Recognise food addiction as a disease

Recognise food addiction as a disease

Started
27 May 2021
Signatures: 122Next Goal: 200
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Why this petition matters

Started by Amanda Duggan

The western world is in the middle of the biggest threat to health that it has ever experienced. Over 500 BILLION dollars is spent each and every day on obesity related illnesses in the USA alone and in the UK we spend £6 billion per annum for such a smaller population.  Yet the same governments that are paying that bill will not accept that Food Addiction is a real phenomena, they still believe it is purely the choice of the individual.

However, when you are driven by uncontrollable physical and mental cravings you are completely powerlessness to stop yourself. Maybe you can 2, 3 or 4 times, even 100 for some people with very strong willpower, but eventually there comes a time when you cannot. You just have to have the food. That is not choice, that is powerlessness, the food has the power over you and not the other way round.
 

And one does not even need to be obese to be in this cycle of food dependency, all that means is that the consequences of the addiction are not as obvious or apparent yet. However, it is a downward spiral, it never ever gets better it only ever gets progressively worse. So the chances are that in the group of your 10 closest friends and family at least 80% of them are food dependent to some degree and approximately 50% of children under the age of 16 are already on that rollercoaster too.

When I say food dependent, I do not mean dependent on the food that we all need to live, I mean dependent on sugar, flour and highly processed foods to such an extent that when they cut down or stop they will suffer withdrawal symptoms and uncontrollable cravings and food obsessions to make it incredibly difficult not to continue eating these food. Plus the tolerance to these foods increases over time, meaning that they will gradually need more and more of these foods to stop these withdrawal reactions. Shocking!!


WE NEED TO STOP THIS!


We need to stop this; we need to take charge; we need to stand up and be counted and stop this not just for our own longevity and health but for that of our children and future generations.

The first point of call is to get Food Addiction recognised as the chronic disease that it is. Chronic means that once you have it, you can never eradicate it. That the only way to put it into remission is to stop eating the foods that you are addicted to. 

If we can get this recognised as the chronic illness it is, then we can get funding for people to be treated and supported.

Once we can get this acknowledged then we can lobby parliament to  say NO to added sugar, ultra refined flour and highly processed foods that have been created purely to get us addicted to them so the large corporations can continue to make more money out of all of us whilst we eat ourselves to death. So that we can STOP our next generations from 'catching' this chronic disease before it is too late.

Please help us by signing this petition today to recognise Food Addiction as the chronic disease that it is and to allow people to realise that it is not their fault that they are powerless over these substances, to get the support they need to help themselves and their families.

Thank you

Amanda Jane Duggan
Food Addiction Professional and recovered food addict

 

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Signatures: 122Next Goal: 200
Support now
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