{"id":694,"date":"2014-07-09T10:30:43","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T10:30:43","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2015-01-02T04:34:49","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T04:34:49","slug":"do-you-have-a-food-addiction-my-ongoing-battle-a-quiz-from-yale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/articles\/do-you-have-a-food-addiction-my-ongoing-battle-a-quiz-from-yale\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Have a Food Addiction? My Ongoing Battle & A Quiz from Yale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do You Have a Food Addiction?<\/span><\/h1>\n

My Ongoing Battle and a Quiz from Yale Researchers<\/span><\/h2>\n

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Proviso:  <\/strong>Nothing in this blog constitutes medical or legal advice.  You should consult your own physician before making any dietary changes.  Statements in this blog may or may not be congruent with current USDA or FDA guidance.<\/p>\n

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\"Food<\/span><\/p>\n


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Here is some trivia about me.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In my former life (before children) which was I?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Professional piroshky maker (read about that experience!<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

Vinyl reupholsterer (great flavor, that vinyl<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

A shrink. <\/span><\/p>\n


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Well, sort of a shrink.  Not an official one; I was a licensed psychologist’s assistant, which means I did the work and he signed his name on the bottom so we could bill insurance. Oh and the malpractice insurance was rather high.  Probably not as high as it would be if they had malpractice insurance for parenting, which is my current occupation.  I have a master’s degree in psychology, which qualifies me for absolutely nothing, by the way, except having lots of opinions about the motivations, fears, and comforts people experience in daily life. <\/span><\/p>\n


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Today’s blog comes from life experience, not from a stuffy textbook. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I have an addiction. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Chocolate.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n


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As with most addictions, I should really say that I am a recovering addict because even though there are times in life when it seems I got ‘er licked as it were, it will once again rear its ugly (melty, gooey) head when I am least vigilant. <\/span><\/p>\n


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\"Chocolate<\/span><\/p>\n

No-Bake Truffle using only 4 ingredients (whole food recipe)<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n


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Long before children, long before that crazy psychology degree actually, I discovered that people knew me for my love of chocolate.  When I quit a job to go back to school, the co-workers went in together and bought an insane amount of it for a going-away present.  In that same week<\/strong>, my childhood-best-friend’s father was flying through our town.  We met him for an hour in between his flights, and he handed a bag of chocolate to me:<\/span><\/p>\n


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“I wanted to get something for you, but all I could remember was how much you loved chocolate.”<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n


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Wilson snickered.  Sure, laugh it up, but I don’t see you refusing our chocolate stash, which now overflowed the pantry shelf and onto the counter. <\/span><\/p>\n


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I then read a really dumb book, you know the kind.  The author had one brilliantly valid point to make, but after making it on the first page he spent the next 212 regurgitating it.  The book was about the connection between food and love (or something like that) and how we often turn to food to fill an otherwise void area in our hearts.  So I did the hard work of self-examination, and then swore off chocolate.<\/span><\/p>\n


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The first week was the hardest; it was also my birthday week (my timing has always been like that).  My best friend surprised me with a chocolate cake (hey, I wasn’t quick to denounce chocolate out loud lest someone hold me to it). <\/span><\/p>\n


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Okay, so the NEXT<\/em> first week was the hardest. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n


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Over time, I quit thinking about M & Ms all of the time like a junior high crush.  Yes, I broke off my relationship with chocolate.  And then it got to where I could even be in the same room with it at social functions.  Eventually, I was enjoying alternative foods more and realized how much I was missing out with my monochromatic obsession with the Dark.  And one day I realized, I much preferred the flavors and textures of other offerings and I was not even missing it, really.  I knew I was going to be okay.  Do you know that it took over 3 months to get there?<\/span><\/p>\n


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\"Wilson<\/span><\/p>\n

Am I addicted?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Well, apparently, I personify chocolate and have been known to hug it. <\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And the muppet to which I most closely identify is Cookie Monster.
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I did eventually allow chocolate back into my life, but never in the house (word on the street was that Wilson had his own private hiding place for it).  I could eat a modest piece of someone else’s cake, or a scoop of gelato.  This was a healthy relationship.<\/span><\/p>\n


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Today as I write this, I am distracted by chocolate.  I am– as I occasionally do– fasting it.  I do this in part to see if I can live without it.  If I cannot, then I need an intervention.  I am confessing it; I need an intervention.  My timing is poor; there is chocolate chip cookie dough in the fridge and I’m making a very chocolatey cake for my son’s birthday in a few days.<\/span><\/p>\n


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So where does this obsession with the beany-brown bar come from, why does it plague women across industrial nations?  Can’t I just have my Ghirardelli’s and eat it too? Am I really “addicted?”<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"Give<\/span><\/p>\n


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Harvard Medical School<\/a> said that yes, I am addicted.  Well, they were not talking to me personally, but I do meet the criteria they set forth below.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are three essential components of addiction:<\/span><\/p>\n