Food Junkies Podcast

By Clarissa Kennedy

Welcome to the "Food Junkies" podcast! Here we aim to provide you with the experience, strength and hope of professionals actively working on the front lines in the field of Food Addiciton. The purpos... more

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How many episodes does Food Junkies Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 330 episodes available.

Best of Food Junkies Podcast

The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

Number 1: Food Junkies Recovery Stories Episode 37: April Oscarson
In this episode, CJ sits down with April for a thoughtful, reflective conversation about recovery. April brings a quiet intentionality to the way she understands healing, growth, and the ongoing work of becoming. Her perspective is introspective, honest, and at times existential, inviting us to slow down and consider what recovery truly asks of us. This conversation has a different rhythm—less about quick answers and more about meaningful questions, self-awareness, and the space between where we have been and who we are becoming. April's calm presence reminds us that recovery can be both deeply personal and profoundly transformative. If you're considering personalized assistance, CJ, a Certified Addiction Professional specializing in Food Addiction, is here for one-on-one coaching. Reach out to CJ at [email protected] Interested in sharing your recovery story on our show? We'd love to hear from you! Please email [email protected]
August 18, 202646min
Number 2: Episode 292: Lucy Loch | Food Addiction in Older Adults - What New Research Reveals
Why do older women show the highest rates of food addiction, while older men are more likely to meet criteria for alcohol and tobacco use disorder — and why does that gap flip when it comes to weight? In Episode 292, we sit down with Lucy Loch, a doctoral candidate in Psychology at the University of Michigan, to unpack her research on food addiction in older adults and what it reveals about decades of diet culture, marketing, and an under-screened generation. Lucy studies the life course development of addictive-like eating — how early-life experiences and exposure to ultra-processed foods shape appetite, self-regulation, and long-term health outcomes. She's supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, works under Dr. Ashley Gearhardt at the University of Michigan, and her research has appeared in Addiction, Current Obesity Reports, and Physiology & Behavior. In this conversation, we dig into her recent study from the National Poll on Healthy Aging: why older women meet criteria for food addiction at higher rates than older men, why overweight men in the study were 19x more likely to meet criteria (compared to 11x for women), what a small but striking finding on underweight older adults might mean, and why isolation and food addiction may feed each other in a bidirectional loop. We also talk about why food addiction is so often invisible in geriatric medicine, what it would take to get it screened for the way depression and falls already are, and what decades of "low-fat," heavily marketed diet products may have set up for the women who trusted them. This one is for anyone who works with older adults, anyone who's ever been told "just eat healthier," and anyone who's still unlearning the idea that this comes down to willpower. About our guest: Lucy Loch is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the life course development of addictive-like eating, examining how early life experiences and exposure to ultra-processed foods influence appetite, self-regulation, and risk for later-life health outcomes. She is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and works to uncover why certain foods and life experiences may make some individuals more susceptible to overeating. Her work has appeared in journals including Addiction, Current Obesity Reports, and Physiology & Behavior. POLAND 2027: https://fundacjabraciarodzen.pl/products/international-advanced-training-programme?variant=56860764078458 Connect With Us Subscribe to Food Junkies Podcast for new episodes Email us at [email protected] 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.
August 27, 202652min
Number 3: Episode 293: Clinician's Corner | Shame, Shadow & the Parts We Don't Show
Molly and Clarissa sit down for another Clinician's Corner to dig into shadow work — what Carl Jung meant by it, why it's not just a "woo-woo" concept, and why it belongs in food addiction recovery. They talk about the parts of ourselves we learn to hide (anger, desire, ambition, even joy), how those exiled parts often drive the very behaviors we're trying to recover from, and how projection, envy, and even compliments can point us straight to what we've buried. This episode previews the Shadow Work module inside Liberation, Sweet Sobriety's brand-new 10-module program launching this fall. WHAT WE COVER Why Molly built a shadow work module into Liberation, and how it connects to the Shame module covered in a previous episode Carl Jung's quote — "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate" and what it means in practice The iceberg metaphor: the curated 10% we show the world vs. the 90% underneath driving our behavior Where the shadow comes from (genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger) and why this isn't about blaming parents How substance use, food behaviors, and other compulsive patterns often exist to manage and suppress shadow parts Recovery work doesn't make the shadow disappear — and why it can get louder, becoming a high-risk time for return to use Projection: how "accusations are often confessions," and why the people who irritate us most can be mirrors The Golden Shadow — the positive traits (confidence, joy, ambition) we also learn to suppress or deny Why receiving compliments can feel unbearable, and what that has to do with shadow work Envy and jealousy reframed as information rather than something shameful Individuation and integration — Jung's idea that the goal isn't to eliminate these parts, but to become a whole person who can hold all of them How return to use fits into this: not a moral failure, but sometimes a shadow part that hasn't been integrated A personal moment on privilege, shame, and how rejecting a part of ourselves can limit our ability to help others What to expect from the Shadow Work module inside Liberation LIBERATION — SWEET SOBRIETY'S NEW PROGRAM Liberation is the next step after Foundations — a deeper 10-module program covering shadow work, shame, anger, guilt, the inner critic, ADHD and the nervous system, trauma, highly sensitive people, and more. You do not need to have completed Foundations first. Modules release the week of September 21. Live sessions begin October 15 at 1:00–2:30 PM Eastern. Starting price: $400 USD for this first round (early participants help shape the program, same as the first Foundations cohort) Learn more and join us: https://sweetsobriety.newzenler.com/courses/sweet-sobriety-liberation RESOURCES & LINKS Catch our earlier episode on Shame: https://open.spotify.com/episode/44sTxYKeVv7r01wtSKkYtm?si=7557f537d5314ebd Sweet Sobriety Foundations Program: https://sweetsobriety.newzenler.com/courses/sweet-sobriety-foundations Sweet Sobriety website: https://www.sweetsobriety.ca/ Have a topic you want us to cover? Email us: [email protected] POLAND 2027: https://fundacjabraciarodzen.pl/products/international-advanced-training-programme?variant=56860764078458 ABOUT FOOD JUNKIES PODCAST Food Junkies is hosted by Dr. Vera Tarman, Clarissa Kennedy, and Molly Painschab, exploring food addiction, ultra-processed food use disorder, and recovery from a clinical, compassionate, and lived-experience perspective. Subscribe for new episodes and hit the bell so you don't miss our Clinician's Corner series. Our show is for educational purposes 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.
September 10, 202648min
Number 4: Episode 291: Dr. Matt Bernstein, MD | Metabolic Psychiatry, Ketosis, and Food Addiction
Can changing what you eat treat depression, anxiety, and even psychosis more effectively than medication alone? In this episode of Food Junkies, Dr. Vera Tarman sits down with Dr. Matt Bernstein, MD, psychiatrist and CEO of Accord, to unpack the emerging field of metabolic psychiatry — and what it means for people recovering from food addiction. Dr. Bernstein trained at Columbia, Penn, and the MGH-McLean Psychiatry Program before shifting from traditional hospital-based psychiatric care toward lifestyle-based interventions: nutrition, sleep, light, and movement. He now serves on the advisory board of Metabolic Mind and helped organize the first public conference on metabolic psychiatry in 2023. In this conversation, Dr. Bernstein and Dr. Tarman explore how brain energy metabolism — not just neurotransmitters — may be a root driver of conditions like depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's, and why ketogenic and low-carbohydrate approaches are showing early but compelling results for food cravings, food noise, and psychiatric symptom relief. In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why Dr. Bernstein moved away from conventional psychiatric medication models toward metabolic approaches How brain insulin resistance can contribute to depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia The role of mitochondria, oxidative stress, and the gut-brain axis in mental illness How ketones act as an alternative brain fuel — and why that matters for insulin-resistant neurons The connection between brain insulin resistance and Alzheimer's risk decades before symptoms appear How ketogenic and low-carb diets naturally reduce food cravings and "food noise" for people with food addiction What a day in the Accord immersive metabolic psychiatry program actually looks like Why combining diet, exercise, circadian rhythm alignment, and mind-body practices produces faster results than any single intervention alone How GLP-1 medications compare to ketogenic diets for reducing food noise and cravings — and where each may fall short The risks of rapid or unsupported psychiatric medication tapering, and why "hyperbolic tapering" matters What to watch for (and troubleshoot) if a ketogenic diet isn't producing results after several weeks Guest Dr. Matt Bernstein, MD is a psychiatrist and CEO of Accord, an immersive metabolic psychiatry program near Boston. He is a leading voice in metabolic psychiatry, sits on the advisory board of Metabolic Mind, and helped organize the first public conference dedicated to the field in 2023. Connect with Dr. Matt Bernstein & Accord Website: https://accordmh.com/ Releasing What's Not Ours: Healing Food & Body Struggles Through IFS with Vanessa Kredler 👉Learn more here: https://sweetsobriety.newzenler.com/courses/releasing-whats-not-ours Connect with Food Junkies 🎧 Subscribe for new episodes 🌐 Learn more about food addiction recovery at https://www.sweetsobriety.ca/ 📩 Have a guest suggestion or topic request? Send it our way: [email protected] 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.
August 13, 202651min
Number 5: Episode 288: Susan Peirce Thompson, PhD — Six-Year Outcomes, GLP-1s & the Identity Shifts Behind Lasting Recovery
📢 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 [email protected] Circadian Rythms and Food Addiction Workshop with Viktoria Hamma 🔗Part 1: https://sweetsobriety.newzenler.com/courses/circadian-rhythm-and-red-light-therapy-educations 🔗Part 2: https://sweetsobriety.newzenler.com/courses/circadian-rhythms-red-light-therapy-part-2-understanding-your-body-s-internal-clock 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.
July 02, 202658min