How Addicted Are You to the Foods You Eat?

The longer I go in my life eating a healthy, clean array of foods that are energizing, alkalizing, hydrating, nutritive, and electrically charged, the harder it gets for me to remember what it was like when I was in the depths of eating The All-American Diet.

I guess when I reflect back on my life, I can break it up into a couple of phases, food-wise. First, growing up as a child and as a teenager, I would eat basically anything and everything, as much as possible. Eating was always good fun and my desires were very hedonistic or pleasure-driven. I was definitely constantly craving junk foods and indulged with no second thoughts.

Then there was a phase where I wanted to maintain a certain figure and athleticism, as a young adult, and so it became a bit of a battle, where I would resist temptation and watch what I was eating. Ultimately I achieved an ideal weight, or close to it, but it was a constant battle.

Then, there was a phase — after I experienced acute poisoning of my nervous system and got chronically sick — where I became so listless and depressed really that I just pretty much succumbed to my addiction to junk foods and ate them daily as one of my few remaining pleasures. This was a painful downward spiral.

Then, luckily, a few years later I discovered herbal supplements and full-body cleansing, and started turning things around health-wise. At this point, I started to transition over to a more healthful, raw-food-centric way of eating. This was still challenging, because I still had all my old cravings, but ultimately I transitioned over mostly smoothly (although it took a few years).

Lastly is the phase I am in currently, which is pretty much a good place to be for me personally. I barely desire unhealthy foods ever and I actually am drawn to eating healthy, vibrant, living foods.

So I would say that I was addicted to junk foods in four different ways during four different phases, before finally transcending that way of living. First, I was addicted but in a willing sort of fun way. Then, I was addicted, but would resist my addiction and fight it constantly to maintain a sort of tug-of-war balance. Third, I was addicted but in a miserable sort way where I had almost given up. Lastly, I was addicted but was finally prying the monkey off my back while transitioning to a new lifestyle and getting rid of this addiction ultimately.

After going through these four phases, addiction to foods and junk foods became a thing of the past for me which has been a great blessing (after all I’ve got enough challenges in life to deal with aside from a compulsion to eat unhealthy foods).

So how addicted are you to the foods you eat?

Think about what kind of cravings do you get, for a certain salty, satiating, savory dish that makes your mouth water? Or for a sugary sweet chocolate treat or a pastry that puts you into a bliss point? How about the textures of some of your favorite snack foods or fast food menu items with a certain crunch or crispiness? Can you imagine the explosive party in your mouth that happens when you dip a piece of fried chicken tender into your favorite dipping sauce, and the satiating side dish of deep-fat-fried French fries?

It’s OK to admit that you feel drawn and compelled to these things, and you know what — it’s not your fault. Think about how you were fed all kinds of irresistible foods starting when you were a young child. Even your parents were probably not educated or informed or maybe didn’t have access to the internet at that time to bring you up a different way. And plus, factor in all the immense societal pressures and pressure from your peer groups from a young age.

On top of this, there is an industry who we’ll refer to as Big Agri / Big Food who spend tens and hundreds of millions of dollars (if not billions) to pay scientists — some of the smartest and brightest minds we have available in the modern world — to figure out how to get you more addicted to their food products, so that you’ll become a repeat customer.

They are a legal dope pusher of sorts, just like how doctors are allowed to supply addictive opiates to customers and have received financial compensation from Big Pharma and subsidies from the government in return. The food is the dope, and Big Agri unfortunately wants you hooked on their products so that you’ll return over and over and give them more of your money for the next fix, whether it’s at the grocery aisle or in the drive-through lane.

This is the harsh reality. We live in strange times here in the modern First World. Never before have so many options been available for consumption. We have the majority of adults in America overweight, and you can look around and see chronic diseases exploding, with statisticians having a field day trying to chart out the quantum leaps we’re seeing in people’s health going down the drain.

It’s OK to admit that there is a problem in our world — you would be highly unaware to not see that. And it’s OK to admit that you’ve been hooked on junk foods by the industry, or by society, or however you wish to describe it. You should forgive your parents for whatever they fed you, forgive the schools for not teaching you better, forgive the regulators for allowing some of the addictive and toxic chemicals in the foods, and even forgive the Big Food Processing companies for deciding to make profits at the expense of your health.

After learning the truth about this, the responsibility is yours if you want to get yourself un-addicted to these things. To be clear, what I am suggesting is not the Alcoholics-Anonymous-type modality where you say, ‘I am helpless and I will be an addict for my whole life, even if I abstain from consuming these substances’. I would give you a different mantra that goes something like, ‘I am responsible for overcoming my addiction and I am freeing myself of all negative addictions to harmful foods.’

You can do it, and you can get there (if you truly want to). I will help to guide you out of the dark woods, and into the clear, beautiful meadow ahead (for more detail please see the segment ‘How to Transition to a More Raw and Healthy Diet’).

How does it feel not to be addicted to these junk foods anymore? It took me about six months to break the basic addiction to these worst kind of junk foods, although I was still hooked on starches and grains for about another two years before transcending that harmful and acidic habit. After graduating from each of these, I felt absolutely amazing, freed, and like a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

Once you break out of these addictions, you can experience an elevating, dynamic energy like no other. It’s not like the stimulating energy you get from a sugary snack, a cup of coffee, alcohol, or any other substance. You will feel a truly deep, organic energetic spiral that comes from within and doesn’t crash. This includes being fully aware and high-functioning all day long, and feeling a sensory, pleasant sensation tingling throughout your body, something I have enjoyed ever since I really embraced high-vibrational foods.

What types of foods are the least addicting? It’s a pretty small list — you have things like fruits, vegetables, salads, and vegetable juices.

There are some foods which are slightly addictive, like nuts and seeds, fruit juice in all its explosive sweetness, high-fat fruits likes olives or avocado, and maybe some steamed vegetables. And of course there are things in the raw food world which are more addictive than others, like salt, peppers, cacao, added sugars, alcohol, fermented foods, starches, onions, garlic, and certain nightshade plants (for more detail see the segment entitled: ‘Raw Foods to Consider Avoiding’). Please don’t worry right now too much about and these nuances and distinctions within the raw food world. Just know that your least addictive foods are fruits and vegetables basically, in different forms, and perhaps some other raw type foods and maybe some cooked vegetables.

So what should people do with all this in mind? The answer is very simple, and it basically comes down to: Do you want to get well? Do you want to break your addictive relationship with Big Agri? The answer is to eat more foods from the above list of non-addictive foods, and eat less foods from these mega-corporations that invented these harmful food products that most everybody is addicted to. There is no need to go cold turkey in this addiction recovery. Again, this is not AA for foods and the approach here is completely different. I will show you how to successfully transition gradually if you will hang in there with me and just give it a try.

I now can’t even imagine living in that world that I once did, being addicted to foods which were destroying my health and vitality, whether slowly and gradually, or imminently. It was so beyond worth it for me to kick this habit and break that addiction and I can’t even begin to describe how good it feels now.

I hope you will experience that for yourself, because it will be the taste of the next level of living and energetic existence for you, to transcend this lifetime and achieve your true potential.