Can you have an allergy to sugar, flour, and unmeasured quantities of food?
Do alcoholics have an allergy to alcohol?
What is an “allergy” when it comes to addiction?
The notion of allergy as an underlying problem with addiction was first proposed in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939. The doctor who suggested it noticed that people with alcoholism responded to even one sip of alcohol in a fundamentally different way—they instantly developed a crushing, obsessive craving for more.
That craving might make them miss a business meeting they had prepped for, for months, or cause them to have legal problems, leading to the loss of their beloved children. A single sip was all it took.
I know thousands of people who want, with every fiber of their being, not to eat certain foods or eat in a certain way. But once they get a single bite of sugar, flour, or excessive quantities into their system, they lose control utterly.
Thinking of this in terms of an allergy can be a helpful model. Let’s take a look at the word allergy. Normally, you think of an allergy causing you, for example, to break out in hives or start sneezing, which doesn’t happen with food addiction. But if you look up allergy in the dictionary, you’ll find this definition: Allergies are an abnormal reaction or response.
I’ve noticed this in myself: when I eat something off my plan, I have an abnormal response in body and mind. An incredible craving takes over, and I start obsessing. That obsession is so intense that it feels like that one bite of food places me in an alternate universe with no way to escape. And the only thing I can do is to keep eating.
This mind-warping means you don’t think about consequences. Addiction minimizes consequences to a ridiculous degree.
When you’re not in the grips of this abnormal reaction—this allergy—you realize that your actions might kill or harm you. But at the moment you’re pulling through the drive-through, none of that seems to matter. Addiction limits the ability of the brain to think about consequences.
If you have an allergy that results in an abnormal reaction to a food, the solution is not just to have an abstinence-based food plan. It’s also necessary to access the power to stick with it. That power comes from surrender.
In Bright Line Eating, surrender comes from access to the group, the tools, and the program. And for many of us, it also involves access to divine power, whether through connecting to our Authentic Self, or using tools like prayer and meditation.
In the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, they talk about the strange mental blank spot, where you’re suddenly picking up alcohol without thinking of the consequences at all. Any justification will work: I deserve it, I had a rough week….
Think about the reality: I deserve to kill myself for some nachos on the weekend? It’s out-of-proportion thinking.
An allergy to sugar, flour, and quantities is an obsession of the mind, an overpowering craving. In that dark hell hole, it can be very hard to get Bright again. It takes support and commitment. It takes a community. This is what Bright Line Eating offers.
If this resonates with you, I encourage you to watch our free Masterclass. It explains more about the neuroscience involved. It’s one thing to identify the question, but another thing to find the answer, and that’s what the Masterclass does. I’ll put a link to it below this video.
If you find yourself eating more than you intended, or eating when you should know better, but something keeps you from stopping even though you know you don’t want to keep going—that’s addiction. There is a path out. The Masterclass explains more. I’ve been in food recovery for nearly thirty years now. I’ve done a lot of the work for you. There is a solution, and it works.
Take the Masterclass!
