Are we simply subjected to a “Toxic Food Environment” or are we dealing with the obesity epidemic as an addictive brain disease? Every morning hundreds of Americans walk past a vending machine on their way to their office. Some barely notice the distraction. Others, however, stop and peer into the volume of eye candy to see what grabs their craving and taste interest. They pull out their money, insert the correct change, take the specific food, and munch on it on the way to their desk or meeting. The next day, they round the corner, see the vending machine, remember that incredible taste, and as if on autopilot pull out the correct change, take the food of choice and again eat it on the way to their office. Whether walking past the vending machine, driving through a fast-food establishment that offers your favorite breakfast special or a coffee shop with the best latte, this is how the simple pleasure of a specific food creates addictive patterns in the brain. But are individuals really on their way to becoming addicts? Mike Dow, Pd.D., and Clinical Director of Therapeutic and Behavioral services of the Body Well Integrative Medical Center in Los Angeles has said openly that the addiction to food can be harder to overcome than drugs and that food addictions are just as real as drug and alcohol addictions.
It has been over two decades since the October 1993 edition of Vegetarian Times stated that, “Surveys have suggested that anywhere from 20 to 70 percent of Americans say the urge for a certain food sometimes strike them.” In the past year regardless of race or socio-economic class, surveys estimate almost 100% of young women and nearly 70% of young men report having experienced cravings. America has become imprisoned by food cravings and obesity, the modern health epidemic of today’s world. It is believed the reason most diets fail is that they don’t address the changes in brain chemistry caused by food that can be more powerful than the effects of cocaine. Researchers and scientists at the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) have been trying to figure out whether we truly can be addicted to food by studying the brains reaction with high-tech scanners. And what they can say is that the brain of an obese person looks similar to the brain of a drug addict.
Study after study alludes to the fact that the high prevalence of craving behaviors in today’s global economy has forced its negative nutritional impact and has been linked to snacking behavior, poor diet compliance, and the continuing rise in the obesity rate. Virtually everyone has or will at some point, experience a food craving which is experienced as a pressing desire to taste a very particular food. The image associated with the word craving depicts deprivation, starvation, extreme hunger and temptation. The desire to eat hyper-palatable foods come down to 50 percent genetics and the rest to environmental factors like cheap, calorie-dense, fast food, junk food and super-sized portions for pennies more.
Over time the strengthening of one’s neural pathways for a particular food along with a sharp rise in dopamine and serotonin (neurochemicals that affect the brain’s pleasure centers) makes forgoing one’s favorite food unbearable and completely unthinkable. There is another form of reinforcement, an arousal of wanting more. So, what came first the chicken or the egg?
The traditional diet deals with two factors – calorie consumption and restriction. This approach to food leads to short-lived successes because of its failure to address the pitfalls associated with the brain’s conditioning for a specific food, taste, texture, and smell. Even researchers remain unclear whether a legitimate physiological basis for intense desires for certain foods truly exists, citing difficulty in isolating psychological, social, and cultural factors that play a strong role in food choices. What researchers do agree upon is that food cravings come from the same part of the brain as an addict’s. When studying craving, researchers have used functional magnetic resonance imaging to reveal that food cravings activate brain areas related to emotion, memory and reward – which are the same areas activated during drug addiction studies. The pattern of MRI results suggests that the memory area of the brain responsible for associating a food with a reward are more important to food craving than are the actual reward centers or hunger itself. This is consistent with the idea that cravings of all kinds, whether for food, drugs, cars or designer shoes, all share the same common mechanisms. Studies of food cravings are possibly the evolutionary basis of all craving behavior and may provide insight into drug craving and how it contributes to the maintenance and relapse of drug addiction.
Marcia Levin Pelchat, at the Monell Chemical Senses Center feels if we ever hope to get a handle on the craving cycle, we need to learn much more about food cravings in pathological conditions such as obesity, alcoholism, cocaine addiction and other drug conditions. Marcia Pelchat stated, “Since so many of these excesses of desire share common brain mechanisms, then it may be seen as plausible that motivational trade-offs could be developed to treat cravings with a healthier substitute.” You can label craving behavior as excessive hunger, a desire for a specific food, emotional eating, or an addiction; in the end, it leads to your demise, forcing you to eat more.
A far more persuasive finding by Adam Drewnowski, at the University of Washington in Seattle, parallels the same physiological mechanisms involved in food cravings as for an addict’s desire for opiates. Drewnowski, who has spent thirty years studying human taste, food preferences, and dietary choices, found that the opioid circuitry, which is the body’s primary pleasure system, created a similar effect to drugs like morphine and heroin. Opioid produced by the consumption of high-sugar, high-fat foods can relieve and disrupt pain or stress in the body. Drewnowski’s studies show that with infusions of various opiate-blockers, preferences for foods high in fat and sugar decrease. He speculates that opiate blockers interfere with the ability to experience pleasure, including the pleasure derived from the tastes and textures of food.
For some, craving may be that sugary pick-me-up or a bag of salt/pepper potato chips, a couple pieces of your favorite chocolate, or the extra glass of wine at night to unwind from the day. The good news is that these types of unhealthy urges can be fended off. Science points to the validated fact that cravings seem to be all about blood sugar levels. Food cravings mean that the body has its signals mixed-up; it has nothing to do with willpower, yet developing “will power” is a skill base, not a myth or genetic trait. Do some individuals overeat because they were born with a non-responsive dopamine system or does the obese individual have a low dopamine response because they overeat, or could obesity itself weaken the dopamine system triggering over stimulation? All these scenarios promote weight gain leading researchers to believe we probably have low blood sugar or low serotonin levels, signaling the brain that it needs a burst of energy. Researchers like Susan Schiffman, Ph.D., professor of medical psychology at Duke University Medical Center, believes the “carbohydrate” craving cycle could simply be from hunger driven by blood sugar levels being too low, making such craving physiological in nature. A reoccurring viewpoint amongst researchers have found, if the individual’s sugar levels stay constant throughout the course of the day, then eating patterns and consumption levels will be more controllable. Conversely, when times get chaotic, schedules overwhelming, and the individual doesn’t get a food infusion for hours, the body’s physiological and psychological stress levels begin to climb. One’s blood sugar takes a nosedive for the worse and that craving for that favorite comfort food starts screaming your name. Researchers have targeted those favorite foods as the “high-carbohydrate demonic” food group. These high-carbohydrate foods also referred to as refined carbs or high-glycemic foods, increase levels of your brain’s neurotransmitter called serotonin. Kessler’s explains carbohydrate cravings as a feedback mechanism between carbohydrates (sugar) and serotonin (pleasure hormone). Neuroscientists talk about the mechanics of craving behavior like this: when we eat a food high in refined sugar, fat, or salt, we stimulate neurons (cells in the brain). Then the neurons start to connect in circuits and communicate about the food eaten, which is referred to as “encoding” or “mental imprint.” The neuron records a preference for that particular food creating an automatic response. David A. Kessler, MD, former FDA commissioner and author of “The End of Overeating”, refers to the brain’s imprinting as an “action schemata”, representing the specific sequence and actions taken in response to a desired palatable food. Kessler says that once a food script becomes imprinted in the brain, the behavior dictated becomes so routine that we respond before we are even conscious of a stimulus. In fact, according to Howard Fields, a professor of neurology and physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, a small proportion of neurons are “uniquely encoded to respond to a single sensory characteristic of food and stimulated by sight, smell, temperature and taste, texture, sweet, salty, sour, or bitter. Neurons react to foods by way of electrical signals that in turn release brain chemicals that then travel to other interconnected neurons that create the craving behavior.”
And why is it that cravings seem to be experienced when we are exhausted or simply feeling blue? This feel-good hormone is a brain neurotransmitter that some researchers suggest regulates carbohydrate intake, calming the brain, giving you that laid back, relaxed, everything will be “OK” feeling. Unfortunately, these particular foods release a short burst of serotonin allowing us to feel good for a brief moment, before we get thrown into a low-serotonin state. These roller coaster highs lead to punishing downward spirals represented by a ravenous hunger that only another high-fat, high-sugar meal will satisfy. Richard Foltin, of Columbia University’s department of Psychiatry, refers to this cycle thusly “real factor comes down to sensory stimulation plus calorie stimulation. The relationship between human motivation and behavior in the presence of hyper-palatable food is still unraveling, but what we do know for certain is that foods high in sugar, fat, and salt are altering the biological circuitry of our brains.
Other thought leaders in the field of neuroscience and nutrition suggest that raising the level of serotonin, by consuming a high-carbohydrate meal satisfies a need and reduces the urge to eat more carbohydrates. A high protein meal creates a serotonin deficit, which awakens the carbohydrate craving, leading to the consumption of foods high in carbohydrates. Yet most research takes the viewpoint that the more a dieter tries to restrict or lower the intake of carbohydrates (your most readily available source of energy), the more it seems that the craving takes hold and the diet effort fades away. Other factors associated with food cravings are connected to one’s stress and hormone levels, sleep cycle, and mood.
Like the research of David A. Kessler, the majority of researchers maintain the mindset that people’s food choices are probably influenced by the brain’s reactions prior to eating experiences. Scientists noted that when a food elicits top mental performance, the brain keeps an internal food journal of preferred foods for making future choices. Another supporter of the “prior eating experience scenario” is Linda Bartoshuk, PH.D in Psychology at Yale University, who has stated “The brain has the ability to make associations with food eaten for the first time, deciding whether or not the food eaten provided a benefit, like a boost of energy or a warm, fuzzy feeling”. Familiarity begets acceptability, and acceptability begets cravings. It has become fact that humans crave things that they’ve had positive experiences with.
The craving script goes something like this – the first time you have the experience or learn something new, chances are a new pathway is created and imprinted in your memory similar to saving it under “Favorites” on your computer. The next time that same experience or learning is reinforced because neurons that learn together become attached, the more often one experiences the same thought or behavior, and the stronger the neural pathway will become. All beliefs, behaviors, and assumptions are contained in your brain’s neural pathways. Each time you have an experience; it is imprinted along these pathways sending electro-chemical messages to the brain. This is how we create habits good and bad.
A Lesson in Mental Performance
Let’s say for example that Amy has a real desire for potato chips, she just loves the crunch and the taste of salt, which turns into her eating an entire bag. She has made every effort to stop this behavior yet, every time Amy opens a bag of chips, the smell and taste send her into a binging behavior, making it exponentially more difficult to stop the habituation.
If Amy really wants to change this behavior, the habit itself must be changed to alter the neural pathways. In order to implement and sustain real behavioral change, this gradual shift over time forces the existing neural pathways to weaken and atrophy. This is similar to not exercising, and your muscles become deconditioned. Basically, Amy is trying to override the old habit by rewiring the brain’s pathways with a new behavior, experience or learning. The next step involves Amy practicing these new behaviors over and over till new pathways take hold.
Even Oprah’s Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. author of You on a Diet, has a “factoid” in his book reinforcing the notion that emotional eating starts in the brain, which comes from your food memory. Oz points to the fact that chemicals in the brain influence our emotions and provide the foundation for why, what, and when we eat. Oz along with most scientists and PhD’s believe what goes on in the brain plays a vital role in what happens to the waistline. He and others believe the key to resisting those cravings lies in your ability to understand how emotions prioritize you’re eating patterns. Oz explains that when the level of serotonin in your brain falls your body senses starvation that initiates the craving of carbs. A majority of researchers have a consistent theme, keep your brain happy by maintaining a steady state of your feel-good hormones serotonin.
Dr. Kelly Brownell, a psychologist at Yale University, has proposed the concept referred to as “Toxic Food Environment”. In Brownell’s work with the severely obese he found that the American diet is shaped by an extraordinary array of high-calorie, low-nutrient food, much of which has been carefully engineered to stimulate and then satisfy cravings. As a result, he feels the palate of an average person has been conditioned to a diet of high-fat, high-sugar, and high starch, which from a psychological standpoint is also highly addictive. Brownell believes we need to reprogram our chemistry from an unhealthy toxic food environment to foods designed by nature, in which the factors of appetite, metabolism, and food choices synergistically work together to create and maintain a healthy body weight.
Let’s take a look at today’s reality – many individuals are under a great deal of stress or suffer from insomnia, sleep deprivation, work nights, and feel exhausted most of the time. This leads to adrenal fatigue or outright exhaustion that signals the body that it needs a pick-me-up. You may resort to a sugary snack or a coffee, a high carb high fat meal, or a couple of alcoholic drinks at night, all of which exacerbate the problem. The fact that many Americans of all ages don’t get enough sleep or recovery time escalates the reports of cravings, impaired immune systems, and increased risk of diseases from frequent colds to diabetes or obesity.
Another soldier in the war against obesity is David Levitsky, a professor of nutrition and psychology at Cornell University in Ithaca who seems to believe dieting increases the potential to crave when we restrict ourselves from certain food selections saying, “No, I can’t eat this, and I can’t eat that”. Levitsky, who has studied cravings combined with weight control for more than 25 years, says that the most craved foods are usually the highest in calories composed primarily of refined sugar and fat because that is exactly what dieters give up. Though there is an ongoing controversy over what diets seem to work best, researchers along with registered dietitians and nutritionists know that meals with a mix of lean protein, complex carbohydrate and low-fat provide just the right balance to support brain function. Researchers and scientists alike believe that high-carbohydrate diets composed of low-glycemic/complex carbohydrate food, may be the most successful because they work best with our brain chemistry. Since carbohydrates represent a major source of fuel for daily activities like thinking skills and muscular movements, severely limiting the amount of carbs consumed takes a toll on your overall performance.
Many studies claim age as another factor that affects cravings. The research of Marcia Levin Pelchat her article on Food Craving in Young and Elderly Adults, it seems individuals younger than 65 consistently say they crave specific foods more often than those older than 65. Scientists think that this is because the senses of smell and taste, which are strong appetite stimulants diminishes as we age.
So how does a simple craving for French fries, ice cream, or brownies put us at such risk? The perpetuated cycle connected to craving goes something like this – a simple-refined variety of carbohydrate foods puts you in an “insulin-hunger” cycle causing your blood sugar levels to elevate then drop dramatically, which creates hunger pangs and intense cravings. When individuals are stressed (chemical, physical, emotional, neurological, environmental, or technological) their insulin and cortisol levels increase. In other words, chronic elevated insulin levels can increase stress levels. And stress levels increase cortisol. And the more cortisol in your body, the higher your insulin level which in turn causes the body to store fat, resulting in those love handles or muffin tops you hate. This perpetuating cycle only gets worse as you blame yourself for eating senselessly which intensifies your mood increasing the need for more foods that will give you that feel good burst of energy.
The Common Thread
The common link in all of these theories is the hormone insulin which is responsible for maintaining your blood sugar within a narrow range, storing fat in your cells, sugar in your liver, and influences the expression of amino acids when building muscle. Under stress, cortisol commands your body to essentially ignore insulin’s direction and instead to make sugar, fat, and amino acids available for conversion into glucose (sugar) that is your body’s first line of energy. This causes cortisol to order your cells to stop taking in sugar, which increases the insulin in your bloodstream. This is defined as “insulin resistance”. When cravings press your body into insulin resistance, you end up with too much insulin in the bloodstream, which forces the body to secrete more cortisol to balance the effects of too much insulin which creates weight gain derived from innocently eating a high carbohydrate meal. Scientists have found that a diet higher in protein and moderate in carbohydrates appear to modify the body’s insulin signal by promoting control of insulin production and levels of blood glucose. The extreme rise and fall of one’s blood sugar throughout the day, day after day, results in over stimulation of insulin in the bloodstream leading to today’s health crisis called metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome also referred to as insulin resistance syndrome or syndrome X, targets four risk factors in the development of cardiovascular disease – diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and high blood cholesterol. The research of Robert A. Hegele MD, affiliated with Blackburn Cardiovascular Genetic Laboratory and Robarts Research Institute and Department of Medicine points to the fact that individuals with metabolic syndrome may possess an underlying genetic predisposition that is expressed when poor diet and lack of exercise habits result in obesity.
After all the theorizing on why we crave or how we gain or lose weight, the question seems to focus on whether cravings have a scientific basis, or are they nothing more than personal quirks? There seems to be a growing body of evidence that accepting food cravings and keeping them in check may be the most important component of weight management. Cravings are not thought to cause people to become overweight. And when talking about craving, we are usually referring to the over consumption of a specific food. Overweight on the other hand, tends to come from small, sustained increases in food intake on a daily basis. On the end of the spectrum cravings aren’t even believed to wreck weight loss diets, at least not diets that people are able to adhere to over the long haul. Researchers suggest that while people may be tempted by cravings when they first embark on a weight-loss plan, the cravings tend to wane over time. Even the initial craving can be minimized to a lesser degree by making sure the diet is not too monotonous. Studies seem to conclude that the fewer foods a person is allowed to consume, the more frequent and intense the cravings will tend to be. The train of thought in the field of dieting is if you are not trying to lose weight, or on a medically restricted diet, let the craving win. Otherwise, you will probably do more psychological damage by defying the body’s food preference.
The Science of Craveability and Your Weight
Accepting food cravings and keeping them in check may be an important component of weight management, according to findings from the first six-month phase of a calorie-restriction study conducted at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University. Supplemental results from the Comprehensive Assessment of the Long-term Effects of Restricting Intake of Energy (CALERIE) trial provide new insights into food cravings, specific types of foods craved, and their role in weight control.
According to findings based on calorie-restriction conducted by Jean Mayer, dieters who occasionally gave in to cravings had the most weight-loss success. Susan Roberts, PhD., director of the USDA HNRCA’s Energy Metabolism Laboratory and her team observed that successful weight loss was tied not only to how often people gave in to their cravings, but also to the types of foods they craved. “Subjects with a higher percentage of weight loss actually craved foods with higher caloric density, compared with those who lost a lower percentage of body weight,” says Roberts, who is also a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. “Energy-dense foods, such as chocolate and some salty snacks, are those that pack the most calories per unit of volume,” explains Cheryl Gilroy, PhD, MPH, research dietitian and first author of the study, “as compared to less energy-dense foods like fruits and vegetables, which have fewer calories per unit of volume.” Roberts findings suggest that food cravings are for calories, not necessarily carbohydrates calories, as is widely spread by word of mouth, magazines, supplement pushers, and diet books. What is commonly labeled as a carbohydrate addiction should probably be relabeled as calorie addiction. Some of the most commonly craved foods among studied participants were foods that were high in sugar, fat, and salt, such as chocolate, and salty snacks, chips and French fries. The biggest eye opener Roberts disclosed is that the most identifiable thing about the foods people crave are that they are highly dense in calories. As in the research of David A. Kessler, MD, author of The End of Overeating, who reported that the goals of the food industry are to get you hooked on what he identified as dense caloric foods composed of sugar, fat and salt. Kessler elaborates about the “craveability” factor explaining how the food industry intentionally layers the product with sauces, cheese and breading, which are cheaper to produce than the central ingredient such as meat or fish. What do we crave? Sweets first, then salty stuff of with both foods layered with fats.
COMMONLY CRAVED FOODS
. Alcohol
. Chicken wings
. Cheeseburger
. Chocolate
. Hamburger
. Ice cream
. Peanut butter
. Pickles
. Pie
. Pizza
. Potato chips
. Pretzels
. Soft drinks
Managing the Hunger Brain
The bottom line to reducing cravings begins with forging a new relationship with food. How we make food choices is a complex issue. Beyond the basic need to satisfy the brain’s hunger, some of the most important physiological factors may be those of the food itself, characteristics of taste, texture, color, aroma and temperature. Our association with food and what particular foods signify in terms of the emotions they evoke clearly has a powerful influence. If you’re going to break the crave cycle and escape your self-imposed prison of frustration and guilt associated with food, you will have to desensitize yourself to the foods you crave. In the final analysis, whether future research shows food cravings are physiologically based or psychologically based or both, targeting the desired food as the problem is a mistake. You will have to learn to kick those stubborn little urges to the curb and adopt a new, healthier attitude toward food instead of being derailed by your demonic attention combined with flimsy, limitless excuses.
Specific foods should not be labeled inherently good or bad, but rather foods that should be eaten in smaller amounts. You would be better off learning how to manage your cravings without indulging in high-carbohydrate, high-fat, salty foods.
Managing the Hunger Brain isn’t the same thing as willpower. In every Hunger Brain there lies the heart of a hyper conditioned impulsive eater. Simply intellectualizing the right behavior isn’t sufficient enough to protection one from food cues. The compulsive eater needs to develop a plan that will help prepare them for encounters with their favorite food. The implementation strategy is an awareness exercise to help redirect craving behaviors. The idea of planning gives the Hunger Brain a competitive advantage by enabling one to think through alternatives to their habitual eating patterns. When an implementation strategy is developed and employed, that will allow the Hunger Brain to better inhibit and redirect compulsive eating. A plan helps the Hunger Brain create new way of responding to food and clarifies the consequences associated with habitual behavior. Silvia Bunge, researcher at the University of Berkeley, believes the more specific the plan the easier it is for the Hunger Brain to practice the alternative actions to food cues and encounters. Practice make perfect when it comes to new behavior, new responses will eventually replace the unwanted behavior.
. Create a conscious cognitive script – a new strategy for your favorite foods. Researcher Silvia Bunge, PhD, head, Cognitive Control and Development Laboratory, UCB, suggest it is easiest to follow “categorical rules,” like “I will not eat potato chips,” “ There will be no dessert or bread eaten at dinner,” “I will eat one small serving of birthday cake at the party tonight.”
. Be aware of your triggers – The smell, sound, texture or taste all become hunger cues. Researcher Pamela Peeke at the University of Maryland see the biggest rise in dopamine release when people are presented with different cues. Awareness is the first step towards change. Keep a record of all your favorite foods, write them down and describe why you like them and how they make you feel. Starting to evaluate a favorite food in a new way, helps protect you from it compelling emotional draw it has on your brain.
. Learn to manage stress – Stress acts as a distractor giving you permission to fall into the pattern of eating more of the foods you like. This is where comfort food got its name. Typically, these favorite foods are jam packed with sugar, fat, and salt. Sadness and Anger have the greatest potential to drive a loss of control. Over time, neural pathways link the change in mood with the experience of eating your favorite food, creating a stronger urge.
. Redirect your attention – habit driven responses die-hard. Redirecting your focus offers you the capability to refuse the invitation to evoke the automatic food cue. If your favorite food becomes unavailable, it affects what you think and how you act, allowing you to more easily shift your attention. For instance, when you recognize a consistent pattern of behavior like stopping a Starbucks daily for a Mocha Frappuccino you can change your traffic pattern by detouring your focus.
. Counter condition your brain – Change how you think about your favorite food, Philip David Zelazo of the University of Toronto, suggests altering our emotional appraisal of our favorite comfort food. Zelazo believes if we learn to view the pursuit of the undesirable food in a negative light and attach emotional significance to the unwanted behavior, it is possible to reverse the habit.
. Develop a meal plan – What foods you can eat, serving size, and time of day. Focus on your short-and long-term health goals.
. Gauge your Hunger Brain – Eat only half of your usual meal. Wait 30 then 90 minutes and assess how you feel. Practice eating by varying the serving size of your meal till you find what works for your hunger level.
. Eat foods you enjoy – I know that sounds counter intuitive, but it works. The enjoyment factor must be developed around the personal likes and dislikes. Eating is complicated, it is emotional, physical and contain genetic preferences in our brain due to a lifetime of experiences. Whether your preference is mostly protein, complex carbohydrates, or a green tea smoothie, success and control stems from your enjoyment of the preferred and permitted food.
. Exercise – Walk, run, treadmill, elliptical, stepper, and aerobic classes all can help to create new brain cells which in turn helps with working memory and the brain’s cognitive reservoir. Aerobic activity generally increased the amount of dopamine receptors.
Desirable behavior must be intrinsic in nature and have an emotional value that carries an incentive. And unless the Hunger Brain makes the cognitive shift in how it thinks, by reinforcing the benefits associated with a life “without a stimuli” verses life “with the stimuli” curbing overeating and developing self-control for the long haul is not possible. Research on craving and addiction is gaining traction.
Forget forcing yourself to eat raw veggie or foods you just hate and instead have a reasonable serving size of your favorite comfort food. In moderation your favorite high calorie food can actually help you stay within a well-balanced diet while maintaining a healthy weight. Cravings do not have to defeat your weight-loss efforts. Those who do the best at weight loss don’t lose their cravings; they just get better at managing them. You can’t help being hardwired to yearn for sugar, fat or salt yet you can minimize the damage by replacing those calorie-dense foods with light versions of the same flavors you crave most.
When you’re eating habits are dominated by “shouldn’t”, it is time for a change. It is not a matter of “if” but “when” your willpower runs out of steam, remember you are simply having an impulse moment. This means you can react to a craving without a continuous stream of “mindless eating”. Although the act of eating seems random, these cravings are activated by cues in our environment, aromas, commercials, thoughts, feelings, events and situations. In Dr. Phil McGraw’s book, The Ultimate Weight Solution, he talks about the “Impulse Moments” as critical for you to manage, because they can and will derail even the best of weight loss plans and efforts. And if you fail to get a grip on these daily impulses, which everyone gets, then you are going to go spiraling back into your habitually self-destructive eating behaviors every time.
Not everyone in the field of nutrition agrees that we can be addicted to this toxic food environment, and they object to the continuous excuses that fuel a billion-dollar business. Let’s stop shifting the blame of why we are unable to control the rate of obesity in this country and focus on being substance independent. And if indeed this epidemic resembles that of alcohol and drug addiction let’s determine treatments for those addicted versus those who simply experience an occasional craving.
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