The Science of Willpower

Great article,
I personally think that all other addiction are in essence a distortion, or misuse, of processes used to guide our body towards things like foods high in sugars and fats. In terms of evolution, our bodies need to maximize the calories we take in to protect us from starvation and cold. However, in our highly developed world, we've made access to calories so easy that these systems often backfire. Ahmed and colleagues found that sweet flavor alone (saccharine) was more successful than cocaine at driving behavior. The findings are disputed and many replications are ongoing, but the notion that something simply being sweet can become more addictive than cocaine is one that Americans in particular have been struggling with for a long time.
I have no doubt that the same preparatory behavior, with it's physiological anticipation and all, we've been studying in substance abuse will all prove to play a part in food-based addictions. While other behavioral addictions can be a bit more difficult to consolidate with the numerous addictions that involve the ingestion of substances, I think sugar fits the bill very well.
Our bodies are programmed to like sugar, but when we abuse that, we can become dependent, or addicted, to it.

Food is not, for many people, a 'softer' addiction. Eating disorders destroy lives and sometimes kill, just like drug addiction. Treatment centres are increasingly treating eating disorders (whether anorexia, bulimia or binge eating) as addictions and finding that the processes are very similar - and many believe that people recovering from eating disorders must eliminate sugar from their diets to get well. The attitude that food addiction isn't such a big deal as other addictions is a big part of the problem for people with eating disorders as it makes it harder for them to get help or even ask for it in the first place.

I just started my loooong journey to try to get sugar out of my life! I am attempting to put my journey out there to help hold me accountable. I did my addiction in secret, I figured it would be healthy to do the recovery in public.
http://sugenightandday.blogspot.com/