The Metabolic Approach to Treating Food Addiction | Dr. Tro Kalayjian | The Metabolic Link Ep. 77
The Metabolic Link
What TOWARD Means and Structure
Victoria asks Tro to explain the TOWARD acronym; Tro outlines telemedicine, coaching, education, biofeedback, and diets.
Could treating food like a drug be the breakthrough we've needed in food addiction treatment?
In this episode of The Metabolic Link, Dr. Dominic D’Agostino sits down with Dr. Tro Kalayjian - physician, researcher, and former obesity patient - to explore whether food addiction should be classified as a true addiction, and how his TOWARD model is helping patients overcome binge eating and food-related compulsions.
Dr. Tro shares findings from his recent peer-reviewed paper, TOWARD: a Metabolic Health Intervention That Improves Food Addiction and Binge Eating Symptoms. The study evaluated outcomes from the TOWARD intervention, a telemedicine-based model that combines metabolic nutrition, real-time biofeedback, and coaching. Nearly half of participants reduced food addiction symptoms, and over 80% saw improvements in binge eating - often independent of weight loss.
This conversation explores the science of dopamine signaling, the failure of calorie-restriction models, the blurred line between food addiction and eating disorders, and how this approach could reshape treatment through scalable, real-world solutions.
Questions Answered in This Episode:
- How should we define food addiction compared to binge eating disorder?
- Should ultra-processed food addiction be officially recognized in the DSM?
- Why is food addiction harder to treat than drug or alcohol addiction?
- What were the key outcomes of the TOWARD study on food addiction and binge eating?
- Can lifestyle interventions compete with bariatric surgery or GLP-1 drugs?
- How can employers scale food addiction treatment for high-risk populations?
Check out Dr. Kalajian's TOWARD app here.
Special thanks to the sponsors of this episode:
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