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Killer Cravings
This article was written by, Mr. Tom McGregor, author of Eating in Freedom. (excerpts)
* What to do when you crave the wrong food?
* What About Deficiencies?
No mysterious
ingredient. The Cadbury's secret is out. Chocolate is drug-like
in its effect. Artificial taste explodes in the mouth with crunchy,
smooth, sweet flavors, supplying intense pleasure. Every texture
and nuance of taste contrived to stimulate your 9,000 taste buds
into sending pleasure signals to the brain. The intensified pleasure
effect is addictive. We don't care about the additives or empty
calories. Chocolate junkies crave a fix, driven by the desire
for that chocolate pleasure. Pleasure for which we will pay any
price, even our health.
Chocolate
bars are loaded with salt, sugar, caffeine and fat, up to 300
calories per bar. Like a body demanding heroin for its balance,
the body will crave sugar, salt and fat. Take candy from a sugar
junkie, and look out! Quitting causes withdrawals. Remove sugar,
processed fat or salt from your diet, and you will crave them.
You will go through the discomfort of facing withdrawal similar
to the withdrawal from drugs.
(Note from FWNC: If craving for chocolate, avoid all white chocolate, chocolate containing milk. Select a black chocolate with at least 60% cocoa)
Strawberries
and bananas don't cause cravings. You never feel guilty about
eating too many cantaloupes. You never hear little voices in the
back of your head saying eat, eat, eat cantaloupe. No,
because natural foods balance the body and physical cravings are
caused by biochemical imbalance. Street drugs, alcohol, caffeine,
nicotine, salt, saturated fat, refined starch and refined sugars
cause cravings because they imbalance
the body's
chemistry.
Addictive
substances cause the body to become dependent on an unnatural
substance for homeostatic balance. Removing it will cause withdrawals.
During withdrawal, the addict suffers through the painful readjustment
as the body cries out for the missing substance. In a desperate
attempt to maintain homeostasis, (chemical balance) the
body demands the very substance that caused the imbalance.
The
body's homeostatic balance is affected by diet.
Consumption of massive amounts of sugar, salt, caffeine or fried
foods drastically affects homeostatic balance. Natural hunger
becomes distorted as the body craves for the substances necessary
for balance. The body reacts as it would to any addiction. Powerful
cravings override the body's natural needs.
Food
allergies can also cause an addiction-like dependence due
to homeostatic disturbance.
Your favorite foods are usually the ones to which you are addicted.
You usually feel better immediately after eating the food that
you are addicted to, but shortly afterward the allergic reaction
produces a feeling of irritability. It causes flatulence, nausea,
depression or headaches.
Milk, wheat and eggs are the most common allergic foods.
Each contains large protein molecules with strong glue-like bonds.
If the appropriate enzyme necessary for digestion is not available,
these protein molecules enter the blood undigested. The immune
system attacks these fragments as if they were invaders. Homeostasis
has been imbalanced, and if these foods are continually eaten,
the body will need them for homeostatic balance, causing an allergen-based
food addiction.
The
brain has 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion connectors
for memory alone. Each brain cell is dependent on homeostatic
balance to function properly. High doses of sugar, salt, fat
and caffeine can cause imbalances in the brains normal chemistry.
Eating natural foods allows the brain's chemistry to function
normally. Natural foods assist homeostasis, supplying vitamins,
minerals, soft fibers, cell salts and enzymes to assist the body
in maintaining balance. In a balanced state, hunger is in relation
to the body's need for nutrition.
Eating
processed food creates cravings for more processed foods.
Eat fried foods, and you crave more. Eat cooked food, and you
crave it. Eat sugar-filled food, and you will crave it. The Hostess
Munchies are nothing more than disguised cravings for salt and
fat. They promise satisfaction, but artificial
pleasure never satisfies. It is a pleasure that takes
by first giving. It steals valuable nutrition from your diet by
feeding your body empty calories.
Addiction
in the Brain
Scientists are discovering that psychological addiction has a
common factor. All mood-altering drugs elevate levels of the neurotransmitter
in the brain, called dopamine. Tobacco, cocaine, heroin and caffeine
elevate dopamine levels and cause a feeling of euphoria. Dopamine
may be the master molecule of addiction. Neurotransmitters,
such as dopamine, control how the brain works and what we feel.
When you feel pleasure from eating or falling in love, receiving
a compliment, it is dopamine that causes the feeling. Every experience
that humans find enjoyable may be linked to dopamine whether that
be listening to music, savoring chocolate, sex or shooting heroin.
Fifty
neurotransmitters have been discovered to date. A good half dozen
are associated with addiction by causing a feeling of euphoria.
Serotonin is another interesting neurotransmitter. It has a sedating
effect. This neurotransmitter can be affected by rhythm, such
as stroking the hair, slow deep breathing or a rocking motion.
It is possible that the desire for the serotonin effect enforces
repetitive habits such as nail biting, playing with hair or nose
picking. There is a repetition and a rhythm to these habits. It
may be an unhealthy attempt at trying to gain comfort from the
serotonin effect. Starches have been known to have a calming effect
on the brain due to increased levels of serotonin. We are using
junk-food, starch, drugs, and bad habits to adjust our feelings
through stimulating our neurotransmitters.
The
pleasure effect of neurotransmitters is designed by God to form
healthy, natural dependencies. A wholesome pleasure that motivates
us to find good tasting food, comfortable shelter and loving relationships.
Dopamine and serotonin reinforce healthy actions and behaviors. Dopamine
has a powerful ability to form triggers. During pleasure, neurological
pathways are being formed that will trigger a physical and emotional
reaction to repeat that pleasure. We know it as an urge. We feel
impelled. Our minds can become fixed on pleasure until we think
of nothing else.
Intense
pleasure forms the most powerful triggers. For this reason, sex,
drugs and food create the most powerful urges. A syringe, rolling
papers, an X-rated video, McDonalds, anything that is associated
with the pleasure, becomes a trigger for these powerful urges.
Compelled by an urge, we feel pulled toward pleasure like steel
to a magnet. The emotions overdrive and our body quivers with
adrenaline. An addict may shake and sweat with the anticipation
of pleasure. A tennis player may also experience the same reaction
before a championship. The body and mind are being prepared for
action.
Urges
are powerful at motivating us towards good or evil. We can feel
the urge to pray, the urge to be kind, the urge to create or build,
or we can feel the urge to destroy. Yet, even the most powerful
urge cannot negate our responsibility. We can never blame an urge
for the action we have formed, built and accepted. We have given
it power from the thoughts that we allowed to form.
Stolen
Rewards
Drugs hijack the natural reward system of humans. Smoking a joint
feels like the relaxation similar to two hours in the gym. Heroin
gives a pleasure similar to "runners high," the euphoric
state experienced during long distance running. But, like all
mood-altering drugs, the pleasure is stolen. It has not been gained
honestly through effort, achievement or challenge. Processed
food hijacks the taste buds, stealing pleasure without giving
nutrition. In nature, foods that taste good are good for us. Sweetness
is an indicator of calories. Saltiness is an indicator of mineral
content. A bittersweet taste, like lemon, is a sign of cleansing
acids and vitamins. We like food with fats and oils because they
supply calories and essential fatty acids. Natural oils and fats
are high in calories and fat-soluble vitamins. Healthy food has
a wholesome taste, a pleasure intended to reinforce healthy behavior.
KEY:
Compulsive addictive obsessive overeaters binge to find peace.
By running from fear it controls them.
A
Security Blanket
Food can be used to medicate our feelings. Its pleasure gives
a predictable lift. When we feel cranky, tired or lonely, food
offers comfort. A comfort on which we can depend. A comfort that
brings peace in an emotional storm. However, the reliance on food
or any substance to feel better forms dependence. The
pleasure offered by mood-altering drugs and food can easily become
a security blanket, insulating us from a harsh world. An emotional
crutch that makes us weaker by leaning on it. Each time we use
it, natural emotional responses deteriorate, and the addict becomes
emotionally dependent on the pleasure to control mood.
When
we are dependent on a chemical or food to feel good, our self-worth
is eroded. We no longer are in control. We are dependent. An addict
never feels good about needing a drug.
Place
a huge CAUTION sign over your
pleasures. Choose your pleasures with great care. The pleasure
of dopamine can move us forward towards a healthy, fulfilling
life or endless indulgence. Through discipline, we can receive
dopamine's pleasure from healthy activities and actions. We can
feel good about doing the right thing while enjoying the benefits
of a clear conscience and a healthy body.
Addiction is profitable.
Cravings are good for business.
It sells.
WHAT
TO DO WHEN...
YOU CRAVE THE WRONG FOOD FOR YOU? By Steven Horne
When changing the way we eat, it is almost certain that we will
face cravings for certain types of foods that may seem completely
unbearable at times. Use these supplements and herbs to help you
fight off those cravings that cause you to want foods that are
harmful to your body.
If craving CARBOHYDRATES
• CarboGrabers
If craving SWEETS
• Hoodia Gordoni (From Pure Herbs, Ltd.)
If craving SALTY FOODS
• Dandelion
• Pantothenic acid
For GENERAL APPETITE CONTROL
• Combination SF
• Garcinia combination
For GENERAL CRAVING CONTROL
• 5-HTP
If craving FATS
• FatGrabbers
If craving CHOCOLATE
• Magnesium Complex
WHAT ABOUT DEFICIENCIES?
Sometimes when we are watching our diet, we cut things out that
are important to our overall health. Use the following herbs and
supplements to replace some of the proteins and fibers that are
important to your body functionning:
(CAUTION: if you have yeast
infection, candida and/or a very weak digestive system, talk with
your Natural Health Specialist first.)
If you do not get enough PROTEIN, use:
• Spirulina
or
• Syner Protein
If you do not get enough FIBER, use:
• Psylllium Hulls
or
• Nature's Three
or
• Loclo
IF YOU DO NO GET FOOD AT ALL (in other words, if you are proned
to skipping meals due to hectic schedule or just having
no desire to eat, you might be doing your body more harm than
good.
You cannot function properly (digestion or otherwise) without
fuel... YOU MUST TAKE SOME CALORIES IN TO BURN SOME FAT OFF!
Use NSP NUTRIBURN Meal replacement
when you want to be sure you are getting the right nutrition.
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