It's no secret that I used to eat like an unsupervised child at a birthday party. And there are days still, with all my nutrition education and all my beliefs regarding health, that I still crush a king sized chocolate bar. Sometimes, it makes me feel a bit fraudulent. And then I remember I've never advertised myself as the puritan nutritionist who considers even a quarter of a square of 99% dark chocolate to be a sinful indulgence. When I was in school, we were taught to be scared of sugar; fear mongering and demonization on every textbook page. However, I was reading Layne Norton's studies and research on sugar at the same time, which luckily kept me level-headed! But, let's start from the beginning ...
My battle with sugar has been a long one. It was five years ago that I joined a gym, and it was only then that I was introduced to the concept of sugar being something I should strive to give up. I never gave it much thought, I just ate chocolate and gummy candies everyday to my heart's content! When I did my first 21 Day Sugar Detox, I binged ruthlessly for the week that followed. It was a cycle of eating sugar, hating myself for it and feeling unable to stop as I spiralled into a guilty bingeing session. The irony is excruciating, when you hate your body and you feel like shit, and that only drives you to emotionally eat even more. It wasn't until I began studying nutrition that issues beyond "sugar making you fat" came up. The fear mongering began: It's an anti-nutrient? It forces your body to expend/excrete valuable vitamins and minerals in an attempt to detoxify you of its harmful effects. It causes cancer? It degrades collagen and ages you? Damn. This shit is the devil. Now when I ate it, I was absolutely floored at my behaviour! I know I'm eating a poison and I can't stop! What the hell!? Then the ever popular study emerged where lab rats chose sugar water over cocaine in lab testing. I then diagnosed myself with sugar addiction and tried everything to "quit".
I'm sympathetic to people now who's nutritionists and doctors ask them to give up sugar. It really is like asking a smoker to quit cold turkey. There's conflicting studies, and I've determined that saying it's more addictive than cocaine is a bit extreme but for some, it very well may be. I also think it's a bit far-reaching to say it causes disease, especially with no dosage indicated, just as a general statement. I also argue that it is wholly unhelpful to view anything as something you CAN'T HAVE. Those words do something psychologically, making this elusive "thing" all the more attractive. It only worsened my painful cycle of eating "junk food", hating myself, restricting, bingeing, purging and everything in between. Finding flexible nutrition allowed me to see food differently - I wanted to perform well in my workouts, see my body change, feel more energetic, feel "healthy". It was fun to see that kale, spinach, cauliflower, zucchini (etc.) had virtually no calories no matter how much you piled on your plate (3 cups of spinach has 20 calories?) This leaves more room for fun .... Once I filled up on a variety of nutrient dense, whole foods and according to MyFitnessPal, still had 100 calories to play with some days, I decided to eat half a Kit-Kat or some Twizzlers.
I finally felt in control. I wasn't a slave to my cravings. My bottomless, voracious capacity to stuff my face with candy, pastries and chocolate was stopped in its tracks. But why? Was it because I didn't feel restricted? That's what more flexible dieting coaches will argue. Or was it because I was getting all the nutrients my body was really craving?
Fatigue/adrenal fatigue, stress, imbalances in blood sugar levels due to infrequent meals/inadequate macronutrient consumption or diabetes, hormonal imbalances, mineral malabsorption or deficiency, insulin resistance, gut microbe imbalances and candida .... The list goes on and on! These can all trigger cravings for simple carbohydrates/refined sugar. If you have insatiable cravings for particular foods, don't just fight them! Listen to them. Cravings are your body's way of begging for certain nutrients - if you're fatigued, stressed or eating infrequently (low blood sugar), your body is smart enough to know that an easily converted, fast energy source is simple sugar! It may also indicate that candida (little yeast) is growing in your gut that feed off sugars and make you crave them reeeal bad. Is that creepy? Incredibly. And ridding your gut of yeast is a tough (but worth it) detoxification process! Other reasons can be low thyroid function, PMS, menopause and excess adrenaline/cortisol.
Now for all you salt cravers, I won't ignore you. If popcorn, fries and chips are more the "junk foods" you struggle to stay away from, consider why?! It's most likely electrolyte/mineral imbalance. This could indicate you're stressed (those pesky adrenal glands again) - adrenals regulate mineral balance in the blood and tissue through various hormones, and if you're experiencing adrenal fatigue, this function will be hindered. It could also mean you're drinking too much purified water. You heard me right! If theres no minerals in your water, you can actually be flushing them out of your system, causing further imbalance. Drink some coconut water, or add pink Himalayan sea salt to your water. You can also add more seaweed into your diet for the biggest mineral boost. Instead of dousing your meals in table salt, add kelp power (I swear you'll love it!)
I hope this helped you better understand cravings, and maybe feel better about food addictions/bingeing (it's frustrating but you're not alone!) I hope to help everyone nurture a more positive relationship with food, and viewing anything as BAD and GOOD in such black and white terms is flat out unhelpful.
Flexibility, adaptability - these are what drive adherence to eating well.
If you have any other questions, never hesitate to reach out
xoxo
My battle with sugar has been a long one. It was five years ago that I joined a gym, and it was only then that I was introduced to the concept of sugar being something I should strive to give up. I never gave it much thought, I just ate chocolate and gummy candies everyday to my heart's content! When I did my first 21 Day Sugar Detox, I binged ruthlessly for the week that followed. It was a cycle of eating sugar, hating myself for it and feeling unable to stop as I spiralled into a guilty bingeing session. The irony is excruciating, when you hate your body and you feel like shit, and that only drives you to emotionally eat even more. It wasn't until I began studying nutrition that issues beyond "sugar making you fat" came up. The fear mongering began: It's an anti-nutrient? It forces your body to expend/excrete valuable vitamins and minerals in an attempt to detoxify you of its harmful effects. It causes cancer? It degrades collagen and ages you? Damn. This shit is the devil. Now when I ate it, I was absolutely floored at my behaviour! I know I'm eating a poison and I can't stop! What the hell!? Then the ever popular study emerged where lab rats chose sugar water over cocaine in lab testing. I then diagnosed myself with sugar addiction and tried everything to "quit".
I'm sympathetic to people now who's nutritionists and doctors ask them to give up sugar. It really is like asking a smoker to quit cold turkey. There's conflicting studies, and I've determined that saying it's more addictive than cocaine is a bit extreme but for some, it very well may be. I also think it's a bit far-reaching to say it causes disease, especially with no dosage indicated, just as a general statement. I also argue that it is wholly unhelpful to view anything as something you CAN'T HAVE. Those words do something psychologically, making this elusive "thing" all the more attractive. It only worsened my painful cycle of eating "junk food", hating myself, restricting, bingeing, purging and everything in between. Finding flexible nutrition allowed me to see food differently - I wanted to perform well in my workouts, see my body change, feel more energetic, feel "healthy". It was fun to see that kale, spinach, cauliflower, zucchini (etc.) had virtually no calories no matter how much you piled on your plate (3 cups of spinach has 20 calories?) This leaves more room for fun .... Once I filled up on a variety of nutrient dense, whole foods and according to MyFitnessPal, still had 100 calories to play with some days, I decided to eat half a Kit-Kat or some Twizzlers.
I finally felt in control. I wasn't a slave to my cravings. My bottomless, voracious capacity to stuff my face with candy, pastries and chocolate was stopped in its tracks. But why? Was it because I didn't feel restricted? That's what more flexible dieting coaches will argue. Or was it because I was getting all the nutrients my body was really craving?
Fatigue/adrenal fatigue, stress, imbalances in blood sugar levels due to infrequent meals/inadequate macronutrient consumption or diabetes, hormonal imbalances, mineral malabsorption or deficiency, insulin resistance, gut microbe imbalances and candida .... The list goes on and on! These can all trigger cravings for simple carbohydrates/refined sugar. If you have insatiable cravings for particular foods, don't just fight them! Listen to them. Cravings are your body's way of begging for certain nutrients - if you're fatigued, stressed or eating infrequently (low blood sugar), your body is smart enough to know that an easily converted, fast energy source is simple sugar! It may also indicate that candida (little yeast) is growing in your gut that feed off sugars and make you crave them reeeal bad. Is that creepy? Incredibly. And ridding your gut of yeast is a tough (but worth it) detoxification process! Other reasons can be low thyroid function, PMS, menopause and excess adrenaline/cortisol.
Now for all you salt cravers, I won't ignore you. If popcorn, fries and chips are more the "junk foods" you struggle to stay away from, consider why?! It's most likely electrolyte/mineral imbalance. This could indicate you're stressed (those pesky adrenal glands again) - adrenals regulate mineral balance in the blood and tissue through various hormones, and if you're experiencing adrenal fatigue, this function will be hindered. It could also mean you're drinking too much purified water. You heard me right! If theres no minerals in your water, you can actually be flushing them out of your system, causing further imbalance. Drink some coconut water, or add pink Himalayan sea salt to your water. You can also add more seaweed into your diet for the biggest mineral boost. Instead of dousing your meals in table salt, add kelp power (I swear you'll love it!)
I hope this helped you better understand cravings, and maybe feel better about food addictions/bingeing (it's frustrating but you're not alone!) I hope to help everyone nurture a more positive relationship with food, and viewing anything as BAD and GOOD in such black and white terms is flat out unhelpful.
Flexibility, adaptability - these are what drive adherence to eating well.
If you have any other questions, never hesitate to reach out
xoxo
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