What do Maxwell House Coffee, Grape-Nuts cereal, Kool-Aid, Jello and Marlborough cigarettes all have in common? The experience of craving more are formulas that have been engineered by the same chemists, all work for the same consumer-products companies. Companies that continue to get sued over misleading us about the health issues of their cigarettes are now processing many of the foods we eat each day.

How about that; “Don’t smoke, Suzzie, it’s addictive and it will make you unhealthy,” we say to our daughter as as we pour her a bowl of yogurt that may has more sugar than Fruit Loops.  Have you ever heard of bliss-point? That’s the term chemists that make processed foods call the perfect amount of salt, sugar and fat that will create craving in you for more, will play with your brain chemistry and be whispering to your addictive tendencies while you hold hands and recite the Serenity Prayer.
 
Episode Ten of Rebellion Dogs Radio is please to invite Dr. Very Tarman to our show. Vera is Medical Director of Renascent Treatment Centres and she just authored a new book, Food Junkies: The Truth About Food Addiction. We talk about process addiction in general – sex, food, gambling etc. We talk about the food industries role in consumer eating habits and we talk about the latest in addiction and recovery.

Not long ago, buying yogurt or granola meant you were buying health-food. It’s not so simple today. Food is designed to fight for stomach space against all the other consumer-goods companies. This episode of Rebellion Dogs Radio will help you get to know Dr. Vera better and her experience with addiction might surprise you. If it’s true that we are what we eat then we owe it to ourselves to better understand how the food industry is making Food Junkies out of us all.

We look at the DSM-5 which is the latest manual that helps doctors diagnose mental health and addiction problems. We'll also look at what  Dr. Gabor Maté (In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts), Marc Lewis (Memoirs of an Addicted Brian), Patrick Carnes (A Gentle Path through the Twelve Steps) and Michael Moss (Salt Sugar Fat) have to say and more.

Food Junkies has been on the market for just over a month. It offers readers both the science and the craft of addiction and recovery. Expertise and real-life experience are combined in a book that I can't wait to tell you more about. Enjoy Episode Ten of Rebellion Dogs Radio.Please feel free to download a free PDF transcript of this show including our interview with Dr. Vera Tarman (pictured), HERE. if you want to follow along while you listen, share or keep the transcript, please help yourself. As always, join the conversation on Twitter or Facebook.

More Dr. Vera on Addiction Unplugged.
 
Show notes for further exploration:
[1] http://www.renascent.ca/
[2] Tarman, Dr. Vera, Food Junkies: The Truth About Food Addiction, Toronto: Dundurn, 2014
[3] Thompson, Damian, The Fix: How Addiction is Taking Over Your World, London: Harper Collins Publishers, 2012
[4] Moss, Michael, Salt Sugar Fat, New York: Penguin Random House, 2014
[5] Maté, Gabor, Ted Talk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66cYcSak6nE
[6] Kessler, David A., The End of Overeating: Talking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, New York: Rodale Books, 2009
[7] Lewis, Marc, Memoirs of an Addicted Brain. Toronto: Double Day Canada, 2011 pp. 158 – 159
[8] From the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (section 312.31)
[9] http://www.asam.org/publications/president%27s-blog/asam-president%27s-blog/2013/01/27/when-will-there-be-definitions-and-terminology-in-addiction-medicine
[10] Carnes, Patrick, A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Step, Center City: Hazelden Foundation, 1993,.