Food Cravings and 3 Things To Do
Happiness for me is largely a matter of digestion
Lin Yutang Chinese writer, inventor, and liguist
What this quote implies is that if the digestion of food and thoughts are good then contentment will follow The person will be happy The energy science of Ayurveda has stated for 5000 years that if the strength of digestion(aka agni) is good then health and happiness naturally follows As a matter of fact it's said that a person is only as old as his agni since digestive fire bestows longevity and strength
But when food cravings or addictions occur, is that an aspect of too strong an agni? Or are cravings a normal aspect of digestion? Let's examine this from an energy science view
Normal cravings
Cravings can be due to psychological or physiological factors If the sweet taste is craved it may mean that the person is craving love However, if there is an imbalance of the hot quality someone may be craving the sweet taste to reduce the hot quality because the sweet taste carries the cold quality
Vata, the energy pattern of movement has a normal cravings for the warm drinks and hot foods that carry the spicy, mushy oily properties If it's cold out during the winter, Vata becomes aggravated in the gut and you would naturally seek warmth and a cup of hot chocolate or cider
Pitta, the energy pattern of transformation expresses the hot quality amongst others and when it's hot out a person will nnormally craves cold foods, drinks, and cool air
When Kapha, the energy pattern of stability becomes aggravated in the gut, the cool qualities will prompt the person to normally seek hot, spicy food
So you can see that you will naturally seek out how to bring about balance in the body if you are sensing aggravation in yourself And these are normal cravings In actuality they are not real cravings as much as the body just looking to balance itself
Abnormal Cravings
Once there is dissemination of these bodily qualities and tissues are affected, wrong cravings show up
For example, someone with too much of the hot quality begins craving the hot qualities in foods such as hot chiles, cayenne pepper, and horseradish dependent on what's available and the personal preferences for the hot taste These are abnormal cravings and should not be satisfied
When someone is overweight, they already have too much of the sweet taste whose qualities are heavy, slow/dull, liquid, oily, cool, dense, static, cloudy When they crave cookies, candy, and chocolate, they are adding more to the already imbalance of qualities This then becomes again an abnormal craving
If someone is a skinny mini and has a strong Vata imbalance, seeking out cold salads, rough, dry, and crunchy salty chips, there is an abnormal craving being satisfied
3 Things to Help With Abnormal Food Cravings
1 Determine if the craving is normal or abnormal; if abnormal try not to cave into the craving Of course, this is easier said than done but just by observing the mind obsessing about a particular food can be a ginormous step in the right direction Then let it go if you succumb to the craving Just making the observation is enough
2 Improve your agni There are multiple ways to do this Using ginger pickle, observing appropriate food choices according to your energy makeup, avoiding incompatible food combinations are all fundamental first steps to enhancing digestive fire Use of ghee or clarified butter which has the qualities of digestive fire or agni will help burn away toxic load in the peripheral tissues
3 Fasting of any kind is beneficial Chose one day a week and fast for that day If Vata or Pitta dominant, do juice fasting If Kapha, do water fast for 24h Fasting will be difficult for Kapha but it is a major player is managing cravings long term for this energy pattern There are many other different forms of fasting that can be explored but this one day a week is a good start
So have fun with your cravings and see them for what they are
To health as a Skill Love DrBill
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The hCG Diet
The most recent diet fad utilizes hCG(human chorionic gonadotropin) as an aid in weight reduction and has a lot of consumers advocating its use
Energy Science Perspective of hCG
hCG is a physiologic hormone signal and therefore a transformative molecule The physiologic energy effects of this kind of stimulation is to increase the hot quality or the transformative energy of the mindbody
Such an effect reaves up the metabolism and creates a hypermetabolic state This is essence burns more calories from a matter science view
In short the Kapha energy pattern gets a "kick in the pants" Kapha's energy pattern is a slow metabolism and difficult at times to get moving due to a multiplicity of environmental factors
This slow metabolism would respond very nicely to a metabolic hCG stimulus
What Are the Downsides?
The basic problem is that nobody can be on the stuff forever After a few courses one has to figure out a different approach
And of course there are as with any medication side effects that need to be spelled out very clearly to anyone looking for the short term fix Once we understand the negatives then we can move on
The real question is why use it in the first place?
Adjunctive to Lifestyle Shifts
Regardless, once a person stops the hCG diet, he or she will have to adopt a normal and healthy lifestyle, or the weight's just coming back
Proponents of the hCG diet maintain that the purpose of the diet is to break food addictions and abnormal eating behaviors, and that the month or so of treatment allows a person to do so In this sense, the diet hopes to achieve short-term weight loss with long-term behavioral modification
We know that it takes 6 ot 8 weeks to make the shift in lifestyle necessary to effect change And there is even genetic information to suggest that changes in behavior lead to changes in our DNA in this time frame
So Why?
The answer lies with the user If the side effects are understood and they are willing to use the technique as a "jump start" to a hypermetabolic state to aid with the behavioral changes that necessarily have to occur then I say great
But the lingering question still remains Why? If we have to make the lifestyle changes in behavioral patterns to begin with and we are committed to those then do we really need a crutch?
That question lies for each of us as we decide for ourselves
See foodsheal.com for more information about nutritional lifestyle behavioral changes
Until tomorrow To health as a Skill Love DrBill
Photo credit mikebaird from Flickr
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Is Sugar the Demon?
Food addictions anyone?
1. Candy became widely available only 130 years ago. Until then, people would make their own fudge or caramel at ome.
2. Candy is a health scapegoat – 100 years ago, doctors blamed candy for the spread of polio. In the mid to late 20th century it was blamed for tooth decay. Now it is blamed for obesity.
3. Candy accounts for only 6% of the added sugar in the American diet. Soft drinks and juice account for 46%.
4. Candy is the 575th most popular name for girls.
5. Candy lacks the “health halo” of granola bars and fruit juice. But, nutritionally there is much less difference among them than would initially seem.
6. There are entire blogs dedicated to candy. Popular ones include Candy Addict, Candy Blog, and Candy Professor.
7. It’s unbelievable now, but candy once was advertised as health food. “Eat Tootsie Rolls — The Luscious Candy That Helps Beat Fatigue.”
8. The world’s largest chocolate bar was manufactured in Armenia last month and weighed in at 9,722.39 lbs., setting a new Guinness World Record.
9. John Candy (1950 – 1994) struggled most of his adult life with overeating, including sweets. Obesity related health complications killed him at the age of 43.
10. Candy isn’t always good. Just ask Hansel and Gretel.
from http://bit.ly/cPe01N
Until tomorrow To health as a Skill Love DrBill
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