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Newsletter: November 2010
Do you sometimes feel that you could kill for a piece of chocolate? What about cheese? Cookies? Chips? Are you looking for a salty or sweet flavour? The foods we crave tell us a lot about what’s happening in our bodies.
Salty Foods
If you crave salt from time to time, do not be alarmed. Salt is important to your body and your taste buds. Our cells float in a salty fluid called interstitial fluid and a salty solution—cytoplasm—surrounds the nucleus of your cells. It seems natural to crave salt, but the question is how much do you crave and why? Do you crave a few potato chips or is your craving so intense that you want to lick a plateful of salt? If too intense, this could indicate one or more of the following problems:
1. Dehydration
Dehydration can occur for many reasons, for example; not drinking enough water; or if you just started an exercise routine and you’re not adequately replenishing your liquids to accommodate the increased loss of fluid.
2. Illness
Taking medication for high blood pressure, diabetes, or sickle cell anemia can throw off the body’s balance of sodium. It could also be an indication of a thyroid disorder from a lack of iodine.
3. Pregnancy
4. Salt Addiction
The more salt you eat, the more you want and you can actually become addicted to it.
5. Adrenal Exhaustion
The adrenal glands help the body respond to changes caused by stress and emotions. Not getting enough sleep, stress, poor nutrition, trauma or pregnancy are just a few of the reasons adrenal exhaustion can occur.
6. Mineral Deficiency
Poor nutrition, lacking green leafy vegetables and whole grains could cause a mineral deficiency (in particular a magnesium deficiency).
7. Electrolyte Imbalance
Electrolytes help control the regulation of fluids in the body. Poor nutrition or drinking too much water—which could flush minerals from your system—can cause an electrolyte imbalance.
Sugar
1. Stress
When you have little or no sleep and suffer from being overworked, the chances are that you are experiencing adrenal fatigue.
2. Diet
If you have been following a low fat and low carb diet for an extended length of time, your body can become resistant to insulin. If this happens, your body sends signals to your brain to continue eating sweets even though there is plenty of sugar in your blood. This is one of the side effects of using an appetite suppressant as well. In this case, even though you may be eating less, the fat deposits in your body will be increasing because of this constant craving. This can result in weight gain instead of loss, while on this medication if you do not curb your cravings.
3. People with an overgrowth of yeast in their intestines
Yeast that live in the intestines feed off simple sugars and an acid environment. Eliminating sugar and fruit from the diet and eating more vegetables makes the environment less hospitable for yeast and can decrease sugar cravings.
4. The effect on cholesterol levels
Sweet things push up cholesterol levels far quicker than eggs, meat or butter.
Some pointers to curb cravings
An important part of optimal health is being free of food cravings and addictions. This doesn’t mean you can never have another piece of chocolate, but it does mean asking yourself: what part of me is craving this food, or why am I craving it? When you eat a food that you are craving, see if the craving goes away or gets stronger. Who is in control – you, or the food?
If you do constantly crave sweets, there are ways to beat these cravings. One of the best ways to not overindulge is to eat small and healthy meals every two to four hours so that your blood sugar does not get low and trigger cravings. Be sure to mix an equal amount of relaxation and exercise into your routine to manage stress and fight fatigue. Most importantly, you will want to avoid skipping meals. This can cause more cravings, and you are more likely to eat sweets if you are hungry and try to restrict your eating. Be sure you are getting your nutrition from healthy meals and snacks so that you are not starving yourself in an effort to lose weight.
The main reason people feel hungry is because their food is not being converted into what the body needs. This is most often due to the intake of the wrong foods, at the wrong time, and a digestive system that is not functioning correctly.
Whenever you eat a meal, chew it very well, think about the nutrients you are taking in to promote good health, and try to relax for 10 minutes afterwards to assist your digestion. This will offer better nutrient absorption and contribute towards feeling more satiated.
And finally, remember to vary your meals every day to avoid your digestive system becoming lazy. So, for instance, if you like to eat oats with milk for breakfast, then sometimes have it with yogurt, and combine some muesli, seeds, nuts, cinnamon, All Bran or banana with it. Perhaps on another day have a slice of toast with tomato and cottage cheese. Similarly if you’re having a salad for lunch, add some seeds, cottage cheese, different salad ingredients, papaya, strawberries or a slice of whole grain toast etc.
Remember with the festive season coming up, gift and corporate vouchers for SCIO are available on request.
Until next month,
Lucille
PS: If you feel that you have benefited in some special way from SCIO, please send me your testimonial. I would like others to benefit too, and could perhaps utilise your testimonial to encourage others to obtain similar benefits in their own lives. If you so choose, we could make your testimonial anonymous, or perhaps only use your first name. If you would do this, I would greatly appreciate it.
Sources:
http://www.thedietchannel.com/Healthy-Eating-7-Things-To-Know-About-Food-Cravings.htm <http://www.thedietchannel.com/Healthy-Eating-7-Things-To-Know-About-Food-Cravings.htm>
http://www.3fatchicks.com/7-reasons-women-crave-salty-foods/ <http://www.3fatchicks.com/7-reasons-women-crave-salty-foods/>
http://www.naturefresh.co.za/
http://www.3fatchicks.com/4-reasons-women-crave-junk-food/ <http://www.3fatchicks.com/4-reasons-women-crave-junk-food/>
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