Healing Food Cravings Naturally
“People blame themselves for food cravings (saying) they just don’t have enough will power. The truth is a food craving is a physiologically built in safety mechanism. It’s a defense. It’s a way of taking care of yourself. It’s a survival mechanism,” says Dr. Hyla Cass, MD, board certified in psychology and neurology who specializes in food addiction.
When people are so hungry that they feel like they’re going crazy or if you feel like you need to get someone food or they’re going to kill you these are key tell tale signs something needs attention. It’s not a normal physiologic response, it’s a crisis response of the body, fight or flight. Dr. Cass says, “It’s natural but it’s not normal.”
The foundational cause of this behavior is blood sugar. The brain is in a desperate mode for nourishment and is sending out a desperate flare.
Dr. Cass says, “The way to deal with this is not let yourself get into these crises. You may have a genetic predisposition. Your body may not regulate sugar and insulin properly. You can fix that by eating regularly but also nutrients help well: glutamine (click here), chromium (click here) and alpha lypolic (click here).”
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She recommends chromium picolinate (click here) or chromium mickinate especially if you get shaky, sugar cravings and fatigue.
With women a hormonal imbalance that can be resolved with food or minerals are evident with the need to eat everything in site, with men it presents as a headache or fatigue.
“We need fat, eat fat. Not in the form of trans fat but in the form of good fat: flax oil, fatty fish, the fats of meats. Not in the refined form,” she says. Eating fat has been something our culture has demonized and we are suffering from fat deprivation as a result. Most food cravings can be resolved just by adding lots of good fats to the diet.
Sugar cravings can be resolved with a capsule of glutamine under your tongue. Fat food cravings should be resolved with the next meal having healthy animal fats. “Our brain cells are 70% fat so if we’re not eating fat, if we’re on a very fat deficient diet, we’re in trouble. We’re also in trouble if we’re eating a lot of trans fat and bad fats because they go into the brain and they form a more rigid cell membrane,” she says.
“When people have panic attacks very often what’s really going on is it’s not psychological, believe it or not, it’s actually a low blood sugar attack,” says Dr. Cass. She says a steady supply of nutrient dense foods, real food not items that are processed but those closest to the state found in nature is the true aid.
She goes on to say, “What we find is when people settle down and can deal with the panic from a physiologic standpoint they can start dealing with their PTSD in therapy. It slows down your computer, it slows down your thoughts, it makes you scared when certain things happen. All of this is going on and you have no idea what is going on. What it’s doing is it’s draining you, it’s causing this stress response.”
This is the root cause of a downward spiral that can all be fixed naturally. Dr. Cass adds, “It’s causing the ups and downs with the sugar. The ups and downs with adrenalin and cortisol. You’re not a happy camper and you don’t know why.”
Other sources:
http://eatingpsychologyconference.com/day-2/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hyla-cass-md/
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/ssris/art-20044825
http://www.youtube.com/user/hylacassmd
