Food: The Most Overlooked addiction

A Culture of Food Obsession

In today’s world, food has moved far beyond sustenance. Entire industries are built not only on providing nourishment but on cultivating desire:

• Restaurants on every corner, promising endless options.

• Food delivery services from both restaurants and supermarkets, making indulgence only a tap away.

• Marketing campaigns glamorizing snacks, desserts, and fast food.

• A cultural rhythm of three (or more) large meals a day, often consumed mindlessly.

Yet despite the abundance, only a small percentage of people consistently maintain a truly healthy diet. Much of what we eat is processed, chemically altered, or filled with sugar and additives that hijack our brain chemistry. In this way, food has quietly become society’s most widespread addiction  ~ normalized, celebrated, and rarely challenged.

Food as a Coping Mechanism

For many, food is more than fuel; it’s comfort, distraction, or escape. We eat when stressed, lonely, bored, or anxious. Rather than facing the root of these emotions, food is used to cover them ~ temporarily soothing but never truly healing. Like other addictions, it works by numbing or suppressing what we don’t want to feel.

Why Fasting Feels So Hard

When one chooses to fast ~ whether on Yom Kippur or otherwise ~ the body and mind protest. Why?

• Withdrawal: Without constant intake, blood sugar drops and the brain’s reward system, conditioned by sugar and carbs, panics.

• Emotions Surface: The feelings usually buried under food (loneliness, sadness, anxiety) rise to the surface. This can be uncomfortable, even overwhelming.

• Loss of Control: Eating often gives the illusion of control. Fasting removes that crutch, forcing us to rely on God or deeper sources of strength.

In reality, the difficulty of fasting is not just physical hunger ~ it’s the exposure of our dependence on food as an emotional and spiritual cover.

The Spiritual Opportunity

Torah calls fasting a way of humbling the soul (Leviticus 16:29–31). It strips away illusions, revealing how fragile we are and how dependent we’ve become on the wrong things. By fasting, even briefly, we see how much power food has gained over us ~ and how much we need to return that power to God.

The Sabbath gives us weekly rest; fasting offers us a sharper mirror. Both remind us: our lives are not sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes from God (Deuteronomy 8:3).

✨ In short: Food may be the number one addiction in modern society because it hides in plain sight — disguised as necessity, celebrated as culture, and rarely questioned. Fasting unmasks this, showing us what lies beneath. The challenge is real, but so is the gift: an opportunity to break chains, confront hidden truths, and reorient our hunger toward the One who truly satisfies.