Further, obesity is often a result of addiction, known as Binge Eating Disorder. According to the Binge Eating Disorder Association (2011), this problem affects more than eight million men and women and accounts for three times the number of those diagnosed with anorexia and bulimia together.

Coaching and counseling are among the most affective ways of treating this disease because it can take into account the individual’s sense of alienation, secretiveness and lack of information. And there are no ifs ands or buts on the subject of food addiction: it is as real as cocaine or alcohol addiction and, in fact, affects exactly the same pleasure/impulse control centers of the brain as recognized drugs. This is especially true of what David Kessler calls hyperpalatable foods — foods dense in calories from sugar/fat/salt. Oxford University Press has just published the medical textbook on the subject: Food and Addiction: A Comprehensive Handbook, edited by Kelly D. Brownwell & Mark S. Gold. And I’ve just published the first holistic approach to food addiction, The Hunger Fix, which is based on that cutting edge science.