Sugar Cravings and Refined Carbohydrates

Our natural sugar cravings, meant to entice us to reach for colorful, nutrient-rich, high-fiber fruits, have been manipulated and usurped by a food commerce hungry for profits. Refined carbohydrates (bread, pasta, cereal, baked goods) deliver very slight in the way of cancer-fighting, health-promoting nutrients but are loaded with fat and furnish us with a heavy glycemic load.

But how do you stop sugar cravings? For decades I struggled with sweet cravings on a daily basis. There was a duration while which I couldn't Not eat less than twelve ounces of chocolate malt balls every day (about six candy bars). Then there was the store-bought-cake-mix phase-no matter how strong my commitment the night before, I couldn't Not get up next morn and drive to Kroger for a fresh box of Betty Crocker and tub of frosting. By noon I'd eaten at least a third of this hyper-stimulating, mind-numbing concoction.

Betty Crocker

Over the years I made many efforts to overcome my sugar addiction, from psychotherapy to overeaters anonymous to controlled sweet eating. But nothing worked for very long, and now I know why. In a nutshell, refined carbohydrates cause a hyper stimulation of the dopaminergic pathways in the brain, manufacture it near impossible to resist the temptation at hand, be it white sugar or some other white powder.

Have you ever felt a sense of excitement upon looking a obvious sweet treat? For me, if I walked in a cafeteria and saw triple layer chocolate cake on the counter, I got a surge of happiness-a sense that all's well with the world. Well, that's dopamine. My brain rewarded me just for thinking about eating that high-sugar, high-fat, high-calorie "food".

My friends, our brains were never meant to be able to reject such temptation. Our neurology was wired while times of food scarcity, and dopamine came into being partly to insure that we were motivated sufficient to accumulate hard-to-get calories. Unfortunately, our external environment has changed 180 degrees, but we still have the same hungry brains covertly driving our behavior. And if you pay close attention, you'll hear that ancient, reptilian brain of yours arrival up with all sorts of seemingly valid reasons why it's ok to cave into a sugar craving.

So is there any hope for a man driven by refined carbohydrates? Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that, yes, you can be free from excessive, amazing sugar cravings. The bad news? Well, it's not so bad really, it just requires a unblemished overhaul of your dietary program. And for most people, abstinence is super important, at least initially and maybe permanently. But plainly abstaining from sugar and refined carbs is not enough-you must replace those life-draining, disease-causing carbohydrates with health-promoting ones.

But what are good carbohydrates? Good carbs are the ones that happen to be packaged with a large assortment of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals-green vegetables, fresh fruits, and beans. These carbohydrates have been repeatedly shown in the healing literature to sacrifice the risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and a whole host of other diseases of modern developed nations.

Now, most folks recognize the point of fruits and veggies, but they're missing a crucial factor in manufacture unrefined plants work for them, and that's Volume. In order to reap the numerous scientifically validated benefits of these foods, you must eat lots of them-12-14 servings a day, in fact. Plus, by filling your gullet with nutrient-rich furnish (especially leafy greens), there's slight room left for other stuff, along with dessert! And by meeting your body's micronutrient needs, food cravings categorically loosen their hold over time, manufacture it much easier for us sugarholics, to live a more peaceful inner existence.

Sugar Cravings and Refined Carbohydrates