructive to the consumer they she would equally want to regulate the use of destructive feel good foods.

Me? I like having the opportunity of buying an extra-large pepperoni pizza if I am feeling down and I'm not a hypocrite about someone else using pot for the same reason. I just have to remember to control my urges so I don't become some pathetic pizza drunk.

Like Adam Richman of Man Versus Food.