Episode
How to Stop Binge Eating: Why Abstinence Works Better Than Moderation | Ellen Bennett
- Podcast
- Beyond Binge Eating
- Published
- Aug 10, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3271
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- http://www.BeyondBingeEating.com
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Summary
In this episode, I sit down with Ellen Bennett — registered dietitian, addiction-informed practitioner, researcher, founder of the Liberate program, and food addict in recovery. Ellen has spent years training as a clinician, and finally conducting groundbreaking research that's challenging everything that the field of eating disorders has taught us about food, moderation, and recovery. Ellen brings something rare to this space: lived experience grounded in rigorous science. She didn't just survive food addiction — she spent years asking the medical establishment for evidence it even existed, and when they told her there was none, she went back to school, worked on her doctorate, and created that evidence herself. Here's what we cover in the episode: Ellen's childhood foundation — allergen restrictions that kept her safe, then the moment at age seven when processed foods became accessible, and how her body responded The progression of her food addiction through adolescence — constant mental preoccupation, hip surgery, weight gain, and the shame that followed her into adulthood Why commercial diet programs made everything worse — "moderation" meant nothing to her addicted brain, and no one asked why How she became a dietitian, and why asking doctors for evidence of food addiction changed her life trajectory The Liberate program: what it is, how it differs from traditional diet and eating disorder programs Her groundbreaking research findings — 46% reduction in food addiction severity, 44% reduction in binge eating symptoms, and what that means for the moderation vs. abstinence debate Why traditional eating disorder treatment got it backwards — and the story of a woman forced to prove she could eat in moderation to be discharged, who found relief through abstinence instea…