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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Psychiatry

Sec. Addictive Disorders

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1612551

This article is part of the Research TopicUltra-Processed Food Addiction: Moving toward Consensus on Mechanisms, Definitions, Assessment, and InterventionView all 10 articles

TOWARD: A Metabolic Health Intervention that Improves Food Addiction and Binge Eating Symptoms

Provisionally accepted
Erin Michelle SanerErin Michelle Saner1Tro KalayjianTro Kalayjian2Laura BuchananLaura Buchanan2*Matthew CalkinsMatthew Calkins3Adrian Soto-MotaAdrian Soto-Mota4,5Dae Kwang JunDae Kwang Jun5Shebani SethiShebani Sethi6
  • 1Department of Family and Community Medicine, School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States
  • 2Private Practice, Tappan, NY, United States
  • 3Atrium Health One Health, Rural Hall, NC, United States
  • 4Metabolic Diseases Research, National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition Salvador Zubirán, Mexico City, México, Mexico
  • 5Tecnologico de Monterrey, School of Medicine, Mexico City, Mexico
  • 6Metabolic Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States

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Food Addiction is an increasingly relevant clinical and public health issue given its impact on metabolic health, mental health, and quality of life. Therapeutic carbohydrate reduction (TCR) has been shown to improve the symptoms of food addiction as measured by the modified Yale Food Addiction Scale (mYFAS) 2.0. We discuss a novel telemedicine intervention, in an employee wellness setting, utilizing TOWARD principles: Text-based communications, Online interactions, Wellness coaching, Asynchronous education and community support, Real-time biofeedback and remote monitoring, and Dietary modification with an emphasis on TCR to treat symptoms of food addiction and binge eating. Food addiction symptoms decreased by 40.7% and binge eating symptoms decreased by 34.7%. In an employee wellness setting, we observe a metabolic health intervention can improve weight, lower financial cost through medication deprescription, and improve mental health symptoms related to food.

Keywords: Binge eating, Low-carbohydrate diet, food addiction, Therapeutic Carbohydrate Reduction, Ketogenic Diet

Received: 15 Apr 2025; Accepted: 02 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Saner, Kalayjian, Buchanan, Calkins, Soto-Mota, Jun and Sethi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Laura Buchanan, Private Practice, Tappan, NY, United States

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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