Office Hours: Breaking Free from Food Addiction

Welcome to Office Hours. This is our dedicated one-on-one space to go deeper, get clear, and explore what truly moves the needle for your health. I'm Dr. Mark Hyman, and each week we're going to pull back the curtain and share the insights, the research, the lessons that don't always make it into our conversations with guests. because at the end of the day, you are the CEO of your own health. And for many of you, your family's health too. And you might not feel it all the time, but you have far more power and agency than you realize. I'm glad you're here. This episode is brought to you by Function Health, empowering you to live 100 healthy years with over 160 lab tests at just $365 a year. Sign up today at functionhealth.com slash mark and use code mark2026 to get $50 towards your membership. You ever wonder why we can't just eat one chip or stop after one cookie? It's not a lack of willpower. It's the science of food addiction. Addiction that's engineered into your food. I mean, no one's going to binge on a bag of avocados, but you'll eat a whole bag of cookies. And that's not an accident. So food addiction, and I don't mean just metaphorically, I mean biologically, is a real measurable thing. In fact, according to the Yale Food Addiction Scale, the global assessment of the population is that 14% of adults are biologically addicted to food. Not just a little craving here and there, but like seriously addicted to alcohol. And what's even more concerning is that 14% of kids are addicted. Now, just to put that in context, about 14% of the adult population is addicted to alcohol. So it's a big deal. Now, Big Food is very smart. They use neuroscience, including functional MRI imaging and lots of other dirty tricks to design foods that override our normal hunger signals, our normal feeling full mechanisms, which is called satiety. They trigger dopamine spikes in the brain and light up the same area in the brain as cocaine, heroin, or nicotine. And that, my friends, keeps us coming back for more and more and more. How does anybody end up getting to be three or four or 500 pounds? It's not because they wake up and they say, I want to be overweight or I want to be fat. They're literally hijacked, addicted. So I talk a lot about what's wrong with our food, our food system in my book, Food Fix and updated version, Food Fix Uncensored out February 26th is a powerful indictment of the food industry explaining exactly how this works and why we are in such a pickle. I wrote a book called The 10-Day Detox Diet, also talking about the biology of food addiction. And the science has only gotten better since then. So I want you to understand, it's not about willpower. It's not your fault. It's not you. It's your brain and your brain being hijacked. Food addiction is driven by your biology, biochemistry. It's not a moral failing. It's not a character flaw. It's not there's something wrong with you. It's not that you're on willpower. You're hijacked. And these foods are designed to hijack your biology. In fact, the food industry has, and this is all documented in Michael Moss's book, who was actually the first guest on my podcast years ago, in his book called Sugar, Salt, and Fat, which explains what he found after interviewing over 300 food industry executives, scientists, food scientists, et cetera, that they actually have something called taste institutes where they hire craving experts to create what they call the bliss point of food to create what they call heavy users just like heavy users of crack or cocaine or heroin or alcohol this is what they do it's not an accident so ultra processed foods are designed to act on the brain like addictive drugs and they're high in sugar or salt and certain kinds of fats that activate the same reward pathways as nicotine or cocaine or heroin and it's been proven through fMRI brain scans. In fact, my friend David Ludwig did an amazing study where he helped the milkshake study where he took groups of overweight guys and fed them different milkshakes on different days. So the same person would get two different milkshakes, but they would measure their blood and they'd put them in functional MRI imaging and look at what parts of the brain lit up. And what they found was really remarkable. They were identical in protein, fat, and carbohydrate content and fiber, identical. The only difference, and calories, the only difference was one of the carbohydrates they used in one of the milkshakes was a fast-acting, rapidly absorbed carbohydrate, and the other was a very slow-absorbing carbohydrate that didn't spike blood sugar. And what they found was that even though they couldn't tell the difference in the flavor and the taste of the milkshakes, and it was exactly the same protein, fat, carbs, calories, fiber, they found that in the group that had the high and rapidly absorbing carbohydrates their blood sugar spiked more their insulin spiked more they got more inflammation and they had a brain lit up in the place called the nucleus accumbens which is the addiction center in the brain so that is really profound so even though they didn't know any difference in what they're eating they basically had the same biological change by looking at their brain now kids are especially vulnerable because their dopamine systems are developing. And the food industry knows this. They even put two-year-olds in MRI scanners to see what images light them up. And then it creates this horrible cycle where you eat a food that causes these neurochemical changes. You get this dopamine spike, you get a crash, you crave again, and you need your hit and you need your fix. And so willpower is never going to work. You need to use science and willpower to fix your biology. When your brain's hijacked, you're just not choosing freely. Your biology is choosing for you. and you know what that feels like and you're like i gotta have that thing and you know it's bad for you to eat it anyway that's what's going on so this is not an accident big food is hacking your brain and these scientists know how to create the bliss point of food they engineer foods intentionally do this and it's a perfect combination of sugar salt and fat mouthfeel texture all these things that are irresistible but don't make you feel full i mean think about pringles you know these are weird they're not they're kind of potato chips but they're not really you can actually grab them in your hand and crush them into a powder you wouldn't want to eat it but it's gross and they're like a potato chip like substance it's not food but you could eat the whole the whole canister i've done that before now i don't even need that for decades but i kind of like them in the day and they melt in your mouth it's just designed to be the perfect thing for you to eat as much as you possibly can we remember those latest potato commercials i bet you can't eat just one. Well, that's true. And they do rapid testing on lots of people, lots of formulations to find the one that literally people can't stop eating. And guess what, folks? In the 70s and 80s, these companies, these food companies were bought up by tobacco companies. When tobacco was getting hit with all these lawsuits and going down, they started to diversify and they basically applied their same technology to food, right? R.J. and Hibisco, Philip Morris, craft you know these were big food and tobacco conglomerates now they've kind of split off but they really were quite bad and so this is not an accident so let's just sort of break it down salt what does sugar do you get this fast dopamine hit it doesn't make you full and it makes you want to binge more salt well it hits the flavor it'll increase cravings it stimulates dopamine receptors and fat it makes kind of creamy hyper palatable foods and it doesn really make you feel full It kind of a bummer in processed foods compared to real food So what are their examples Well chips packaged snacks sweetened cereals coffee creamers flavored yogurts fast food junk food of all kinds, sodas, combo meals. I mean, these foods aren't just delicious. They're intentionally addictive. They're not an accident. It's a business model. I mean, and I wouldn't say they're delicious, honestly, because they taste like crap. If you actually stopped to enjoy them, you'd realize how just terrible they are. A friend of mine was a nutritionist and he had this guy come see him who wanted to lose weight, but he said he was very busy and he wasn't, he wasn't going to change his habits that much. They wanted advice. And he's like, every day I drive home from work, I saw, I go to the drive-thru and I pick up, you know, a Burger King, whatever the big, whatever Burger King Whopper or whatever they call it. See, I'm not very fluent in fast food menus, but I think he got a big Whopper and he would just drive it home and eat it. And that was his dinner. And he said, well, I don't want you to stop eating it. What I want you to do is go inside, order the food, sit down at the table, and I want you to breathe and I want you to savor every single bite. I want you to taste it. I want you to enjoy it. And he did that. He came back to see him and said, it was disgusting. I could not eat it. It was so bad when I actually paid attention to what I was doing and not just eating unconsciously. So you want to kind of just pay attention to the difference between how real food is so much more delicious. All right, let's talk about the bliss point of food and how that overrides your normal satiety or feeling full signals. You know, your gut brain normally tells you when you're full, right? You've got your gut responding to your brain, it goes back and forth. And when you eat these hyperpalatable foods, they basically disrupt those normal signals. And when you eat processed food, there are certain hormones in your gut that make you stop eating. You know one of them, it's called GLP-1. But when you eat junk food, it doesn't do that. So now we have a Zempic and all these drugs that are higher doses of GLP-1, which is what your body makes, the peptide. But when you eat processed food, you don't naturally make GLP-1. Also CCK, another thing, or PYY. These are the feel-full hormones that are produced in your gut that normally help you stop eating, but they don't get produced when you eat junk food. Instead, these foods flood the dopamine system, which is basically your pleasure addiction system and they turn off the brakes on your eating so one they make you eat more and they shut off your feeling full signals and so what happens well you're craving food constantly you're overeating without feeling satisfied you got a bottomless pit your blood sugar spikes and then you need to kind of get more sugar because your blood sugar crashes and you're on this roller coaster of blood sugar swings you'll gain weight you'll have mood changes you'll end up with compulsive eating patterns not not a good scene Your body is trying to tell you to stop eating in a normal situation, right? But your brain is being pushed by this junk food to keep going. And that mismatch is the heart of our modern obesity and chronic disease epidemic. Your biology is actually trying to protect you. But the brain is being chemically hijacked by ultra processed foods that drives cravings, overeating, obesity, and chronic disease. It's not because you're weak. It's not because you don't have willpower. It's not because you have a character flaw or moral failing. It's because the food was engineered to confuse the very wiring that's meant to keep you healthy. Your body's designed to be healthy. And if you look back at videos or film from the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s even, you're going to see most Americans are normal weight. And now most Americans are not normal weight, 75% overweight. wait, it's because we had this flux of junk food and ultra-processed food and industrial food that happened in the 80s, 90s, and beyond. So it's really quite a big problem. Now, once you understand this, it changes everything, right? You stop blaming yourself, you start seeing the real problem, a food system that makes it almost impossible to honor your body's natural signals. Now, we have an entire population that's addicted to substances disguised as food. These are not Food. These are science projects. These are frankenfoods. These are food-like substances. This is not a personal failure. Don't blame yourself. It's a systemic failure of our food system. So what is the real cost of all this food addiction? Well, ultra-processed, hyper-palatable foods aren't just harming individuals. They're driving a national economic and political crisis. In my book, Food Fix Uncensored, I describe a food addiction. It fuels obesity, chronic disease, and all of our skyrocketing healthcare costs. And it's all being engineered and marketed by a food system designed for profit, not public health. We basically socialize the costs and privatize the profits, meaning the food companies make all the money and the government and taxpayers foot the bill for all the chronic health issues. All right, so let's break this down into three levels, personal, societal, and political. On the personal level, there's a huge human cost. You know, food addiction leads to metabolic dysfunction, leads to chronic disease. This is the crisis we're in now. And it affects everybody and everything. There's not a person in America that's not affected by it. 73% of U.S. adults are overweight or obese. When you're obese, you dramatically increase the risk for type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, which is now the number one liver disease in America, depression, anxiety, chronic inflammation, heart disease, cancer, dementia, infertility, acne, depression. I mean, you just name it, it's caused by our junk food. Diabetes rates have tripled since the 1970s, directly tracking with the rise of ultra processed food. Chronic disease is increasingly going up as we get older. The number of adults who are over 50 with at least one chronic disease will double from about 71 million in 2020 to about 142 million in 2050. That's a big rise, and that's not far off. the quality of your relationships is one of the strongest predictors of how long you will live beyond even exercise diet and good genes it's not just a beautiful idea it's science decades of research prove it love connection support literally extend your lifespan so this valentine's day you want to give the person you love something that matters but skip the candy give the thing that can keep both of you around longer. Function gives you and your loved ones access to 160 lab tests for your heart, your hormones, metabolism, nutrients, toxins, and lots more for just $365 a year. You'll know what's working, what needs attention, and how to stay healthy for all the moments to count because the best relationships deserve more time. Want to show love? Visit FunctionOut.com and gift function. On the societal level, what is the economic and social burden? It's huge. We have an incredible healthcare crisis. Ultra-processed diets are driving disease at a scale that the healthcare system just can't handle. I mean, the number one cause of death and disease in the world today is our diet, period. This is from the Global Burden of Disease Study. Conservatively, they estimate our diet kills over 11 million people a year. I think it's way more than that. As of 2023, chronic disease and mental health conditions account for about 90% of America's $4.9 trillion in annual healthcare spending. This essentially is what's driving most of the burden of disease, which is diet-related and lifestyle-related chronic illnesses. Now, two decades ago in 2000, which not that long ago, healthcare costs were only $1.6 trillion, meaning food-driven diseases are the major reason costs have tripled. And you know if nothing changes chronic disease will cost the U 129 trillion over the next 35 years that a lot of dough and what can we do with all that money free education free health care i mean think about it we could we could fix all of our infrastructure we could provide support for all those who can't you know support themselves we could just have so much benefits of society if we didn't spend all that money or we could have a raise our national debt which would be nice too. There's a lot of benefits that come from this. Now, these costs are not inevitable. These are not because of genetic problems. These are related to the food we're eating, and we can change that. The other thing that happens is just, you know, not just the disease itself, but the lost productivity and economic drag. This is what we call indirect costs of healthcare, and these are huge. Estimated that globally, it's about $2 trillion lost to productivity because of poor health and most related to our diet. I know when you have a poor diet and you have obesity, it contributes to a lot of problems. More disability, you know, lower workforce participation, higher absenteeism, reduced economic output. We call it presenteeism, which is being at the job, but not on the job. You're there, but you're kind of not there. The CDC estimates chronic disease leads to hundreds of billions of dollars in lost productivity every single year. The other thing is that, you know, communities around the country are just so severely affected by the food environment. And these food environments are shaped by corporate food systems, right? Food deserts, which is lack of access to healthy food, or food swamps, which is, you know, where you only have fast food restaurants and bodegas. These disproportionately affect black, brown, and low-income communities. And in many areas like this, 80% of calories come from ultra-processed food. Healthy food is often less accessible and more expensive than these addictive engineered foods. Basically, it's just bad news. What's even worse is marketing. These foods are so heavily marketed. I remember watching the Super Bowl last year. There were 11 ads for junk food in the first half. I had to turn it off. I just was so disgusted. And kids particularly are targeted. And this should be illegal. In most countries, it's illegal. Like in Chile, there's no junk food ads between six in the morning and 10 at night. There's no more Tony the Tiger. They removed all the cartoon characters from all the kids' food. I mean, they just don't allow any junk in the schools. They don't allow any formula advertising. I mean, they've really gone to town on this stuff. But in this country, you know, 90% of food ads are targeting children promoting ultra-processed foods. These are really bad. And they're everywhere. They're not just on television. They're on all social media. They're everywhere. They're infiltrating games. Kids see literally thousands and thousands of these every year. There's no way a parent can compete. And the food industry spends billions of dollars. I think it's about $13 billion here marketing these hyper-palatable foods to kids, which makes them addicted. You want to get these kids early, you get them addicted, and it's just terrible. Also, at the political level, there's a lot of things that are problematic. And I talk about this in the book Food Fix Uncensored. It's basically the system that's keeping us sick. Food addiction is not accidental. It's the outcome of very deliberate policies that were driven by the food industry. And they were designed by corporations to maximize profits, but not really be concerned at all about public health. When working with my nonprofit Food Fix, I was working with Tim Ryan, who was a congressman at the time, and he got the congressional watchdog, which is called the GAO, or Government Accountability Office, to do analysis of all of our food policies and whether they support health or not and the economic burden of them. And what he found, I was sort of shocked when I read the report, was that there are over 200 policies in 21 agencies and departments, most of which were working across purposes and making people sicker, not healthier, and costing enormous amounts of money. And so it was kind of worse than I even thought. Ultra-processed foods are things that food entry can create, they can market, there's no requirement to disclose how addictive they are, they don't have to prove they're safe, and sugar basically is unregulated despite being as neurologically addictive as cocaine in animal studies. So when you look at the data, and David Kessler, who's the former head of the FDA, created a petition which I support and I'm helping with in getting through the FDA to show that the science is really clear now that these ultra-processed foods, particularly refined starch and sugars, they're industrially produced, are driving the majority of chronic disease and they no longer can be considered safe and the fda should rule them as not safety what we call grass we did this with trans fats crisco was on the market since 1911 it was thought to be okay shortening you know but it only shortens your life that's why they call it shortening and it turned out the science became increasingly clear that these were really harmful and in 2015 the fda said these are no longer safe to eat and you have to remove them for the food supply or prove that they're safe right now the burden of proof is on the American population and the government, but it should be on the food industry. So hopefully this will pass and that will make the food industry have to either remove them from our food or show that they're safe, which they can't do. Now, the other problem is the research that we have and rely on. 80% of it's funded by the food industry and these produce findings that are favorable to the sponsor. If Coca-Cola does a study on soda and obesity, they're going to find that it doesn't cause obesity. Or if artificial sweetener companies get together and do a study on the harmful effects of artificial sweeteners, they're going to find that they're fine. And so when you look at the data on this, any study that's funded by industry is eight to 50 times more likely to show a positive outcome for their product. And this influences dietary guidelines, school food, public health messaging, and it's basically corrupt science. The next big thing that happens is lobbying. And I talk about all this in my book, Food Fixed Uncensored. Big food and big acts spend billions of dollars lobbying congress every year they lobby against clear labeling on the front of packages against school entry form against soda taxes against changes to food stamp program or snap against marketing restrictions to children all these things have been shown in other countries to be very effective in improving the health of the population but because we have a government that's captured by industry we don't pass the right laws and protect the population we have a food system that profits when people are sick we got to flip the incentives food addiction is not a a personal failure it's a systemic failure and the real cost isn't just measured in pounds or cravings but in trillions of dollars millions of lives and a health care system is on the brink of collapsing we're in deep doo-doo folks and we got to fix this and that's really what i outline in my book that i wrote with my uh co-wrote with my wife brianna which outlines a lot of the problem but also it's not called food apocalypse it's called food fix so i do talk about the apocalyptic issues but I also talk about the fix. What do we need to do to really solve this problem at every level? Now, personal level, political level, business level, scientific level, and go through everything. All right, so now that we've really uncovered the real cost of food addiction, it's really time to focus on the solutions. How do you break free and reset your brain and your body? How do you stop this process? And you know, I saw such a big deal in my practice for so many years, and I really worked with patients to try to solve this. and I actually realized that there was a way to do it by basically pushing a button that your body has. It's a natural healing repair system. And you can push that button and put your body back to its natural original factory settings in like 10 days or even shorter. And it really amounts to a very simple principle. You take out the bad stuff you're eating and you put in the good stuff. You restrict all the things that we know can be a problem and you add all the things we know can support your health. So the first principle is to deprogram your brain from food addiction. eating real food. No, basically, if it was industrial food, don't eat it. It's ultra processed food, don't eat it. Just eat real food. We know what that is. It's vegetables, it's fruit, it's nuts and seeds, it whole grains it beans high quality protein from all sources eggs chicken fish meat et cetera All these things are fine And these are the things that will naturally reduce cravings You not going to eat a hundred ounce steak right But you could easily eat a sheet cake You're not going to binge on real food. You just can't. Your body naturally will stop eating. Eliminate, or I would say eliminate, but you know, some people are more lenient. I'm not. uh eliminate just for for 10 days and this is why we created the 10-day detox diet i encourage you to try it if you want to do one thing to see how food is affecting you most people don't connect the dots between how they feel and what they're eating 10 days anybody can do anything for 10 days see what happens to your body and your brain and your mood and your energy when you eat in a way that unhooks this biological addiction and that puts your body back to its original factory resettings. The average person who does this has a 70% reduction in all symptoms from all diseases in 10 days. If you go to 10daydetox.com, you'll see all the testimonials. I'm not making it up. It's real. And I've done this for decades with thousands and thousands of people. So when you get rid of all this junk food, chips, packaged snacks, sodas, sugary drinks, fast food, it really helps reset your brain. No artificial sweeteners. I know people are thinking, well, can I have stevia? Well, can I have monk fruit? Can I have, you know, sugar alcohols? Can I have this? Can I have that? No. The answer is no. Because all these things will mess with your brain, even if they don't have calories. And you want to increase whole food, nutrient-dense food, vegetables, berries, fruit, avocados, nuts and seeds, pasteurase, protein, eggs, chicken, fish, meat. Whole grains for some people can be helpful, but I would say in the 10-day detox, you want to avoid whole grains and you want to avoid beans and you want to eat lots of fat, lots of fiber, Lots of veggies. Lots of protein. Basically, protein and fat will stop your cravings. And they're the key. Protein and fat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Really important. Those protein, fat, and fiber is the key to controlling your appetite. And then make sure you deal with stress and sleep. Stress can make you hungry in and of itself. And I've experienced that for sure. Poor sleep or sleep deprivation will also make you hungry. When I was working in the ER, I would not sleep. I'd just go to McDonald's at 2 in the morning and have those apple turnovers. They were good. I couldn't help myself. I just needed something because my body was not sleeping and I needed something to get my energy up. All right. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking, you know, I know these foods have a hold on me, but I don't know what to do. I don't know where to start. That's exactly why I created the 10 day detox diet. It gives you a structured step-by-step way, calm your cravings, reset your brain and reset your brain chemistry and take back control of your health. And it works faster, better and it's cheaper than any other treatment and it works so quickly you actually won't believe it so you might think i'm sounding like a crazy person don't listen to me please don't listen to me just try it 10 days listen to your body it's the smartest doctor in the room you can go find out more on drhyman.com and learn about what it is and how to join all right key key message here folks is it's not your fault it's not your fault if you're awake it's not your fault if you're sick we have a society and a food system designed to make you sick you're not weak you're living in a food environment that's engineered to override your biology period so pay attention to what you're eating pay attention to ingredients don't look at the claims on the label my joke is if it has a health claim on the label don't eat it low sugar low fat high fiber gluten-free whatever it is gluten-free Lay's potato chips. I gave you a bag of potato chips the other day and it said gluten-free on it. I'm like, that's like, well, Coca-Cola is gluten-free. It doesn't make it healthy. Gluten-free cake and cookies is still cake and cookies. So just pay attention to what you're eating and the packaging ingredients. And just move and shift your diet toward more real food. Excited about showing you how to do that soon. We're going to be doing a whole challenge and teach you how to cook well on a budget. Now, if this conversation has opened your eyes to how the food system shapes your cravings, your health, you want to dive deeper. You want to go deeper. I would really encourage you to check out my new book, Food Fix Uncensored. Comes out February 10th and we're pulling back the curtain on everything big food does not want you to know. And we're going to tell you what you can do to protect yourself and your family. And honestly, folks, I can't wait to share it with you. And I want you to share this episode with some of you know who's still blaming themselves for their struggle with food. It's not your fault. It's not their fault. You're living in a highly toxic food environment that's hijacked your entire biology. This conversation should be the permission that they need to stop biting themselves and start healing. So please share it. Thanks for joining me for office hours. I love diving into these topics with you. Remember, you are the CEO of your own health and every choice you make can move you closer to healing and vitality. I want to keep these episodes as relevant and useful as possible. So tell me, What do you want to explore next? What questions are you wrestling with? What breakthroughs are you chasing? Share your ideas in the comments on social media or through the link in the show notes. I'm listening. Until next time, keep taking charge, keep asking questions, and keep showing up for your health. What if the greatest threat to your health wasn't bad choices, but bad design? In America, chronic disease isn't accidental. It's the predictable outcome of a food system built for profit, not people. A web of corporations, lobbyists, and policymakers all feeding off your plate. They call it choice, but your options were engineered. From the grocery aisle to the school cafeteria, Big Food, Big Ag, and Big Pharma wrote the rules together. The food pyramid distorted. The science bought. The front-of-package health labels designed to deceive. This isn't a broken system. It's a perfectly functioning machine, producing disease, dependency, and distraction, exactly as intended. Food Fix Uncensored pulls back the curtain on the collusion shaping your health, your choices, and your future. Because once you see how it works, you can never unsee it. Food Fix Uncensored, the truth they never meant for you to read. If you love this podcast, please share it with someone else you think would also enjoy it. You can find me on all social media channels at Dr. Mark Hyman. Please reach out. I'd love to hear your comments and questions. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to The Dr. Hyman Show wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to check out my YouTube channel at Dr. Mark Hyman for video versions of this podcast and more. Thank you so much again for tuning in. We'll see you next time on The Dr. Hyman Show. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the Ultra Wellness Center, my work at Cleveland Clinic and Function Health, where I am Chief Medical Officer. This podcast represents my opinions and my guests' opinions. Neither myself nor the podcast endorses the views or statements of my guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, please seek out a qualified medical practitioner. And if you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, visit my clinic, the Ultra Wellness Center at ultrawellnesscenter.com and request to become a patient. It's important to have someone in your corner who is a trained, licensed healthcare practitioner and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health. This podcast is free as part of my mission to bring practical ways of improving health to the public. So I'd like to express gratitude to sponsors that made today's podcast possible. Thanks so much again for listening.