by Joan Kent | May 13, 2016 | Health and Wellness
Do you get cravings at night? Are they often for alcohol, or for sugar? Do you have trouble getting to sleep without at least one of them? This post covers a simple plan for handling night cravings.
Foods change brain chemistry (and more, but let’s stick with brain chemistry for now).
Both alcohol and sugar can change brain chem in a big way — and in almost the same way.
Serotonin is a brain chemical that makes us feel relaxed. It can reduce rotten moods (dysphoria) from depression, SAD (seasonal affective disorder), PMS, anxiety, and more.
At night, we tend naturally to want to increase our serotonin so we can relax.
Serotonin is also the precursor of melatonin, sometimes called the sleep hormone. (Melatonin is important for many reasons, including its anti-inflammatory benefits, but that’s a separate topic.)
Bottom line, serotonin can help us wind down and get to sleep. It seems logical that, before bed, we’d want something serotonin-boosting to help us do that.
Alcohol and sugar are frequent options.
Will Alcohol Put You To Sleep?
Alcohol can help you fall asleep. In fact, you might even have started using alcohol as a late-night relaxant because it put you to sleep a few times before. The brain remembers that and will prompt a craving for something that worked in the past when it wants to fall asleep. (It’s about brain chem, but let’s keep things simple.)
But if it’s good sleep you’re after, alcohol isn’t the best choice. It will change the quality of your sleep — and not for the better.
Until your body has processed the alcohol completely, you’ll stay in lighter sleep stages. The full sleep cycle includes light and deep stages. Deeper sleep (theta and delta waves) is the most restorative, so sleep brought on by alcohol might leave you feeling less refreshed than more natural sleep.
Is Sugar Any Better For Sleep?
Late-night cravings for sugar might be prompted for a similar reason to alcohol cravings. Maybe eating something sugary helped you get to sleep on several occasions, so the brain sends signals asking for that same sleep “cure.”
Sugar and alcohol can wake us after a few hours and make it difficult to get back to sleep. This has more to do with low glucose levels than with brain chemistry, but the impact on your night’s sleep can be severe. In both cases, the effect in the morning may be dramatic and unpleasant.
It’s easy to be casual about sugar consumption, thinking sugar’s “just” food. Actually, it’s a drug with strong effects on brain chemistry and more.
Don’t underestimate the impact of sugar on your morning-after. One of my clients said that, after eating a lot of sugar at night, she used to wake up feeling “like I’ve been run over by a truck.” Another client described it as a “sugar hangover.” Both are accurate!
Mixed drinks include alcohol and a mixer that typically contains sugar, so you’re likely to get all of the above effects — less restful sleep, middle-of-the-night awakenings, and AM hangovers. If so, you may need a better alternative.
What Works Better Than Alcohol or Sugar?
Please keep in mind that the end game is to increase serotonin. Starches will do that, and usually without side effects.
Starches are the foods that most people call “carbs” — even though plenty of other foods are carbs, too. (Vegetables, fruits, and roots, for example, are carbs. Yes.)
Starches include lentils, quinoa, sweet potatoes, rice, potatoes, pumpkin and other squash, beans, bread, and more. And it doesn’t take a lot to trigger sleep.
A small serving of one of the above starches will help you get to sleep. Just eat it about 60 to 90 minutes before your desired bedtime and let it work for you.
If you feel you need a slightly bigger serotonin boost, try adding a bit of saturated fat to the starch, such as coconut oil or butter. The combination will increase your insulin release and your serotonin production.
If you try this a couple of times and find that it doesn’t work, haul out the big guns. Have a little turkey with one of the combinations above, making a powerful sleep-inducing trifecta.
Keep your portions small to avoid feeling stuffed or ill as you lie in bed. The goal is just to change brain chem, not to eat an extra meal.
Much more can be said about cravings, and will be in a future post.
by Joan Kent | May 2, 2016 | Health and Wellness
Are your mouth and jaw getting the food workout they need? Here’s why we should eat — rather than drink — our food and chew it thoroughly.
Chewing Starts the Digestive Process
Digestion begins in the mouth. Saliva contains amylase and lipase, enzymes needed for starch and fat digestion.
Adequate chewing increases saliva to lubricate food, which eases its passage through the esophagus when we swallow.
Chewing signals the GI tract to prepare for food. The stomach makes gastric juice, comprised of enzymes, hydrochloric acid, and other substances. The pancreas prepares to secrete enzymes and bicarbonate into the small intestine. Extra saliva relaxes the pylorus so food can exit the stomach and move into the small intestine.
Enzymes and stomach acid work on the surface of food only. Chewing increases the surface area available for them to work. That’s especially important for the digestion of protein, which has many functions in the body.
But all foods need to be chewed small enough for stomach acid to further reduce them in size. That enhances bioavailability, the faster release and fuller absorption of nutrients and fluids into the GI tract.
In fact, most of the foods we don’t chew enough tend to be carbohydrates, such as bread and rice. They absolutely need amylase for digestion, but can be easy to swallow without adequate chewing.
Dogs eat carbs the right way. A dog will simply swallow meat; its digestive system can process meat in that whole state. Give a dog a piece of bread, though, and the chewing begins.
But back to humans…
Chewing Increases Satiety, the Had-Enough Feeling
Sensors throughout the GI tract monitor nutrient levels and the amount of chewing, tasting and swallowing involved in a meal. Giving your mouth and jaw a good food workout can bring on fullness signals sooner.
Foods with harder, crunchier textures — apples, raw broccoli, carrots, celery — require more chewing. They also provide more nutrients than semi-soft fats, or junk foods. So choosing foods that require lots of jaw action could lead to greater satiation — which ends the meal — and satiety, how soon we want our next meal.
Chewing longer helps to raise glucose levels. Those in turn raise insulin levels. Insulin is involved in satiety and feedback loops that end a meal, again marking chewing as a key satiety factor.
What About Hormones?
Chewing thoroughly helps to release higher levels of CCK (cholecystokinin). CCK is a powerful satiety hormone, so releasing more of it can decrease appetite for a longer time.
CCK is released primarily when we eat protein and fats, but its satiety function tends to be specific to carbs.
The chewing-and-CCK connection could help vegans, for example. They often have strong cravings for carbs generally and sugar in particular, due to their low protein intake and low levels of CCK. Chewing foods for a longer time could help vegans eliminate sugar cravings by increasing their CCK levels. (So could more protein, but that’s another article.)
Then there’s ghrelin, truly a monster hormone. It increases appetite and decreases energy expenditure. Yikes. More chewing increases satiety by decreasing levels of ghrelin.
In a country that produces 3950 calories per day for every man, woman and child, no one needs more ghrelin. So if simply chewing longer can reduce ghrelin levels, by all means chew longer.
Longer chewing time appears to be more important than gastric volume — the classic signal of satiety — when it comes to the feeling of satiety.
Chewing May Help With Weight Loss
In a research study, participants consumed 150 calories prior to serving themselves from a buffet meal. The ones who had been given a pre-meal snack of solid food ate about 150 calories fewer from the buffet, compared with controls.
Those given the 150-calorie snack in liquid form, though, did not decrease their meal size.
Eating fast, taking large bites, and swallowing quickly after less chewing are behaviors that tend to be associated with overeating and higher body weight.
Hard foods (raw broccoli and the like) may decrease bite size, while soft foods (ice cream, cake, pudding) tend to increase bite size. Hard foods also require more chewing, slowing down the meal.
Another study compared pizza chewed 40 times with 15 times per bite. Chewing longer left participants feeling less hungry, less preoccupied with food, and with a decreased desire for food.
Chewing 40 times per bite also increased plasma glucose and insulin, which increases satiety, as described above. So longer chewing time may decrease food intake at a given meal.
But the longer chewing time did not decrease intake at the next meal, given 3 hours later.
Not surprisingly, longer chewing needs to be repeated at each meal to reduce calorie intake successfully.
Chewing May Increase Dining Pleasure
Chewing is a large part of mindful eating, which includes savoring the aroma, anticipating each bite, and experiencing each bite fully. Longer chewing releases more flavors from foods, and longer contact with the taste buds may lead to greater satisfaction with the meal — as well as a greater sense of fullness and satiety.
All of this can decrease the total amount of food eaten at a meal. The pleasure from a given food decreases during the meal. It’s commonly referred to as the “satiety cascade,” but I learned it in science journals as “aliesthesia,” a decrease in a food’s palatability as hunger subsides.
Staying more aware of the change in taste sensation by chewing longer could focus the meal on quality instead of on quantity. That may be particularly true if and when the meal slows down.
Again, choosing harder foods with crunch and texture will take longer to eat and may contribute to increased satisfaction with the meal.
Increase Your Oral Processing Time (Say What?)
Keep food in your mouth longer. Here are guidelines.
– Eat when you’re physically hungry so your body is really ready for food.
– Include plenty of harder, crunchier foods, like vegetables.
– Take small bites.
– Don’t chew right away. Hold the food in your mouth for a moment or two before starting to chew.
– Slow down. The method that seems to work best is to start the meal at a normal rate until the initial hunger has passed. Then slow to about half speed.
– Chew longer! This may be an individual thing that takes some explanation:
Apparently, we don’t like chewing food more than we have to, and that can vary with a given food. In the pizza study above, researchers postulated that 40 times per bite changed the characteristics of the food enough to make the food less appealing and decrease appetite.
Maybe it’s necessary to get used to this new eating practice by counting at first. Once the habit is there, instead of counting chews per bite, just chew till the texture of the food — not the taste — no longer reveals what the food is. For example, if you can distinguish between a broccoli stalk and a floret in your mouth, you need to keep chewing.
Whatever your reason for chewing more — better digestion, better health, greater dining pleasure, increased satiety, weight loss — all can start with this one change.
“Nature will castigate those who don’t masticate.” — Horace Fletcher (1849-1919)
by Joan Kent | Apr 18, 2016 | Health and Wellness
Many tips are said to stop cravings — for sugar and other foods. Recently, Judson Brewer, M.D. gave a TEDMED talk in which he proposed “curiosity” or increased mindfulness as possibly the definitive cure for a craving or an addiction — regardless of the type of addiction.
It brought to mind several things. I’ve encountered a wide variety of cravings cures over the years. Some of them seem to come from the viewpoint that cravings are imaginary, all in your head.
My research on food and brain chem has suggested that cravings might well be all in one’s head — if that means “all in one’s brain.” My understanding of cravings is that they’re often neurochemical, making them physiological and quite real.
Does that mean mindfulness or curiosity won’t work? As I’ve written in other posts about other things, almost anything can work for some people.
So I do believe that mindfulness could be the answer to cravings for those people, at least sometimes.
How Can Mindfulness Help Food Issues?
Mindfulness could be one answer to such things as reducing food intake and eliminating overeating. Stopping long enough to figure out if you really need the dessert you’re tempted to eat, or the extra portion you want, is a wise thing to do. Is it about actual hunger or the appetizing look of the food? Stress? Boredom?
A few years ago, I read a brief description in a fitness industry journal about a weight-loss plan that involved eating approximately 500 calories a day, two days a week. Because I suspected that some of my clients might have been tempted to try it once they’d heard about it, I wanted to be able to discuss it with them knowledgeably. So I tried it for a week.
On the days that followed the very low-calorie days, I noticed that I felt quite in touch with all aspects of my eating: food selection, portion sizes, meal timing, even rate of consumption.
I didn’t continue the plan because my workout schedule was too rigorous to make 500-calorie days practical, but the observations I had made were interesting. Since then, I have indeed heard from a few people who have tried similar plans. They incorporate anywhere from 5 to 9 very low-calorie days in a month.
Their reports echo my personal observations. They’ve told me they feel more mindful of their eating, and that examining their state of mind before letting themselves eat out of habit helps them make changes — all without white-knuckling, willpower fatigue, or other conflicts. Some have said it changed their relationship with food and eating.
So Let’s Get Back To Cravings
Assuming anything I thought I knew about food cravings is true(!), cravings can be brought on by a decrease — for various reasons that I’ve covered in other posts — in specific brain chemicals.
In that case, is observing the craving with curiosity truly the mindful thing to do? Might it even be considered a lack of mindfulness?
Perhaps the mindful thing to do would be to address the low levels of those brain chemicals and restore them.
That’s why I typically recommend liquid B-complex. It can eliminate a craving in a matter of minutes by giving the brain the co-factors it needs to re-establish optimal levels of the chemicals involved in craving manifestation.
Again: mindfulness, like anything, can work for at least some people, at least some of the time. But what if you’re in a situation where a craving hits and there is not adequate time (or even an opportune moment) to sit and observe it till it subsides? Or what if you need to concentrate on your work without distraction?
I can attest that it takes equal discipline to reach for liquid B-complex when you’re feeling as if you’d kill for a brownie.
And I submit that getting the brain back on track within a few minutes could be the mindful behavior that addresses the immediate cause of the craving.
As for other eating behaviors, mindfulness could be ideal.
More permanent cravings elimination can be accomplished through changes in food. If you’d like to get rid of cravings permanently, I’d be happy to help. Please visit www.FoodAddictionSolutions.com/Coaching and request a free Food Breakthrough Session. No obligation!
by Joan Kent | Apr 11, 2016 | Engage Your Students, Health and Wellness
My last post covered food intolerances and the changes that occur over time, from the acute reaction to a more chronic one.
The immune response to a triggering food involves a release of stress hormones, opioids, such as endorphins (beta-endorphin), and chemical mediators like serotonin. The combination can produce temporary symptom relief through the analgesic action of endorphin and serotonin, plus mood elevation and a feeling of relaxation.
In that way, eating the triggering food may make someone feel better almost immediately and even think the food is beneficial.
Endorphin release typically involves a concomitant release of dopamine. The combination of those two brain chemicals and serotonin forms what I’ve always called the “addictive package.” Avoiding the addictive food could lead to withdrawal.
After long-term use, someone may eat the triggering food not to experience the pleasure of the chemical “high,” but to relieve the distress and withdrawal without it. It’s almost textbook addiction.
How Does Intolerance/Addiction Affect Health?
As someone addicted to a triggering food continues to eat more of it, the immune system must keep adapting, and may become hyper-sensitized, reacting to more and more foods — especially those eaten together with reaction-triggering foods, or with sugar.
The constant demand on the immune system can lead to immune exhaustion and degenerative reactions, depending on genetic weaknesses. The signs and symptoms listed above are just a start.
Sugar can be a major player in this because it causes inflammation in the body and makes it more susceptible to food reactions. Eating triggering foods plus sugar can make it even more likely that new reactions will occur.
I recall an old book by Nancy Appleton (Lick the Sugar Habit) who suggested that eggs might trigger reactions in many people because they’re so frequently eaten at breakfast with orange juice. Cake is another example: sugar plus wheat, eggs, milk.
As the addictions continue, cravings occur, probably leading to increased consumption. As more and more foods trigger an immune response, the result may be malnutrition, as explained in the last post.
Stats say that rates of food intolerances are rising. My theory is that it’s at least partly due to sugar in our diets — including sneaky sugars that are often viewed as healthful, such as agave, fruit, fruit juice, and sweeteners.
Stopping the Cycle
Definitely give up any foods you suspect may be causing any reactions — even if you love them. Think about foods you eat with those triggering foods on a regular basis, and consider eliminating those, as well.
Above all, avoid sugar. Follow this plan for 3 weeks, something J.J. Virgin also recommends.
In the meantime, you may have cravings. If so, use my proven, time-tested recommendation of a teaspoon of liquid B-complex (complete B-complex) to kill the craving within minutes.
At the end of the 3-week elimination, you should be feeling — and looking — much better.
by Joan Kent | Apr 5, 2016 | Health and Wellness
Before my doctoral program — which required me to narrow down to a specialty (sugar addiction) — I had studied food intolerances.
Many books on the subject start with food reactions, then move into chemicals in our homes and offices, gasoline fumes, and more. Important as those reactions are, they’re not about nutrition.
My interest in food intolerances has always been their link with addiction.
Recently, I “attended” a webinar by J.J. Virgin, whose first book (I believe) was on food intolerances and how to eliminate those foods to improve health and lose weight.
The webinar re-sparked my interest in food intolerances and addictions. Common intolerances include chocolate, corn, soy, wheat (or other gluten-containing foods), peanuts, dairy, eggs, sugars and other sweeteners.
What Does Food Intolerance Look Like?
Signs and symptoms can include headache/migraine, joint pains, fatigue, sleepiness, heart palpitations, depression, irritability, stomach pains, bloating, and many more.
Because digested food moves through the bloodstream, the effects of an intolerance can show up virtually anywhere in the body.
Food intolerances might be the same every time the food is eaten, such as a rash.
Or the reactions might vary — say, a non-itchy rash one time and itching with no rash another time.
The reaction might be cumulative. Maybe a small portion of the food causes no reaction, but a portion eaten again that day, or several days in a row, causes a reaction.
Addiction is another possible reaction that may develop over time.
What Causes Food Intolerances?
The causes are many, but let’s keep it simple.
One cause is a genetic intolerance or a tendency toward it.
We can become intolerant to a food that we eat often or in large quantities. Overeating a food uses up enzymes specific to digesting that food, so complete digestion is prevented.
That may result in improperly digested food particles moving through the digestive tract and bloodstream, triggering an immune reaction. The undigested, unabsorbed food provides no nutrients.
We can also become reactive to a food that we eat together with another triggering food. So the list of triggering foods may grow, resulting eventually in malnutrition.
Food Reactions May Change Over Time
The guiding principle of the human body is homeostasis.
When a trigger food is first eaten, the body attempts to restore homeostasis by ridding itself of the offending food. It prevents absorption by attaching antibodies to the partially digested food while it’s in the intestine. That might successfully eliminate the food before it can pass into the bloodstream.
If the food does enter the bloodstream, it can trigger inflammation. The acute reaction may be short, and the body may return to homeostasis quickly.
If someone continues to eat a triggering food over time, the body undergoes an adaptation. The immune system may become slower (or less able) to respond. The reaction may now manifest more slowly than the acute reaction. Signs or symptoms may last longer, sometimes hours or days.
[Part 2 will cover how a food intolerance can become a food addiction.]
