My father has been on my mind a lot this week in conjunction with this blog. He passed away a week ago Monday, and so it has been a rough two weeks. In addition, his major ailment was diabetes; otherwise know as the food addiction disease.
Now as a child and young adult, I never knew of the profound link between diabetes and food cravings or food addiction. In fact, I never knew there was such a thing as food addiction. And my dad and I used to have a grand old time, sharing food and laughs. We liked ice-cream, cookies, donuts, and soda, and there was always a treat involved in a trip to the store with my dad.
One of the ways my dad and I bonded was through food, and there was no question about it.
But as my dad grew older and I began to learn about food addiction I began to wonder, was it really worth it? Could eating all of those 'goodies' for a lifetime really be worth spending your declining years listless in a chair, unable to walk, see, sing, or even swallow. And wouldn't the 'something special' my dad and I had together still have been as strong even without our constant binging on sweets.
And one could arguably say that he starved himself to death in the final weeks of not even being able to eat.
So what can the rest of us take from this whole experience? There is no question that it is not easy to live without eating sugar, wheat and flour- and a whole other host of potentially addictive foods. Food manufacturers flood every known box, bottle, and can on grocery store shelves with all manner of these substances- and it is nearly impossible to find packaged food without it. For me personally it took a lot of work and planning- but I lived a full seven years with no traces of these ingredients in my body. None, that is, except a piece of fruit twice a day. Interestingly, it also takes about seven years for all the cells in a human being to replace themselves- though I was not thinking of this at the time. These days I live mostly craving-free, possibly because all of my addicted cells have been replaced.
During the week after my dad's death I did partake in some of the typical no-nos. I had some ketchup, which contains sugar. I had a few onion rings. My family, now used to a whole new me, was shocked. I feel that perhaps it was just my yearning to once again feel some comfort in food, as if my dad were back with me. But I know I tread on dangerous waters, and I don't suggest you try it- especially if you still have most of your old, addicted cells.
So where does that leave us, as masses of us still experience cravings that seem almost debilitating and as we step closer and closer to a slow, dehumanizing decline like the one my dad experienced. The first step is to learn about food addiction and how it operates, one person at a time. And we hope that the more people that learn about it, the more we will be able to find healthy, tasty, and non-addicting foods in the grocery store. Right now, it seems to be a bit of an uphill climb to find and eat non-addicting foods. But today I feel healthy, and vibrant, and fully alive- which is more than I can say for all of the years when I ate all that stuff. And I honor my dad's love by not going down the road that he did. And my father was an amazingly loving man, so I am sure he would have wanted that for me.
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