Separation of Addiction and Overeating

We overeaters are a subset of the population who's first reaction to many things in life is to reach for food, consume food, too much, too frequently. Any event or condition will be sufficient. Anything produces a cue. Then, we need to decide how to react to the cue.

Lets stop for a moment and separate out several other situations, true hunger, and food addiction. These can and do occur, but we must learn to separate these out. I can tell the difference, can you? I have all three issues.

The separating characteristic of food addiction is the craving is very specific, and will not be satisfied by anything but the desired food. Normal overeating, emotion based, almost any food will do. And also, when the cause is removed, the craving goes away. Chemical induced craving (like glucose-insulin issue) can also be specific, but these behave differently. With food addiction, there was no relief for several days, and ongoing severe intermittent cravings for months, and with any taste, the craving returns. Complete abstinences may be primitive but it works and the medical community has nothing to offer. It is no more difficult than a person with a nut allergy staying away from nuts, or a celiac staying away from gluten.  The approach is scoffed on and at, and decried, criticized by many, but have you got anything that works better short and long term? We all would like a softer easier way.   

The overeater will respond to almost any emotion or chemical stimulus in the same way, a craving for food, as separated from appetite, the desire to eat. Any emotion will do, celebration, stress, boredom, indecision, to busy, to quite, people, lack of people, and then there is chemical, drop in blood glucose, insulin rise, insulin surges, glucose-insulin- leptin issue, or just the presence of palatable food is enough.

Anybody got any real solutions?

Overeating

Here we have one more opinion on how to end overeating that is worth a look. Perhaps a bit more information will help.

http://www.diet-blog.com/09/the_end_of_overeating.php

To me, sugars,  most grains, starches mixed with fats, transfats, manufactured oils are the issue. Saturated fat is irreverent, as our body makes it from excess carbohydrates. The sum of intake must be equal or less than outputs, each with our personal Atwater factor. When I look at the set of partial differential equations that K Hall came up with, it is obviously complex, but possible to define each of their variables, to relate body weight to intake, but delta mass is dependent on both sides of the equation, and also dependent on the components, (saturated fat, oils, transfats, Glucose, fructose*, whole proteins, damaged proteins, specific proteins and a bunch of others).

I need 50 to 100 gms starches, no sugar, no fructose and about 65 gms of protein per day. ( I am not an athlete nor do I do physical work, therefore can burn fat just fine), The remainder of the intake can be fats. Fats crosses the gut wall by simple diffusion; it cannot happen against a concentration gradient. If you do not absorb the fat, you pass it. Almost all carbohydrate is absorbed.

Insulin, stimulated by carbohydrates, sweeps everything, glucose and fats into fat cells. Once we eat carbohydrates, especially dense easily digestible sugars and starches, insulin is released and we soon will be hungry because everything is pushed into fat cells. Internal starvation, partitioning of  resources, what ever we call it occurs, a normal reaction, that we must guard against, and stop. When we cut carbohydrates, we need fats to run on. To extract fat from fat tissue, there is a series of enzymes, and that is rate controlled below our hunger threshold. We need fat to avoid getting hungry. If we get hungry for long enough, we will eat and be out of control. We need to dust the crumbs off and get back on the program.

Be wary of advise to cut sugars, starched and fats. It is not sustainable (remember KimKins). We can live without sugars, and caloric dense carbohydrates, but not without fats. We need 1 gm of omega 3, 2 gm of omega 6, and the remainder any saturated or omega 9 will do.

For me this is about 200 to 400 C of carbohydrates, 260 C of protein that comes with equal or more fat, and the remainder of the daily total as fat. When we take something out of our diet, we may need to add vitamins and minerals also.

To me, sugar, most grains, manufactured oils and manufactured eatable products are simple not human food. Vegetables, meat, fish, proteins and animal products are food. Fruit is OK as garnish, as are nuts, legumes, and seeds.

* trouble makers
 

A frame work for resolving overeating

A rainy Saturday. Too wet to cut grass or work outside. I think like my mother. Incomplete sentences.

A frame work for resolving overeating is required to identify and classify the causes of overeating, with the hope that removing or addressing each individual cause, a solution for myself may be found. Bear with me here, this is just a growing list.

• Uninterested in weight or controlling their weight - no hope of recovery (type 0's)
• just do not care about themselves, or those around them, apathetic 
• unwilling to accept that they have a problem
• unwilling to make the effort
• too low on their priorities to take the time
• dislike in knowing the truth
• too negative to learn
• too intimidated to learn, unlearn myths, to correct
• too intimidated, influenced by dietitians who are preaching the government wrong line 
• just negative toward someone who is forced / obligated / dependent on them / forced to live with them, lack of choice
• living under or around a control freak, working for a control freak, being unable to leave due to financial reasons, (fear of poverty), fear of being alone, fear of other people, 
• Physical
• Hunger / Satiety / Satiation issues
• Hyper-palatable screws homeostasis
• only three factor one can control, food choices, amount, spacing, if we can control them
• Cravings - vitamin and mineral deficient diets
• Cravings - Food effects, intolerance, allergies that cause cravings, 
• Mal-absorption - producing deficiencies, causing cravings  
• body chemistry, BG, insulin, leptin, ....full list... issues
• carbohydrate intolerance ( Maffetone), what ever you call then
•  insulin resistance (Eades), metabolic syndrome, hyperinsulinemia (many low carbers), internal starvation ( McGuff) , energy partitioning (Taubes), what ever you call it group of issues
•  leptin resistance, leptin signal blocked by insulin (Dr Lustig) and fructose issues
• Sleep issues (need a belly full to sleep)( no carbs, else adrenalin rush near morning), sleep apnea, sleep deportation, insomnia 
• medications / hormones / drugs (munchies) causing cravings, 
• some people say some of these are not real, other claim they are very real... what to we actually know... are they real to only subsets of the population, or only when a number of factors occur.
• Lack of exercise, negative output of energy... cannot burn intake... before hunger occurs... suggest a nutrient problem
• Spiritual - philosophical - mental -conceptual
• Lack of knowledge ... food, bio-physics, bio-chemistry, and physiology knowledge that is compatible with each other, believing popular myths.
• Social - poor food to choose from, unwilling to say no
• unwilling to give up "unhealthy for individual" foods- sugar, grains, nuts, cheese, oils, transfats, chocolate, alcohol, artificial sweeteners, etc.
• unwilling to go without real food, do not consider something food, unwilling to go without food, unwilling to fast as protest.
• Denial that "those" foods are unhealthy, typically grains as above list 
• Stress eating - unable to handle the stresses of life or situation, adrenalin, cortisol  
• Habit
• enjoyment of food, celebration, indulgence, rather than sticking to new lifestyle. dropping back to previous lifestyle, 
• moving from external to internal motivation, conviction in being right, whats right not who's right.
• Environmental
• Poor economy - poor food to choose from, 
• Chemical in food / Medicines 
• low nutrition food, deficient vitamins and minerals in diets
• Living situation, family relationships, livelihood 
• Living with a negative person
• unwilling to change there behaviors to accommodate low impulse control person
• Unwilling to believe that other have a problem with their behavior, it may be the others problem, but will they like the solution, general negative attitude.
• Emotional
• Hedonic - pleasure seeking - reward summary at http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2011/06/food-reward-dominant-factor-in-obesity_18.html
• cooping adaption
• lack of learning of other methods of stress resolution
• boredom,  indecision, dislike of our work, activities, or boredom due to lack of the same
• frustration fixation
• family enmeshment / family tradition / dependence / control freaks
• ridicule / harassment / bulling defense / insular personality / isolation / more comfortable than being around the abusers
• low impulse control
• food temptation - living is a open food environment, usually with a practicing overeater (type 0)
• food addiction / addiction like hedonic responses
• Depression .. which came first? Eating pushes serotonin, the feel good hormone, hedonic
• Obsessive - compulsive

overeating

Overeating has a long list of causes: sugar addiction, wheat addiction, chocolate addiction, Omega 6 oil addiction, Dense Carbohydrate addiction, protein addiction, nut addiction and combinations...

Then we have  conditions that contribute: Emotional eating, hyperinsulinema, leptin resistance, insulin resistance, habitual issues, environmental pressures, stress, lack of food knowledge, wrong food information...

If you to keep on eating your binge foods,  additional foods or foods that set off your condition, you can expect failure. We often have the double whammy.. addictions and a physical condition that encourages overeating.

God is just a concepts, the 12 steps become a frame work for cleaning up your life after you stop eating your addition foods and stop setting off your conditions. We often have multipliable issues.  Addressing only one without the other is a failure just weighting to happen.