Controlling Food Cravings

Ever have trouble controlling food cravings? Lindsey Layton's "Crave Man" article in an April, 2009 Washington Post really opened my eyes about food cravings - and eggrolls!

Layton writes about David A Kessler's (former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration in the USA) experience with his own food cravings.

Dr. Kessler took up night time dumpster diving (I'm not making this up. This guy is serious when it comes to controlling food cravings!) to satisfy his intellectual cravings for why the heck he had practically addictive food cravings. Dr. Kessler - since childhood - just couldn't stay away from certain "addictive" foods!

David Kessler's prizes were the ingredient labels for such delicacies as Southwestern Eggrolls, Boneless Shanghai Wings and other yummy stuff served from the kitchens of one of North America's largest restaurant chains. (In case you're wondering - these guys are in Canada, too!)

The End of Overeating

Kessler's book, The End of Overeating, talks about what is really going on with our controlling food cravings, and why it is so hard to start controlling food cravings.

The ingredient labels showed foods drenched in sugars, salt and fat - far more than what you might expect. The eggrolls, for instance, had eight different mentions of salt, and sugars appeared five times.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out these "eggrolls" must belong to the "deep fried candy bar" food class - not much "egg" in the "roll"! Plus, well, they are really delicious!

Bizarre Food Cravings

Kessler reasons that highly palatable foods (like my "deep fried candy bar" example) stimulate the brain to release dopamine, associated with the pleasure centre. In time, the brain get "wired" so that the dopamine pathways light up at the smallest suggestion of food - even driving past a fast-food restaurant.

Like a smoker wanting a cigarette, we crave satisfaction. And when we've eaten the food we crave the brain releases opioids and brings us emotional relief... This is the food addiction cycle an estmated 85% of us are sensitive to.

How to Stop Food Cravings

Doesn't this sound bizarre? But think about what happens when we run... Yep - it's much the same thing.

Some of us (like me) are wired to crave our fitness workouts and cardio sports because we know how great we feel after a run!

The difference is that exercise in moderation (well, in moderation most of the time...) isn't inherently damaging - it's beneficial.

So we can help stop food cravings with these two steps:

Staying away from highly addictive food environments like fast-food restaurants.
"Act out" our food cravings by transferring our activities from eating to exercising!

You'll notice I didn't say "easy steps". These are tough choices, but we can make the right choices with determination and habit-forming persistence.

Dr. Kessler's book "The End of Overeating" and his personal experience are well worth considering. If a Doctor who was Commisioner of the FDA had food addiction patterns in his life we can this is more of an addiction issue - not just a "willpower" war.

We can be healthy if we are aware of our potentially addictive food environment and make the right choices - not the easy choices.

Return: Diet and Exercise Program

That's the secret to controlling food cravings! And don't forget...