Years ago I had a conversation with a heroin addict that I will never forget.

It happened when I was at a drug rehab facility in Wind Gap doing an in-depth story on heroin addiction.The facilitator of a group meeting asked participants if I could listen, provided I promised not to put any real names in the newspaper. They were willing and candid throughout the session.But after I sat listening to their stories for a while, one young man turned to me and asked if I was addicted.“Not to a drug,” I told him. “Just to food.”That was many moons ago but I’ll never forget the guy’s response.“You’re worse off with your addiction than I am with mine,” said the heroin addict. “I can beat my addiction by staying away from certain people and places with heroin. You can’t stay away from people and places with food.”Oh, man, was he ever right.Did you ever notice how many of our social events revolve around food? It’s hard to go to a social gathering without food.A friend of mine told me he and his wife have had to give up socializing with friends because it’s always in a restaurant setting or a dinner at a home. He said they get tired of defending their food choices.For at least two decades, both of them have eaten only plant-based food. Long before it became popular, they embraced a diet of just fruits and vegetables.“It gives us a healthy lifestyle but it kills our social life,” he says.I have always cherished socializing with friends. Since I retired, I have more opportunities to do that.But every time someone wants to get together, it involves food.We just had a party to celebrate my friend Becky’s 50th birthday at one of our most popular restaurants — an Italian restaurant, no less.Try cutting down on calories at an Italian restaurant where they put homemade garlic bread with herbed olive oil on the table while you wait an hour for your food.Even our church meetings seem to involve food. The last one was a potluck luncheon with dozens of delectable dishes along with about 15 desserts.I copied what our pastor was doing when I heard him remark that he allows himself either bread or dessert, not both. Even with taking small portions, I ended up with a plate loaded with too much food for lunch.Oh, I know, no one put a gun to my head to force me to eat it.I have some friends who like to eat out four or five times a week — all based on social activities. David and I try to limit the times we eat out, so we miss many of those activities.When we get together at our house or other friends’ places, once again food plays a starring role. While I tell myself homemade food is better for you than restaurant food, I still end up consuming way too many calories.Every time I start to make progress in my constant battle with the scale, we run into back-to-back parties — all revolving around food.That heroin addict was right. It’s harder to stay away from food because it’s everywhere.It’s so bad that I find myself praying for more self-discipline around food. I make a little progress, the scale goes down a few pounds, then it goes right back up again, regardless of how I try to make smart food choices.My husband keeps saying the secret is small, small portions. “You can eat anything,” he says, “You just can’t eat much of it.”His idea of a small portion is about how much I consume while tasting what I am cooking.I have yet to learn that art. But I keep praying for the grace to make do with far less food.The irony of trying to avoid food is not lost on me. It was just one generation ago that my mother had to pray she could find ways to put food on the table. When my father worked sporadically in the mines, having enough food was the problem, not eating too much.I listen to my friends say when they keep eating something “bad” like chips or ice cream, they throw away the offending food so they won’t be tempted to eat any more.My mother never would have dreamed of the day when people actually felt compelled to throw away food.I can’t bring myself to throw away food because it was ingrained in me not to waste anything. But I have been known to bring tempting leftover goodies to the teenage boys across the street. They will eat anything and everything but they still look like tall sticks.Experts tell us as we get older we need to adjust our calorie intake. The older we get, the fewer calories we need, they claim.While the scale says that’s probably true, all it means is continued frustration in the battle of the scale.Food is an addiction, all right.At least it is for me.I hope the guy I met the drug addiction rehab has beaten his heroin addiction.For now, I have my food addiction under control. But I know all too well how easy it is to fall off the wagon.