Let food by thy medicine and let medicine be thy food, said Hippocrates more than 2000 years ago. How right he was. Its an important part of treatment for binge eating and I've been saying this myself for years.
Tomorrow I give a lecture on the treatment of binge eating and food addictions. I will be making a case against regarding binge eating and even compulsions to eat food like chocolate as an addiction.
There is a lot to say in half an hour. Its not helpful to view people as carbohydrate addicts or anything similar. Our eating is driven more by what we believe about food, what we say to ourselves when we start to eat it. Ive blown it now.... this will make me fat.... I shouldn't be having this.... I can't control this. These thoughts do more damage than any property inside the food. If we treat compulsive eating with abstinence programmes, we only make desirable food seem even more desirable and forbidden.
Treating binge eating is complex. We will use food as medicine - thanks, Hippocrates! We work with emotions, help you manage relationships, we will correct poor body image and transform unhelpful thoughts so that they dont propel our eating. We know what to look for and what to work on. Everyone is different, so if you purge we may need to add some therapy and if you have very low self worth we would have to do something about that too. If you accept yourself better you feel more in control.
Need help? Eating can be fun and rewarding. Food is life. Visit http://www.eating-disorders.org.uk/binge-compulsive-recovery.html If you binge eat and it is ruling your life, we can help.
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