Food Junkies

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Food Junkies

The Food Junkies Podcast evolved from the book. Each week, Vera Tarman, Clarrissa Kennedy, and Molly Painschab connect with scientists, Food Addiction clinicians, authors, and recovering Food Addicts to share fresh insights and tackle emerging debates.

Food Junkies Podcast: the Six Year Folllowup of Bright Line Eating with Susan Peirce Thompson, 2026

How successful is Bright Line Eating with food addiction control and weight loss? Listen to this interview with Food Junkies team and Dr Susan Peirce Thompson

A quick announcement from ...the Food Junkies team: For the first time, we're moving to a new release schedule — new episodes every other week, still featuring one Recovery Story each month. We'll share more about this decision in our next Clinician's Corner. Whether you've been with us from the beginning or just found us, thank you. This is also the perfect time to dive into our archive of hundreds of conversations with experts, clinicians, researchers, and people with lived experience. Our next episode launches on July 17th.

About Today's Guest
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson is a cognitive psychologist with expertise in the psychology of eating and the founder and CEO of Bright Line Eating, a global program for abstinence-based recovery from ultra-processed food addiction and long-term weight management. She is an adjunct associate professor in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester and the author of Bright Line Eating, ReZoom, On This Bright Day, The Official Bright Line Eating Cookbook, and her newest book, Maintain.

In 2025, Susan published a study in Frontiers in Psychiatry reporting six-year outcomes from the Bright Line Eating program that suggest an abstinence-based food addiction recovery approach can support clinically meaningful, long-term weight loss.

In This Episode
Vera and Clarissa sit down with Susan to unpack her research, her personal recovery story, and the deeper psychology of maintenance. Topics include:

Susan's journey from drug addiction to food addiction recovery — and why she found the food harder to quit
How Bright Line Eating began, and why so many people won't walk into a 12-step room
The honest story behind ReZoom: Susan's own break-and-resume cycles while leading a recovery movement
The six-year follow-up study: methodology, sample, limitations, and what the numbers actually show
How outcomes compare to published GLP-1 (semaglutide) data at long-term follow-up
Why simply learning about the addictiveness of sugar and flour may "inoculate" people against further weight gain
The four Bright Lines: sugar, flour, meals, quantities
Who did best at six years — and the surprising role of morning accountability calls
GLP-1 medications in food addiction recovery: Susan's "pro-choice" stance, the promise, the unknowns, and why we shouldn't pathologize medication for a brain-based disease
The tension between weight loss outcomes and addiction symptom recovery — and protecting listeners in larger bodies who are doing everything "right"
Lipedema: the under-recognized condition affecting an estimated 11% of women that doesn't respond to dietary intervention
The three identity shifts in Maintain: becoming devoted, resourced, and liberated
Grief work: why letting go of foods (and food-centered traditions) is a real loss that deserves real mourning
Finish-line anxiety and the fear of liberation — who am I without the food and weight struggle?
Willpower, habit stacking, and designing a life that works even on your worst day
What's next for Susan: an alternative memoir about the dopamine-dominant brain
Connect with Susan Peirce Thompson

Website: https://brightlineeating.com
Books: Bright Line Eating, ReZoom, On This Bright Day, The Official Bright Line Eating Cookbook, and Maintain
The Food Junkies Podcast

Hosted by Dr. Vera Tarman, Clarissa Kennedy, and Molly Painschab — real conversations about food addiction, recovery, and the science that supports both.

✉️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.Show More

Food Junkies Podcast: the Six Year Folllowup of Bright Line Eating with Susan Peirce Thompson, 2026

How successful is Bright Line Eating with food addiction control and ...

Episode 287 | Dr. Jason Fung - Is Fasting Safe for the Food Addict?

In this episode, Dr. Vera Tarman sits down with world-renowned ...

In this episode, Dr. Vera Tarman sits down with world-renowned nephrologist, researcher, and New York Times bestselling author Dr. Jason Fung to explore one of the most pressing questions in ...the food addiction community: Is fasting safe for the food addict?

Dr. Fung's latest book, The Hunger Code: Resetting Your Body's Fat Thermostat in the Age of Ultra-Processed Food, challenges the calorie-centric model of obesity and offers a deeper, more honest look at why we eat the way we do — and what it actually takes to change.

In this episode, you'll hear:

•Why the calories in/calories out model fails — and what the hormonal model of obesity actually means
•The three types of hunger driving overeating: homeostatic, hedonic, and conditioned hunger — and why the social and emotional components may account for 90% of our eating behavior
•How ultra-processed foods are engineered to hijack the brain's reward system — and why that matters for food addicts
•The difference between fasting and starvation — and why the mindset behind fasting changes everything
•The dangers of using fasting as a punishment after a binge — and how to use it safely and intentionally instead
•Why a low-carb, higher-fat diet makes fasting more sustainable for people coming out of binge cycles
•Dr. Fung's honest take on GLP-1 medications like Ozempic — the benefits, the limitations, and why they're not the whole answer
•What Japan and Italy get right about eating culture that the U.S. has lost
•Why public policy — not just personal willpower — must be part of the solution to ultra-processed food addiction

About Dr. Jason Fung:

Dr. Jason Fung is a Toronto-based nephrologist and one of the world's leading experts on therapeutic fasting and low-carb nutrition. He is the bestselling author of The Obesity Code, The Diabetes Code, The Cancer Code, and his newest release, The Hunger Code. He is also the co-founder of The Fasting Method, a coaching program helping people reverse obesity and type 2 diabetes through hormonal and lifestyle approaches.

🔗 Learn more at thefastingmethod.com

The Food Junkies Podcast is hosted by Dr. Vera Tarman, Molly Painschab, and Clarissa Kennedy — dedicated to exploring the science, stories, and solutions behind ultra-processed food use disorder.

🎙️ Subscribe, rate, and review wherever you listen to podcasts.
✉️ 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.Show More

Food Junkies Podcast: Is Fasting Safe for the Food Addict? with Dr Jason Fung, 2026

Is fasting safe for the food addict? In this episode, Dr. Vera Tarman ...

Is fasting safe for the food addict?
In this episode, Dr. Vera Tarman sits down with world-renowned nephrologist, researcher, and New York Times bestselling author Dr. Jason Fung to explore ...one of the most pressing questions in the food addiction community: Is fasting safe for the food addict?

Dr. Fung's latest book, The Hunger Code: Resetting Your Body's Fat Thermostat in the Age of Ultra-Processed Food, challenges the calorie-centric model of obesity and offers a deeper, more honest look at why we eat the way we do — and what it actually takes to change.

In this episode, you'll hear:

Why the calories in/calories out model fails — and what the hormonal model of obesity actually means
The three types of hunger driving overeating: homeostatic, hedonic, and conditioned hunger — and why the social and emotional components may account for 90% of our eating behavior
How ultra-processed foods are engineered to hijack the brain's reward system — and why that matters for food addicts
The difference between fasting and starvation — and why the mindset behind fasting changes everything
The dangers of using fasting as a punishment after a binge — and how to use it safely and intentionally instead
Why a low-carb, higher-fat diet makes fasting more sustainable for people coming out of binge cycles
Dr. Fung's honest take on GLP-1 medications like Ozempic — the benefits, the limitations, and why they're not the whole answer
What Japan and Italy get right about eating culture that the U.S. has lost
Why public policy — not just personal willpower — must be part of the solution to ultra-processed food addiction

About Dr. Jason Fung:
Dr. Jason Fung is a Toronto-based nephrologist and one of the world's leading experts on therapeutic fasting and low-carb nutrition. He is the bestselling author of The Obesity Code, The Diabetes Code, The Cancer Code, and his newest release, The Hunger Code. He is also the co-founder of The Fasting Method, a coaching program helping people reverse obesity and type 2 diabetes through hormonal and lifestyle approaches.

🔗 Learn more at thefastingmethod.com

The Food Junkies Podcast is hosted by Dr. Vera Tarman, Molly Painschab, and Clarissa Kennedy — dedicated to exploring the science, stories, and solutions behind ultra-processed food use disorder.

🎙️ Subscribe, rate, and review wherever you listen to podcasts.

✉️ 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.Show More

Food Junkies Podcast: Tackling the Voice to Binge with Dr Glenn Livingston, 2026

What if the voice urging you to binge isn't really you — and you could ...

What if the voice urging you to binge isn't really you — and you could learn to talk back to it?
This week, Dr. Vera Tarman sits down with psychologist ...and bestselling author Dr. Glenn Livingston, whose unconventional path from Fortune 500 food industry consultant to food compulsion researcher led him to develop one of the most distinctive frameworks in recovery: Never Binge Again.

Glenn shares how his own 80-pound weight loss journey — and nearly 2,000 clients later — shaped a method built on structured food rules, cognitive refutation, and understanding the neuroscience of cravings extinction.

In This Episode:
Why Glenn left lucrative food industry work and what he saw from the inside about how hyperpalatable foods are engineered
The "inner pig" framework — and why separating from the voice that drives bingeing is the foundation of his approach
How his self-funded study of 40,000 people shaped his thinking (and why the results surprised him)
The four food rule categories: Never, Always, Conditional, and Unrestricted
Why 1 in 3 people genuinely need abstinence — and how to tell if you're one of them
The extinction burst: why cravings often get worse before they disappear (and why this is actually good news)
The "screw it, just do it" response — what causes it and how to address it with self-regulation
Commit with perfection, forgive with dignity — how to handle slips without derailing recovery
Abstinence vs. moderation: where Glenn agrees with food addiction models, and where his philosophy diverges
His take on GLP-1 medications and how they fit into the bigger picture
The difference between his original Never Binge Again and his newer book Defeat Your Cravings
Resources Mentioned:

📘 Defeat Your Cravings — free at defeatyourcravings.com
🎙️ Glenn's podcast on binge eating and food addiction recovery
90-day coaching program with Glenn (details at defeatyourcravings.com)
Connect with Food Junkies:
🌐 foodjunkiespodcast.com
📱 Email us at foodjunkiespodcast@gmail.com

If this episode resonated with you, please leave a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

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.Show More

Food Junkies Podcast: Can Sugar Create Dry Eye? with Dr Radka Toms, 2026

Your eyes might be revealing metabolic disease long before your doctor ...

Your eyes might be revealing metabolic disease long before your doctor catches it in bloodwork — and most people have no idea. In this episode, Dr. Vera Tarman sits down ...with Dr. Radka Toms, ophthalmologist, functional medicine practitioner, and founder of My Sugar Stop, to explore the fascinating and largely unknown connection between sugar, gut health, and your vision.

Dr. Toms shares her own story — from a "hardcore conventional doctor" eating chocolate bars for lunch to developing rosacea and insulin resistance and eventually pioneering the field of nutritional ophthalmology.

What You'll Learn:
👁️ The Eye-Metabolic Health Connection — How your ophthalmologist may spot insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, and inflammation before your blood work does
💧 Dry Eye & Sugar — Why so many dry eye patients have a metabolic root cause, and how improving diet can reduce or eliminate symptoms
🔬 The Gut-Eye Axis — How bacteria in your gut produce metabolites that travel through the bloodstream and directly affect eye tissue — including the link to macular degeneration, glaucoma, and Sjögren's syndrome
🌿 The 7 Types of Eye Conditions Linked to Metabolic Health:
Dry eye & ocular rosacea
Diabetic retinopathy
Age-related macular degeneration
Glaucoma
Cataracts
Vascular/cardiometabolic changes in the eye
Sjögren's syndrome
☀️ Light as Medicine — Circadian biology, why 10 minutes outside within 20 minutes of waking matters, when to wear sunglasses (11am–3pm), and how ceiling lights at night are confusing your brain
🥑 The PFF Framework — Dr. Toms' practical nutrition approach: Protein, Fat (especially omega-3s), Fiber, and Fermented foods — and why fiber is "the king"
💊 The DRRN Method — Define, Replace, Rebalance, Nourish: Dr. Toms' four-phase approach to helping patients reverse metabolic eye conditions through lifestyle change

Mentioned in This Episode:
My Sugar Stop — https://www.mysugarstop.com/
Matrix Eye Clinic & UHealth (UK-based in-person care): https://matrixeyeclinic.com/our-services/nutritional-ophthalmology/
Lipopolysaccharides as an early inflammatory marker
Robert Lustig's early work on sugar and inflammation

About Dr. Radka Toms: Dr. Toms completed her medical training in the Czech Republic and ophthalmology specialization in the UK, later adding functional medicine and integrative nutritional coaching. She is the founder of My Sugar Stop and Oko Health, and a pioneer in nutritional ophthalmology. She reversed her own rosacea and insulin resistance using the methods she now teaches.

"When you look at an acorn in isolation, you just see an acorn. You don't see its transformative capacity to become an oak tree. People have that same capacity." — Dr. Radka Toms

The Food Junkies Podcast is hosted by Dr. Vera Tarman, Molly Painschab, and Clarissa Kennedy. New episodes every week.

📧Email us at foodjunkiespodcast@gmail.com
👍 Like, subscribe, and share if this episode resonated with you.

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.Show More

Food Junkies Podcast: Clinician's Corner on Shame and Stigma in Ultra Processed Food Addiction, 2026

In this episode of Clinician's Corner, Molly and Clarissa get real ...

In this episode of Clinician's Corner, Molly and Clarissa get real about one of the most pervasive and painful barriers in recovery from ultra-processed food use disorder: shame and stigma.

Fresh ...off facilitating two back-to-back retreats (with Vera joining both!), they bring the depth of those in-person conversations directly to you. This is the kind of episode that meets you where you are — no toxic positivity, no oversimplified "just love yourself" advice, and absolutely no shaming you into change.

In this episode, you'll hear:

The ancient roots of stigma and how it evolved from physical branding to the labels we carry today
How external stigma becomes internalized — and why that inner critic is the real battleground
Why shame is rarely a catalyst for sustainable change (and why "hitting bottom" is not a recovery strategy)
The ways shame quietly shrinks our lives: postponing travel, relationships, photos, joy — until we're "fixed"
Whether shame can ever be an ally, and when it becomes maladaptive
Why self-compassion is the antidote to shame — but it's not the whole story
The difference between doing this work cognitively vs. somatically, and why both matter
What it looks like to stop fighting shame and start collaborating with it instead
Exploring Shame Resource
A note for listeners: This is a big ask. Everything we talk about today is deeply ingrained — not a simple reframe. Give yourself permission to take it slowly. You don't have to figure this out in 60 minutes (it's taken us decades, and we're still in it).

Connect with us:

📧 FoodJunkiesPodcast@gmail.com

🌐 https://www.sweetsobriety.ca/

If this episode resonated with you, please leave a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it. And remember — your life is happening right now. Get in there and live it.

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.Show More

Food Junkies Podcast: Are Your Kids Picky Eaters - how to change that with Natalie Peltro, 2026

What do you do when your child will only eat three foods — and none of ...

What do you do when your child will only eat three foods — and none of them are vegetables? For Natalie Peltro, certified nutritional therapist and lifestyle medicine expert, that ...was her reality. Her son was diagnosed with severe nonverbal autism at 18 months, and the journey to help him heal through food became the foundation of her entire career.

In this episode, Natalie shares the framework she's used with hundreds of families to overcome picky eating — not through force, pressure, or sneaky tricks that backfire — but through biology, nervous system awareness, and what she calls the Four E's.

Whether you're navigating picky eating in your household, supporting clients who struggle with ultra-processed food habits from childhood, or just trying to understand why your kid will eat mac and cheese but nothing green, this conversation is full of practical, compassionate strategies you can start using today.

In this episode, we cover:
How Natalie's son went from eating only 3 foods (nonverbal, severely autistic) to graduating mainstream school with honors
Why "fed is best" may be an outdated framework in today's ultra-processed food environment
The biology of picky eating — zinc deficiency, taste perception, and why green foods taste bitter to nutrient-deficient kids
The 10% Fading Rule: how to transform mac and cheese into a nutrient-dense meal without your child noticing
The Three Stages of Picky Eaters: Resistor, Adventurer, and Negotiator — and why the approach must be different for each
The Four E's Framework: Expectation, Emotional Intelligence, Environment, and Encouragement
Why "taste training" works faster in kids than adults (3–5 days vs. 7–14)
How your nervous system is sabotaging mealtime — and what to do before you even pick up the plate
The coupon system, safe plates, and other creative strategies that actually work
How to talk to grandparents and caregivers about food changes without blowing up the relationship
About Natalie Peltro: Natalie is the co-founder of Blue Life RX and creator of the Neuronutrition Program (formerly "Bring the Fun Back to Mealtime"), which helps families with picky eaters — including children with autism and ARFID — expand their food diversity through biology-first, fun-first strategies. She's also the host of the upcoming Brilliant Brains podcast.

🌐 Website: https://www.blueliferx.com/neuronutrition
📱 Instagram: nataliepelto_blueliferx
ⓕ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlueLifeRx
🎙️Podcast: Out in June 2026 – keep checking the website!!

The Food Junkies Podcast is hosted by Dr. Vera Tarman, Molly Painschab, and Clarissa Kennedy. New episodes every week.

📧Email us at foodjunkiespodcast@gmail.com
👍 Like, subscribe, and share if this episode resonated with you. Leave a comment below — we'd love to know: what's your biggest challenge around picky eating or feeding your family real food?

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.Show More

Food Junkies Podcast: What if a Food Addiction diet is better than Meds? w Dr Erin Bellamy, 2026

What if the most powerful tool for mental health recovery isn't a ...

What if the most powerful tool for mental health recovery isn't a medication — it's your metabolism - and your diet?

Dr. Erin Louise Bellamy joins Dr. Vera Tarman ...for a deep dive into ketogenic metabolic therapy: what it is, how it works, and why it may be one of the most underutilized interventions in both psychiatric care and food addiction recovery.

Dr. Bellamy is a chartered psychologist, CEO of IKRT (International Ketogenic Research & Therapy), and a research fellow at the University of East London. She has been researching and applying ketogenic metabolic therapy in clinical settings since 2014, with a background that bridges eating disorders, psychiatric research, and metabolic health.

In this episode, Vera and Erin discuss:

How Erin went from eating disorder and alexithymia research to ketogenic metabolic psychiatry — and why the field's "biopsychosocial" model was missing the bio

The difference between metabolic psychiatry, ketogenic therapy, and therapeutic carbohydrate restriction — and why the terminology matters

What carbohydrate range actually produces therapeutic ketosis (and why "dirty keto" doesn't cut it)

The shared mechanistic pathways across psychiatric diagnoses — including mitochondrial dysfunction, insulin resistance, and neuroinflammation

Why antipsychotic medications create metabolic dysfunction, and how ketogenic therapy can help offset those side effects

The GABA/glutamate shift that makes ketones naturally anxiolytic — and why this may work differently than the serotonin model of depression

The "buffer effect": what it feels like to be in ketosis when you're a food addict — and why some people describe it as a pane of glass between themselves and a trigger food

How ketogenic therapy compares to GLP-1 medications (Ozempic/Wegovy) for reducing food noise — and Erin's concerns about the long-term research

MCT oil vs. exogenous ketones: when each is useful, and when exogenous ketones are counterproductive

Applying ketogenic therapy to people with ADHD, bipolar disorder, and co-occurring food addiction

How to support vegan or plant-based clients who want to pursue ketogenic therapy

Why the first week matters most — and how to help clients through withdrawal without triggering a binge

The 19-person IKRT group program published in Frontiers — and what's coming next in the research

Connect with Dr. Erin Bellamy:

🌐Web: Integrative Ketogenic Research and Therapies | ketogenic diet and mental health

Shape

Food Junkies Podcast is hosted by Dr. Vera Tarman, Molly Painschab, and Clarissa Kennedy. New episodes every week.

Connect with Food Junkies Podcast:

🌐Web: Food Junkies Podcast
▶️ YouTube: Food Junkies Podcast - YouTube

💌Email: 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.Show More

Food Junkies Podcast: Resilience in Recovery with Dr Stephen Sideroff, 2026

In real recovery, what can resilience do that sheer willpower simply ...

In real recovery, what can resilience do that sheer willpower simply cannot?

Welcome to the Food Junkies Podcast. My name is Dr. Vera Tarman, and I’m your host today speaking with ...Dr. Stephen Sideroff.

Dr. Sideroff is an internationally recognized psychologist, researcher, and resilience expert who has spent more than forty years at the intersection of stress, addiction, and optimal performance. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA’s Geffen School of Medicine, with a joint appointment in Rheumatology. He earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Miami, and went on to pioneer the stress, resilience, and chemical dependency programs at UCLA and the VA, including the Stress Strategies program at UCLA/Santa Monica Hospital.

He is the author of The 9 Pillars of Resilience: The Proven Path to Master Stress, Slow Aging and Increase Vitality.

🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:
Why stress is the #1 driver of both addiction and relapse — and what to do about it
The ral definition of resilience
All Nine Pillars of Resilience explained — and how each one applies to food addiction
Why your inner critic is keeping you stuck — and how to replace it
The nervous system truth behind burnout: why most of us are already on the continuum
How to "dress rehearse" recovery moments so you're prepared when cravings hit
Why saying "this is difficult" actually makes things harder
The biological age study Dr. Sideroff is running right now — and his own remarkable results
How joy is not a luxury but a physiological necessity for recovery and aging
Why anxiety and worry are a faulty strategy — and what to do instead
The concept of "the path" — and why you don't have to do everything at once
What quantum leadership has to do with recovery culture
Why 12-step programs work through the lens of the resilience model

🏛️ THE NINE PILLARS OF RESILIENCE:
Relationship Pillars:
Relationship with yourself — your inner voice, self-compassion, self-acceptance
Relationship with others — healthy boundaries, connection, support
Relationship with something greater — community, spirituality, purpose
Organism Balance & Mastery:
Physical balance & mastery — nervous system regulation, relaxation, parasympathetic recovery
Cognitive balance & mastery — mindset, growth orientation, releasing negative thoughts
Emotional balance & mastery — healing emotional wounds, reducing reactivity
Engaging with the World:
Presence — awareness of your environment and the energy you project
Flexibility — adapting to obstacles, shifting perspective, seeing through others' eyes
Power — courage, focus, goal-setting, taking action in spite of fear

📖 DR. SIDEROFF'S BOOK: The Nine Pillars of Resilience: The Proven Path to Master Stress, Slow Aging, and Increase Vitality
🔗 CONNECT WITH DR. SIDEROFF:
🌐 Visit Home - Dr. Stephen Sideroff for resources, his book, and the resilience questionnaire

📬 CONNECT WITH FOOD JUNKIES:
📧 Email: foodjunkiespodcast@gmail.com
🌐 Website: foodjunkiespodcast.comShape

If this episode resonated with you, please leave us a review and share it with someone in recovery who needs to hear that healing is a path — not a single decision.

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.Show More

Food Junkies Podcast: The Lab Marker (ESR) that Could Change Recovery, with Bob Messerschmidt, 2026

The Lab Marker (ESR) that Could Change Recovery, with Bob ...

The Lab Marker (ESR) that Could Change Recovery, with Bob Messerschmidt, 2026.
What if your body could warn you before a relapse happens? In this fascinating episode, Dr. Vera Tarman sits ...down with Bob Messerschmidt — biomedical engineer, inventor, and one of the architects behind the original Apple Watch's health-sensing technology — to explore a surprisingly simple but powerful biomarker: the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR).

Bob is the founder of COR Health and has developed an FDA-registered at-home device that tracks chronic low-grade inflammation over time. For those of us in the food addiction and recovery world, this conversation opens a compelling new door: could inflammation tracking be the missing feedback loop for people working to stay abstinent from ultra-processed foods?

🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:
Bob's personal health journey and how weight struggles led him to inflammation science
What ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate) is — and why it fell out of favor before we understood chronic inflammation
Why inflammation is now understood to underpin nearly all chronic disease
How ESR differs from CRP (C-reactive protein) and why its "slowness" is a feature
What does a high ESR score mean — and what you can do about it
Anti-inflammatory lifestyle interventions that move the needle (including one surprising nighttime trick)
How the COR Health device works: a simple weekly finger-stick test from home
The feedback loop concept: how seeing your own data creates self-efficacy and behavior change
Whether inflammation can precede a relapse — and what the data currently shows
How ESR compares to a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) as a recovery tool
Bob's thoughts on the Theranos dream — and whether democratized blood diagnostics is truly possible
The future of non-invasive glucose monitoring and wearable health tech
🍒 BOB'S ANTI-INFLAMMATORY TIPS FROM THE EPISODE:

Tart cherry juice (4 oz before bed — also improves sleep!)
Ketogenic eating patterns
Vegan dietary approaches
Quality sleep
Cold plunges
Grounding practices
🔗 LEARN MORE & GET THE DEVICE:

🌐 COR Health Website: corhealth.com
📬 CONNECT WITH FOOD JUNKIES:

📧 Email: foodjunkiespodcast@gmail.com
🌐 Website: foodjunkiespodcast.com

If this episode sparked your curiosity, please leave us a review and share it with someone in recovery who might benefit from understanding the inflammation connection.

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.Show More

Food Junkies Podcast: Why Motivation Isn't the Problem, Clinician's Corner, 2026

Are you exhausted from chasing motivation that never lasts? In this ...

Are you exhausted from chasing motivation that never lasts? In this Clinician's Corner episode, Molly Painschab and Clarissa Kennedy break down why motivation is actually an outcome, not a starting ...point — and what truly drives sustainable recovery from ultra-processed food use disorder.

Using the lens of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), they unpack the three psychological needs every person in recovery must have met: autonomy, relatedness, and competence — the often-overlooked key that separates short-term compliance from lasting change.

🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:
Why "just get motivated" is the wrong advice — and what to focus on instead
The three pillars of Self-Determination Theory and how they apply to food addiction recovery
Why external pressure (shame, fear, "I should") can actually increase relapse risk
The difference between a stick-and-carrot and real motivation
What competence actually means
How the Foundations Program (81+ skills and tools!) was built around these principles
Why recovery is a learning process, not a decision
What the research now says about forced compliance
Small, practical ways to start building self-trust today

🛠️ WHAT'S IN THE FOUNDATIONS PROGRAM? The Sweet Sobriety Foundations Program includes 81+ skills and tools covering:

✔️ Nervous system regulation
✔️ CBT & DBT frameworks
✔️ Mindfulness & self-compassion practices
✔️ Recovery planning
✔️ Craving and urge management
✔️ Emotional awareness and distress tolerance

📬 CONNECT WITH US:
📧 Email: foodjunkiespodcast@gmail.com
🌐 Website: foodjunkiespodcast.com
🍓 Learn more about Sweet Sobriety: http://www.sweetsobriety.ca

If you found this episode helpful, please leave us a review and share it with someone who needs to hear that the problem was never their motivation.

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.Show More

Food Junkies Podcast: What Recovery Looks Like, with John Kelly, 2026

What does recovery look like — and how do we measure it? In this ...

What does recovery look like — and how do we measure it? In this episode, we're joined by Dr. John Kelly, one of the world's leading addiction researchers and founder ...of the Recovery Research Institute at Harvard Medical School, for a deep dive into the science behind what makes recovery possible, sustainable, and real.

Dr. Kelly breaks down the difference between remission and recovery, shares what decades of research tells us about who gets better (spoiler: most people do) and unpacks the active ingredients that help people build lives they love. We also get into the language we use around addiction, why it matters more than you think, and what the latest science says about stigma, stages of change, and recovery capital.

Whether you are in recovery, supporting someone who is, or working in the field — this episode is packed with hope, science, and practical insight.

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🔑 IN THIS EPISODE

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• What recovery actually means — and how it's different from remission

• Why 75% of people with substance use disorder do recover (and what that means for you)

• The CHIME model: the 5 active ingredients of lasting recovery

→ Community | Hope | Identity | Meaning & Purpose | Empowerment

• Stages of Change (Prochaska & DiClemente) — and why just thinking about change counts

• Recovery Capital: what's in your "recovery bank account"?

• The power of language — why words like "abuser" cause measurable harm

• Stigma, genetics, and why addiction is nobody's fault

• What excites Dr. Kelly most about the future of addiction research

• Psychedelics and addiction treatment: cautious optimism from a Harvard researcher

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👤 ABOUT OUR GUEST

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John Kelly is the Elizabeth R. Spallin Professor of Psychiatry in the Field of Addiction Medicine at Harvard Medical School and founder and director of the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is one of the world's leading researchers on addiction recovery, mutual help organizations, and reducing stigma in the addiction field.

🔗 Recovery Research Institute: http://www.recoveryanswers.org

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The Food Junkies Podcast explores food addiction and ultra-processed food use disorder through honest conversations with clinicians, researchers, and people in recovery. Hosted by Dr. Vera Tarman, Clarissa Kennedy, and Molly Painschab.

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