food addiction, one more time

This has always been an elusive thing, but these days, thanks to the internet, it's available online if you know what to look for. It's a slightly modified version of OA's classic Greysheet, the original foundation of physical recovery in Overeaters Anonymous. It is low carb, grain and sugar free. Is it healthy? Its critics would say no, but for real food addicts, it can mean freedom from the addiction and thus of bingeing and crazy eating.

Here's a version of the Cambridge Greysheet, along with one addict's experience with food addiction, and Kay Sheppard's food addict recovery plan.

All of these plans have one thing in common: the elimination of sugar. At some point in the late '80s, the HOW plan started adding a serving or two of grains. My longest period of abstinence in OA ~ several years ~ was the result of a surrender to eating the original Greysheet. No sugar, no grains. There is an indescribable and unbelievable-'til-you're-in-it freedom in getting clean from the foods my body can't ever seem to tolerate.

The M&M Diet I wrote about last summer was one of my continual efforts (at a shrink's urging) to include sugar in my daily life in an effort to somehow moderate that drug and control its effects on my body.

It is sad and ironic and it seems so wasteful that 25 years after my first awareness of the absolute freedom that comes from eating this way, I am still debating, considering, looking at and trying other options. If that is not classic evidence of addiction, I don't know what it is. Anything but giving up the drug. Anything.