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I am hungry — Why do I want to eat flour and sugar compulsively?

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Melissa Killeen
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Melissa Killeen

There are several reasons why flour and sugar spike a desire to eat more. There is also a variety of reasons flour and sugar relax us, make us sleep or damage our immune system. Let’s explore those reasons.

Comfort foods
Many food addicts describe eating a high-carbohydrate load of pasta or bread and then feeling relaxed, calmed and satiated. The mere term “comfort food” has an impact on this role our brain has in making us eat certain foods like meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, or Mom’s apple pie.

By eating your mother’s favorite meal, you are reminded of good times, idyllic family settings, safety, and well, comfort. So in these cases your brain is convincing you of how you feel after ingesting a Thanksgiving dinner and then telling you to fall asleep during the football game. These emotional attachments to certain foods are as diverse as are my readers and too complicated to cover in a short blog post, so let me move on.

Candida Albicans infection
Candida Albicans infection is an improper colony of flora in your intestines. Candida Albicans is a fungus that can appear in your gut, your vagina and your toes! It can comprise good microorganisms that live in the human mouth and gastrointestinal tract. C. Albicans lives in 80 percent of the human population without causing harmful effects. However, with an oversupply of sugars and starches it can blossom and overcome the good flora in your gut. The result is that you feel odd, hungry, anxious, tired and perhaps, frightened. Once you add more sugar and starches to the mix, you feel better. So, soon a person learns to eat more sugar to “feel” better. When in actuality, sugar and starches are the cause of the problem. For more on this go to: http://drlwilson.com/ARTICLES/CANDIDA.htm.

Serotonin and Dopamine enhancement
Did you know that 90 percent of the serotonin in your body is produced in your gut? Serotonin and dopamine are neurotransmitters found in the brain and elsewhere in the body and they cause pleasurable sensations, reduce stressful feelings as well as reduce anxiety and pain in the body. Eating certain carbohydrates stimulate the production of serotonin and dopamine in the body. Again, a person learns to eat carbohydrates to feel good; however, this is only a temporary feeling.

Hypoglycemia
This is a common metabolic imbalance that causes energy fluctuations throughout the day and can cause many other symptoms such as anxiety, nervousness, mental confusion, tremors, shakiness, headaches, and even depression.

Basically, the body is no longer able to regulate its blood sugar level perfectly, so you can experience times during the day when your blood sugar dips too low. Hypoglycemia is low energy production and a low glucose level in the cells. The symptoms are caused not only by low glucose in the blood cells, but also by any number of imbalances that affect the body’s ability to burn glucose at the cellular level.

Eating something sweet or perhaps, starchy, is a quick fix for this condition. Just think about that 3pm hypoglycemic low you feel at work and running to a vending machine. It is easy to believe that one “needs” a soda or candy bar as a quick fix to the symptoms of hypoglycemia.

Unfortunately, eating sweets, in particular, but also many starches, just makes the condition worse because most refined foods are lacking the vitamins and minerals needed for the body to adequately regulate its glucose metabolism.

Unfortunately, the blood sugar soon decreases again, causing even more cravings for the carbohydrate foods, and the beginning of a vicious cycle. To break that cycle one needs to eat adequate protein and most likely, quality fats and oils. But these usually will not give the instant pick-me-up one gets from flour and sugar. In addition, most people need targeted vitamin and mineral supplements and a complete healing program to restore the body’s sugar-handling ability. At least 70 percent of the American population suffers from some degree of hypoglycemia.

A need for insulin
I am going to keep this section brief, as I am not a doctor nor knowledgeable about diabetes. Simply said, eating sweets and starches stimulate insulin release. This may have a pleasurable effect on some people, especially if insulin levels are somewhat low and resistance is present. Non-diabetics can experience fluctuations in insulin levels, just as a diabetic can.

Chronic fatigue syndrome, Adrenal exhaustion, fast and slow oxidation
Are you tired? For some of us, eating sugars gives us a boost in energy. The causes of fatigue are varied. There is a theory of health and disease treatment that is called the bioenergetic approach. It is theorized that if you have nutritional balance in your body, you will be well. Here the goal is not to diagnose any disease, nor is it to cure anything. Instead, the focus is on raising the body’s adaptive energy level.

Adrenal exhaustion is a very common reason for low energy and chronic low blood sugar. Cortisol and cortisone, the hormones secreted by the adrenal glands, function to raise and maintain the blood sugar level. When these hormones are low, a person will experience chronic low blood sugar and fatigue. The condition is temporarily improved by eating sugars, fruits, juices or other items containing sugar. Once again, the effect is very temporary, and it can set up an addictive pattern of eating to feel better.

Fast or slow oxidation is when carbohydrates and amino acids are oxidized too slowly (“slow oxidation”) in one cycle or too quickly in another cycle (“fast oxidation”). In both cases energy production is reduced. People that experience fast and/or slow oxidization suffer from inefficient energy production, but for opposite biochemical reasons. The most common symptoms of a fast or slow oxidative rate are fatigue, emotional duress of some type, lowered resistance to infections, a low body temperature, gall bladder or liver problems, and being over or under weight. Your oxidation rate is influenced by both genetics and by your diet. Thus, what you eat affects your rate of oxidation and energy production, which in turn affects your mental, emotional, behavioral, and in some cases, physical characteristics.

The need for essential nutrients
Protein, fat, zinc, manganese, vanadium, chromium, and inositol, are essential nutrients that are often missing in a food addict’s diet. We are so nutritionally depleted that we develop unusual food cravings, in part because we are seeking various essential nutrients that are not present in high enough concentrations in our daily diets.

This can definitely explain some cases of overeating. It is thought, for example, that a deficiency of inositol may cause people to crave sugars. It is well known that deficiencies of zinc and chromium, and perhaps manganese and vanadium, may be involved in sweet cravings due to the need for these nutrients in the metabolism of sugars or glucose. A low intake of protein can cause carbohydrate cravings in slow oxidizers. A low intake of fats and oils can cause carbohydrate and sugar cravings in fast oxidizers.

Caseomorphins and Gluteomorphins – the food opioids
Both caseomorphins and gluteomorphins are morphine-like opioids, which we derive from dairy and wheat respectively, and are critical to our understanding of the power of these two foods in our health and well-being. These morphine-like substances, casomorphin and gluteomorphin, can be very sedating and addictive and help to explain why 75 percent of the calories in the standard American diet come from wheat and dairy, alone. Food addiction is a very real thing and these opioids play a huge role.

Caseomorphins are formed during our attempt to digest casein, the protein that makes up 80-90 percent of the protein content of cow’s milk. It is this same protein that can cause damage to the lower intestinal lining and a malabsorption syndrome similar to that seen in celiac disease, or gluten intolerance. Borden uses casein to make Elmer’s Glue; think what it does to the walls of your intestines.

The gluteomorphins are derived from gliadin, one of the main proteins found in gluten grains (wheat, barley, and rye). Gluten is also used to make industrial adhesives, as are soy and corn. All five of these foods are capable of damaging the lining of the intestinal tract and leading to the malabsorption of calcium, iron, B complex, C, and trace minerals (e.g. zinc, magnesium, lithium, boron, and more). This malabsorption or leaky gut syndrome contributes greatly to the ill health of the brain and immune system, setting the stage for the action of these food-derived opioids.

Dependency on carbohydrates are a major contributor to symptoms of IBS, thyroid dysfunction, fibromyalgia, neuropathy, arthritis, depression, chronic fatigue or other typical signs associated with food intolerance. And because of these food opioids, withdrawal from these foods can lead to classic drug-withdrawal symptoms.

These sedating compounds are also the single biggest contributing factor to post-meal drowsiness. Throw alcohol into the mix and you have a tragic situation just waiting to happen.

Amylopectin A, Agglutinin and Gliadin
Gluten research is coming up with more and more reasons not to eat wheat. U.S. cardiologist Dr. William (Bill) Davis and author of Wheat Belly, contends that wheat’s content of the readily-digested starch amylopectin A, is highly disruptive to blood sugar levels. The lectin (a toxin) in wheat known as “wheat germ agglutinin” can cause inflammation in the gut and elsewhere, and Gliadin, another component of gluten in wheat, has among other things, drug-like effects.

Dr. Davis’ research shows that gliadin might not be fully digested in the gut, and may give rise to small protein molecules known as “polypeptides.” These can sometimes penetrate the gut to gain access to the bloodstream, after which they also have the capacity to make their way across the “blood-brain-barrier.” Once in the brain, gliadin polypeptides can bind to opiate receptors in the brain. Opiates receptors are also similarly bound by the addictive chemicals of morphine, heroin and opium.

The body can generate chemicals which bind to opiate receptors termed “endorphins.” However, when a substance comes from outside the body, it is termed an “exorphin.” Gluten-derived exorphins can induce a feeling of mild euphoria. This might explain why tearing off a piece of a freshly baked baguette or digging into a bowl of pasta can seemingly be so intensely pleasurable for some. It might also explain why some struggle with giving up wheat.

So in reading this you can see that sugar, carbohydrates and other gluten-containing foods have addictive qualities that affect quite a lot of individuals. It seems to be a very real phenomenon and there’s no doubt that eliminating or dramatically reducing sugar, flour and gluten consumption usually leads to a significant improvement in well-being, energy levels, mental function and usually, weight loss. It also explains why we want to eat more after we ingest flour and sugar.

I want to remind you that information and advice contained in this blog should not be used for diagnosis or as a substitute for medical advice. Always consult your doctor, nutritionist or healthcare professional before beginning any new treatment.

Research for this post came from:

Food Addiction Institute
http://foodaddictioninstitute.org/fundamental-concepts/am-i-a-food-addict/2011/01/

Lawrence Wilson, MD
http://drlwilson.com/ARTICLES/ADRENAL_BURNOUT.htm

Dr Jeremy Kaslow, Allergy, Asthma, and Clinical Immunology and Internal Medicine
http://www.drkaslow.com/html/oxidation_rates.html

Dr John Briffa- A Good Look at Good Health Blog
http://www.drbriffa.com/2012/05/17/wheat-opiate-of-the-masses/

Dr William Davis- The Wheat Belly Blog
http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/

Dr Joseph Alaimo, Alaimo Chiropractic- Blog
http://drjosephalaimo.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/caseomorphins-and-gluteomorphins-%E2%80%93-the-food-opiods/

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I am hungry — What’s wrong with flour and sugar?

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Melissa Killeen
melissa-new-post

Melissa Killeen

What’s so bad about flour and sugar? Flour and sugar are the two most common substances to which food addicts identify as being addicted to. Although some food addicts report addictions to fatty, salty and excess food volume, I am going to focus on flour and sugar in this post.

If you think you might be a food addict, then you need to know a lot more about what foods are the most likely to be addictive, even though you may not want to give them up. Most food addicts don’t want to give up flour or sugar; they just want to avoid the consequences of eating.

The simplest way is to find out if you are addicted to flour and/or sugar is to use the self-assessment provided by the Overeaters Anonymous on their website, Is OA for you? You can also check out the Food Addiction Institute’s self-assessment questions, Am I a food addict?

Phillip Werdell, from the Food Addiction Institute, suggests using an assessment of different kinds of “eaters,” if you are looking for a way to distinguish between a psychologically-based eating disorder and a food addiction. H. Teresa Wright, a registered dietitian from the Philadelphia area, with over a decade of experience working with compulsive eaters, suggests to her clients that they read two books: Geneen Roth’s Feeding the Hungry Heart, as a good read on emotional eating and Breaking Free of Compulsive Eating, a book focused on addictive eating. In addition, she suggests Kay Shepard’s Food Addiction: the Body Knows or Anne Katherine’s Anatomy of a Food Addiction.

Both Wright and Werdell suggest letting you decide what type of eater you are, so you can come to your own conclusions. If you try any of the self-assessments and you think you need to make major changes in the way you eat, my strong recommendation is to do this in consultation with a doctor, dietitian and/or therapist.

Sugar
Sugar is a carbohydrate. Perhaps we only use the white or brown stuff, but sugar is also a natural part of many other foodstuffs such as lactose, which is a sugar found in milk, maltose in grain, fructose in fruit, and sucrose, a refined sugar. Brown sugar is simply white sugar with a bit of molasses added or it is colored with caramel.

The food industry has developed enormous sidelines of “diet” foods, usually labeled “Sugar-Free.” Given the many different varieties of sugar; derivations of sugar such as Splenda; sugars formed from alcohol (not surprisingly, these can be very addictive); chemical sweeteners (the “polys”); artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, saccharine, etc., the label “Sugar-Free” usually means the food contains a different kind of sugar. For some food addicts, these non-sugars can have the same result as refined sugar—the inability to eat it in reasonable amounts. Although some artificial sweeteners have no caloric value, their impact on our bodies can be just as deadly as sugars with calories, if we cannot stop consuming it. A single can of soda contains 12 teaspoons of added sugar. That’s 120 percent of the USDA’s recommended daily intake of sugar. Just think how expertly the food industry has glamorized diet soda, and how powerfully addictive artificial sweeteners are when linked with caffeine.

What is bad about sugar is how it works in our body. Sugar is rapidly converted in the blood to triglycerides. Triglycerides are a type of fat (or sometimes called a lipid) in your blood, which can increase your risk of heart disease,obesity, and diabetes. Sugar is devoid of vitamins, minerals, or fiber; it is an empty food. Its main use in the food industry is as a stabilizer, flavor enhancer and an appetite stimulant.

Today, the per capita consumption of sugar and other highly refined sweeteners (such as high-fructose corn syrup) is 158 pounds a year. That is a 30 percent increase in the past four decades, and during the same time period, the number of overweight Americans increased by nearly 20 percent. The culprit? Sugar.

In 2005, researchers examined the effects of sugar on the immune system. A published study at the National Institute of Health documented sugar’s impact: Sugar steals the ability of white blood cells to destroy bacteria. White blood cells are known as “phagocytes,” and phagocytic tests show that a couple of teaspoons of sugar can sap their strength by 25 percent. A large helping of pie and ice cream renders your white cells 100 percent helpless. This effect lasts from 4 to 5 hours. Consider a 900 ml serving of processed and packaged orange juice or one 683 ml of cola—either of these will depress the immune system by 50 percent, 30 minutes after ingestion and this will last for hours! If you have sugar at every meal, which many do by eating processed foods, alone, your immune system is constantly impaired.

For food addicts, who binge on enormous amounts of sugar, eat meals consisting of large amounts of processed food, or diets consisting almost completely of convenience foods, the impact could be exponential. For us, to eat this way is to die. 

Flour
Many food addicts are willing to give up sugar, but not flour. Paradoxically, it is because we believe that not having bread in our house, or never having a birthday cake makes us different. We fear appearing “different” when we already appear very ill with food addiction.

Flour has been embedded in so many foods, we may have more difficulty surrendering flour than the more obvious of the two, sugar. Unfortunately, the food industry is willing to subscribe to “gluten-free” advertising. It is considered a niche market and many food stores see catering to people with Celiac disease (a wheat allergy) and gluten allergies as a revenue boost. Some food addicts have these medical issues, but really what makes flour addictive is the issue of bioavailability.

Bioavailability defines the ease with which something is absorbed from the digestive tract. The higher the bioavailability of a food, the greater the total absorption and rate of absorption. The faster a food is absorbed, the more quickly it turns to glucose in the body, producing a jump in blood sugar.

Whole grains have been in the human diet for thousands of years. Milling, grinding and refining grains is a relatively recent endeavor. Unprocessed, whole grains take much longer to digest than refined flours, for example, hot oatmeal for breakfast is better than a slice of wheat toast. Many food addicts find that flours made from other grains are just as bioavailable. Rice flour is likely to trigger the same reaction in a food addict as rice syrup: both are highly refined. We may initially be persuaded by “faux foods,” e.g. “whole-grain bread,” “flour-free bread,” etc. The fact is that such breads are all made from refined grains. It is a matter of definition on a nutritional label. Reading the glycemic index of such foods tells us the truth about their composition.

The more refined a flour is, the more bioavailable it becomes. And the more quickly it turns into a spike of blood sugar followed by a drop in blood sugar. Which is the main reason we want to eat something at 10am and 3pm, when we are feeling lethargic and need a boost of energy.

Sugar and flour are both carbohydrates. Other high carbohydrate foods are fruit, sweet juices, ice cream, pies, candy, potatoes, flour tortillas, pasta, rice and beans.

So why am I addicted to flour and sugar? We will explore more of this in next week’s post.

Information and advice contained on this site should not be used for diagnosis or should not be used as a substitute for medical advice. Always consult your doctor or healthcare professional before beginning any new treatment.

Research for this post came from:

Food Addiction Institute
http://foodaddictioninstitute.org/fundamental-concepts/am-i-a-food-addict/2011/01/

Lawrence Wilson, MD
http://drlwilson.com/ARTICLES/ADRENAL_BURNOUT.htm

Dr Jeremy Kaslow, Allergy, Asthma, and Clinical Immunology and Internal Medicine
hhttp://www.drkaslow.com/html/oxidation_rates.html 

Dr John Briffa- A Good Look at Good Health Blog
http://www.drbriffa.com/2012/05/17/wheat-opiate-of-the-masses/

Dr William Davis- The Wheat Belly Blog
http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/

Dr Joseph Alaimo, Alaimo Chiropractic- Blog
http://drjosephalaimo.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/caseomorphins-and-gluteomorphins-%E2%80%93-the-food-opiods/

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I am hungry — Why I can’t make good decisions when I am hungry

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Melissa Killeen
melissa-new-post

Melissa Killeen

Hungry people are often difficult to deal with. Ask any waiter how pleasant a patron can be when they have been waiting over thirty minutes for a table. A good meal can affect more than our mood; it can also influence our willingness to take risks. Research proves that the willingness of many animals to take risks increases or declines depending on whether the animal is hungry or full. For example, a predator only hunts more dangerous prey when it is close to starvation.

Three studies have been released, recently, that look into the behavior of hungry people. Well, the first study deals with fruit flies, but eventually researchers will get to conduct this study using real people. A team of scientists led by Dr Grunwald-Kadow at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, in Martinsried, Germany, studied the behavior of hungry fruit flies. It was found that fruit flies have an instinctive fear of carbon dioxide, which they normally associate with danger even at low levels, because it kills them (a very healthy fear, don’t you think?). We all know that the fruit flies’ favorite food is rotting fruit. However, rotting fruit releases large amounts of carbon dioxide gas. So why do the flies want to eat rotting fruit? This fact lead researchers to explore the conflict between the regions of the fruit flies‘ nervous system, which was instructing the flies to get away from the fruit and the region of the flies’ brain which was telling them to sit down and eat, essentially to ignore the dangers of the CO2! These fruit flies are obviously risking death in order to eat. Being hungry shifts decision-making to a different part of the brain, bypassing the natural fight-or-flight reflex, which suggests there is an inherited instinct in other areas of the brain that was controlling the flies’ decision-making.

“The hungry flies continued to eat despite the presence of carbon dioxide, confirming that the brain was happy to trade off risk instinctively with the advantage of getting a square meal,” Dr Grunwald-Kadow explained. Now how does this effect a 180-pound human? Well, hunger is not always just sitting down and having a triple cheeseburger, fries and a chocolate shake at Wendy’s. Although making a decision to have a triple cheese burger when it could affect your risk of high cholesterol or heart disease is similar to a fruit fly eating rotten fruit. The chances are the fly will die sooner than you will. So, let’s look at another hunger. The hunger of addiction.

Yale researchers were focusing their attention on the brain’s reward circuits located in the midbrain to develop treatments for metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes. Funny, they were in working on diabetes and obesity research, and they came up with an interesting angle of interest in ‘novelty’ or risky behavior and stimulating behavior, also known as drug use. Yale School of Medicine researcher Marcelo O. Dietrich has found that increased appetite for food can actually be associated with a decreased interest in drugs. On the other hand, less interest in food can predict increased interest in cocaine. How many times have I thought: “I am hungry, but I don’t want to eat, because I want to lose weight, so I’ll smoke a cigarette?” The same reward circuits are working here. Can you see this thought working for you: “Boy, I have to work late to get this report done; I don’t have time to go out to grab dinner, let me do a line to pick me up until I am finished?” An interesting look at risk versus reward. Risk is completely ignored when the reward is food or drugs.

Finally, let’s think about how angry we get when we are hungry. Ohio State Researcher, Brad Bushman, presented his research at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in 2013. His Hangry Study (or the hungry-people-are-cranky-people study) provided couples with blood glucose monitors and voodoo dolls, and then instructed each partner to take their blood sugar in the morning and evening. Each person was then told to take their voodoo doll every night and stick pins in it, representing how angry they were with their partner on a scale of 0 – 51. Zero pins meant no anger at all, while 51 pins was, well, a bit more than just angry!

The researchers found that even when controlling a number of variables like overall relationship satisfaction, the people with lower blood sugar stuck their voodoo dolls with more pins. So Dr. Bushman fed them. And like magic, their blood sugar was elevated and they mellowed out.

Bushman speculated that this study could prove blood sugar is a possible factor in domestic violence – although I think that is a stretch. But have you ever yelled at a waiter? Yes. Thrown a plate at them? No, unless alcohol is involved. So research proves that if you are having a discussion with your boss about a conflict situation, make sure it is not just before lunch or after 3:00pm, and that you are well fed.

These studies all overlap with one result: Don’t make any decisions when you’re hungry.

Isn’t it wonderful knowing that HALT (hungry, angry, lonely and tired) has some real scientific underpinnings?

This blog was based on the following research:

Dr. Grunwald-Kadow and Dr. Stefanie Merker, June 25, 2013, Hunger affects decision making and perception of risk,Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology Web site, Martinsried, Germany. To read more go to: http://www.mpg.de/7422218/hunger-behaviour.

Emma Innes, June, 26, 2013. Why skipping lunch could make you a liability: Hunger affects the fight-or-flight reflex and triggers ’risky behavior’. Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd, part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. To read more go to: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2348930/Why-skipping-lunch-make-liability-Hunger-affects-fight-flight-reflex-triggers-risky-behaviour.html#ixzz3H6AYqTYb.

Drug Addiction and Hunger May Be Linked, June 25, 2012. Sott.net is owned and distributed by Quantum Future Group, Inc., San Francisco, CA. Quantum Future Group, Inc. is a registered 501 (c) (3) nonprofit U.S. corporation, and Sott.net (Signs of the Times) is a research and news project of QFG. To read more go to: http://www.sott.net/article/247134-Drug-Addiction-and-Hunger-May-Be-Linked

Charlotte H Anderson,Do You Get “H-Angry”? Science Says Hungry-Angry is Legit [Plus: 11 More Funny Food-Emotions] April 15, 2014. The Great Fitness Experiment.com, the personal blog of Charlotte H Anderson. To read more go to:
http://www.thegreatfitnessexperiment.com/2014/04/do-you-get-hangry-science-says-hungry-angry-is-legit-plus-10-more-funny-food-emotions.html.

Jeff Grabmeier, April 14, 14, Lashing Out at Your Spouse? Check Your Blood Sugar- Study finds that ‘hangry’ husbands and wives get more aggressive.The Ohio State University Research and Innovation Communications Web site, Office of Media and Public Relations, Columbus, OH. To read more go to: http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/hangryspouse.htm.

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