Claire Wilcox MD—Rewire Your Food-Addicted Brain: Fight Cravings and Break Free from a High-Sugar, Ultra-Processed Diet Using Neuroscience

Advance copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

Cover of the book Rewire Your Food-Addicted Brain: Fight Cravings and Break Free from a High-Sugar, Ultra-Processed Diet Using Neuroscience, showing the title and author’s names in shades of red and orange in large type on an ivory background.

Rewire Your Food-Addicted Brain

REWIRE YOUR FOOD-ADDICTED BRAIN:
FIGHT CRAVINGS AND BREAK FREE
FROM A HIGH-SUGAR, ULTRA-PROCESSED DIET
USING NEUROSCIENCE
Claire Wilcox, MD
New Harbinger Publications, August 1, 2025
Paperback, $19.95, eBook, $14.15
Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1648484681
eBook ASIN: B0DW3J61ZS

Wilcox reports:

This book was inspired by the Food Junkies Podcast, to which I started listening in 2022. A board-certified addiction psychiatrist and freelance science writer, I had written a textbook, Food Addiction, Obesity and Disorders of Overeating. I still struggled with my own addictive eating habits, however.

Portrait photo of Claire Wilcox

Claire Wilcox

In 2013, I stopped eating sugar in most forms. That proved to be hugely helpful for reducing cravings and unwanted weight gain, but I still ate dates and maple syrup in small quantities. That worked well for several years, until I lost control of my eating again, especially when it came to foods sweetened with those items. By 2022, I had gained almost 25 pounds and was feeling pretty down about myself.

The podcast, hosted by many brilliant scientists, journalists, and clinicians, turned things around for me. It helped me believe at a deep level that my food addiction was real and that a program involving abstention from trigger foods was appropriate. For me, that meant adding dates and maple syrup to my “no” list, a commitment I had found hard to stick to previously.

Podcast speakers also made me realize that I was not alone. There was a whole world of people who believed that sugar and other ultra-processed foods were addictive, and that freedom could be found by eating sufficient amounts of “healthy" foods, and avoiding “problem” foods—terms I define in my book.

New Harbinger Publications reached out to me in 2023 to see if I'd be interested in publishing a book about eating disorders with them. NHP found me through my Psychology Today blog, Healthy Brain, Happy Life, which I have been writing for several years.

I'd also been drafting a proposal for a trade book on food addiction, drawing on my professional experience, scientific publications, and podcast interviews as sources. When NHP approached me, I said "yes" with gusto. I submitted my proposal, which was accepted. I received an advance from NHP and editing support from the Food Junkies Podcast team that included guidance on food plan development and therapeutic materials to offer as free online resources.

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Banner image adapted from original photo by Claire Wilcox.

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Advance Copy

The path from idea to book may take myriad routes. The Advance Copy column, started in 2000 by NASW volunteer book editor Lynne Lamberg, features NASW authors telling the stories behind their books. Authors are asked to report how they got their idea, honed it into a proposal, found an agent and a publisher, funded and conducted their research, and organized their writing process. They also are asked to share what they wish they’d known when they started or would do differently next time, and what advice they can offer aspiring authors. Lamberg edits the authors’ answers to produce the Advance Copy reports.

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