Is it addiction, or is it something else wearing the same symptoms?

Episode 21 opens the final section of A Psychology of Food, The Self, by taking on the food addiction debate directly, then following the thread into the binge-restrict cycle and the cheat day culture that keeps it spinning.

What you'll learn in this episode:

● The 2025 research proposing "Ultra-Processed Food Use Disorder" as a diagnosis, what the Yale Food Addiction Scale actually measures, and why researchers are still divided on the question

● Why food doesn't fit the abstinence model every other addiction framework is built on, and what that means for anyone who has felt like they don't fit the label

● The four stages of the binge-restrict cycle: restriction, craving, bingeing, and guilt, and why each stage sets up the next

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