Cravings

[kgfree]

For years I have had food cravings that would start 30 min. after eating and get stronger over the
next two hours until it got so bad that I felt like something bad was going to happen if I didn't eat
something immediately - and carrot sticks and fruit didn't cut it. I wanted carbs. Then after eating the
cycle starts all over again. My weight kept going up and up out of control.

I am sharing this for 2 reasons - to see if other people have experienced this - and they must or this sight probably wouldn't exist. And to see if other people would have the same reaction I did when i
stopped eating foods with additives and my cravings went away.
My diabetic cookbook suggested avoiding corn syrup in processed food to lower blood sugar and the
only way i could do that was to prepare all our food from scratch- no mixes, no flavor packets,
basically no processed food. In about 2 weeks of no additives I realized I was not hungry all the time.
I didnt think about food constantly anymore. I made a chocolate cake and it went stale before we could eat it all. That had never happened in my house before.
A couple of months later I bought a new brand of organic yogurt and 30 min. later my food cravings were back. When I checked the label I saw that it contained "natural flavor" From that experience
I deducted that natural flavor must be an appetite stimulant.

I would really like to know if other people would have the same experience if they ate additive free
for 2 weeks. Anyone willing to try it?

[NewDay]

You are totally correct! Having an addiction means suffering powerful overwhelming cravings that are triggered by certain foods, chemicals, emotions, or situations. I have been stuck in my full-blown addictive cycle for months now, as I am having a really hard time going through withdrawal from these phony foods. Yes, by eating only meats, chicken, fish - healthy protein - and vegetables and fruits we are freed from the cravings. I have found that milk and milk products including yogurt triggers these cravings (they are high in sugar) as do legumes and any kind of grain. When I eat ONLY clean abstinent food I begin to feel so wonderful and free of cravings that I go into denial and begin thinking that I don't have a problem, that I can handle a few bites of the phony foods. Wrong! It is like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole. I am back to square one with powerful cravings, like a wino in the street clutching his bottle - except my bottle is the man-made, phony food. The cycle is never -ending, unless we choose to end it by abstaining from the foods that almost everyone else eats. Truth is painful but it is our salvation.

[NewDay]

Kgfree, I just went to my refrigerator and gave my yogurt and "healthy" bean soup to the dogs. I got up today with such determination to stay abstinent, but ended up in one of my food frenzies by the latter part of the day, then went into a deep slumber like a junkie who just had his fix. The truth is that I cannot handle milk products and "healthy" grains, even though the experts say that they are good for me. Thank you so much. Your post has forced me to soul search and to conclude that I must listen to my own truths, not what the experts say in the books. Thanks again. NewDay

[TYGtoday]

Hi kgfree,
What you are describing is the addictive response food addicts have to ANY form of sugar, flour or wheat. We experience severe cravings (I've heard it called "tissue hunger", and that really struck a chord with me) and mental obsessions with foods that have these substances in them. In addition, there are foods that are high in carbohydrates that also will trigger the disease, as will high fat for some food addicts.

Some food addicts are sensitive to dairy and this may be true for you. OR, the yogurt you had may have contained one of the substances on what I call "The Sugar List", a list of all the different forms of sugar/flour/wheat that FAA has in its Newcomer's Packet. Whey is a form of sugar that is found in some yogurt and in FAA we wouldn't have that kind of yogurt, but many in our program can eat yogurt as long as it doesn't have whey, or modified food starch, or any other addictive substances.

As NewDay posted, some people are sensitive to grains and beans, but this isn't true for all abstinent food addicts in FAA. What we need to do to obtain freedom from this disease is first of all to abstain from sugar/flour/wheat in all their forms, and any personal trigger foods. If "clean" yogurt, or any particular grain, or any other food causes you to want to keep eating it when you're in the process of eating it, or if you find yourself unable to stop thinking about the food in between times of eating it, then that food is keeping the disease alive, so to speak, and it's a personal trigger food FOR YOU that you should let go of, even if it's on the Food Plan and others can have it with impunity.

I'm glad that you have found freedom by cooking from your diabetic cookbook. For me, I did find freedom from cravings too when I started following the FAA food plan. In my case, I have the complete disease of food addiction, not just the physical part of it, so I am in recovery for the emotional and spiritual part of food addiction as well. The food plan without recovery is simply another diet, and will never last. I need to change the person I brought to this program, because that person is bound to pick up s/f/w again...there's no way it won't happen, and I know this. In FAA, abstinence from s/f/w opens the door and by working the Twelve Steps, we can recover from this disease!

Best wishes,
TYG

[fallingleaf]

i would eat, say dinner, then have desert, then i would want some more dinner, then more dessert. i was in this vicious cycle i had to eat, and when i would try to stop my nerves would get very bad.last week i wanted pizza, chicken mcnuggets,chicken fried rice,and fried chicken .i did not give in i just told myself no, i am miserable enough.

[boposcafe]

Hello:

My apologies to my fellow male members on this post, but I have yet to see the topic of cravings during PMS covered anywhere. I found that in the last two years it has become particularly difficult to control my cravings for sugar and starch during the last two weeks of my cycle. I binge, feel guilty, eat because I feel guilty, start the whole cycle again... Well, you all know the drill. Have any other women encountered this problem? Can you suggest anything to help me? This keeps jeopardizing my abstinence and I am at my wit's end.

Any advice is welcome. Thank you so much!

[fallingleaf]

Hello:

My apologies to my fellow male members on this post, but I have yet to see the topic of cravings during PMS covered anywhere. I found that in the last two years it has become particularly difficult to control my cravings for sugar and starch during the last two weeks of my cycle. I binge, feel guilty, eat because I feel guilty, start the whole cycle again... Well, you all know the drill. Have any other women encountered this problem? Can you suggest anything to help me? This keeps jeopardizing my abstinence and I am at my wit's end.

Any advice is welcome. Thank you so much!

I really enjoyed my cadbury's bar during that time I could have easily eaten two a day.But I just stopped giving into my cravings, yes it is hard, but I just had to not do that.

[susgrigs62]

Boposcafe, on the days that I know that I'm suceptible to cravings, I find the most filling items on the accepted food list, for breakfast and lunch. So, for example, I'll actually have 4oz of steak for breakfast instead of two eggs. The steak has the stick to the ribs feel, where the eggs don't as much. Then I'll add oatmeal for my grain, apple for my fruit and yogurt (without sugar) for my dairy. On days that I feel more in control, I can eat two eggs, oatmeal bran hot cereal, milk, and 1/2 c. of juice and be on my way. Then for lunch, I'll have the other half of the steak, chilled steamed broccoli and spinach with tomatoes as my raw foods. That gets me through to dinner. For me, once I get to dinner, I'm good because then I know that my metabolic adjustment is just around the corner.

Another thing that I do that backs up what fallingleaf says, to resist is I have a note card that I wrote the seventh step prayer on it that I carry around with me and if I feel the craving, I pull out the card, read WHY I'm living abstinent, and usually that gets me through. If I still feel the craving AFTER reading it, I pull out a scrap of paper (usually a receipt stuffed in my purse) and WRITE out the prayer again. That definitely does it, because it refocuses my mind to resist the disease.

Seventh step prayer:

"God, help me to listen to my Higher Self as You and I
make the changes in my life that will allow me
to live a free, useful and happy life.
Help me to not find fault with all that I do
and with those who cross my path.
As I continue to stay abstinent,
help me be released from the cravings
for foods that are not in my best interest.
Help me learn that food is to nourish my body
so my spirit can carry out your plans for me.
Help me to be compassionate, trusting, forgiving,
loving and kind to myself and others
as I serve you and the people on earth.
Amen."

Also, I always tell myself, that it's the disease that wants me to eat the s/w/f, not my body -- and I want to nurture my body, not feed it something that will hurt it. And I do that at every meal's grace.

Kind of long winded, but that's been my coping method.

Susan, food addict in Cali

[Libbyonalabel]

RE Cravings and PMS:

If I ever experience food cravings at any time, I have to look at what I have recently eaten. I review if I ate at a restaurant or salad bar and might have got sugar into my body. Is everything you are eating clean? Read all labels on everything including vitamins, flavored water, tea bags etc. If it has a label read it; and don't eat it if it has any form of sugar (check the 99 names of sugar list).

If you recently ate something with s/f/w in it, then cravings will happen, and may not be related to "PMS" or other whole foods.

Libby