Weight Loss Surgery Podcast - Bariatric / Lap Band / Rygb / Gastric Bypass / Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy

In this episode I talk with food addiction expert Dr Vera Tarman. Dr Tarman has been working in the field of addiction medicine since 1994 and has been the director of Renascent, an addiction treatment center in Toronto, Canada since 2006. Although she works full-time in all areas of addiction, her particular passion is helping people recover from food addiction. She is the author of the book, “Food Junkies: Recovery from Food Addiction” now in its second edition. We cover a lot of ground in this episode including discussing eating behaviors on a spectrum from normal eating to different types of eating disorders. Then we talk about the similarities and differences between what Dr Tarman identifies as three distinct disease states: Obesity, Emotional Eating, and Chemical Addiction to food. We then focus-in on chemical addiction to food, specifically foods that are created in labs, are highly processed, and are specifically formulated to target the reward centers of our brains. When the reward center in our bra