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Food Junkies Podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Clarissa Kennedy
Welcome to the "Food Junkies" podcast! Here we aim to provide you with the experience, strength and hope of professionals actively working on the front lines in the field of Food Addiction. The purpose of our show is to educate YOU the listener and increase overall awareness about Food Addiction as a recognized disorder. Here we discuss all things recovery, exploring the many pathways people take towards abstinence in order to achieve a health forward lifestyle. Most importantly how to THRIVE rather than just survive. The content on our show does not supplement or supersede the professional relationship and direction of your healthcare provider. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified mental health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, substance use disorder or mental health concern.
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- 3 weeks ago48 min
Episode 296: Dr. Patel | Ultra-Processed Food, Screens & Kids' Health – What Actually Works
One in four kids now lives with a chronic health condition. Type 2 diabetes in children rose 60% between 2006 and 2019, and conditions like fatty liver disease are showing up earlier than ever. But kids can also heal remarkably fast, sometimes within weeks or months, when the whole family changes together. In this episode, Clarissa sits down with Dr. Patel, pediatrician, lifestyle medicine physician, and founder and medical director of Reset Pediatric Lifestyle Medicine in Ontario. Dr. Patel shares three real family case studies showing kids reversing pre-diabetes, fatty liver, high cholesterol, and elevated blood pressure. The changes behind those results were simple and practical: changing what came into the house, modeling new habits as parents, and replacing screen time with movement. He also talks about why he considers ultra-processed foods and screens the two biggest risky substances facing kids today, and how he helps parents take responsibility without sinking into blame and shame. In this episode, we discuss: What lifestyle medicine is, and how it goes beyond "eat less, move more" The six pillars: nutrition, restorative sleep, movement, stress resilience, avoiding risky substances, and social connection Why ultra-processed food and screens are the most concerning risks for kids today "Behavior change is simple, but not easy," and how to move from knowing to doing How to invite parental responsibility without shame Case 1: A 14-year-old who turned to food after losing his grandmother. His mom stopped bringing treats into the house, for him and for herself. Case 2: An 11-year-old who became the change agent and started pushing his parents toward healthier choices Case 3: An 8-year-old whose family returned to their traditional Ghanaian bean-based dishes and normalized her cholesterol Why eating in front of a screen can raise intake by up to 60%, and the movie theater popcorn effect Three first steps for busy families this week: screen-free family meals, better sleep routines, and one simple substitution A message for overwhelmed parents: you're not too late Learn more about Dr. Patel and Reset Pediatric Lifestyle Medicine: Rikin Patel | Reset Pediatrics Connect with Food Junkies: foodjunkiespodcast@gmail.com IFACC 2026: The International Food Addiction Children's Conference Protecting Kids from UPF Addiction Starts Now Ultra-processed food addiction doesn't start in adulthood. Prevention can't wait either. On 14 November 2026 (4 PM UK GMT, online), the International Food Addiction and Children's Conference brings together youth ambassadors, researchers, clinicians, and global experts, featuring UNICEF's Fix My Food youth initiative. What you'll get: Real stories from young people leading change The latest science on UPF addiction and early prevention How global food systems shape children's health Practical steps for families, schools, and professionals Your ticket does double duty: all proceeds support Collaboration for Kids and UNICEF's Fix My Food programme. Parents, educators,
- Oct 8, 202639 min
Episode 295: Dr. Thomas Sambrook | Why We Eat When We're Full - Food Cues & the Brain
Why do we keep reaching for food we don't even want? In this episode, Dr. Vera Tarman talks with Dr. Thomas Sambrook, lecturer in psychology at the University of East Anglia, about his research on how the brain responds to food cues within milliseconds, and why that response can keep firing long after we're full. Dr. Sambrook holds two PhDs, one in primatology from the University of St Andrews and one in cognitive neuroscience from the University of Plymouth. His work uses computational modeling and brain-tracking methods to study how we learn habits, make decisions, and respond to reward and punishment, most recently with a focus on primary reinforcers like food and pain. In his latest study, hungry participants learned to work for two foods, one sweet and one savory. Halfway through, they ate their fill of just one. They said they no longer wanted that food, but their brains still produced the same strong reward signal when they saw a cue for it. What we consciously want and what the brain does when it sees a cue can be two very different things. For anyone who has said "I don't even want this, so why am I eating it?", this conversation offers a clear, shame-free explanation rooted in biology. In this episode, we explore: Dr. Sambrook's path from primatology to studying reward, habit, and food What makes a behavior a habit, and where habit ends and addiction begins Devaluation insensitivity, and why it may explain eating in the absence of hunger The brain's reward signal firing just as strongly for a food you're full of as for one you still want Why a cue can be as rewarding as the food itself, and the evolutionary reasons for that Whether advertising and cues could override the "food noise" reduction from GLP-1 medications Why fast, cue-driven responses beat slow, deliberate decisions Incubation of craving, and why it may be a separate route from cue-driven behavior Individual differences in cue reactivity, including possible links to ADHD Why willpower-based "keep it in the cupboard and just resist" approaches tend to fail Policy parallels with tobacco: limiting the advertising and visibility of ultra-processed foods Key takeaways: You can't control the brain's first response to a cue. That response is automatic and inherited from millions of years of evolution. It is not a character flaw. Practice cue hygiene. Remove trigger foods from your environment and limit exposure where you can. In recovery language, this is people, places, and things. Replace the habit; don't just fight it. When a cue hits, redirect the action. Keep a satisfying, healthy alternative within reach, such as an orange that keeps your hands busy. Eat without multitasking. Eating while distracted trains automatic eating. When you eat, just eat. Let go of the shame. Watching yourself eat something you don't want is the old reward machinery at work, not a personal failing. 🔗 Connect with Dr. Sambrook: Thomas Sambrook - University of East Anglia 🔗 Connect with the Food Junkies Podcast: Find us on Apple Music, Spotify, and any other platform where you listen to podcasts. ✉️E
- Sep 24, 202658 min
Episode 294: Luis Mojica | Stimulants, Depressants & Balancers - A New Way to Understand Food Cravings
What if your cravings aren't the problem, but a message? In this episode of the Food Junkies Podcast, we sit down with Luis Mojica, somatic practitioner, nutritionist, and founder of Holistic Life Navigation, to explore how food, trauma, and the nervous system are deeply connected. Luis shares his powerful personal story: growing up intersex, surviving bullying and sexual assault in silence, and turning to food as his only "witness" during 20+ years of binge eating. He describes how a $20 guitar became his first somatic experience, and how that moment sparked a lifelong path into psychology, nutrition, and Somatic Experiencing. We talk about his framework of stimulants, depressants, and balancers, a way of understanding food by how it changes your state rather than whether it's "good" or "bad." We also explore why people in recovery often shift to overeating whole foods, and why shame may be harder to metabolize than any food on the planet. 🎧 In this episode, we discuss: - How unresolved trauma and a dysregulated nervous system can drive food addiction - Why addiction is an attempt to find safety outside of yourself - Stimulants, depressants, and balancers: what they are and how to spot yours - "Volume eating" of whole foods and why it can still be a survival response - How restrictive eating can be a way to escape the body - Why a calm, open body can feel unsafe at first, and how to titrate safety - Conscious choice vs. compulsion: where pleasure fits in recovery - The biology of shame and why it fuels the craving cycle - Active pendulation: a one-minute nervous system practice you can do anywhere - The "roots of your cravings" practice: a gentle way to meet the need beneath the urge - Why food may be the most overlooked tool for nervous system regulation 🔗 Connect with Luis Mojica: Website: https://holisticlifenavigation.com 🔗 Connect with the Food Junkies Podcast: Find us on Apple Music, Spotify, and any other platform where you listen to podcasts. ✉️Email us: foodjunkiespodcast@gmail.com 💜 Looking for support with sugar and ultra-processed food addiction? Sweet Sobriety offers live recovery groups, coaching, and the Foundations Program: Sweet Sobriety: Foundations – https://sweetsobriety.newzenler.com/courses/sweet-sobriety-foundations Sweet Sobriety: Liberation - https://sweetsobriety.newzenler.com/courses/sweet-sobriety-liberation Hosts: Dr. Vera Tarman, Clarissa Kennedy & Molly Painschab ⚠️ Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or nutritional advice. If you are struggling with an eating disorder, addiction, or trauma, please reach out to a qualified healthcare provider. Content includes discussion of sexual assault, bullying, and disordered eating. Viewer discretion is advised. #FoodAddiction #FoodJunkiesPodcast #SomaticHealing #NervousSystemRegulation #FoodAddictionRecovery #UPFUD #TraumaHealing #BingeEating #EmotionalEating #HolisticLifeNavigation
- Sep 21, 202640 min
Food Junkies Recovery Stories Episode 38: Felicia Sussman
Felicia joined CJ today for an incredibly open and honest conversation about recovery, resilience, and the complicated role food played throughout her life. Her story is heartbreaking at times, but it is also filled with strength, perseverance, and hope. For years, food remained intertwined with the recovery she was searching for, keeping her from experiencing the freedom she truly wanted. Felicia shares how she kept moving forward, continued learning, and discovered new ways to care for herself. The contrast between the life she once lived and the energetic, hopeful life she lives today makes her story deeply compelling and inspiring. If you're considering personalized assistance, CJ, a Certified Addiction Professional specializing in Food Addiction, is here for one-on-one coaching. Reach out to CJ at cjnguy@myfoodaddictioncoach.com Interested in sharing your recovery story on our show? We'd love to hear from you! Please email FJRecoverystories@gmail.com 1
- Sep 10, 202647 min
Episode 293: Clinician's Corner | Shame, Shadow & the Parts We Don't Show
Molly and Clarissa sit down for another Clinician's Corner to dig into shadow work — what Carl Jung meant by it, why it's not just a "woo-woo" concept, and why it belongs in food addiction recovery. They talk about the parts of ourselves we learn to hide (anger, desire, ambition, even joy), how those exiled parts often drive the very behaviors we're trying to recover from, and how projection, envy, and even compliments can point us straight to what we've buried. This episode previews the Shadow Work module inside Liberation, Sweet Sobriety's brand-new 10-module program launching this fall. WHAT WE COVER Why Molly built a shadow work module into Liberation, and how it connects to the Shame module covered in a previous episode Carl Jung's quote — "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate" and what it means in practice The iceberg metaphor: the curated 10% we show the world vs. the 90% underneath driving our behavior Where the shadow comes from (genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger) and why this isn't about blaming parents How substance use, food behaviors, and other compulsive patterns often exist to manage and suppress shadow parts Recovery work doesn't make the shadow disappear — and why it can get louder, becoming a high-risk time for return to use Projection: how "accusations are often confessions," and why the people who irritate us most can be mirrors The Golden Shadow — the positive traits (confidence, joy, ambition) we also learn to suppress or deny Why receiving compliments can feel unbearable, and what that has to do with shadow work Envy and jealousy reframed as information rather than something shameful Individuation and integration — Jung's idea that the goal isn't to eliminate these parts, but to become a whole person who can hold all of them How return to use fits into this: not a moral failure, but sometimes a shadow part that hasn't been integrated A personal moment on privilege, shame, and how rejecting a part of ourselves can limit our ability to help others What to expect from the Shadow Work module inside Liberation LIBERATION — SWEET SOBRIETY'S NEW PROGRAM Liberation is the next step after Foundations — a deeper 10-module program covering shadow work, shame, anger, guilt, the inner critic, ADHD and the nervous system, trauma, highly sensitive people, and more. You do not need to have completed Foundations first. Modules release the week of September 21. Live sessions begin October 15 at 1:00–2:30 PM Eastern. Starting price: $400 USD for this first round (early participants help shape the program, same as the first Foundations cohort) Learn more and join us: https://sweetsobriety.newzenler.com/courses/sweet-sobriety-liberation RESOURCES & LINKS Catch our earlier episode on Shame: https://open.spotify.com/episode/44sTxYKeVv7r01wtSKkYtm?si=7557f537d5314ebd Sweet Sobriety Foundations Program: https://sweetsobriety.newzenler.com/courses/sweet-sobriety-foundations Sweet Sobriety website: https://www.sweetsobriety.ca/ Have a topic you want us to cover? Email us: foodjunkiespodcast@gmail.com POLAND 2027: https://fundacjabraciarodzen.pl/products/international-advanced-training-programme?variant=56860764078458 ABOUT FOOD JUNKIES PODCAST Food Junkies is hosted by Dr. Vera Tarman, Clarissa Kennedy, and Molly Painschab, exploring food addiction, ultra-processed food use disorder, and recovery from a clinical, compassionate, and lived-experience perspective. Subscribe for new e
- Aug 27, 202651 min
Episode 292: Lucy Loch | Food Addiction in Older Adults - What New Research Reveals
Why do older women show the highest rates of food addiction, while older men are more likely to meet criteria for alcohol and tobacco use disorder — and why does that gap flip when it comes to weight? In Episode 292, we sit down with Lucy Loch, a doctoral candidate in Psychology at the University of Michigan, to unpack her research on food addiction in older adults and what it reveals about decades of diet culture, marketing, and an under-screened generation. Lucy studies the life course development of addictive-like eating — how early-life experiences and exposure to ultra-processed foods shape appetite, self-regulation, and long-term health outcomes. She's supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, works under Dr. Ashley Gearhardt at the University of Michigan, and her research has appeared in Addiction, Current Obesity Reports, and Physiology & Behavior. In this conversation, we dig into her recent study from the National Poll on Healthy Aging: why older women meet criteria for food addiction at higher rates than older men, why overweight men in the study were 19x more likely to meet criteria (compared to 11x for women), what a small but striking finding on underweight older adults might mean, and why isolation and food addiction may feed each other in a bidirectional loop. We also talk about why food addiction is so often invisible in geriatric medicine, what it would take to get it screened for the way depression and falls already are, and what decades of "low-fat," heavily marketed diet products may have set up for the women who trusted them. This one is for anyone who works with older adults, anyone who's ever been told "just eat healthier," and anyone who's still unlearning the idea that this comes down to willpower. About our guest: Lucy Loch is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the life course development of addictive-like eating, examining how early life experiences and exposure to ultra-processed foods influence appetite, self-regulation, and risk for later-life health outcomes. She is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and works to uncover why certain foods and life experiences may make some individuals more susceptible to overeating. Her work has appeared in journals including Addiction, Current Obesity Reports, and Physiology & Behavior. POLAND 2027: https://fundacjabraciarodzen.pl/products/international-advanced-training-programme?variant=56860764078458 Connect With Us Subscribe to Food Junkies Podcast for new episodes Email us at foodjunkiespodcast@gmail.com The content of our show is educational only. It does not supplement or supersede your healthcare provider's professional relationship and direction. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified mental health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, substance use disorder, or mental health concern.
- Aug 18, 202645 min
Food Junkies Recovery Stories Episode 37: April Oscarson
In this episode, CJ sits down with April for a thoughtful, reflective conversation about recovery. April brings a quiet intentionality to the way she understands healing, growth, and the ongoing work of becoming. Her perspective is introspective, honest, and at times existential, inviting us to slow down and consider what recovery truly asks of us. This conversation has a different rhythm—less about quick answers and more about meaningful questions, self-awareness, and the space between where we have been and who we are becoming. April's calm presence reminds us that recovery can be both deeply personal and profoundly transformative. If you're considering personalized assistance, CJ, a Certified Addiction Professional specializing in Food Addiction, is here for one-on-one coaching. Reach out to CJ at cjnguy@myfoodaddictioncoach.com Interested in sharing your recovery story on our show? We'd love to hear from you! Please email FJRecoverystories@gmail.com
- Aug 13, 202650 min
Episode 291: Dr. Matt Bernstein, MD | Metabolic Psychiatry, Ketosis, and Food Addiction
Can changing what you eat treat depression, anxiety, and even psychosis more effectively than medication alone? In this episode of Food Junkies, Dr. Vera Tarman sits down with Dr. Matt Bernstein, MD, psychiatrist and CEO of Accord, to unpack the emerging field of metabolic psychiatry — and what it means for people recovering from food addiction. Dr. Bernstein trained at Columbia, Penn, and the MGH-McLean Psychiatry Program before shifting from traditional hospital-based psychiatric care toward lifestyle-based interventions: nutrition, sleep, light, and movement. He now serves on the advisory board of Metabolic Mind and helped organize the first public conference on metabolic psychiatry in 2023. In this conversation, Dr. Bernstein and Dr. Tarman explore how brain energy metabolism — not just neurotransmitters — may be a root driver of conditions like depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's, and why ketogenic and low-carbohydrate approaches are showing early but compelling results for food cravings, food noise, and psychiatric symptom relief. In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why Dr. Bernstein moved away from conventional psychiatric medication models toward metabolic approaches How brain insulin resistance can contribute to depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia The role of mitochondria, oxidative stress, and the gut-brain axis in mental illness How ketones act as an alternative brain fuel — and why that matters for insulin-resistant neurons The connection between brain insulin resistance and Alzheimer's risk decades before symptoms appear How ketogenic and low-carb diets naturally reduce food cravings and "food noise" for people with food addiction What a day in the Accord immersive metabolic psychiatry program actually looks like Why combining diet, exercise, circadian rhythm alignment, and mind-body practices produces faster results than any single intervention alone How GLP-1 medications compare to ketogenic diets for reducing food noise and cravings — and where each may fall short The risks of rapid or unsupported psychiatric medication tapering, and why "hyperbolic tapering" matters What to watch for (and troubleshoot) if a ketogenic diet isn't producing results after several weeks Guest Dr. Matt Bernstein, MD is a psychiatrist and CEO of Accord, an immersive metabolic psychiatry program near Boston. He is a leading voice in metabolic psychiatry, sits on the advisory board of Metabolic Mind, and helped organize the first public conference dedicated to the field in 2023. Connect with Dr. Matt Bernstein & Accord Website: https://accordmh.com/ Releasing What's Not Ours: Healing Food & Body Struggles Through IFS with Vanessa Kredler 👉Learn more here: https://sweetsobriety.newzenler.com/courses/releasing-whats-not-ours Connect with Food Junkies 🎧 Subscribe for new episodes 🌐 Learn more about food addiction recovery at <a href= "https://www.sweetsobriety.ca/" target="_blank"
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About Food Junkies Podcast
Welcome to the "Food Junkies" podcast! Here we aim to provide you with the experience, strength and hope of professionals actively working on the front lines in the field of Food Addiction. The purpose of our show is to educate YOU the listener and increase overall awareness about Food Addiction as a recognized disorder. Here we discuss all things recovery, exploring the many pathways people take towards abstinence in order to achieve a health forward lifestyle. Most importantly how to THRIVE rather than just survive. The content on our show does not supplement or supersede the professional relationship and direction of your healthcare provider. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified mental health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, substance use disorder or mental health concern.
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