Carbohydrate Addiction* (Edited)
• A compelling hunger, craving, or desire for carbohydrate-rich foods;
an escalating, recurring need or drive for starches, snack foods, junk food, or sweets.
• Carbohydrate-rich foods include, but are not limited to: breads, bagels, cakes, cereal, chocolate, cookies, crackers, danish, fruit and fruit juice, ice cream, potato chips, pasta, potatoes, pretzels, rice, pie, popcorn, and sugar-sweetened beverages.
• In addition, carbohydrate act-alikes (sugar substitutes, alcoholic beverages, and monosodium glutamate) may trigger intense or recurring carbohydrate cravings and/or weight gain.
As many as seventy-five percent of those who are overweight, and many normal-weight individuals as well, are
carbohydrate addicted. Though many people may suspect there is a physical imbalance that makes them crave carbohydrates and put weight on easily, the underlying cause of their cravings and weight struggles often goes undiagnosed and untreated.
Carbohydrate addiction is caused by an imbalance - an over release of the hormone, insulin, when carbohydrate-rich foods are eaten. Among its many jobs, insulin signals the body to take in food (it has been called the "hunger hormone") and, once the food is consumed, signals the body to store the food energy in the form of fat.
Too much insulin results in too strong an impulse to eat, too often, and a body that too readily stores food in the form of fat.
The scientific term for this condition is post-prandial reactive hyperinsulinemia which means too much insulin is released after eating. Over time, people who are hyperinsulinemic become insulin resistant, that is, the cells in their muscles, nervous systems, and organs start to close down to the high levels of insulin in their blood. Insulin is no longer able to open the doors to these cells and allow food energy (blood sugar or glucose) to enter. At this point, one may experience symptoms of low-blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia) including irritability, shakiness, tiredness, intense cravings, confusion, and headaches. Since the blood sugar cannot easily enter the muscles, nervous system, or organs, much of the food energy gets channeled into the fat cells and weight gain comes easily. Over time, however, as high insulin levels continue, even the fat cells can shut down and the blood glucose gets trapped in the blood stream bringing on the condition known as adult-onset diabetes.
At this time, there is no accepted blood test to definitively determine whether or not your are carbohydrate addiction. Fasting insulin levels do not necessarily predict how your body will react after eating carbohydrate-rich foods and glucose tolerance tests use highly sweetened drinks that are not the equivalent of typical carbohydrate-rich meals. If you are carbohydrate addicted, however, chances are you know that something different about the way in which your body responds to starches, snack foods, junk food, and sweets.
THE CARBOHYDRATE ADDICT'S QUICK QUIZ® YES / NO
After a full breakfast, do you get hungry before it's time for lunch?
Do you have a difficult time stopping, once you start to eat starches, snack foods, junk food, or sweets?
Do you sometimes feel unsatisfied even though you have just finished a meal?
Does the sight, smell, or even the thought of food, sometimes stimulate you to eat?
Do you sometimes eat even though you are not really hungry?
Are you sometimes unable to keep from snacking at night?
After a large meal, do you feel very sluggish, almost drugged?
Do you get unexplainably tired and/or hungry in the afternoon?
Have you at times continued eating even though you felt uncomfortably full?
Have you been on diet after diet, only to lose weight then regain it again?
Scoring
(Count your "yes" answers)
0 - 2 You do not appear to be carbohydrate addicted.
3 - 4 You appear to have a mild carbohydrate addiction which, at times, you may be able to control (although not at all times) and with some difficulty.
5 - 7 Your score indicates that you are moderately addicted to carbohydrates. At times you may be able to control your eating but you may find that stress,
premenstrual changes, tiredness, boredom, unexpressed anger or pressure may increase your carbohydrate cravings.
8 - 10 You have scored in the severe carbohydrate addiction range. You may be struggling to control your eating without realizing that your body has been fighting you, literally driving you to eat and then storing the excess food energy as fat.
Before you (or someone you love) begins a program that claims it can help eliminate weight struggles or improve mental, emotional, and physical health, that program should be able to explain the cause of the problems you want to eliminated as well as the ways in which it will correct the cause of these problems.
You will need to correct the body's excess release of insulin, hyperinsulinemia. This excess release of insulin (and the insulin resistance it can trigger) occurs after someone who is "carbohydrate sensitive" eats carbohydrate-rich foods such as starches, snack food, junk food, or sweets. This excess release of insulin triggers the intense and recurring carbohydrate cravings that gives this addiction its name as well as the many problems that can follow.
By correcting the underlying physical cause of the addiction itself, the cravings, weight struggles, health, emotional, behavioral, psychological, and even spiritual problems associated with this hormonal imbalance, can literally fall away.
There is little need for will power on a program that corrects the source of the problem. When it comes to carbohydrate addiction, will power is usually not the problem. When the physical cause of the cravings, weight struggle, or blood-sugar swings that are the hallmark of an addiction to carbohydrates are eliminated, the very problems associated with it are also eliminated - naturally and without struggle.
Just as the simple administration of an antibiotic is all that is needed to combat an infection, so a simple program that returns balance to the body's insulin levels is virtually all that is needed to reverse an addiction to carbohydrates, including cravings, weight struggles and/or problems with learning, motivation, energy and mood swings. (Keep in mind that unlike the administration of an antibiotic which eliminates the problem, a program that corrects the cause and problems associated with an addiction to carbohydrates continues to work only so long as it is followed.)
HOW IT ALL WORKS
To understand what causes an addiction to carbohydrates and how it can be eliminated without struggle, compare the ways in which the hormone insulin works in the normal, non-addicted person versus the carbohydrate addict.
When the non-addicted person consumes carbohydrate-rich foods, such as starches, snack food, junk food, or sweets (or carbohydrate act-alikes such as artificial sweeteners, monosodium glutamate, or some medications) the body releases insulin. Insulin, which has been called the "hunger hormone," stimulates the person to continue eating. The food tastes good and is satisfying and the person feels an increased desire to eat. Simple sugars in the meal or snack are quickly changed into blood sugar. Insulin then ushers some of this newly made blood sugar to muscles and organs (including the brain and the rest of the nervous system), where the blood sugar provides much-needed energy.
Insulin then acts like a "doorman," opening the "doors" (or sites ) to cells all over the body so that energy, in the form of blood sugar, can enter and fuel their activities. With that job completed, in the non-addicted person, insulin signals the liver to put some of the remaining blood sugar into short-term storage for quick energy. Any extra blood sugar that still remains is turned into fat and put into long-term storage in the fat cells.
Over time, as blood sugar levels slowly decrease, or when the demands of activity or other stresses signal the need for more energy, the energy stored in the liver and then in the fat cells, is released and continues to fuel the body for many hours to come.
When a non-addicted person eats a carbohydrate-rich meal or snack, the brain chemical serotonin is released and with it a "stop-eating" signal is given. Upon finishing the meal, the non-addicted person feels satisfied and complete and will remain so for several hours.
WHEN ALL DOES NOT GO AS IT SHOULD
In the carbohydrate-addicted person, however, things can go wrong. When carbohydrate-addicted adults and youngsters eat carbohydrate-rich foods (or carbohydrate act-alikes), their sensitive bodies can over-react and release far too much insulin. Excess insulin levels can throw off the vital blood sugar balance; cells may be inundated with an unneeded excess of blood sugar or left starving for their critical share of food energy or, first one then the other.
The excess insulin that is released can sweep too much blood sugar out of the blood stream, too quickly. Where the excess blood sugar is channeled will help determine what happens next.
If the muscles and organs allow insulin and blood sugar to enter, they enter quickly, and blood sugar levels may plummet. Sensing low blood sugar levels, the body may release a second hormone, adrenaline. Adrenaline might be referred to as the "excitement" hormone because it can bring about what is called the "fight or flight" response. In adults, this response can bring on a rapid heart beat, a feeling of anxiety or uneasiness. Some people have reported a feeling similar to a mild panic attack. In youngsters, this adrenaline rush can lead to a hyperactive state within two hours (often less) after eating carbohydrate-rich foods.
Other carbohydrate addicts, however, respond in a different way to the high levels of insulin their bodies release. In these adults and youngsters, organ and muscle cells close down (down regulate ), probably as a way of protecting themselves against what we call an "insulin insult" (damage from excess levels of the hormone). In an attempt to protect themselves, the "doors" to these cells, through which insulin and sugar would normally enter, now literally disappear for the time being. The body has become "insulin resistant."
Blood sugar, unable to enter these cells and no longer able to be burned as fuel, must now be channeled elsewhere, for storage. Our bodies provide the most expandable of storage facilities for this purpose, the fat cells. It's a simple law of nature: energy that is not burned, is stored and many carbohydrate addicts have bodies that are intent on saving, rather than spending, the food energy they take in.
In time, as insulin resistance continues, even the fat cells can close down. Now blood sugar remains trapped in the blood and the carbohydrate addict is found to have developed adult-onset diabetes.
CAN'T GET NO SATISFACTION
Most carbohydrate addicts have another thing in common: most do not achieve a feeling of lasting satisfaction after completing a meal. Although there is still some speculation as to the exact physical mechanism responsible, it appears that the excessively high insulin levels that carbo addicts release interferes with an appropriate rise in the neurotransmitter, serotonin - the brain chemical that makes us feel satisfied after eating. Not enough serotonin means no lasting "stop eating" message from the brain. At the same time, some of the excess insulin that remains in the bloodstream continues to signal the carbo addict to keep on eating.
The carbohydrate addict keeps on seeking the very foods that make the non-addicted person feel satisfied but, for the carbohydrate addict, these foods - when eaten frequently or without balance - simply put them on the insulin-carbo merry-go round once again.
Within an hour or two after eating, many carbo addicts show some of the telltale signs of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) including confusion, disorientation, demotivation, mood swings, headache, extreme tiredness, and/or irritability. Many also report an intense feeling of uneasiness that is difficult to describe.
Most carbohydrate addicts find that a snack of carbo-rich foods makes them feel much better and can ward off the sense of uneasiness. Without realizing it, they are self-medicating, giving themselves the foods that will help bring their blood sugar levels back to normal - but only temporarily. Within a short time, the entire cycle will repeat itself; leaving them craving - and needing - carbohydrates once again.
*http://www.carbohydrateaddicts.com/cadfnd.html
Photos:dailymail.co.uk
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