Hello Reddit, I’m new here as this is my first post so please spare me.

I(f20) am addicted to watching people eat food? I don’t know if I would even call it an addiction to be honest. Growing up throughout middle and high school, I have had an interest in watching people eat food. Most people know this as food ASMRs. For the people who don’t know (just in case), foodies or food influencers post videos of eating foods like seafood boils or fast food, basically anything edible/able for human consumption.

I have suffered with eating habits since I was in middle school, as I was picked on for my weight and physical looks. At several points in my life (and currently) I have acted on the habit of not eating everyday and feeling guilty when I do. So to fill that void, I watch people eat big portions of food. I strangely find comfort in it & enjoy it. I see different cultures prepare food and see how different their food is compared to the food here in the US. For example, this can include Japanese and Asian cuisine. It’s intriguing to see different diets of food being consumed, whether it’s a healthy meal or not.

I feel so embarrassed when people hold my phone and open it up to my socials or YouTube being filled with meals getting prepped and/or eaten. I try my best to hide it from everyone and I feel incredibly ashamed. I’ve tried to stop watching these videos by resetting my fyp’s on my socials and YouTube, but they keep coming back when I watch simple recipe videos or anything correlated to food.

I do not find watching people eat sexual in any way, rest assured. I just don’t know what to do about this issue. Is it weird to be intrigued by such a thing? I feel like I have this issue or “hobby” due to the fact that I have a silly logic in my head, which is this: “if I watched them eat, that means I ate too”. What do I do, Reddit? Should I stop watching completely? Should I find better ways to cope with my eating issues? Am I really that weird? :(

EDIT: Feel free to ask me any questions and I will answer whenever I can!

you guys I’m addicted to soda/juice. I came to this realization this evening after having only drank water for the week and a halfish (by choice). I have had horrible horrible headaches for the past three days and nothings changed other than only drinking water—before anyone wonders, no I don’t have any medical conditions. Water doesn’t make me feel hydrated like Dr Pepper does. SOS. How can I get better?

If food addiction is real for many people, why isn't it an official medical diagnosis?

This is an important question — and the answer requires a little nuance.

Food addiction is not currently recognized as a distinct diagnosis in the DSM, the diagnostic manual used widely in mental-health care. It also does not have its own recognized diagnosis in the World Health Organization's international disease-classification system.

But that does not mean researchers have concluded that addiction-like eating does not exist.

This week's Wiki Spotlight looks at the distinction:

👉 Is Food Addiction a Recognized Medical Condition?

🩺 “Not an official diagnosis” does not mean “not a real problem”

Medicine distinguishes between:

1. A formally recognized diagnosis, with agreed-upon diagnostic criteria and placement in systems such as the DSM or ICD,

and

2. A proposed or developing clinical construct that researchers are still trying to define, measure, and understand.

Food addiction currently falls into the second category.

Researchers have developed instruments such as the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) to study addiction-like eating patterns using symptoms adapted from substance-use-disorder criteria.

More recently, researchers have also been developing structured clinical-interview approaches to study these symptoms more rigorously.

So there is an active scientific literature.

What remains unsettled is how those findings should ultimately be interpreted and classified.

🧠 What exactly is being debated?

The debate isn't simply:

“Food addiction is real” vs. “food addiction is imaginary.”

The scientific questions are more complicated.

Researchers continue to ask:

• Are certain foods or food characteristics capable of producing an addiction-like disorder in susceptible people?
• Is ultra-processed food addiction a better description than “food addiction” generally?
• Should addiction-like eating be considered a type of substance-use disorder?
• Is it better understood as a behavioral addiction?
• Is it primarily a feature of established eating disorders such as Binge Eating Disorder?
• Or does it represent a distinct condition in at least some people?

Different researchers reach different conclusions.

That is one reason formal diagnostic recognition requires more than simply showing that people experience cravings or loss of control.

🍕 Why have ultra-processed foods become part of the discussion?

A growing portion of the research focuses not on food in general, but on certain highly processed foods that combine refined carbohydrates, added fats, salt, flavorings, and other characteristics that can make them especially rewarding.

Some researchers argue that this makes “ultra-processed food addiction” a more scientifically useful concept.

Others remain cautious about applying an addiction framework to eating at all.

That debate is ongoing.

🧩 What about Binge Eating Disorder?

This distinction is especially important because Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is already a recognized psychiatric diagnosis.

Food-addiction symptoms and BED can overlap substantially, but they are not automatically the same thing.

Someone experiencing recurrent binge eating may benefit from being evaluated for BED or another eating disorder regardless of whether the food-addiction concept eventually becomes an official diagnosis.

In other words, a person does not need a formal diagnosis called “food addiction” for serious problems involving eating, loss of control, cravings, or distress to deserve attention.

🤝 What about recovery communities?

Some recovery communities — particularly certain 12-Step food-recovery fellowships — have long used an addiction or disease model to understand compulsive eating.

That is a recovery framework, however, rather than the same thing as formal recognition by psychiatry or medicine.

People may find that framework extremely useful.

Others may understand essentially the same behavior through BED, emotional eating, compulsive eating, habit learning, restriction/binge cycles, or another model.

One purpose of this community is to leave room for those differences.

💡 The takeaway

At present:

Food addiction is not an officially recognized standalone medical or psychiatric diagnosis.

At the same time:

Addiction-like eating is an active area of scientific research, with validated research measures, a growing clinical literature, and continuing debate about whether — and how — it should eventually be formally classified.

Those two statements can both be true.

💬 Discussion

Does it matter to you whether “food addiction” eventually becomes an officially recognized diagnosis?

Would formal recognition change how you understand your experience, seek treatment, or explain the problem to other people?

Or is the usefulness of the concept more important to you than the diagnostic label?

Different perspectives are welcome.

📖 Read the Wiki article:
Is Food Addiction a Recognized Medical Condition?

The Wiki is for education and discussion and is not a substitute for individualized medical or mental-health care.

I’m so mentally tired of everything. I lost over 40 kg since last september, maintain my weight for the last ~4 months. I lost weight, lost my period, have my hair. I love gym, love moving and unfortunately love food too much.
In the past I struggled with a few forms of ED, I also probably have unmediated ADHD (diagnosed as a child but nobody did anything with that). I don’t even know what I’m tired with.
I try to eat healthy, everything in moderation but in a last month I had a few binge eating nights after a year without and I’m fucking terrified of coming back to this state, not having this control and freedom of not having to think about binging.
I don’t even know why I’m writing this, probably just to vent because nobody in my life would understand

I’m actually tired of thinking about food, moving, calories, picking the healthier option, the constant mental battles, constant guilt

Just wait enough time and the craving to eat a mountain of food will pass. And eventually you will get to the holy land where you are experiencing zero tug to eat at all. It's almost mystical, this state where you have no cravings to eat at all. Of course more cravings will come, but after you defeat a few cravings you know what to do and are experienced enough.

Hi everyone,

I am new here and i just wanted to say hi. it's been a hard week after a 4 month period of good healthy happy eating.

i fell off the food wagon and im struggling to stop eating unhealthy sugary foods! thank you for all the work you put into the sub, it's helpful for me.

thank you 🙏

drugs got me to my goal weight to 115. now im 170 because i started binge eating which has replaced my routine of drugs
how can i stop?

I’ve been with my fiancé for four years, I’ve had a few eating disorders but been stuck with binge eating, recently got a diagnosis for autism and add and prior to that pmdd. I tell my fiancé how much I struggle with binge eating, the noise and that I either cut out sugary foods and processed foods together because I just can’t stop when I start or I continue to binge and not excel at life. There’s so much food noise in my head and I’m often back and forth with healthy and binging periods the past few days I’ve got into a good streak, I told my fiance and my spirits have been higher, been feeling good. Then today he orders a pizza out and if like “ you will share it with me won’t you, you going to share it with me yes “ as much as I could say no it’s like asking an alcoholic to have one drink… it’s an addiction so I shared the pizza now he’s gone out with friends and I’m at home binging. I can’t help but feel he doesn’t take this seriously.

From both a biological and historical standpoint, the West exhibits behaviors that closely mirror a systemic addiction to sugar.

Per capita sugar consumption in the US is between 120 and 126 pounds.

This article describes a fascinating natural experiment that occurred in post world war II England when childrens' sugar intake was restricted by rationing.

The children exposed to rationing in early life showed a decreased likelihood of cardiovascular disease, liver disease, respiratory problems, dementia, a lower overall incidence of diseases linked to the hallmarks of ageing and modestly younger biological and organ ages.

Perhaps it is time to reconsider our use of this drug.

I would especially urge parents not to give their children sweets or sugar-coated cereals.