Are Your Cravings Making You Ill?
A food craving is a biochemical urge influenced by flavour, taste, aroma, texture or temperature as well as the memories of pleasure associated with the food. Usually they are due to problems with the nervous system and whilst the biochemistry of how this works is not really fully understood, there are some things that we do know that can be helpful in controlling them.
Often sugar cravings are caused by a deficiency in protein or chromium or maybe due to fluctuating blood sugar. Salt cravings on the other hand could be due to adrenal stress, muscular disorders, high blood pressure or diabetes and cravings for sour foods may be caused due to the body detoxifying decaying protein. I have found that when people are allergic or sensitive to certain foods, that is the very food they crave, so many of our cravings can be caused by food allergies or Candida.
Cravings are something we have all experienced in some form or another. Cravings for either chocolate, coffee, cigarettes, cakes or bread. If they are neglected they can lead to overweight and illness.
Often, when supplements are taken in an incorrect dose for that particular individual it over stimulates or suppresses the immune system and causes them to begin to crave foods. An example is someone who has a cold, craving Vitamin C. However, this can extend to additives that are not good for us such as 623 (MSG) and aspartame. If these are used in excess they will cause you to just crave foods in general. Start to read your packets of ‘sugarless’ foods to check if they contain aspartame.
MSG can also be called monosodium glutamate or disguised as ‘natural flavours’ or hydrolysed vegetable protein. Either way it’s still MSG. It is often contained in corn oil, hydrolysed oat flour, textured protein (TVP), yeast extract hydrolysed plant protein, plant protein extract, sodium and calcium caseinate. You should also be cautious when using malt extracts or flavorings, chicken soup and stocks – in fact read labels for any type of food flavoring and check your whey protein powders as well as soy proteins.
As well as the straight out allergies people have to this substance, studies on animals have shown that it constricts blood vessels as it opens the channels to calcium. It also acts on the amygdala, hypothalamus and pancreas to secrete insulin which increases appetite. Since MSG is not a sugar but stimulates the pancreas as if it were a sugar it actually tells your cells to absorb sugar. This, in turn, within a few hours, causes your sugar levels to fall again and to crave more food. This produces a cycle and you eat more and more and….on go the kilos. Add to this the myriad of research that has been done regarding the symptoms and illnesses that chemicals have been linked to through the years and it makes you wonder why you would put this stuff in your body.
Some people may argue that glutamates are found naturally in tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, peas, cheese, meat and fish – so why is the above a problem? The problem seems to occur when glutamate is taken in high doses. In its natural form it seems to be metabolised by the body but when it is artificially taken that is when the problems start and people have bad reactions.
So the next time you pick up a packaged food in the supermarket please read the label and become aware as to what you are putting into your body. Whilst cravings are difficult to control it is not impossible. Hypnotherapy is a good way to control cravings for tobacco and even chocolate. It may take a few sessions and some modifications to your negative lifestyle but it does work. So since this is the start of a new year what is it that you want to change? Do you need to give up cigarettes, have a healthier eating plan or drink less coffee? Either way there are lots of natural therapies out there that can assist you to change those negative patterns so why not check them out now?
