Is it common for sick people to wish they had a different disease, if they have to have one at all? I don’t know, but a couple of examples have come up for me in the two decades I’ve identified as a food addict.

Here’s a report from the intersection of legumes and insanity, or, in a single word, nuts. I have a checkered history with one, and I have the other. I went through this intersection last week and the tale illustrates what food addiction feels like.

Dr. Marty Lerner, chief at Milestones in Recovery, a South Florida treatment center for eating disorders, will be the radio tonight beginning at 9 p.m. Eastern. You can hear a live stream of the show here.

I've expressed this idea before; sorry if it's a repeat for you: I'm moved to say it again while reading Anne Katherine's "How To Make Almost Any Diet Work."

Many people scoff when I suggest that flour or processed sugar is akin to heroin or cocaine, because the latter pair are "really addictive," not to mention illegal. "Everybody knows" they have no similarity.

I'm vacationing for a few days in Glendo, Wyoming, with family, and had a very interesting conversation with my sister-in-law. (How's that for a compelling lead? Just chomping to read more, aren'cha? But to my strong surprise, it was right on topic for this blog.)

Serena is a fascinating woman with more than a few demons who has tried suicide too many times. Worse, she's gotten better at it over the years, progressing from what some people might call "cries for help" to well-thought-out attempts that failed through flukes. It is serious frickin' business, and she comes to mind whenever the phone rings in the night. (Serena's not her real name, I have her permission to tell this story, and I asked her to review it before publishing.)

Zoe Harcombe, a Twitter pal in the UK, is a nutritionist and author. Here, she is interviewed for what I believe is a BBC show on topics including processed food, food cravings, food addiction, and other topics we have a mutual interest in.

If you're visiting me here, you may be interested as well.

The clip is a bit less than 20 minutes.

I did a 30-minute segment last night with the hosts of "The Attitude Shift" program on Blog Talk Radio.

You may remember that a couple of weeks ago, I published an interview I did with Zack Jordan, whom I met when he reached out to me on Facebook after reading my book. He told me he was a "gay gainer," someone who tries to gain mondo weight because he thinks it would fulfill him.

This morning, I got this from him, which I'm sharing with his permission:

I hear frequently from readers, more all the time, about their experiences with food, and this week, a woman who heard me on Connecticut Public Radio shared:

I am dealing with an office full of people that bring in desserts to share. I'm not having luck convincing them that this is as bad as smoking in the office. One woman brings in brownies every week, has been asked by the manangers not to, and she still continues.

I am the guest of a longtime former colleague, Stan Simpson, on his WTIC-TV interview show on Saturday, but we taped the show Wednesday evening and video is already posted online. This links only to the first of three segments, but the other links appear just below the video window.

It was fabulous to spend time with Stan, as well as to say hello to several pals in the adjoining Hartford Courant newsroom. I was at the Courant from '84 to '93, and it was, in many ways, the best place I ever worked.