The Real Truth about your Sweet Tooth

Question: My mom always said my sweet-tooth was to blame for my
weight problem (I can’t seem to lose weight!), but my best
friend says I should listen to my body and eat whatever I want
because it knows what I need. I’m not sure what to do! Does
Oriental Medicine have any wisdom about diet that could help me?
- Candice M

Dear Candice,

A common dietary misconception is that if you crave a food or
drink, then it must contain a vitamin, mineral or other
substance that your body is lacking. The underlying principle is
the rather New Age myth that our bodies possesses an innate
wisdom,and if we can get in touch with and listen to our bodies,
they will guide us to health, freedom, and happiness. I’m here
to tell you there may be some truth to that, but it’s not that
simple!

Idea #1: Your body knows what it needs and that’s why you’re
craving it. The human body does sometimes tell us what we need
to eat or drink, especially when it is relatively healthy. We
get thirsty for water when dehydrated, crave protein when our
activity level increases, or carbohydrates when we are more
mentally active. In an extreme situation, pica (eating
non-nutritive substances like dirt or paper) may be a desperate
attempt to fill a mineral deficiency.

Idea #2: When your body is out of whack (yes, that’s the
technical way to describe it), you may crave the thing that
makes it worse. Maybe you’re craving that ice cream because your
body needs calcium, or maybe it fits with your other cravings
for candy and soda into a pattern of sugar addiction. Oops, I
said addiction didn’t I? Sorry, it won’t happen again.

But here I must go into Chinese Medicine for a minute to explain
the basic point of my article, which is that sometimes your body
knows what it needs, and other times it is stuck in a vicious
cycle wherein it craves exactly what is worst for it.

Chinese Medicine and Food Cravings Chinese dietary therapy is as
complex as chinese herbal medicine, which is extremely complex
(go ask some Chinese Medicine students and they’ll tell you all
about it). Instead of going into that level of detail, we can
talk more broadly from a Five Element perspective and still get
some good insights.

Five Phase Relationships Chinese medicine talks about a system
of 5 phase/element relationships. Each phase has an associated
season, emotion, taste, organ, etc.

The sweet taste is associated with the Eearth phase. Let’s talk
about the Earth type person and how their food cravings work.

The Earth person tends to be a bit overweight, worries, is
easily overwhelmed, and craves sweets. The taste associated with
the Earth type is sweetness. In CM, this works two ways: small
amounts of sweets can strengthen the Earth element, but
overdoses can injure it. Both physical and mental digestion are
affected. When the earth element is weakened, the appetite
decreases, digestion is hindered (there may be tiredness or
bloating after eating), sweets are craved in great degree and
amount, the stool becomes loose, there is a tendency toward
worry (mental and emotional indigestion), and fatigue sets in.

As I said, small amounts of sweetness can strengthen the Earth.
In CM, herbs such as cinnamon and licorice are employed for this
purpose. These herbs are sweet- not super-sweet like processed
sugar, but naturally, moderately sweet. Someone with an Earth
imbalance might not consider these herbs ‘sweet,’ not like ice
cream or soda or candy. This is because the body has gotten
off-kilter into a vicious cycle of craving exactly the wrong
thing: huge amounts of supersweets.

Two other oft-consumed sweets are alcohol and carbohydrates.
Studies of alcoholics have revealed that they have extreme
sugar-addictions, that part of the alcoholic withdrawal is due
to a drastic reduction in sugar intake, and that subsequent
coffee, smoking, and sweet consumption may be a way of
preventing food cravings. One study showed that nutritional
therapy including low-sugar diet decreased alcohol cravings.
Much has been made of carbohydrate addiction, and no or low-carb
diets (including the Atkins diet) have been among the recent
dietary fads.

With all of this talk about how sweets can be bad for you, let
emphasize that research also shows that preference for sweet
taste is innately human, and that avoiding sweets leads to an
even greater sweet-craving!

The Solution?

The best thing to do would be to visit a Chinese Medicine (CM)
practitioner a few times, get a personalized herbal formula for
your imbalance, and take it with discipline. Some practitioners
are extreme- they want you to change everything right away,
re-arrange your diet, stop eating all the ‘bad’ things, take
lots of herbs, and see them weekly so that they can regularly
shame you into healthy living.

As a self-confessing coffee addict and former smoker, I
understand how difficult it can be to change dietary and
lifestyle habits. My belief is that acupuncture, herbs, and
dietary therapies exist to help you make the transition from
imbalance to well-being both possible and comfortable. Real
change takes time; moving too fast can lead to short term
mega-progress but ultimately result in relapse and a net gain of
zero. My point: take your time, change a few things, and stick
with it. Be nice to yourself not only in commiting to your own
well-being, but also in allowing yourself to progress
imperfectly, to be human, to make mistakes.

Best wishes in your journey of health! Brian

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