So how can we tell where a penchant for sweet treats ends and a serious food addiction begins? Unwin highlights the key signs and says that there may be a problem if you resonate with three or more:

The six signs you have a food addiction

1. Certain foods are impossible to resist

“You’re thinking about a certain food and craving it so badly that you have a compulsion to eat it that feels impossible to resist,” Unwin says. At the height of her addiction, when David and her children were out of the house, she often made a batch of cake mixture – butter, sugar and flour – and ate the entire thing raw. “It sounds ridiculous now but I had such intense cravings for sweet, soft, sugary foods,” she explains.

2. You’re always reaching for more cake

“If you start having a glass of wine with dinner every night, your tolerance builds and soon you’ll need two glasses or three to feel the same level of tipsy,” Dr Unwin says. “The same is true with food addiction. One slice of cake might have cut it in the beginning, but now you need two or three or even half the cake to really get that dopamine hit.” She recalls her daughter’s wedding, where she initially ate a small slice of cake at the reception, and then spent the rest of the night returning to the dessert table until she felt sick.

3. Food is prioritised above all else

A common factor in addiction, you begin to ignore what you once valued and prioritise food above socialising, hobbies, family time and even work. Often, Unwin would leave the house and her family in secret to drive for 20 minutes to a cinema complex where she would order a big tub of Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough ice cream with chocolate sauce. She’d go back to her car and eat the entire portion, feeling ashamed and elated at the same time, before returning home an hour later as if nothing had happened.

4. There are times when you can’t stop yourself from eating

“You completely lose control,” Unwin says. “Perhaps you bought a packet of biscuits for your grandchildren and think you’ll sit down with a cup of tea and eat one or two before they arrive. However, before you know it, you’ve lost control of the amount and eaten the entire pack.”

5. You get headaches and feel low when you stop eating sugar

If you try to cut down on the sugary snacks and carbohydrates, do you suffer from withdrawal symptoms? “These include headaches, migraines, gastrointestinal symptoms, low mood, anxiety, fatigue and brain fog,” Unwin says. “As people experience sugar withdrawal, they feel so bad that they just go back to eating it.” When Unwin completely abstained from sugar, she experienced many of the above symptoms for eight days. However, after working through that incredibly difficult period, she began feeling better than ever.

6. You know the food is damaging you – and you don’t care

“This is the really defining one,” Unwin says. “It’s continuing to eat these foods despite knowing they’re damaging you and causing harm.” She references a patient with Type 2 diabetes who continues to binge on cake and sugar knowing how bad it is for their blood sugar. “They can’t stop themselves. These people often know that the food is worse for them than the mental symptoms of cutting it out, but they’re trapped in a cycle.”

How to tackle a food addiction