Food Cravings And Emotional Eating  

Understanding the Nutritional and Biochemical Causes.

Why are my food cravings so intense?

Why am I still so hungry even when I've just recently eaten?

Do I have a food addiction? Or a sugar addiction?

My emotional eating is becoming a problem - is it all in my mind?

There are many REAL biological processes and bio-chemical reactions that help to explain such intense food cravings.

Once we start to understand some of these connections, we can learn how and why food has such a very real emotional impact upon us.

So, in other words - no, it's not all in your mind!

Picture by Michael Roper

Our bodies work best when everything is in a state of balance. What and how we eat has a very direct impact upon the internal balance of important nutrients…

…which directly affects our brain chemistry…
…which affects our feelings and emotions…
…which affects our thoughts and behaviour…
…which affects how and what we eat…
…and so on!

Understanding the links between how we eat and how we feel enables us to make some sense out of the way we are behaving.

Many sufferers of eating disorders describe how they have an "Ah-ha!" moment of recognition when they first learn about how some of the feelings they are experiencing have such very real biological causes!

This insight empowers us to make the necessary changes that will lead toward a long lasting recovery from Binge Eating or other eating disorders.

In these next few pages, you can learn about:

• The highs and lows of Blood Sugars; how dieting and binge eating CREATE more food cravings. How when we eat a lot of refined carbohydrates or other high energy food,
  
  we can get a sharp RISE in blood sugars…
  
  followed by a big release of insulin…
  
  that leads to compensatory sharp DROP in blood sugars… …
  
  
• The Insulin Response, what insulin does, and how long term binge eating can lead to insulin resistance
  
  
• Serotonin, an important brain chemical that acts as a natural anti-depressant and helps control impulsive feelings. Poor eating patterns can lead to a lack of serotonin (or we may be naturally low in this substance), exacerbating feelings of depression and impulsive
  
  
• Endorphins and Dopamine - our natural feel-good chemicals; and why we find that eating sometimes helps dull our emotional pain - temporarily! Learn how the receptor sites for these chemicals in our brains, are in the same area that deals with emotions!
  
  
• Cortisol and Adrenalin, and why we can feel so shaky and panicky when our blood sugars are low and we need food. So when we do eat, not only are our low blood sugar symptoms resolved, but the adrenalin rush is eased as well, resulting in such a feeling of RELIEF. No wonder we eat to make ourselves feel better! Also learn about the effects of 'adrenal fatigue' that can possibly result from long term binge eating.
  
  
• The role of hunger chemicals like Ghrelin and NPY
  
  
• How not having a good balance of important nutrients like protein and Omega 3 fatty acids in our diet can exacerbate our food cravings.

For quick reference, here is a summary about this page.