Should we channel our food obsession, or rid ourselves of it? (LONG)

I think everyone who lives in a society where food is abundant sometimes uses food for non-fuel reasons - completely regardless of their weight or size. Food is connected to family, relationships, pleasure, and it really does affect brain chemicals and hormones, which in turn, affect mood.

When you eat ice cream, you don't just think you feel better because you like ice cream. The fat and sugar releases some chemicals and inhibits others with a net result that you actually do feel better - it's not just in your head. And I repeat, everyone does this, at least sometimes, even if they're the skinniest one on the block.

Not to mention that eating is a social activity in every single culture on earth, so of course it becomes emotionally charged in that way as well. Why are there so many threads about how everyone is handling Thanksgiving? Because the holiday, and the shared cultural experience of it, by definition involves eating. You don't just undo a lifetime of cultural indoctrination.

Ideally, would it be good for food to be simply nourishment? For food addicts, that probably would be a good thing, but I don't see it happening. I've never paid more attention to food in my life since my surgery. What can I eat? What can't I eat? Will that give me a problem? What if I eat too fast? Is it time to eat yet? What will I eat at this or that restaurant? Etc.

Because food is the one addictive substance that cannot be given up forever, I think one has to be a little more flexible than the typical addictions approach.

Someone I know who had both OA and AA experience said this:

Dealing with alcohol is like catching a tiger and putting it in a cage. Dealing with food is like catching a tiger, putting it in a cage, and then taking it out for a walk three times a day.