Joan Ifland, PhD, MBA, FACN

Issue No. 41 | Brought to you by the Addiction Reset Community – ARC

Unlocking the secrets of processed food addiction and guiding you to find freedom from food and weight obsession.

One of the most common questions we receive in the Addiction Reset Community is: What are processed foods? 

In short, processed foods harm us, while unprocessed foods heal and nourish our bodies. So it’s extremely important to know where that dividing line is. 

Why learn more about processed foods?

When you can identify processed foods, you are able to:

• Save yourself from the consequences 
• Radiate good health to others
• Stop mistaking processed food as healthy
• Give yourself time to recover from processed foods
• Filter out deceptive media and marketing
• Stand your ground against confusion

How are foods processed?

Within the context of processed food addiction, Dr Joan Ifland (PhD), author and editor of the textbook Processed Food Addiction:...

Issue No. 40 | Brought to you by the Addiction Reset Community – ARC

Unlocking the secrets of processed food addiction and guiding you to find freedom from food and weight obsession.

Processed foods have a devastating effect on us in various ways including:

• Physically
• Emotionally
• Mentally
• Behaviours
• Relationships
• Socially
• Financially

Many of us don’t realise the full impact that processed foods can have on our brains and our ability to manage our finances. On the one hand, we need full brain power to be effective, yet research shows that processed foods impair cognitive function. Processed foods are also highly addictive and lead to increased usage over time, which in turn leads to increased expenditure and even stress-inducing debt. The burden of debt aggravates the addiction and the vicious cycle continues.

Ways that Processed foods can affect our finances:

The Food

• Supermarkets are deliberately set up to cue impulse buying. 
• Research shows that...

Issue No. 39 | Brought to you by the Addiction Reset Community – ARC

Unlocking the secrets of processed food addiction and guiding you to find freedom from food and weight obsession.

Banishing self-stigmatization is one of the kindest things we can do for ourselves.

For people who are working on regaining control over food, internalized weight stigma can make recovery more difficult. Self-blame, shame and criticism on the basis of body shape and size is a hurtful behavior that has been taught to us. 

Getting free from weight stigma is a critical aspect of food addiction recovery. Studies reveal that self-stigmatization creates a harmful barrier to getting proper support to regain control over food, and may also drive eating disorders. Research has revealed some of the major causes of weight stigma.

8 Drivers of weight stigma:

• Health awareness programs: 

Research reveals that health awareness programs can reinforce weight bias. Programs that...

Issue No. 38 | Brought to you by the Addiction Reset Community – ARC

Unlocking the secrets of processed food addiction and guiding you to find freedom from food and weight obsession.

Processed food addiction (PFA) is a “severe addiction” that meets the 11 diagnostic criteria outlined in the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual, the DSM-5. PFA  recovery is also complicated by many complications that make it harder to stop lapsing. This degree of severity requires recovery support at the level of residential rehab.  

However, two major challenges emerge with residential rehab. Firstly, the exorbitant costs of residential programs make them likely to be inaccessible to the majority of the estimated 2 billion people who are struggling with PFA. Secondly, and more importantly, residential rehab programs simply do not work for long-term recovery from PFA. Research shows that people go home from a residential rehab...

Issue No. 37 | Brought to you by the Addiction Reset Community – ARC

Unlocking the secrets of processed food addiction and guiding you to find freedom from food and weight obsession.

Ever wondered why you can’t get started on your clean food-eating plan? 

Most people think they are procrastinating – but they are not! The reason this is happening is because of addiction. The addiction causes the block to get started and makes it difficult to remain consistent once you do.

The process of breaking through the blockage that is stopping you from gaining control of your food and living in a healthy body starts with understanding what is happening in your brain. 

What happens in the brain? 

The desire to eat clean and your decision-making power to make clean food choices is located in the brain’s frontal lobe. This part only constitutes 2% of your brain power.

Another part of the brain, a much stronger part of the...

Issue No. 36 | Brought to you by the Addiction Reset Community – ARC

Unlocking the secrets of processed food addiction and guiding you to find freedom from food and weight obsession.

One of the most common mistakes that people make in recovery from addiction to processed foods, is that they put too much emphasis on the food. This Is not to say that the food is not an important aspect of food addiction recovery - but getting the food perfect is not enough, on its own, or long-term abstinence and putting a severe food addiction into remission. In fact, the food is just 20% of the recovery equation.

Over several decades of dealing with an ever-worsening worldwide obesity and health crisis, much of the focus has been on how to perfect the food. People struggling with overeating, overweight or obesity have been told to just adjust or reduce their food intake or to simply cut calories. There has been a widespread belief, driven by the food and diet industries,...

Issue No. 35 | Brought to you by the Addiction Reset Community – ARC

Unlocking the secrets of processed food addiction and guiding you to find freedom from food and weight obsession.

So what really has to be removed from your food plan if you want to be safe from processed food addiction? Let’s begin by first unpacking the word “safe”.

Safety in recovery means freedom from cravings and food obsession. Feeling safe means that you can go to bed at night without any regrets about the food choices you made throughout the day. Safe also means having a plan when you wake up every morning and following through on it throughout the day.

Are there specific foods that make us unsafe?

Yes, there are foods that drive cravings and loss of control, which are not merely “unhealthy”, but are bad for us and damaging to our health. Foods we should not be eating at all, not even in moderation. 

What follows is an opinion on harmful...

Issue No. 34 | Brought to you by the Addiction Reset Community – ARC

Unlocking the secrets of processed food addiction and guiding you to find freedom from food and weight obsession.

When the Big Tobacco industry took over major food manufacturing companies in the 1980s, they brought along their addiction business model which had previously been highly successful in getting the vast majority of people addicted to smoking cigarettes. The explosion in the availability of highly addictive, processed food and the inevitable increase in the numbers of people struggling with weight gain, has seen a rapidly expanding diet industry.  

A 2021 market analysis report by Allied Market Research, reports that the Weight Loss and Weight Management Market was valued at $192. 2 billion in 2019. This is forecast to reach $295.3 billion by 2027. The analysis report lists big food manufacturing companies among the key role-players in this market. Big Food companies...

Issue No. 33 | Brought to you by the Addiction Reset Community – ARC

Unlocking the secrets of processed food addiction and guiding you to find freedom from food and weight obsession.

Do you struggle with uncontrollable night-time eating? Recovering food addicts often report that they may be able to get through the day sticking to their clean food meal plans but find it extremely difficult to avoid overeating at night. Some report behavior patterns of stopping at the store for processed food on their way home from work in the evenings just to stock up for nighttime bingeing. Or arranging evening deliveries of processed food despite their intention to eat a healthy dinner. Others leave their homes at night to restock food when they have run out or stay up late to eat or wake up from a sleep to finish leftovers. 

If any of these behaviors resonate with you, you are not alone. This is not your fault and there is a way to gain back control.

Since...

Issue No. 32 | Brought to you by the Addiction Reset Community – ARC

Unlocking the secrets of processed food addiction and guiding you to find freedom from food and weight obsession.

Have you ever had a "gut-wrenching" experience? Do certain situations make you "feel nauseous"? Have you ever felt "butterflies" in your stomach? We use these expressions for a reason. The gastrointestinal tract is sensitive to emotion. Scientific studies now reveal that emotions such as anger, anxiety, sadness, elation, dd others, can trigger symptoms in the gut.

Research shows that the brain has a direct effect on the stomach and intestines. For example, the very thought of eating can release the stomach's digestive juices before food gets there. This connection goes both ways. A troubled intestine can send signals to the brain, just as a troubled brain can send signals to the gut. Therefore, a person's stomach or intestinal distress can be the cause or the product of...