Food Addiction Screening

1. Are you intensely afraid of becoming fat?

2. Do you feel fat even when others say you are thin or emaciated?

3. Do you like to shop for food and cook for others but prefer not to eat the meals you make?

4. Do you have eating rituals (for example, cutting food into tiny bites, eating only certain foods in a certain order at a particular time of day?

5. Have you lost 25 percent of you minimum body weight through diets and fasts?

6. When you feel hungry, do you usually refrain from eating?

7. If you are a female of childbearing age, have you stopped having menstrual periods?

8. Do you often experience cold hands and feet, dry skin, or cracked fingernails?

9. Do you have a covering of fuzzy hair over your body?

10. Do you often feel depressed, guilty, angry, or inadequate?

11. When people express concern about your low weight, do you deny that anything is wrong?

12. Do you often exercise strenuously or for long periods of time even when you feel tired or sick?

13. Have you ever eaten a large amount of food and then fasted, forced yourself to vomit, or used laxatives to purge yourself?

14. Are you frequently on a rigid diet?

15. Do you regularly experience stomachaches or constipation?

16. Do you eat large quantities of food in a short period of time, usually high-calorie, simple-carbohydrate foods that can be easily ingested (for example, bread, pasta, cake, cookies, ice cream, or mashed potatoes)?

17. Do you eat in secret, hide food, or lie about your eating?

18. Have you ever stolen food or money to buy food so that you could start or continue a binge?

19. Do you feel guilt and remorse about your eating behavior?

20. Do you start eating even when you are not hungry?

21. Is it hard for you to stop eating even when you want to?

22. Do you eat to escape problems, to relax, or to have fun?

23. After finishing a meal, do you worry about making it to the next meal without getting hungry in between?

24. Have others expressed concern about your obsession with food?

25. Do you worry that you might be a food addict?

26. Do you fall asleep after eating?

27. Do you regularly fast, use laxatives or diet pills, induce vomiting, or exercise excessively to avoid gaining weight?

28. Does your weight fluctuate 10 pounds or more from alternate binging and purging?

29. Are your neck glands swollen?

30.Do you have scars on the back of your hands from forced vomiting?

Scoring: Five or more yes answers within any of the following three groups of questions strongly suggest the presence of a food addiction: questions 1-15, anorexia nervosa; questions 14-26, binge eating; questions 12-30, bulimia.

Getting Help: If you think you may be a food addict, chances are you’ve kept your fears to yourself for a long time. Asking for help takes courage, but it’s worth the risk. Admitting your problems to yourself and to others who share your problem will give you a great sense of relief.

These questions are for screening purposes only and should not be used in place of a professional evaluation.

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