What Are You Craving?

Last night I sat on the patio with a group of friends enjoying the beautiful Tennessee evening. The conversation gravitated to food, diet and exercise which then went into self-condemnation about will power and making wrong food choices. Most of the women felt powerless to overcome strong food cravings for refined carbs like bread and sweets and fatty foods like chips and chocolate. They were shocked to know that the food cravings we all experience have much less to do with will power and are actually the body crying out for something it needs. Some of the women were disbelieving, choosing to continue on a path of self hatred, however, others were empowered with the information that their food struggles may be a response to a true physical need.

In my studies, personal experience and working with hundreds of people in middle Tennessee and across the country I have learned some very important information about cravings.

The most important truth is that cravings have little to do with will power.

Let me ask you, what do you crave?

* Do you find yourself eating all of the "forbidden food" at once, intending to only eat one little mini chocolate and then devouring the entire bag?
* Do you make a cake or cookies, serve the family and then find yourself finishing the entire batch off the next day all by your little old self?
* Do you go for the bread at the restaurant or finish off a box of cold cereal before bed, even after having a perfectly good dinner?
* Maybe your weakness is chips, pizza or a nice juicy hamburger and fries, top it all with a milk shake and you're satisfied?

Are you really will-powerless? Are you not able to ever stop eating food? Really, Do you finish off the entire bag of apples after eating one? Are you always out of spinach because you just wolf it down? Are you laughing yet?

When you crave foods your body is looking for something; nutrition, balance, stimulation or escape.

What is your body looking for?
Nutrition
If you are still hungry after eating meals it could be that your body is craving nutrition. Are you eating real food, as close to the original form as possible? For example, a real whole apple has total nutrition; a single serving package of apple sauce does not. When you begin to eat real, whole foods, as close to nature as possible you will find you are more satisfied and less hungry.

If you are eating real foods and are still hungry you may have a problem absorbing nutrients through your colon and small intestine. See your natural health provider to get your body functioning properly.

Regardless of the foods you crave, your body may be looking for digestive enzymes it is unable to produce to digest the foods. If you crave refined carbs and sugars your body may need amylase to digest those foods and not be able to produce it. If you crave fats and proteins your body may be looking for the enzymes lipase or protease. Taking a good digestive enzyme regularly may totally eliminate your cravings. In your detox program you will earn what enzymes your body needs and where to find those enzymes.

Balance
If you crave simple carbs like breads, pastas, sweets, you are looking for balance. It is a good time to ask yourself, why am I looking for balance. Am I feeling stressed and out of sorts? Get to the bottom of that question and deal with the source of your stress. While you are taking time to learn the answer, eat some fruit, your favorite kind, instead of the refined carbohydrate, eat as much as you like, it will surely be less than the amount of bread, pasta or sweets you could devour.

Stimulation
If you crave fats and caffeine; animal protein, chips, pizza, fried foods, spicey foods, coffee, chocolate, you are looking for stimulation. Again, time for some introspection. Are you doing too much? Are your adrenal glands shot because you live on stress and caffeine? Do you need to simplify and slow down, start living a real life instead of a fast-food, junk food life? While you are learning the answer to those questions, eat some nuts, seeds, avocado, beans. Something like almond butter on an apple or maybe a healthy trail mix with almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and raisins. Maybe you would enjoy a black bean salsa with mango.

Escape
Fats suppress negative emotions like anger, lonliness, fear, sorrow, like a sedative, just like alcohol or drugs. If you are continually craving fatty foods; peanut butter, ice cream, chips, fried foods, pizza, find out what negative emotion is coming up in your life. Address that emotion. Do you have something you need to say to someone? Maybe you need to forgive someone (so you don't kill yourself with bad food), do you need to develop some friendships, face a fear or allow yourself to grieve? Negative emotions are extremely hard on your body. In fact negative emotions do more damage than all the other toxins; environmental, food, water, chemical. There are many healthy ways to address and eliminate negative emotions, don't allow them to rule your thoughts or your food choices.

One more thing about fats. If you are eating fatty foods to suppress negative emotions you are most likely eating a good amount of trans fats. If this is the case, you will eat more and more fat and not suppress those negative emotions because trans fats actually block your body's ability to RECEIVE the good part of the neurotransmitter. The fat may stimulate your body to produce it but the transfat will block the cell from receiving the good stuff!

Trans fats are found in all meats that are microwaved, including butter. If you are eating frozen, canned or prepared products with meat in them you can almost be sure they have been microwaved in the process. Trans fats are also found in many if not most processed or prepared foods, restaurant foods and fast foods. If a label boasts "no trans fats" that just means it has less than one percent. So if you are eating huge amounts of "no trans fats" products, you are most likely still getting a good dose of trans fats which may be keeping you from good emotions like having energy and purpose, feeling pleasure, sleeping and enjoying life.

Some great books on these subjects: The Healing Power of Enzymes, by Dr.Dici Fuller, The Edge Effect by Dr. Eric Braverman and Thrive by Brendan Brazier.

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