Are you a junk food junkie? A food addict? Although research is still in its infancy, there is some indication that bingeing on foods high in fat and sugar can cause changes in the brain associated with addiction to drugs.

Powerful short-term sedative and mood-elevating effects of certain foods (especially calorie-dense sweet or fatty foods) cause some people to fall into the trap of using them to avoid experiencing the pain and challenges of everyday life. As with drugs, these foods can become a substitute for unmet needs for love, security, acceptance, or happiness. Snack cakes can become the antidote for loneliness, rejection, abuse, and anger.

Not all people who have emotional problems become addicts, and not all addicts have emotional problems. Addictions more readily occur in individuals who have not learned how to deal with unmet needs in constructive ways. Once those addictions occur, for whatever reason, emotional problems are on the way. By their very nature, addictions are isolating, disabling, and destructive.

Bingeing on these foods can also hijack hormones that govern appetite. New research suggests that large concentrations of sweet and fatty processed foods have powerful effects on hormone signals that control appetite. According to Peter Havel, an endocrinologist at the University of California-Davis, the more fat and fructose from concentrated, processed foods you have in your diet, the less effect certain long-term appetite stabilizing hormones like leptin, insulin, and ghrelin, have on the body.

Fortunately the brain is highly adaptable, and what we learn, we can unlearn. New habits, associations, and choices help reroute neural pathways and establish new connections. Forming positive habits can establish new “neural neighborhoods” to counteract and override dysfunctional ones!

Our creeping corpulence and food fixations may have as much to do with ignorance about what we are eating as any other factor. The good news is that reintroducing nutritious plant foods into the diet can help curb those cravings, satisfy hunger, and break food addictions. They will provide energy, boost your mood, improve your thinking, and help you cope with stress. Hearty whole grains, delicious fresh fruits, plenty of leafy green vegetables, wholesome beans, legumes, nuts, and seeds—these are the delicious alternatives to addicting snack foods.

The next time you feel like you need a candy bar, grab a fresh bowl of strawberries and a few raisins instead, and watch your cravings and extra pounds melt away.

Vicki Griffin is the Michigan Conference health ministries director.