The Hunger Fix: The Three-Stage Detox and Recovery Plan for Overeating and Food Addiction

Food addiction is real. Our body's built-in reward system, driven by the chemical dopamine, tells us to do things that give us pleasure: Creative energy, falling in love, entrepreneurship—even the continued procreation of the human race—are driven by this system. Unfortunately, so is the urge to overeat.

In The Hunger Fix, Dr. Pam Peeke uses the latest neuroscience to explain how, with repeated exposure coupled with life stresses, any food can become a "False Fix" and ensnare you in a vicious cycle of food obsession, overeating, and addiction. Indeed, she shows that dopamine rushes in the body can work exactly the same way with food as with drugs like cocaine.

Luckily, this very same system can be easily rewired to reward us with a healthy, happy, and fulfilling life. The Hunger Fix lays out a science-based three-stage plan that shows us how to break our addiction to False Fixes and replace them with healthier rewards. Fun fitness activities, customized meal plans, and delicious, satisfying recipes are designed to trigger the specific neurochemical cascade that stimulates your body's reward system, reclaims your hijacked brain, and supports your lifelong recovery. Energizing Healthy Fixes such as meditating, having sex, writing your own blog, or going for a walk on the beach—even laughing—quickly replace the junk food, couch time, and other self-destructive habits that can leave you unhappy and overweight.

Packed with practical tips, useful advice, and plenty of wit, wisdom, and inspiring stories of those who have successfully transformed their bodies, The Hunger Fix is a lifechanging program for anyone (of any size) trapped by food obsessions and the urge to overeat.

Pam Peeke MD, MPH, FACP is the New York Times bestselling author of Body for Life for Women, Fight Fat after Forty, and Fit to Live. Dr. Peeke is a Pew Scholar in nutrition and metabolism, assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Maryland, and a nationally recognized expert in nutrition, fitness and public health. She is WebMD's lifestyle expert, host of Discovery Health TV's Could You Survive and spokesperson for the American College of Sports Medicine's Exercise is Medicine global initiative.