Скачать или смотреть Food Junkies Podcast: Eating Disorders - Food Addiction, What IS the Difference? w Dr Cynthia Bulik

Eating Disorders? Food Addiction? What is the difference?
Welcome to the Food Junkies Podcast. My name is Dr Vera Tarman and I am your cohost today, along with Clarrisa Kennedy. Today we are speaking with Dr Cynthia Bulik, who presents a radical view of eating disorders - one that might give us common ground to work together.
Dr. Cynthia Bulik is a clinical psychologist and one of the world's leading experts on eating disorders. She is the Founding Director of the University of North Carolina Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders and also the founder director of the Centre for Eating Disorders Innovation at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Dr. Bulik is Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders in the Department of Psychiatry at UNC, Professor of Nutrition in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Professor of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet.
Dr Bulik has received numerous awards for her pioneering work, including Lifetime Achievement Awards from the National Eating Disorders Association, the Academy for Eating Disorders, and the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics. such as the Eating Disorders Coalition Research Award, the Academy for Eating Disorders Leadership Award for Research, and the National Eating Disorders Association Lifetime Achievement Award. She has written over 600- 750 scientific papers, and several books aimed at educating the public about eating disorders.
Currently, Dr. Bulik's focus is in the reconceptualization of eating disorders as being a psycho-metabolic metabo-psychiatric diseases. Food Junkies is keen to explore this interest in how metabolic disease plays a role in disordered eating: can this construct be the common ground to start to understand the muddy waters between eating disorders and food addiction?

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
💡 The Myth of Choice: Why anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating are not willful acts, but biologically driven conditions with strong genetic roots.
🧬 The Metabo-Psychiatric Model: Dr. Bulik's innovative framework showing how genetic and metabolic pathways interact to shape eating disorder vulnerability.
⚖️ The Energy Balance Switch: Why people with anorexia feel better in a state of starvation—and how this paradox rewrites what we thought we knew.
📈 New Genetic Discoveries: How genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are uncovering shared and distinct risk factors for anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder—and possibly food addiction.
🔄 The Overlap with Addiction: Where eating disorders and food addiction intersect—and why treatment needs to consider both psychological and nutritional healing.
🧠 Recovery Isn’t Just Psychological: Why intuitive eating and one-size-fits-all treatment plans may not work for everyone—and what truly individualized care could look like.
🧭 Hope Through Science: How understanding the biology behind disordered eating can reduce shame, validate lived experience, and open new doors for healing.

🔗 Topics Touched:
Why abstinence-based recovery may be life-saving for some—and harmful for others
The risk of relapse tied to negative energy balance and undernourishment
What we can learn from addiction recovery in developing dual-diagnosis programs
The danger of renourishing with ultra-processed foods
ARFID, orthorexia, and the need for diagnostic nuance
The promise of personalized treatment using genetic risk profiles

💬 A Quote to Remember:
“Recovery from an eating disorder is an uphill battle against your biology. It’s not a lack of willpower—it’s a metabolic and psychiatric legacy that deserves compassion and understanding.”

Be a part of Cynthia's Research: https://edgi2.org/
Follow Cynthia: https://www.cynthiabulik.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.