The Food Addicts Anonymous way of eating is complete abstinence from all flour and sugar- and I have never seen so many success stories, in person. Overeaters Anonymous, on the other hand, promotes moderation, and has a far lower success rate among followers.

Refined/processed carbohydrates are not necessary for human nutrition- we hang on to them because of learned behavior- because of advertising, zeitgeist, tradition, culture. As was said, our emotions are intrinsically linked to these inanimate things (food). We are afraid of losing an essential part of our emotional lives by forfeiting them, but we lose so much more by keeping them.

Counter-intuitively, it is harder to do less than to do more. Stoicism speaks to this and has helped me a lot in building a mindset strong enough to do with less for the long run.