Is Your Overeating Triggered by Junk Food Rather than Emotions?

There is a lot of worry about whether junk food is physically addictive.

Many people hear about the physically addictive nature of many junk foods, such as sugar or heavily salted and fried foods, and then wonder if their overeating can be fully explained by this.

They think, well, I eat too much and too much junk food because it's physically addictive. So, all I need to do is get off of them and my overeating will no longer happen.

In this place people also worry that if they have one bite of these foods, it will spiral them into a binge, because the food is supposedly physically addictive.

I empathize with this struggle. When I first started researching nutrition and healing food addiction, some resources said my overeating was solely due to eating physically addictive foods and some said it had nothing to do with the nutrition of foods.

After 17 years of research into both nutrition and the emotional causes of overeating, as well as my personal recovery experience and my work with clients for many years, my conclusion is this:

No physical component of junk food addiction can stand a chance against your soul.

I am not saying that sugar or other junk foods aren't physically addictive, they certainly can be. Coffee is a great example of physical addiction that develops. But food addiction is simply not like drug addiction and it is not physically similar.

What I am saying is that if you have overeating issues, the primary cause is emotional, not physical.

When you heal the emotional, soul-based causes, having some sugar will never lead to a binge spiral. Having a meal with less healthful food will not cause a slippery slope.

You will also only eat unhealthy food in a ratio to healthy food that results in optimum health for your body. There will be no excess.

Honestly, you don’t really need to worry about the sugar and junk food thing. Just focus on the emotions.

Your soul is more powerful than your flesh and your emotions and your desires can overcome any food craving that your body or brain has.

Physically-based junk food addiction doesn’t stand a chance against your soul.

Photo by Anna Zaro via Unsplash