January 3, 2015: Buffalo News Refresh Blog
REFRESH BUFFALO BLOG
These WNYers decided cutting out flour, sugar was the best way to live
By Scott Scanlon | News Refresh Editor
January 3, 2015
It wasn’t easy for several Western New Yorkers to walk into their first meeting of Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous.
It came after trying to lose weight – and feel better – after going through one failed try after another to stop binging on unhealthy food that made them feel lethargic at best, and depressed at worst.
These folks understand that those unfamiliar with the group might believe Food Addicts in Recovery to be too extreme. Too regimental. Too sacrificial.
They agreed to open one of their meetings to me last week – as long as I did not use names or too much identifying information – because they wanted to give people a look into what they consider their nutritional salvation.
The group – based on the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous – meets at 7 p.m. Mondays at Christ United Methodist Church in Amherst, the same time Wednesdays in Room 3043 at Kenmore Mercy Hospital, and 6:30 p.m. Thursdays in Room 109 of the Hamburg Wesleyan Church. For more information, visit foodaddicts.org.
Here’s what they believe: their lives had become unmanageable because of the way they ate, and by sticking with a strict eating plan – and getting help from fellow group members and a higher power – they have been able to break what they consider an addiction that has cost them dearly: an addiction to flour and sugar.
A significant number of people around the world – the group isn’t sure how many – are addicted to these two basic food ingredients, Food Addicts members told me.
Those in the group say their addiction means that consuming even small amounts of flour and sugar causes them to binge eat.
They consider their actions “a disease of the mind, body and spirit.”
They’ve packed on weight, generally felt worn out, become depressed and – in some cases – chronically ill. The group has helped them discover that they are far better off eating meals centered on vegetables, lean proteins and healthy fats.
“Be fearless and thorough from the very start,” group members are encouraged during the start of meetings.
That includes weighing and measuring all foods they eat, keeping a food journal, and reaching out to a group sponsor and other supporters whenever the going gets tough.
Food Addicts in Recovery so closely follows Alcoholics Anonymous that during meetings, they read the major tenets of that group. They talk about giving control over to a “loving God” who can help them deal with their addiction.
Like AA, books, CDs and pamphlets help provide members with advice and support.
“Food addiction is a disease of isolation,” group members are told. That’s why “we call (another member) before we take another bite.”
Writing is considered “an indispensable tool” when dealing with abstinence from flour and sugar. Those who fall off the wagon are given empathy but, during a portion of the meeting, only of those who have abstained for 90 days or more may address the group. When each is finished talking, no clapping is allowed.
The group I visited, by invitation of the members, included men and women of all ages, shapes and backgrounds.
A female member tells her story today in What are you Eating? in WNY Refresh. “We aren’t experts but we do have experience,” she told me during a break in the meeting.
Other group members also were willing to share. Here’s what they said:
One member who joined in February said she has since lost 31 pounds.
“I like the program,” she said. “I have plenty to eat. I’m not hungry anymore.”
Another woman said she wanted to bolt when she heard that the main dictate of the anonymous group was no sugar or flour.
She said she weighed 295.8 pounds when she joined in August 2013 and now weighs 130.5.
“I’ve kept it off,” she said, “and it’s just been a miracle.”
She said she has an addictive personality, and also attended another 12-step program.
It didn’t help that she was chubbier than her sister growing up, a fact that older family members often pointed out. She was bulimic as a teen and became overweight as an adult because food became an obsession and compulsion.
“I dealt with a lot of feelings growing up,” the woman said. “Food was a comfort to me.”
Since finding Food Addicts, she said, the physical benefits are considerable – “but that’s nothing compared to the serenity I have.”
“I need all of you,” she told those gathered, “and my higher power, which is God.”
Another woman spoke next. When she joined the organization a little more than six years ago, she was 49 years old and weighed 196.6 pounds.
“I have released 80 pounds since,” she said. “I say ‘release’ because if I lose my car keys I want to find them. I don’t want to find those 80 pounds.”
Today, the 5-foot-4-inch woman weighs 114.0 pounds, she said. She’s attended meetings with as many as 150 others in California and as few as three others elsewhere.
“I’ve met people from all over the world,” she said. “It’s a wonderful thing, this network of people.” The woman said she didn’t understand growing up that flour and sugar were “mind-altering substances” – a reference to recent research at the University at Buffalo and elsewhere that sugar appears to turn on the pleasure center in the brain.
She needs the structure of Food Addicts in Recovery, she said, “and now my life is coming together.”
The woman said she has become a better friend, family member and member of her synagogue since joining the group.
“I came for the vanity, to lose the weight,” she said, “but I stay for the sanity.”
A man with kids in college also spoke. He joined the group three years ago this month and weighed 215 pounds at the time.
He expected everyone at his first meeting would be overweight, he said, and at first thought he was in the wrong room. He understands more now – and today weighs 163 pounds.
“I realize that this is an illness, just like alcoholism is an illness,” he told the group.
He said he struggled to find his ideal weight even though he worked out three times a week at the gym, and since has discovered that diet is more important than exercise when it comes to carrying a healthy weight.
He decided to come to his first meeting after a friend died, and he was more interested in what would be served at the funeral luncheon than the funeral itself. His wife, in despair, told him not to return to the buffet line for a third time that afternoon.
“I wasn’t paying attention,” he said. “I was doing what I wanted to do.”
He talked about having an insatiable appetite at that time when it came to food, money and love. In that pursuit, he said, he “wasn’t weighing” his time with his children. “I’ve learned to eat slowly,” he said. “My meals are a spiritual event.” He’s also learned to appreciate the group.
“I’ve realized our whole behavior has changed,” he said, “by putting different foods into our bodies.”
