I am a food addict

The main thing that I have come to realise is that I am a food addict. Not in the sense that I stuff myself silly all the time, and am grossly over-weight, which is not the case, but more in the sense that I usually eat to somehow make myself feel better. That is, I see a distinction between what I really need to survive, and what I don't need. And so much of what I'm eating, I don't really need at all. I eat out of habit. I'm like a machine - even an out-of-control machine - that needs to be fed just to feel normal. This is really crazy. This focus on food is really quite extreme in society, and in our minds. Everything is food related, commercially, or so it seems. Why?