OK I know it seems ridiculous that you could be addicted to food...I mean, we need food to live, right? Food isn't the addictive thing; it's the crap in the food that's addictive. Have you ever heard of anyone being addicted to cauliflower? No, because cauliflower is gross (just kidding...but I really don't like it).
It's because vegetables and other natural, healthy foods nourish you properly and calm your cravings. When you are eating a variety of foods containing all the nutrients you need to be healthy, your body has what it needs and doesn't crave anything. Trust me, it's true.
When you're eating processed foods that are full of sugar and have been stripped of their natural fiber, healthy fats, and nutrients, your body is OVERFED and UNDERNOURISHED. I remember the moment when I first heard this concept back when I was a teenager, and it blew my mind! Suddenly it all made sense...how we [Americans] can have such a problem with weight, and have tons of food swirling around us at all times, but we are still starving!
Have you ever wondered why people in other countries with less processed food available to them can eat so infrequently, or eat such low calorie food, and not be starving all the time? Or have you ever had one of those friends who can just eat regular, healthy meals and not worry about stuffing his or her face all day long? It's because they are getting the nutrients they need, and they aren't addicted to unhealthy additives.
When I was in high school, there was a pretty significant period of time when my regular daily diet looked something like this:
-Mountain Dew for breakfast (couldn't live without this!) and maybe a candy bar (but only one that contained nuts, so it was "healthy")
-Bread and cheese for lunch (we would leave campus and go to a local deli and get like a pound of cheese and several rolls and make sandwiches--it was the best thing ever!)
-After school (or, sometimes, if we decided school wasn't working for us that particular day, during school), we would go to my best friend's house and she would make me a big cheesy quesadilla with sour cream
-Maybe another soda and candy bar in the afternoon
-Pizza, or KFC biscuits (not the chicken--I was a vegetarian, for goodness sake!), or pasta for dinner
Now that I've written that down, I can hardly believe that was me. Any one of those things (except maybe the pizza and pasta) would send me into an absolute tailspin in my current life. And I was eating like that literally every day. No fruits, no vegetables, not even any nuts! Nothing healthy or natural. No fiber, very little vitamins, no phytochemicals. But PLENTY of saturated fat, processed white flour, sugar, and artificial colors and flavors.
Compare this to my best friend (the one who made me the quesadillas): she has a totally different body type than I, so it's not a perfect comparison. But she was raised on natural, more healthful foods, and simply didn't have any food addictions. Her mom made her a healthy breakfast every day, she brought vegetables to school to snack on, and she had a healthy dinner with her family every night. She just didn't obsess about food like I did. I remember one specific time, we had taken a impromptu trip to the beach for one night. Of course, I was so excited to visit the vending machine and get some candy to eat in the hotel room--after all, that's what you do in hotels, right? I remember her expression when I asked her what she wanted...she looked a little confused. She said, "I don't want anything. I'm not hungry." I remember thinking that was the craziest thing I'd ever heard--who cares if you're hungry...you can have CANDY!
There was even a brief period of time when I was 14 when I went on a candy bar diet. I knew I wanted to keep my weight under control, but I [obviously] didn't know how to do it. I just felt like I couldn't control myself around food, and all I wanted was sugar and fat (mostly cheese, please). So, I thought, if I just ate 1 candy bar 3 times per day in place of meals, that would be much better. Needless to say, it didn't work, and I didn't feel very great.
Anyway, the bottom line is that I've nursed a sugar addiction my entire life. I've always had a sweet tooth, and I really got to start indulging it when I got old enough to have my own money and buy my own food. The thought of not having any sugar in my diet still scares me a little bit, but I know I can do it if I focus on what's really best for me and makes me feel good.
How Do You Fix It?
Now that I've been eating tons of fruits and vegetables and natural grains and nuts and seeds, I can feel my cravings fading away. I never said: I'm not eating sugar anymore. Or: I'll never have cheese again. I know myself better than that--denying myself something makes me want it more. All I did was develop a healthy eating pattern that is giving my body what it needs, and suddenly sugar doesn't seem all that appealing anymore...most of the time.
Last night, I was home by myself. I didn't really have a plan for dinner, but I knew I wanted to make some soup. So, I made and ate some mushroom and spinach soup. It was delightful and I felt full and satisfied...for about an hour. Knowing I hadn't eaten enough calories, I began searching for something else to eat. I decided on hummus and Triscuits (my guilty pleasure). Then I was full, but I immediately wanted something sweet. Suddenly, I couldn't remember why I wasn't eating sugar. I couldn't remember why it would be wrong to raid the Halloween candy. I didn't care if I had a headache when I woke up in the morning, or if I got incredibly tired and had to go right to bed, or if my pancreas had to work too hard to pump insulin into my bloodstream to counteract the loads of sugar I was about the stuff into my mouth. None of it mattered--all I could think about was how good a handful of M&Ms would taste.
That was a huge eye-opener for me. Isn't the definition of addiction caring more about getting the thing you're addicted to than anything else in the world? If it isn't, it should be. I couldn't talk myself out of the damn M&Ms. So I walked over to the cabinet, and pulled out a bag, and even tore the top a little as I started to open it...then some magical force intervened and I managed to throw it back in the cabinet and grab a mandarin orange from the fruit bowl instead. It was a true miracle! Or maybe I really am becoming a healthier, more thoughtful person. Nah, it was probably a miracle.
(I apologize in advance if your kids trick-or-treat at my house and get the partially opened bag of M&Ms.)
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