Category Archives: Questions & Answers

Questions & Answers

How To Break Your Sugar Habit

“How can I stop eating sugary foods?” is a question I’ve been asked many times.

Sugar is extremely addictive for the brain. The brain loves sweet foods.

One of the first steps you can take to break a sugar addiction is not exposing yourself to the media that glorifies sweets. Instead, involve yourself in your own hobbies, physical activity, and healthy past times.

It’s also best to avoid sharing meals with people who eat a lot of sweets. The more friends you have that eat sweet foods, the more likely you are going to partake in all of this too. When you’re working on improving your health, spending a lot of time with junk food addicts isn’t going to help.

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I also recommend avoiding social events that include ample access to treats and sweets.
The more fresh food you eat – like vegetables, fruits, and lean meats – the less likely that you’ll crave sugary foods.

Making healthy choices for breakfast will help reduce sugar cravings. Having some protein in the morning is particularly helpful in keeping you satisfied for hours at a time. There are also hundreds of snack options that don’t involve sugar. Stock your kitchen with easy to grab, nutritious snacks like nuts, seeds, and chopped vegetables.

Over time you’ll lose your taste for sweet things. You’ll find that you no longer like the taste of pop or candy.

People don’t decide on their future. They decide on their habits. And their habits will then decide on the future of their health.

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Questions & Answers

Putting An End To Binge Eating: 10 Steps You Can Take

Binge eating is a source of great emotional and physical distress. Luckily, there are several steps you can take to reduce this habit.

1. Stop dieting: Dieting can lead to cravings that eventually become so strong they trigger binge-eating episodes.

2. Make sure you’re eating enough fiber. Eat regular amounts of fiber throughout the day – from fruit and vegetables in particular. Fiber slows down the digestive system and signals the brain, so you don’t feel the need to eat so frequently.

3. Get enough protein in your diet. It’s easy to feel ravenous and binge-y if you’re not eating enough protein. Protein is great for generating feelings of satiety and keeping your hunger hormone in check. Just as for fiber, protein also slows down digestion, keeping you feeling full for a longer period.

4. Don’t be a lazy eater. That means you should be prepared to put effort into making and cooking your meals rather than going to a fast-food drive-through.

5. Find some engaging distractions to fill your time when you have the urge to binge. It could be walking the dog, going for a stroll, talking to your neighbor, busying your hands with knitting, or anything else that gives you some enjoyment.

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6. Identify the emotional triggers that trigger binge eating. Once you know your triggers, start taking steps to change them or to find healthy ways of responding. It could be a relationship issue, a job issue, or financial stress.

7. Get your stress levels under control. Do your best to mitigate your stressors to prevent the spikes of cortisol that can drive your appetite to very high levels.

8. Eat before you are overly hungry. Eating at regular times of the day is very important. You don’t have to be excessively rigid, but skipping meals can lead to all-out binge eating. Keep an eye out for the subtle symptoms of low blood sugar and hunger. It could be that your thinking is slowing down, or you’re feeling irritable, tired, and dizzy.

9. Make sure you drink enough water between meals. Getting overly thirsty can trigger overeating for some people. Water also contributes to a feeling of satiation, so you don’t get overly hungry between scheduled meals and snacks.

10. Learn to eat slowly. Eating slower is better for your stomach. Think of your stomach as a cement mixer; you can’t fill it up all at one time. Fill your stomach up gradually, give it time to process the food you are eating.

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Questions & Answers

What’s The Connection Between Stress And Food Cravings?

There’s a connection between stress, appetite, and sugar intake.

A study in 2001 took a look at this issue. The researchers exposed 59 premenopausal women to stress on one day and then had them experience a low-stress day. The caloric consumption on the stressful and non-stressful days were recorded. Some of the women had a very high cortisol spike on the stressful day. These participants were called super reactors. In contrast, there are some people who are “low reactors” to stress.

It makes the point that it’s often not the stressor that’s the biggest problem; it’s the reaction to it.

The women with the highest cortisol spikes in response to stress had the highest calorie consumption. The calories came primarily from sweet foods.

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In other words, life events can trigger physiological reactions in the body that lead to sugar cravings. People who are highly stressed often make the wrong call when it comes to food and drink choices. They reach for sweet foods. They reach for soda pop.

The take-home message is that it’s essential to not only reduce the stress in your life but also to manage how you react to that stress. It’s not possible to eliminate all stress, but you don’t have to deal with life by eating a box of donuts.

I recommend finding a way to compartmentalize your stressors, so they don’t invade all aspects of your life. Find ways to relax and keep your cortisol levels in the normal range.

High cortisol is associated with obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. It’s clearly important to ensure that you’re living a low-stress life.

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Questions & Answers

What really causes weight gain? Your genes, your diet, or your gut?

Genes, joules, or gut bugs: which one is the most to blame when it comes to weight gain?

Joules are just a measure of calories, so the question becomes, what makes people fat? Is it genetics? Is it the number of calories they’re eating, or is it the bacteria in their gut?
It turns out that genetics doesn’t explain weight gain to any significant degree. About 100 genes have been linked to obesity so far. Scientists have determined that only 3% of weight is explained by your genes.

When it comes to gut bacteria, you can lose a bit of weight just by taking probiotics alone. But it’s a very subtle shift in weight that occurs when you improve your gut bacteria. Not insignificant but not enough to be the answer to the obesity epidemic.

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If we look at the kilojoules or the calories in the diet, it’s a totally different ball game. Years ago, they wondered if you took 10% of the calories out of someone’s diet, would they lose 10% of their body weight? And that’s exactly what’s been demonstrated.

In one study of 117 healthy adults, weight loss was found to be commensurate with how many calories were removed from the diet.

The bottom line is that what you eat is the prime determinant of your weight. It’s not the genes; it’s not the gut bugs; it’s the calories that determine your weight.

If you want to lose weight, you need to look at what you eat, when you eat, how much you eat, and why you eat. Stress is an important consideration, as well. Remember that the stress hormone cortisol can increase your appetite and trigger cravings for high-calorie foods. Studies have shown that there is a huge difference in calorie consumption, depending on whether you’re in a low-stress or high-stress state.

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Questions & Answers

Vitamin C And Weight Loss: What’s The Connection?

Can vitamin C help you lose weight?

A study from the mid-2000s demonstrated that vitamin C has a definite effect on burning fat (thermogenesis) in some people.

When people have adequate vitamin C stores, their ability to burn off body fat is 30% higher compared to people with low vitamin C stores.

The benefits of vitamin C aren’t new. Look at the work by Mathias Rath and Dr. Linus Pauling, who got two Nobel prizes, I believe. Dr. Pauling was ridiculed by scientists for many years, but one day his work on vitamin C will be vindicated.

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Vitamin C has a profound effect on the adrenal system. One of the highest levels of ascorbic acid in the human body is found in the adrenal cortex. An expert once told me that vitamin C used to be measured in the body by measuring the levels in the adrenal gland.

The body needs sufficient ascorbic acid levels to produce adrenal hormones such as the stress hormone, cortisol. You can extrapolate from that that low vitamin c levels might contribute to adrenal exhaustion. The fatigue associated with adrenal dysfunction can promote weight gain as it interferes with normal physical activity and can lead to snacking on high-calorie foods.

Vitamin C has a role in immune function, energy levels, skin integrity, and thermogenesis. That’s why I recommend people keep their vitamin C intake high. Make sure you include ample vitamin-C rich foods in your diet.

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