Top 7 signs your cravings are damaging your brain.

Posted on May 12, 2018 by Dr. G

And what you can do about it.

One comment about cravings.

The secret to defeating cravings is NOT willpower.  The secret is to not have them.

According to neurologist and author, Dr. Dale Bredesen, the human body is genetically adapted to deal with about 15 grams per day of sugar.  That is about the equivalent of one peach. Any amount of sugar (glucose, fructose, lactose) above that is in excess and the body has to deal with it. We suffer from so many diseases as a consequence of “dealing with it”.  And if you can only think of diabetes and obesity, think harder.  It includes dementia, Alzheimers, cancer, arthritis, cardiovascular disease, autoimmunity, high blood pressure, stroke and more.  How do cravings play a role?

The diseases listed above are just the end stage diseases, what about all the symptoms people have for decades before they get their end stage disease “diagnosis”.  How’s our track record for waiting for the end stage diagnosis before doing anything about it. The answer is pretty poor and expensive. It ruins lives, hurts families and causes misery.  The problem with chronic disease is not death, it’s living.

Evidence of blood sugar dysregulation is NOT a hemoglobin A1c number on your blood test that creeps up to 5.6 and 5.7 resulting in a “pre-diabetes” diagnosis, that is late stage, contrary to popular belief or conventional wisdom.  Blood sugar dysregulation is also known as Insulin resistance and or reactive hypoglycemia. Evidence you have this problem is:

1. Nodding off after lunch
2. Craving something sweet 10 minutes after a satisfying meal that you thought filled you up.
3. Brain fog, loss of focus and concentration (that ADHD never went away huh!),
4. Chronic pain syndromes in the spine, neck, back,  knees, shoulders or feet.
5. A triglyceride number on a routine blood test that creeps past 100 (your lab wont red flag it until it gets above 150).  Even then your doctor might not mention it or tell you something silly like “eat less fat”
6. Low libido
7. Unexplained weight gain

It is “chroni-idontfeelgood-itis”.  Like when your acupuncturist, your trainer, your friend or your hairdresser diagnoses you with “adrenal fatigue”, a “thyroid problem” or “fibromyalgia”.

Who do I blame?

It is the job of every company in a free society to extract as much money from you the customer as possible.  This is not a warning, a moral judgement against capitalism ( I actually understand and appreciate the massive contribution free economies have made on humanity).  The above sentence is incomplete, here is the complete sentence; It is the job of every company in a free society to extract as much money from you the customer as possible in exchange for a product or service of equal or greater value.

Some companies think they are offering value, because their customers enjoy the taste of their product.  Lets just say that all companies involved in processing food are interested in you really enjoying their product and therefore consuming more and more of their product as a percentage of your total calories.  That could be a soft drink, fruit juice, pizza, sweets, pasta, bread, the list goes on and on. Just think of processed foods as being the foods you eat that look nothing like they did when they were growing out of the ground or walking on the earth when you consume it.

Pay the price for convenience

Processed foods are also the most convenient foods, they are the cheapest foods, they have long shelf life and let’s face it they are the foods that make it possible for us to not have spend hardly anytime thinking about preparing our meals.  We can work at our computer all day, come out of the office, look left then look right and quickly make a decision. Pizza to the left or bagels to the right. Quick and easy, it fills your immediate need to satisfy your hunger or just because you have a defined lunch hour and you think that is what your supposed to do, eat lunch.

These foods which you enjoy, foods you crave and foods from which you get great perceived value, are causing your body to deal with the excess carbohydrates which you are consuming (remember you are genetically adapted to handle 15 grams per day of dietary sugar).  The more you deal with, the more stress you put on your body and brain.

Where does the brain come in?  

It’s simple, Inflammation.  Inflammation is when the immune system is activated.  Typically we activate the immune system with an infection.  But we also activate the immune system with large undigested foreign proteins found in foods.  The more processed the food, the more its perceived as foreign and therefore a threat. The immune system is also activated by dealing with glucose that results in hormone resistance like insulin, leptin, and more.  Our fat cells, act as an endocrine organ (an organ that produces hormones) and those hormones activate inflammation or reduce inflammation depending on the signals they are given by your lifestyle and dietary choices.

One way the brain deals with an inflammatory threat is to make beta amyloid proteins.  The very same proteins that build up in the brain of people with alzheimers, CTE, PTSD or the chronically sleep deprived.  You see, the beta amyloid serves a protective purpose. This is why drugs that prevent or remove this protein do not have a positive impact on alzheimers disease.  There are no drugs that are effective against reducing or slowing down the progression of alzheimers.  The drugs that are approved for alzheimers disease do not accomplish those goals, they merely increase the presence of certain neurotransmitters that result in reduced symptoms while the disease progresses unabated.

The sugar /carb connection:

The enzyme that breaks down the excessive beta amyloid proteins in the brain is the very same enzyme responsible for breaking down insulin. The hormone we release when we are trying to deal with more than 15 grams of sugar in a day.  How can it accomplish 2 goals at the same time? it cannot, the resources of the body are limited.  As Dr. Bredesen says, if a fire truck is putting out a fire on the north side of town, it cannot possibly put out a fire on the south side of town at the exact same time.

This results in sugar toxicity.  If you think you are okay because you are only “PRE-diabetic” and therefore not FULL“diabetic” you are then willing to accept way too much risk in your life.  1 in 7 people on the planet are currently insulin resistant, it is conservative to say 2 out of 3 Americans are insulin resistant. There are 80 million baby boomers entering their senior years to the tune of over 10,000 people per day for 20 years.   The tidal wave of alzheimer’s will cripple our economy, stress our medical system to capacity, ruin families and steal personal fortunes built over a lifetime of work.

This is a very simplistic view of the science but I assure you it is accurate and not in dispute.  Stop letting yourself be pushed around by societal norms, advertising and conventional medical wisdom.  They will guarantee that you have long life of suffering, feeling unfulfilled and unaccomplished. Take control of your life.

Now; what to do about those cravings.

When you depend on glucose as your primary fuel source, then every time you run low you will have cravings.  You will feel like you are running low every day and all day because you can only make so much glucose available.  The trick is to teach your body to use another fuel source, a fuel source that is so abundant your body will never perceive a low level and therefore will not have a need to be hungry and have cravings that dictate all of your decisions related to food.

Share this post with anyone you think needs to hear the truth.  If you’d like a brief consult with the doctor to discuss your options please use this link to schedule a call at no expense.  Allow DrG to help you decide what are the best next steps to take control of your life and make those cravings disappear.

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