Do you ever promise yourself you’ll stop eating sugar or junk food – only to find yourself back at the biscuit tin a few hours later? You’re not alone. Food addiction is real. In fact, it can be as powerful and pervasive as alcohol addiction.
The first step is awareness. According to clinical psychologist Dr Jen Unwin, there are six warning signs. If you recognise yourself in two or more, it may be time to take this seriously.
Read on to see if any apply to you.
1. Certain foods feel impossible to resist
“You’re craving a certain food so badly that you feel compelled to eat it, even when you know you shouldn’t,” Dr Unwin explains. At the height of her own addiction, she would secretly make a bowl of cake mixture – just butter, sugar and flour -and eat the entire thing raw. “It sounds ridiculous now, but I had such intense cravings for sweet, soft, sugary foods,” she explains.
Like alcohol tolerance, food addiction builds over time. “One slice of cake may have been enough in the beginning, but soon you need two, three – or half the cake – to get the same dopamine hit,” says Dr Unwin. She recalls eating slice after slice at her daughter’s wedding, unable to stop until she felt sick.
A common factor in addiction is that you begin to ignore what you once valued and prioritise food above socialising, hobbies, family time and even work. Often, Dr Unwin would leave the house and her family in secret to drive for 20 minutes to a cinema complex where she would order a large tub of Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough ice cream with chocolate sauce. She would then return to her car and eat the entire portion, feeling ashamed and elated at the same time, before returning home an hour later as if nothing had happened.
4. You lose control once you start
You might buy biscuits for your grandchildren, planning to have just one with your tea. Before you know it, the whole packet has disappeared.
5. Withdrawal symptoms kick in
If you try to cut down on sugary snacks and carbohydrates, do you experience withdrawal symptoms? “These include headaches, migraines, gastrointestinal symptoms, low mood, anxiety, fatigue and brain fog,” Dr Unwin says. “As people experience sugar withdrawal, they feel so bad that they just go back to eating it.” When Dr Unwin completely abstained from sugar, she experienced many of these symptoms for eight days. But after pushing through that difficult period, she began feeling better than ever.
6. You know it’s harming you – and carry on anyway
According to Dr Unwin, this is the defining sign: eating damaging foods despite knowing the consequences. She references a patient with Type 2 diabetes who kept bingeing on cake and sugar knowing how bad it is for their blood sugar. People in this situation often know the food is harmful, but they feel trapped in a cycle.
Breaking free from any addiction is not purely a matter of willpower. Addictive foods and drinks hijack your brain’s chemistry, making you crave them. This effect is purposely done so that you keep buying more.
Understanding how certain food ingredients and combinations work in the brain unlocks the secret to undoing food addiction. The most powerful trigger is the combination of fat and sugar – the two key components of most junk foods. Think cakes, biscuits, ice cream, chocolate bars and pastries. This pairing presses the brain’s dopamine “reward” switch, creating intense pleasure in the moment but diminishing feelings of satisfaction over time. Just like drugs, it fuels cravings and loss of control.
This hijacking of the dopamine-based reward system doesn’t just drive overeating – it also increases the risk of cognitive decline and brain shrinkage. Additionally, it disrupts glucose control and drives insulin resistance, a well-known promoter of cognitive decline. (Read more – ‘Is Sugar Killing Your Brain?’)
In Patrick Holford’s book How to Quit without Feeling S**t he recommends strategies that help restore balance to your brain chemistry:
Protein + slow carbs – pairing protein (such as nuts or Greek yogurt) with fruit like berries slows sugar release and provides fibre and nutrients.
If you feel like you are struggling to break free from food addiction, then join Dr Jen Unwin’s live webinar on Wednesday, 24th September – find out more here.
A clinical Psychologist’s Practical Tips on How to break free;
Food addiction is more than a personal struggle and it impacts more people than you realise. It’s part of a wider public health crisis, fuelling obesity, diabetes and dementia – but no matter where you are at right now, change is possible!
Join the live webinar on food addiction with clinical psychologist Dr Jen Unwin on Wednesday, 24th September – find out more here.
ttend the International Food Addiction & Comorbidities Conference – IFACC 2025. Use discount code FFB to get 40% off:
Get ongoing support with the COGNITION™ programme. Receive monthly coaching when you become a. FRIEND of Food for the Brain.
Read Dr Jen Unwin’s book, Fork in the Road – a hopeful guide for identifying if you have a food addiction and learning what to do about it.
Read this journal article in Frontiers in Psychiatry to support and join the movement to have food addiction classified as a real disease, thus enabling more research and support, and helping to make the dangers of ultra-processed foods more visible.
