This week on #SMartWednesday we do a short analisys of addiction and how you can better cope with it in today’s fast pacing world. Make the smart choice and read all about it in the article below.
WHAT IS ADDICTION & HOW DOES IT WORK?
The compulsive use of a substance or activity that provides pleasure, interfering with your day to day activities such as work, relatioships or health. There are mainly two types of addiction:
1. behavioral - compulsive use of natural rewards such as food, exercise or sex;
2. drug-related - compulsive use of chemicals that influence your brain connections.
It works by increasing the concentration of synaptic dopamine (happiness hormone and neurotransmitter) in the brain, thus giving you a rush everytime you use the behavior or substance. Your brain gets a reward each time and that feeling is highly addictive.
Sometimes, you are not aware that you have an addiction to something until someone points that out to you. This is one of those cases.
If I started by telling you cocaine and heroin cause addiction, that would be totally redundant and a waste of time. Telling you that most food you eat today makes you addicted and sick, will most likely catch your attention.
WHY DO YOU GET ADDICTED TO FOOD & WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?
Modern society is proudly displaying the advances of technology and the way we are now able to make more food and have supermarkets full of ready-to-eat products, perfect for our fast-forward lifestyle and Earth’s growing population.
These products are highly processed foods with loads of added fat and refined carbs known to influence addictive behavior when they are consumed in high ammounts. Fat is a taste and flavour enhancer, thus making you unable to resist the taste and goodness of food. Refined carbs, once ingested, quickly metabolize into sugars (glucose) that spike your insulin levels only to drop them even faster, and make you crave more of that product.
You eat those products because they help release stress and make you feel good instead. The reward (feeling better) is greater than the negative outcome (you get fat). Conditioning the brain to release dopamine and make you happy after eating certain foods, makes you addicted. The brain identifies them as a pleasure-generating stimuli and you’re hooked!
Sugar and fat rarely occur in the same food naturally. Think grapes. They contain sugar (fructose) but zero fats. Nuts are full of fats, but have no sugar whatsoever. Processed foods have been genetically engineered to have high amounts of both (ex: pizza, chocolate, cake). The taste is amazing and so rewarding. You get addicted without even knowing it.
In drug addictions, a concentrated dose of a substance increases its abuse. It’s absorbed faster into the bloodstream, thus the rush is much quicker. The same with highly processed foods. It’s packed with chemically produced sugar, carbs and fat, that are many times more concentrated than the ones you find in nature (raw, organic foods).
The link between high glucose levels and addiction areas in the brain makes you crave food just for pleasure. The nutritional value is gone, and you feed yourself only chemicals that pose as delicious food. Deliciously toxic, that is. And addictive.
Any foreign substance that enters the body is facing an attack from the immune system. It fights to protect the body from anything alien. Any attack results in inflammation. Any inflammation could be the result of a chronic illness or acute discomfort. Are you willing to take that risk just for that yummy pizza?
Here’s what to do.
MAKE SMART CHOICES, IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH
I know it’s very hard to make healthy choices when you are bombarded with food-porn images and videos all over the internet, on social media, advertising and cooking shows. It’s hard. Damn hard.
But you know what’s even harder? Living with a chronic disease generated by chemical food and a chaotic lifestyle. It’s all about the choices you make.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have identified the highest addictive foods, the majority of which are highly processed. The top 10 items are also the most pleasurable ones for many people living today.
- Pizza (gluten, dairy, sugar in tomato paste)
- Chocolate (fat, sugar, dairy)
- Chips (fat, sugar from the amidon found in the potatoes)
- Cookie (gluten, sugar, dairy)
- Ice cream (dairy, sugar)
- French fries (fat, sugar from the amidon found in the potatoes)
- Cheeseburger (gluten, sugar, dairy)
- Soda (not diet) (sugar from corn syrup)
- Cake (gluten, sugar, dairy)
- Cheese (dairy - lactose and casein)
I’ve said it and I’ll repeat it untill it sticks: quit sugar, gluten and dairy alltogether. In today’s world, if you are not sure where your food is comming from, you should practice caution and not eat it.
The chemical formulas of these three foods are very similar to those of cocaine or heroin. You wouldn’t want to be on the road of no return with one of these two drugs, would you? Then why do it with sugar, gluten and dairy? Only because they taste good and are heavily marketed in our consummerist society? Think about it!
All food that comes from a cartboard or foil packaging is not good for you. I don’t care how pretty it is, I don’t care how tasty it is, I don’t care how much you like it! I have been there for most of my life and what does that helped me with? Only with enhancing the probable predisposition I had for developing multiple sclerosis.
OK, agree! It is only a probability. But are you willing to live with the doubt all your life? Feeling sluggish, cranky and getting fat? With a hammer dangling above your head, posibly favoring chronic illness? I thought you wouldn’t! Neither have I. As much as I loved (not liked, LOVED!) soda, pizza, cheese, chocolate and icecream, they made me sick.
How do I know that? I spent days without any sugar, gluten or dairy. I began feeling better. Then I did test meals. Surprise, surprise! Guess who got bloated, cranky and sluggish? Guess who had more symptoms and malaise? That’s right! ME!
Think about it. We have been used to eat this way since we were little. For the past 20 years, the food industry has boomed with loads of products that only mimic real food. Our taste buds have grown accustomed to them. But are they feeding us the nutrients we need to live in a healthy body and enjoy a long life? No.
That’s why it's all about choices! You have the power to decide which food goes into your mouth and which stays on the shelf.
Join me tomorrow on #HealthyThursday to find out what are the best choices and hacks for healthy eating (with or without a chronic illness like multiple sclerosis).
This was all for this week’s #SMartWednesday! Thanks for being here!
What’s your story? Tell me all about it by writing a comment in the box below. I would love to hear what you have to say and help if I can.
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Lots of love,
Alexandra