Jeff Garlin of Curb Your Enthusiasm

So I finally got a chance to watch a 20/20 featuring actor/comedian Jeff Garlin, who is best known for playing Larry David's best friend in Curb Your Enthusiasm.

If you've ever seen the show (I think it's freegin' hilarious) or know of him, you know that he is overweight.

I was excited to watch the interview because 1) I thought he might shed some insight on the cause of his weight issues and 2) I like him and think he's funny.

I 100% agree with Jeff when he says overeating has nothing to do with a lack of will power.

He says food addiction is all about pushing down feelings. And when you do that, you never feel full.

Absolutely right. How many times have you reached for food and nothing seems to satisfy you? That's because you're not eating for anything but to suppress feelings and to change the way you feel.

But here's where will power does come in:

You can acknowledge how you feel; either by journaling, calling a friend, emailing me or just shouting out loud.

You can also take action on how you feel, most of the time. Let's say you're stressed about work. Eating Bon Bon's isn't going to make your work problems/overload/hatred go away.

The challenge is that eating is so damn easy. It's so reliable. And it doesn't require any effort at all.

Anytime you want to suppress feelings, you eat. That's a habit.

Now here's the tricky part: When you reach for highly salty/sugary/fatty foods that can override your brain's natural ability to regulate itself.

Studies have proven this over and over. Give rats what they typically eat, and they eventually stop eating. Give rats Fruit Loops and they can't stop eating them. It's also been proven that rats will incur danger to get the Fruit Loops or any other highly sugary, fatty and salty food.

"But I'm not a rat!" you shout. It's true in humans, too.

So by reaching for highly salty/sugary/fatty snacks when you want to suppress feelings, you're asking for double trouble, double trouble (see what I did there?).

This doesn't have to do with will power.

As Jeff Garlin noted, once he eats one doughnut, he can't stop.

So here's my slight challenge to those who can use it: Next time you feel out of control and want to use food to change the way you feel, acknowledge what you're doing but instead of choosing junk, choose healthy food.

Just make that change for now.

(And yes, if you can resist using food altogether, that's ideal!)

-Adam