Food Junkies Podcast

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 cjnguy@myfoodaddictioncoach.com 
Interested in sharing your recovery story on our show? We'd love to hear from you! Please email FJRecoverystories@gmail.com

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: 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.

Fatigue. Brain fog. Cravings that never quit no matter how "good" you're eating. In this episode of Food Junkies, Dr. Vera Tarman sits down with Dr. Carolyn Dean — MD, naturopath, and author of more than 50 books including The Magnesium Miracle — to unpack a piece of the addiction and recovery puzzle that rarely gets airtime: magnesium deficiency and its tangled relationship with yeast overgrowth, sugar metabolism, and chronic cravings.
Dr. Dean has spent over five decades in integrative and functional medicine, and in this conversation she lays out her theory that a huge share of chronic symptoms — anxiety, insomnia, heart palpitations, muscle tension, even conditions mistaken for neurological disease — trace back to a mineral most conventional labs never test properly. She also digs into candida overgrowth, why restrictive diets like keto and carnivore may be working for reasons people don't realize, and why sugar cravings might be your gut asking for something other than sugar.
This episode isn't a replacement for individualized medical or clinical treatment, and it isn't an endorsement of any product mentioned. As always, we encourage listeners to bring these questions to their own care team.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Why magnesium is required to produce ATP — the energy currency of every cell — and what happens when your body can't get enough
The difference between a magnesium compound and a bioavailable magnesium ion, and why so many supplements underdeliver
How soil depletion and modern agriculture have quietly lowered magnesium in the food supply over the past century
The link Dr. Dean draws between candida/yeast overgrowth, leaky gut, and persistent sugar cravings
Why she believes some people on restrictive diets (keto, carnivore, paleo) may be managing yeast overgrowth without realizing it
The connection between sugar metabolism, vitamin C, and cardiovascular health
Her recommended starting point for anyone wanting to address deficiency: diet, timing, and sequencing of supplementation
About Our Guest
Dr. Carolyn Dean, MD, ND is a physician and naturopath with over 50 years of experience in integrative and functional medicine. A graduate of Dalhousie University's medical school, she is the author of more than 50 books, including The Magnesium Miracle, Detox Your Body, and multiple works on sugar toxicity and mineral deficiency. Her clinical focus centers on magnesium, mineral absorption, and yeast overgrowth as root contributors to chronic fatigue, cravings, and metabolic dysfunction.
Learn more: drcarolyndean.com
Her product site: rnareset.com
About Vanessa Kredler's Upcoming IFS Workshop:
👉Releasing What's Not Ours: Healing Food & Body Struggles Through IFS
Not every struggle with food and body belongs to you. Some of it was handed down — a mother's dieting, a culture's obsession with thinness, a family that never said "I love you" out loud but said "eat" instead.
In this 3-part live series, clinical counsellor Vanessa Kredler — a PACFA-registered therapist, certified food addiction professional (INFACT), and Level 2-trained IFS practitioner — draws on her work in addiction, complex trauma, and intergenerational trauma to help you untangle what's actually yours from what you inherited.
Using Internal Family Systems, you'll learn to recognize the legacy and cultural burdens shaping your relationship with food, understand why parts of you hold onto them, and take part in a guided practice to begin letting them go — with the same compassionate, trauma-informed approach Vanessa brings to her own clinical work (and, as she'll tell you, her own recovered life).
👉Link: https://sweetsobriety.newzenler.com/courses/releasing-whats-not-ours
About Food Junkies
Food Junkies is a podcast about food addiction, hosted by Dr. Vera Tarman, Clarissa Kennedy, and Molly Painschab — clinicians, researchers, and advocates working to bring visibility, science, and community support to ultra-processed food use disorder (UPFUD). New episodes feature conversations with leading researchers, clinicians, and people in recovery.
Subscribe for new episodes, and find us wherever you listen to podcasts.
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.

In this episode of Food Junkies, Dr. Vera Tarman and Clarissa Kennedy sit down with Brian Baumal, a registered psychotherapist based in Toronto and owner of Aliva Psychotherapy, where he specializes in weight management, eating disorders, food addiction, and psychological support for bariatric surgery patients. Brian trained at the Gestalt Institute of Toronto and has been a licensed member of the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario since 2015. He's also a food addict in long-term recovery, having lost 100 pounds and kept it off for over 14 years.
Brian shares the moment that changed his understanding of food addiction forever — an intense, addictive reaction to a piece of chocolate at a holiday party that made him realize this was on an entirely different scale than an ordinary craving. From there, the conversation dives deep into perfectionism: how shame and diet culture create an idealized, unrealistic self-image; the difference between adaptive perfectionism (using structure and tools in service of recovery) and toxic or maladaptive perfectionism (an all-or-nothing mindset that treats any slip as total failure); and how perfectionism can quietly become a "runaway train," redirecting obsessive focus from food onto weight, exercise, or other behaviors.
Brian also explains how he uses a Gestalt therapy lens — treating what shows up in the room between therapist and client as the material for the work itself — to help clients build individualized, flexible recovery plans instead of rigid, punishment-driven rules. The group discusses distinguishing an addictive relapse from a psychological or shame-based slip, the role of relapse plans and "gathering data" after a slip, and why using tools (scales, timers, structure) isn't a sign of weakness but a sustainable part of long-term recovery.
The episode closes with Brian's reflections on chairing the Sugar and Food Addiction Professionals Network, a free Facebook community of nearly 200 food addiction professionals offering training, research updates, and access to leading voices in the field.
Topics Covered
Brian's personal food addiction story and his "aha moment" with chocolate at a holiday party
What Gestalt therapy is and how it approaches defense mechanisms relationally
How shame and diet culture create unrealistic, idealized self-images
Adaptive vs. maladaptive (toxic) perfectionism in recovery
Perfectionism as a "runaway train" — when focus shifts from food to weight, exercise, or other behaviors
Distinguishing an addictive relapse from a shame-driven psychological slip
Building individualized, flexible abstinence and relapse plans
Using tools (scales, timers, structure) without turning them into self-punishment
Vulnerability factors: trauma, family food dynamics, anxious or over-controlled personality styles
Adaptive perfectionism as flexibility, not the absence of high standards
The Sugar and Food Addiction Professionals Network on Facebook
Connect with Brian Baumal
Website: Aliva Psychotherapy — https://alivapsychotherapy.com/
WORKSHOP LINKS:
🚨Curious why cravings hit harder some days than others? Viktoria Hamma's two-part Circadian Rhythms & Red Light Therapy workshop breaks down the biology behind your body's internal clock and shows you exactly how morning light, meal timing, and red light therapy can work with your recovery instead of against it.
Grab your spot for Part 1: https://sweetsobriety.newzenler.com/courses/circadian-rhythm-and-red-light-therapy-educations
And 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.

CJ welcomes Lara, a former professional soccer player from Iceland, for a powerful and deeply honest conversation about food addiction and recovery. Lara began struggling with food at a very young age and recognized early that it was beginning to take over her life, even while competing as an elite athlete. She speaks with remarkable transparency about her experiences, their impact on her, and the path she has taken toward healing. Lara's willingness to share is so profound that she even wrote a book about her journey. CJ found her story fascinating and truly loved talking with her.
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 cjnguy@myfoodaddictioncoach.com 
Interested in sharing your recovery story on our show? We'd love to hear from you! Please email FJRecoverystories@gmail.com