Addictions are considered to be a mental illness because addicts continue to harm themselves with addictive substances even though they’re aware that using addictive substances is destructive. Until you understand addiction, you will come up with all kinds of reasons why the person continues the destructive behavior. Even experts will tell you that the person is self-sabotaging.  Or, they have unresolved childhood issues.  Or they continue to eat destructively because they hate themselves. 

I came across a quote about the Addiction Reset Community from Rob Lustig. You’ve probably heard of Robert Lustig.  His YouTube lecture on sugar has been watched over 8 million times as of this writing.  He wrote Fat Chance about why we can’t lose weight.  He also wrote The Hacking of the American Mind about how multiple addictions are making us sad.  Screens, processed foods, and loneliness are at the top of his list of sources of widespread depression in our culture.  

Here’s his quote about the Addiction Reset Community: 

It’s rare to find someone who is as knowledgeable as Dr. Joan Ifland in the field of food addiction. Her textbook, Processed Food Addiction: Foundations, Assessment, and Recovery, provides the most extensive literature review on the subject – a valuable resource.  I’m also impressed with her work engaging online communities consisting of people suffering from food addiction. Dr. Ifland makes the case for processed food addiction using the science.

What does this mean to the FARA Certification?

I’ve talked with Dr. Lustig for hours about our shared vision that brains in westernized cultures are being bombarded and conditioned to crave mercilessly by corporate addiction marketing scientists.  The keys in Dr. Lustig’s quote are the value of the literature review which means the collection of studies showing the depth of the addiction. The studies used to write the textbook are so numerous that the conclusions are airtight.

Using the science means we have clear direction now about what’s really going on in eating.  Addictions are confusing enough even when it’s clear that addictive drugs are being abused.  But in the case of food addiction, the addictive drugs are cleverly disguised as food and the confusion runs rampant.  ‘Using the science’ breaks through the confusion and lays bare the reality that Big Tobacco has secretly addicted us to sugar, fat, and salt in the same way that millions were secretly addicted to the nicotine in cigarettes.

Current members of the Addiction Reset Community really appreciate the scientific explanations for why their behavior is driven the way it is.  Now they know they’re not crazy, weak, lazy, or self-sabotaging.  They just have addicted neurons that have been taught to react in specific, albeit destructive ways.  ARC Members learn that by taking specific actions, they can reprogram those neurons to behave in a protective way.  What a relief after years of being treated with disdain for having a disease they didn’t ask for and failing to respond to programs that never could have worked.