Why do Food Cravings Feel so Powerful? A Brief Guide to some of the Biological Influences
When considering food cravings, we all know that WHAT we EAT can directly affect HOW we FEEL.
And then HOW we FEEL directly affects HOW and WHAT we EAT.
This can be really well understood by learning the effects upon our
ENDORPHiNS and
SEROTONIN levels.
When we think about how all of these systems are interacting at the same time, we can easily see just why food cravings and eating may have such a powerful hold over us.
What We Want: |
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Enough Blood Sugars
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Enough Endorphins
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Enough Serotonin
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BUT, What May be Perpetuating our Food Cravings: |
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Low Blood Sugars
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Low Endorphins
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Low Serotonin
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Adapted from: “Potatoes Not Prozac” by Kathleen DesMaisons, |
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PLUS we can add to this the impact upon our Adrenalin levels; PLUS the emotional and habitual aspects of our eating; PLUS the influence of our surroundings and culture; PLUS how much activity and exercise we are getting……
ENOUGH ALREADY! Lets stick to one thing at a time!!
Always remember – our bodies LOVE BALANCE – and this is something we should be striving for too!
By BINGE EATING and dieting, we are keeping our bodies in a perpetual state of IMBALANCE, swinging from one extreme to the other, potentially leading to a continual state of physical, emotional and mental EXHAUSTION!
We can become trapped in a negative repeating cycle.
What we NEED is regular, balanced, nutritious eating throughout the day, to STABILISE and bring back some BALANCE to all these biological NEEDS. Strict, regular eating (even while we are still binge eating as well) can help to take the ‘sting’ out of the biochemical causes of our food cravings.
Only then may we really be ENABLED to move on and to tackle our EMOTIONAL and PSYCHOLOGICAL needs, from a position of STABILITY, BALANCE and personal STRENGTH.
