Dietitian Lucy Carey explains why binge eating isn’t food addiction, but rather a response to emotional stress and restrictive dieting.

“What brings you to see me today?” You ask your patient.

“I think I’m addicted to food,” they say. “I try so hard to be good, but I must have some kind of problem because I can’t keep chocolate or cookies or ice cream in the house. If I start eating that stuff I can’t stop. Other people just eat a couple squares, but I’ll have an entire block of chocolate in one go.”

You nod. “What have you tried to address this problem in the past?”

“Everything,” your patient explains. “I’ve done keto, I’ve done intermittent fasting, I’ve done low cab, I’ve done low fat… I’ve tried all the diets, but I can’t stick to them. I must be addicted to food.”

Sound familiar?

You may not know exactly how to respond…

Should you advise them to keep their trigger foods out of the house? Or to fill up on low calorie foods so they’re not physically hungry? But they’ve already tried those things themselves, and it hasn’t worked.

The starve-binge cycle

The most overlooked common denominator for people who binge eat, is that they diet. Restricting what types of food they allow themselves to eat, and how much, leads to intense cravings for those forbidden foods. When they just can’t take it anymore, they will binge eat the forbidden foods, then feel guilty and ashamed at what they perceive to be their lack of self-control. So they return to their familiar restrictive dieting behaviours to ‘make up’ for it. And the cycle goes on.

You can help your patients understand that this cycle isn’t a sign of food addiction, but rather a natural biological response to deprivation. The intense restriction primes the body physically and emotionally for bingeing.

Emotional coping with food

Binge eating solves two types of hunger: physical and emotional. Binge eaters often use food to cope with overwhelming emotions like stress, loneliness and anxiety. Rather than an addiction to food itself, they are using the food to numb, to distract, and to comfort them from their emotional pain.

It’s essential to recognize this pattern and explore it. Because many people may not even realize that this is what they are doing. If you get your patients to ask themselves the question, “What am I feeling right now?” when they get the urge to binge, you can help them build awareness around their emotional triggers. Then you can work on addressing these underlying emotions in ways that don’t rely on food.

Why food feels addictive

When your patient says they feel addicted to food, they’re often thinking about their experience of losing control – that feeling of being unable to stop eating. It’s true that ultra-processed foods in particular trigger a dopamine response in the body, so it can seem like food is the problem. However, this isn’t true addiction. Their body isn’t relying on the food to get by.

Instead, it’s a reaction to deprivation and emotional distress. When your patient doesn’t have other coping mechanisms to process their negative emotions, they turn to food to get that dopamine response so they can temporarily feel better. Helping your patients to understand that the food itself isn’t inherently addictive, but instead they are using it as way to cope, is a game-changer.

Breaking the cycle

Breaking the starve-binge dieting cycle requires a shift away from diet culture and towards a more intuitive approach to eating. This is far easier said than done. You can talk through why diets don’t work long-term and how important it is to give themselves permission to eat all foods without guilt. But talking will only get you so far.

They need to put it into practice by eating regular meals and snacks, and satisfying their cravings. Regular eating will help to prevent the extreme physical hunger than can lead to bingeing. Even if they binge and they are tempted to skip a meal to ‘make up’ for it, they still need to eat.

And by consistently satisfying their cravings, they are breaking free of the mental restrictions they have put on themselves in the past. Over time, their cravings will subside and they will learn how to listen to their body. You can guide this process by promoting body trust and a holistic view of health that encompasses more than just diet and exercise.

Emotional regulation and new tools

Once we recognize that binge eating is tied to emotional regulation, the focus can shift to developing healthier coping mechanisms. Patients need tools to manage stress, anxiety, and difficult emotions that don’t involve food. Whether it’s mindfulness, journaling, dancing it out, or engaging in their favourite activities that bring them joy, finding alternative ways to cope reduces their reliance on food. When you help your patients build these skills, they regain control over their emotional well-being.

The takeaway

Binge eating is not about food addiction at all, but an emotional response compounded by a restrictive mindset. When we address the root causes of their bingeing, it slowly resolves.

Download my free resource 5 secrets to Binge Eating Freedom here. It’s a cheat sheet that goes over 5 root causes that you can work through with your clients, so they can break free from binge eating for good!