The Key to Controlling Cravings

Cravings are actually a form of addiction with physiological and psychological components.

This is why most diet plans fail- because they don't address the emotional side of cravings.

Without proper support for your emotions it is nearly impossible to overcome the old habits and cravings that keep you from becoming your best.

This is what separates Diet Boot Camp from all the other weight loss plans out there.

It's not just about your weight, it's about you. The whole you: Body, thoughts, and feelings.

If you are ready to create the life you love in a body you love, the Diet Boot Camp Challenge begins on July 6th.

Learn more»

Overeating Triggers Overeating

Want a terrific example of the proverbial "vicious circle" when it comes to diet?

Check this out:

Overeating can actually stimulate a metabolic response in the brain that induces cravings to eat more. The result? A vicious cycle of elevated calorie consumption that can lead to obesity, diabetes and insulin resistance.

We've long known that inflammation is a huge part of every degenerative disease from Alzheimer's to heart disease, and it's a big part of obesity as well.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of California-San Diego found that overeating can induce inflammatory responses that underlie Type ll Diabetes and obesity.

Here's how it works. There's a structure in your brain called the hypothalamus which is like the command center for regulating appetite, feeding behavior, energy and body-weight balance. And there's a hormone in the body called leptin which has a lot to do with regulating appetite. Leptin talks to the hypothalamus, but when communication lines are down and the hypothalamus doesn't get the message that "we don't need any more food", the hypothalamus can promote or induce either obesity or type ll Diabetes (or both).

Overeating turns on a (normally inactive) protein in the hypothalamus that screws up the communication that would normally keep obesity and associated metabolic problems at bay. When you eat "normally", this protein keeps its mouth shut. When you overeat, the protein acts like a drunk at a Karaoke bar.

So what's the big news? We've known that eating too much makes you fat since forever.

The news is that it's not just that excess calories go right to your butt and thighs. That would be bad enough. But those excess calories actually upset and inflame metabolic processes that underlie disease.

There's a Confucian-inspired adage used by the long-lived healthy people in Okinawa: Hara hachi bu.

It means- eat till you're 80% full.

In other words, push away from the table before you're stuffed. You won't get fat, you might just live longer, and you'll probably protect yourself from some really nasty metabolic consequences.

Curbing Food Cravings

This article is adapted from an excellent article on food cravings by my friend Ingrid Kohlstadt, MD, MPH. The original article appeared in the January Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients. Visit Dr. Ingrid at www.ingridients.com.

We all know that food cravings are some of the biggest obstacles to weight loss. Smart dieters will do everything possible to avoid food cravings, rather than fight a losing (not as in "losing weight") battle. We mere mortals have smell, taste, and gut feelings intrinsically hardwired in our brains. These pre-human senses scream "Eat that food!" before the high-reasoning brain centers in the neocortex even know what it is. In this way the brain is not like a computer where newer is faster. The brain's developmentally newer centers work more slowly than the impulse-driven, survival mode brainstem and "older" portions of the brain.

Don't Fight Intense Food Cravings: Fix the Cause

Battling food cravings can be dangerous. Unheeded food cravings can result in losing a job, losing concentration while operating machinery, and being insufficiently alert while commuting in heavy traffic. Ignoring the brain's "Eat!" message could also involve overlooking warning signs of migraine, gallstone, muscle loss or gout. Therefore "giving in" to intense food cravings may be the wisest immediate choice, even if it means busting a diet. Long-term, the best choice is to reduce the intensity and frequency of food cravings so that dieting is safe.

Remember that meals matter. Reducing food cravings begins with a knife and fork. Here are some general guidelines:

• Eat slowly and mindfully
  
• Eat fiber
  
• Avoid refined carbohydrates
  
• Don't skip meals
  
• Frontload with breakfast
  
• Eat calories rather than drinking them
  

Food cravings often reflect inadequate neurotransmitters in the dopamine or serotonin pathways. Amino acids can often be a successful way to treat cravings. Generally a starting dose of 150 mg 5-HTP and 1,500mg Tryrosine can help curb them.

Food cravings are like the "check engine" signal on the console. Battling food cravings is like battling the dashboard to sever the signal indicator light- not effective and not a good idea.

Address the metabolic engine trouble and the food cravings will go away.

Attack of the Killer Carbs!

Ever wonder why you're so often hungry for more not long after you eat a high-carb snack or meal?

New research may help explain it.

Scientists at Monash University identified key appetite control cells in the human brain. These cells are attacked after eating, but the attack is bigger and stronger following a meal rich in sugar and carbohydrates.

"The more carbs and sugars you eat, the more your appetite-control cells are damaged", said Zane Andrews, MD, the lead researcher on the study. The result? You eat more.

The forces that compel you to eat and the forces that tell the brain "hey, this dude is full!" are constantly at war. When your stomach is empty, it triggers the release of a hunger hormone called ghrelin. When you're full, a set of neurons known as POMC's kick in.

Free radicals normally created in the body attack both the "hunger" neurons and the "anti-hunger" neurons, but the "hunger" neurons are naturally protected. This tips the scale in the direction of hunger and cravings.

And carbs create the most damage of all.

According to Andrews, people in the age group of 25 to 50 are most at risk. "The neurons that tell people in that crucial age range not to overeat are being killed off".

Yet another reason to limit your sugar and processed carbs if you don't want to be the victim of constant cravings.

Treating Cravings and Addictions with Food and Supplements

You may never have been addicted to drugs, but you might know something about the addiction to food. Or sugar. Or alcohol. Or gambling. Turns out that all these addictions- and the associated cravings- have more in common with one another than you might think. And interestingly enough, the key to managing them might be in your diet.

This week's issue of The Economist, a London based newspaper, reports on interesting ongoing research using dietary approaches to addictions.

Here's how they explain the problem:

"People are programmed for addiction. Their brains are designed so that actions vital for propagating their genes- such as eating and having sex- are highly rewarding. Those reward pathways can, however be subverted by external chemicals (in other words, drugs) and by certain sorts of behavior such as gambling."

We also know from animal experiments that reward pathways in the brain can be hijacked by sugar. Rats who became addicted to sugar actually showed all the signs of cocaine withdrawal when sugar was removed from their diet.

The key to the whole thing- no big surprise- is in your brain chemistry, that complicated computer system where messages can frequently get corrupted and things can easily go astray. Addictive substances literally "hijack" the pleasure centers of the brain so that it's harder to obtain regular plain old garden-variety pleasure from regular activities. Instead, you need bigger and bigger doses of the substances or behaviors that give you the biggest jolt- sugar, cocaine, drugs, alcohol, gambling and the rest of the usual suspects.

One supplement that's getting a lot of research attention for addictions and that has remained under the radar for now is NAC- N-Acetyl-Cysteine. A study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that giving NAC to cocaine addicts reduced their desire to use the drug so much that the researchers recommended NAC as a potential treatment. An entirely different study found that NAC reduced the desire to gamble in 80% of gambling addicts (as compared to 28% of those given a placebo). And animal studies have shown that NAC reduces relapse with cocaine and heroin.

OK, so probably not many of you are cocaine or heroin addicts. But cravings are cravings, and if NAC works with some addictions (or cravings) it should work with others. I've recommended NAC for years as part of a liver health program since it boosts the body's level of the important antioxidant glutathione (which is not well absorbed in supplement form).

Now it looks like it may have another use!

Other nutritional factors that can support a healthy brain function are tyrosine (a precursor of the neurotransmitter dopamine), 5-HTP (a precursor of serotonin) and GABA (a relaxing neurotransmitter). My friend Dr. Daniel Amen put these together in an elegantly designed formula called NeuroLink, which also contains a nice dose of vitamin B6, needed to convert 5-HTP into the feel good neurotransmitter serotonin.