Nutrition and addiction are 100% correlated. If you want to avoid being an addict of any kind, read this.
We become addicts as children. Food soothes us. When a child grows up among chaos and insecurity, she finds comfort in food. A chocolate chip cookie provides the dopamine she needs to feel calm. And she knows where to find them.
The differences between a hardcore IV drug user and a donut lover seem vast, but both addictions are rooted in neurobiology.
Ok, I’ll let you take one guess at # 1…
1. Sugar
Sugar is pure effing evil. Let’s just call it what it is: Sugar Crack. It looks like crack and it lights your brain up in the same places. And it’s a direct contributor to depression.
Look, I am super addicted to sugar right now. I am not writing this to you from a pedestal in the sky where a beautiful fair maiden looks down on you and feels really sorry for your fat ass. I am saying this to you as a fellow sister on the path battling food addiction.
I am getting in this moment in a deeper way, that my addiction to other substances has simply transferred to sugar. Or just transferred back.
Sometimes, it feels as out of control as being addicted to drugs, without the crazy highs and lows. I can’t control it. Every day I wake up and say to myself: today I will not eat sugar. And every effing day I do.
Sugar is causing more deaths than illegal drugs in our nation, and if we could accurately track all of the diseases that originate in this nasty white powdery substance, we would be astonished.
2. Gluten
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” — Hippocrates
Whoever says we have been eating gluten for thousands of years and we are fine, is wrong. Eating gluten affects your mood and ability to function normally. A friend of mine calls it the “gluten grouchies”.
It’s also highly addictive. See this loaf of bread here? Doesn’t it look good? I want to eat the whole thing.
But only if I want my waist size to keep growing…
Gluten is like glue (glu-ten) in your intestines. We have these tiny hairs on the insides of our small intestine that move food along.
When you are clogging your colon these hairs, called villi, get stuck causing mucoid plaque and then you are not absorbing or eliminating food properly. Gluten is just not fibrous enough and causes inflammation.
Maybe you need a colonic? It’s like hitting the reset button in your entire mind, body system. All that congestion is toxic, taxing energetically and causes bodily systems to break down.
If our bodies are happy, we are much more likely to feel happy emotionally.
Antidepressants are overprescribed in this country and yet people are still eating the SAD (Standard American Diet). Aren’t we seeing the correlation?
3. Processed Foods
“Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, if
he is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast.” — Herman Hesse, Siddhartha
If you eat whole foods, instead of chips, crackers, cookies and other crap like that you are going to feel better. Our bodies are existing in a very modern world and we are continuously exposed to toxins and chemicals, even in our food supply.
Take a break from processed foods, if you do nothing else, and observe the difference in how you feel.
Go one step further and try a cleanse. Some of the most spiritual moments I’ve had have been during a cleanse.
My favorite person to do cleanses with is Ninaya — she taught me much of what I know about raw, plant based foods.
Love yourself, be good to your body. You will feel like a God.
4. Certain Kinds of Fats
In the 1950’s Ancel Keys told America that saturated fats caused cardiovascular disease and boy ever was he wrong. We need fats in our diets! We need good quality fats like MCT Coconut Oil and Grassfed Butter.
Avoid bad fats like corn, soy, and canola oil and unstable polyunsaturated fats like walnut, flax, and peanut oil, per Dave Asprey originator of the Bulletproof Diet.
The goal here is to get your body into a ketogenic state where you are burning fat instead of sugar. This is a metabolic state called ketosis which occurs when you drastically reduce carbohydrate intake and replace it with fat.
5. Alcohol
Oh, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! — Shakespeare
I am only speaking from experience here. Alcohol causes depression. It can be so much fun and it’s an inherent part of our culture — and if you are one of those “normal people” who can save it for special occasions, then do!
For me, getting sober was like hitting a homerun. I had lots of practice. I was positioned at the right spot on the mound, with lots of good teammates. I had to be aware. I had to hit hard right when it mattered.
It wasn’t mystical or magical. It was brutal, ego-decimating, and really effing humiliating.
But when I cracked that ball with force I didn’t know I had, with reserves I didn’t know were there, knowing I had no choice but to succeed… everything started to unfold in a pretty perfect way. And if we stick with the metaphor, I am still running towards first base.
I am learning new skills, like how to track my emotions, but this time I know I am going to slide into home.
All I am saying about alcohol is… if you can, take a break. Clear the cobwebs from your brain and see what kind of creativity lies for you on the other side of that glass of wine.
“What’s in the way is the way.” — Mary O’Mailey
Approaching this way of eating with gentle awareness and self-love is the best way. I’m saying this for me just as much as I say it for you.
Food affects our moods in so many ways and if we stop living in denial, we can shift and truly become masters. If we master what we put into our mouths, we get to be jedi-ninjas in the rest of lives.
Lives filled with love and joy where we are healthy, wealthy and wise. From my heart to yours, I genuinely wish this for you.
Originally published at medium.com