Why can't I help others eat clean?
People have obtained valuable health benefits from adapting to a clean food plan and of course they want to persuade others to enjoy these benefits. However, they’re frustrated when other people are unable to give up their old food habits, particularly attachment to processed foods. The hidden barrier may be addiction to processed foods. If you know how to resolve addiction to processed foods, you can give others the benefits of a clean food plan.
As a Trainee, I'm realizing that there can be a positive outcome. I had a feeling of hopelessness before I joined. - BD, FARA trainee
Diet-related disease is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide so the desire to help others can be quite desperate. In the US alone, an estimated 678,000 people die annually from diet-related diseases. That’s 1,800 people every day. It’s likely that everyone knows someone who has died before their time because of a diet-related disease. You want that to stop, but you don’t know how. Begging and pleading don’t work. The desire to help another person make needed diet changes can often be the desire to save the life of a loved one. But processed food addiction blocks the way.
My mom died of ovarian cancer. I researched for months about it. I wish the ARC Manager Training had been available then. - HR, FARA trainee
Addiction to processed foods is a deep-seated mental condition. This is because the addiction starts so young, sometimes as early as toddlerhood. And, the addiction is stimulated by a daily barrage of advertising, availability, and cheap prices of processed foods. Tobacco-style strategies to reinforce the addiction by maximizing sugar, fat, salt, gluten, dairy, caffeine, and additives in processed foods have been shown to be tragically effective at creating compulsive use. The epidemic of diet-related diseases is similar to the epidemic of smoking-related diseases. The addicted neurons in the brain control compulsive eating behavior. The rational brain has lost control. Once addicted, people literally cannot hear advice, much less act on it.
Friends and family see how much better I look and feel. Before the Training, I couldn't get them started. I know how to make small steps easy so they're able to get better too. - CP, ARC FARA trainee.
Until now, there has been no evidence-based training for people who want to tackle food addiction in loved ones. There has been no evidence-based training in how to break through the deeply rooted addiction to processed foods in another person. More and more people are helplessly watching as loved ones slide deeper and deeper into the consequences of processed foods and often into a devastating early death. This is only because they don’t know how to help another person establish safe food routines.
But everything changed in January 2018, when CRC Press published the textbook, Processed Food Addiction: Foundations, Assessment, and Recovery written/edited by Joan Ifland, PhD. The textbook established the scientific basis for the disease. No one could argue any more that processed food addiction doesn’t exist. No one could argue that the addiction is severe and requires extensive recovery. The textbook contains 2,000 references to studies showing that addictive behaviors are present extensively in overeating. And, it organizes the evidence that specific processed foods are used addictively while unprocessed foods are used naturally.
I'm helping my professional colleagues in nutrition help their clients. I've only been in the Training for a few months but I'm already helping licensed professional improve their practices. - HW, FARA trainee
This is a tremendous breakthrough. Upon publication of the textbook, Dr. Ifland immediately began translating the textbook into practical recovery programs. After five years of testing, the program has been proven. This is the Addiction Reset Community (ARC). We now know how to train advocates for these programs online. The training is affordable so anyone can help others resolve the complexities of processed food addiction. The certification is to become a Food Addiction Recovery Advocate which means that no health license is required. No medical or health background is needed. Your experiences with processed foods are your strongest credential Anyone can train to learn how to save another person from addiction to processed foods and diet-related deaths.
