Do you suffer from sugar cravings or constant hunger?

chatnel

My friend just sent me this, I thought it was interesting and thought I would share it:


Do you suffer from sugar cravings, needing a sweet fix or constant hunger?

Can't stop eating ? In normal circumstances, after you have eaten enough, your hormone leptin sends a signal to suppress the release of dopamine, thereby reducing the reward of food. So leptin extinguishes reward. But what if you are leptin resistant? That's mainly what obesity is; leptin resistance. If leptin can't act then dopamine is not cleared sufficiently and the impetus for further eating persists meaning, you just can't stop eating !

Insulin is supposed to clear dopamine from the synapses (those small pathways between the cells) and the subsequent rise in insulin that occurs during a meal blunts the reward of further food intake and stops us eating. This acts as a mechanism built into the hedonic pathway to prevent overfeeding. But what happens when you are insulin resistant ? Insulin resistance leads to leptin resistance contributing to increased caloric intake by preventing dopamine clearance. Increased pleasure is then derived from food when energy stores are already full. Insulin and leptin resistance lead not only to increased food intake but to increased palatable food intake, or anything that is high in both fat and sugar; the muffins, cookies, cheesecake...

Do you see where this is going ? Yep! Not only those cookies you just can't stop eating, but eventually weight gain and a total train crash in terms of your metabolic rate, hormone control, lipid management, the lot. To circumvent this, we need to know what increases insulin and how to control it. There a few culprits: cortisol, heard this before, the stress picture, remember ? glucose, from the breakdown of foods especially when that source is refined and processed and, of course, that old chestnut - caffeine, playing into the adrenal stress response.

So just for a moment let's look at another scenario of the same thing. Hypoglycaemia is the faulty handling of glucose and insulin levels. This person is always hungry ! They are always looking for food, need to eat every 3 hours or sooner and even after a normal size meal, need something sweet to finish off. Sound like someone you know ?? Whilst the weight is not packing on and most people in this situation feel they are ok, they could be running the risk of insulin resistance if they do not correct their fluctuating blood glucose/insulin responses. These guys are sugar addicted but may not see it that way !! They get most of their energy from sugar or caffeine and generally are overactive and are a lean or average body weight.

Either way, you know me, always looking for the middle way where we can maintain and live in good health, not pursue it as an afterthought or once the horse has bolted. So, if you recognise yourself in either of the above seemingly opposite circumstances, the resolution is surprisingly the same for both. Let's look at that;

Steps to take action and return to balance:

Get insulin down and improve leptin resistance: Less insulin means less shunting of energy to fat cells, better leptin sensitivity leading to a lower appetite. Also means more energy available to muscles improving metabolic health. Reducing insulin means reducing both insulin release and improving insulin sensitivity in the cells.

Reduce insulin release by limiting exposure of the pancreas to the thing that drives insulin up in the first place -glucose. This means reducing or eliminating refined carbohydrates. This includes processed and refined foods, anything using refined flours and refined sugars and homogenised fats.

Improving insulin sensitivity means limiting production of liver fat, this is achieved by avoiding sugar. Start with getting rid of any beverages in your house that are not water! Plain mineral water, herbal teas, green tea are ok.

Eat more fibre. This will reduce the insulin response. Opt for brown foods; beans, lentils, wholegrains, nuts and other legumes. Eat only the real stuff: the whole fruits and veggies never their processed or juiced derivatives, these are devoid of fibre. White foods; bread, rice, pasta have all had their fibre removed.

Exercise to improve muscle insulin sensitivity. Consistency is the key, a little exercise every single day will help. Cortisol (our major stress hormone) drops following periods of exercise, so exercise earlier in the day to get the benefits of lowered cortisol and increased metabolism throughout the day.

Eat breakfast . Having breakfast will reduce ghrelin, our hunger hormone, and ratchet up the thermic effect of food, it will keep leptin levels normal and you will be less likely to overeat later. Include protein with breakfast, it has a bigger effect on reducing ghrelin than just carbohydrates or fat alone - nuts, seeds, eggs, beans, fish, wholegrains like quinoa, buckwheat or brown rice. Protein also generates a lower insulin response than carbohydrate and doesn't lead to glucose lows later in the morning.

Excuse me if I digress just a little here. Some of my clients have severe insulin resistance, caused by overconsumption of sugar and are enormously hungry. The real hallmark of this pattern is night time eating or bingeing. When these people wake up in the morning, they are not hungry and usually go without breakfast, this is a big warning sign for indiscretions later in the day. They invariably eat before bed, some even awaken from sleep to eat. Eating after dinnertime is problematic for everyone, any energy consumed that late has no chance of being burned. It will either find it's way to the fat tissue or to the liver, making them even more insulin resistant. In order to improve leptin resistance, which means improving insulin resistance, they must break this vicious cycle of night-time eating and energy storage. The only hope here is to readjust mealtimes. This means eating a sensible breakfast with protein and lunch with no snacks added and dinner must consistently occur a good four hours before bedtime. Consistent sleep is also important.

Don't over eat ! Eat sensible portions and wait 20 mins before a second portion, eat fibre. There is a huge difference between the phenomenon of scarcity versus lack of hunger. Putting food in your stomach lowers your ghrelin but doesn't stop you from eating more. The signal for satiety, the switch that turns you off eating more, is Peptide YY, a hormone made by the small intestine, in response to food, that signals satiety to the hypothalamus in the brain. Between the stomach and the PYY cells are 22 feet of intestine. It takes time for the food to get there. Give it a chance! The key is to wait for a good 20 mins before seconds. Make sure your first portion is an appropriate size, even without 2nd portions, if the first is supersized, there will still be damage. The best way to get your PYY up is to make your food move through your intestine faster and that is the job of fiber. And the best way to get fibre is to eat real food.


resources:
if you are interested in this subject, a great book to read is Fat Chance by Dr Robert Lustig

winterskykim

very interesting thanks for sharing.. a lot of info I knoew on some level.. not all the mechanics of it.. so thanks it is good to understand the reasons why our bodies do or don't do what the do.. will keep this in mind and try harder.. Kim

tigersword

No, just no. For one thing, Lustig has been proven wrong many times. Everything listed is just unnecessary, or untrue. Insulin doesn't shunt energy to fat cells, it transfers glucose into muscles and organs. The entire story is based on false assumptions and flawed logic. For one thing, keeping insulin low is a horrible idea, as insulin is one of the primary drivers of muscle maintenance and repair. Both insulin and leptin resistance are caused by the same thing, excess body fat, not eating sugar.

Wildflower0106

Um Lustig... NO...

LolBroScience

Skimmed to bottom, saw Lustig's name and stopped reading.