Food Addicts Anonymous (FAA) is a

twelve-step program Twelve-step programs are international mutual aid programs supporting recovery from substance addictions, behavioral addictions and compulsions. Developed in the 1930s, the first twelve-step program, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), aided its members ...

founded in 1987 that is patterned after the

Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual aid fellowship of alcoholics dedicated to abstinence-based recovery from alcoholism through its spiritually-inclined Twelve Step program. Following its Twelve Traditions, AA is non-professi ...

program. It is for people with

food addiction A food or eating addiction is any behavioral addiction that is primarily characterized by the compulsive consumption of palatable (e.g., high fat and high sugar) food items which markedly activate the reward system in humans and other animal ...

s and is based on the premise that some people are addicted to refined high-

carbohydrate In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or ma ...

foods and need to abstain from those foods in order to avoid overconsumption.

History and description

Food Addicts Anonymous was founded in 1987 in

West Palm Beach, Florida West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lagoon. The populati ...

, by a founder who calls herself "Judith C."What is Food Addicts Anonymous?
, Food Addicts Anonymous website, accessed June 4, 2010a
''Massapequa Post'', November 28, 2007. By 2007 there were over 150 weekly meetings around the world in addition to phone and online meetings.
, ''

North County Times The ''North County Times'' was a local newspaper in San Diego's North County. It was headquartered in Escondido. The final publisher was Peter York. It was formed in 1995 from the merger of the ''North County Blade-Citizen'' of Oceanside (fo ...

'', November 13, 2005. The organization has meetings in the US, Canada, Australia, England, Norway, Sweden and Ireland. FAA holds that some people are addicted to certain foods and must abstain from them; like other twelve-step programs, FAA members believe that help from a higher power is necessary for them to avoid the substances they crave. The organization has a suggested food plan that calls for abstinence from

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...

, and

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

. All sugars, sugar substitutes, and

artificial sweeteners A sugar substitute is a food additive that provides a sweetness like that of sugar while containing significantly less food energy than sugar-based sweeteners, making it a zero-calorie () or low-calorie sweetener. Artificial sweeteners may b ...

are restricted by the plan. All forms of wheat and flour, including flours not made from wheat, are also restricted. Dietary fats are limited. FAA suggests that its members eat a variety of foods at specified intervals and in set proportions and keep track of what they eat.

References

External links

* Addiction organizations in the United States Eating disorder organizations Organizations established in 1987 Twelve-step programs {{nonprofit-org-stub