When the Doctor Is the Patient: Dr. Tro on Food Addiction and Healing

Dr. Tro Kalayjian is a board-certified physician in Internal Medicine and Obesity Medicine, founder and Chief Medical Officer of Toward Health, and a founding member of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners. Through his virtual metabolic health clinic, he helps patients address obesity, type 2 diabetes, chronic metabolic disease, and food addiction using a personalized, lifestyle-based approach grounded in science, clinical care, and real-world outcomes. He is also an international speaker and a leading voice in the growing conversation around metabolic health, nutrition science, and food addiction. What makes Dr. Tro’s work especially compelling is that it is deeply rooted in lived experience. He grew up in a family affected by obesity and struggled with his own weight for years, eventually reaching more than 350 pounds. As a physician, he experienced firsthand the frustration, shame, and limitations of conventional approaches, and through his own recovery he lost more than 150 pounds and has maintained that transformation for over a decade. That combination of medical expertise and personal recovery gives him a rare and powerful perspective on what it really takes to break free from food addiction and reclaim health. In this episode, we explore both the science and the human side of food addiction. Dr. Tro shares his approach to treating patients, his views on abstinence versus harm reduction, the failures of the medical system in addressing metabolic disease, and the powerful influence of Big Food, Big Pharma, and public policy. We also discuss his personal recovery story and his advocacy for recognizing ultra-processed food addiction as a substance use disorder, including his support of the international consensus effort to bring this issue into the World Health Organization’s ICD. This is a bold, thoughtful, and deeply relevant conversation with a physician who brings both professional authority and lived experience to the table. Toward Health Website (https://toward.health/) IFACC (https://www.the-chc.org/fas/conference) Dr. Tro on X (https://x.com/DoctorTro) Binge Eating Food Addiction and Low Carb diets (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6988301/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) #harmfuluse #addiction #foodaddiction #bingeeatingrecovery