Obesity - Eating excessive food - Is it an addiction?

It is age old saying that, one should not talk while eating, chew the food 32 times before swallowing, take one glass water 30 minutes before and after taking the food but not during eating, take small meals for every 2-3 hours instead of 3 big meals in a day, take 8 glasses of water in a day and so on. But, for various reasons we do not follow most of such wisdom sayings.
As experts say, we take more food while watching TV, not knowing what and how much we are consuming. For the same reason, problematic kids also take food when they are watching TV. Parents switch ON to some cartoon channel to feed the children who otherwise will be resisting to have food.
I observed in my own case that I am grabbing some food item while watching TV, though I am not hungry. If I am not, may be psychologically I am feeling hungry and getting some item throughout the length of the TV programme. And, thus my weight increased 17 kg in the last 15 years, 4 kg of this in the last one or two months alone. More food is also consumed to avoid wastage.
Alarmed by this sudden increase, I decided to stop lunch for few days or may be few weeks till I get results on either way i.e good or bad. It's now 10 days. I observed that to stop hunger or burning in the day time, I am taking water and my water intake has gone up from one liter to about 3 liters during the day time. In a way, this practice is bringing my acidity problem under control, though my wife says it can be a temporary phenomenon. During this day time, I am taking one or two cup of tea or coffee, not more than that. Evenings, I am taking one or two handfuls of sprouts, which I started in the last one week followed by tea or energy drink (bournvita). Now, I am observing that my food intake during dinner also is reducing almost to half of the earlier quantity. I have to mention here that I am taking more side-dishes like sambar, rasam and curd with rice or roti. I feel like my stomach is full halfway through and unable to take any more food.
From the above, it's my conclusion that taking food is an addiction.
Now, I have to see for some more time, whether this type of eating food  helps in weight reduction also and develops into a food habit.