Are you an Addict?

3^rd August 2011

Feedback is the breakfast of champions. Ken Blanchard

What a glorious evening it was last night, took Alfie for a walk about 8pm and watched the farmer ploughing his field whilst the sunset behind him, absolutely beautiful.

Foodwise I had a lazy day yesterday, was rushing about so had banana smoothie for breakfast to use up the bananas, Walls microwave sausages (2 for 6pp) on a piece of baguette (8pp) with salad and it was delicious, then for my tea I have a cheese triangle salad sandwich, which I also enjoyed.  And I did indulge myself with strawberry shoelaces which set me back 7pp, so good job I earned 7pp on my pedometer walking Alfie twice helped.  Today I’m going to cook though, a member gave me the idea of potato and bacon hotpot yesterday so I’m going to have that, layer the potatoes, bacon and onions and add stock mmm, could just eat it now even though it’s only just after 5am!

Addiction!  Mmm red hot subject at the moment, whether it be Amy Winehouse with her troubles or the Panorama show the other night on binge drinking, everyone’s got an opinion haven’t they!  So what about food, can you become addicted to that?  Apparently yes you can, I’ve googled it, unfortunately unlike drugs, cigarettes or alcohol you can’t go cold turkey – everyone’s got to eat! 

Manufacturers don’t help, they actually excel at hitting the sweet spot — making us crave more and more of a food. In supermarkets you can actually found a pasta sauce that, serving for serving, contains more sugar than a chocolate fudge sauce, though the sweetness is hidden because the pasta sauce is so salty.  The question is, why would anybody pour a packet of sugar over their pasta? And the answer is that if you get used to that much sugar, another pasta sauce will taste too bland. The food industry wants us to need more and more of the substance to feel satisfied, so we'll go out and buy more and more of it.  In America this problem is much worse.

How about this for interesting - Animal research at Princeton University has shown that the way you indulge may have consequences. Bart Hoebel, PhD, a professor of psychology, placed rats on an alternating schedule of 12 hours with no food, followed by 12 hours of access to both rat chow and a solution of 10% sugar (about as sweet as a soft drink) — a pattern that results in binge eating. As the days went by, the rats began upping their intake of the sugar solution, drinking more and more at a time. Hoebel found that after about a month, the rats' brains were producing surges of dopamine during their binges. “In rats, binge eating promotes addiction just like binge drinking promotes alcohol addiction,” says Hoebel. “It's possible that repeatedly bingeing on sweets could actually change the circuitry of your brain” — and make you want ever-increasing amounts.

So if you are a little addicted to food, or just know you’ve got into bad habits and want to change what can you do?  Well we already know you can’t go cold turkey – you got to eat, plus cutting everything nice out, having such rigid thinking can make you crave certains food even more. Everything in moderation is the best option unless you know that you have a certain food you can’t do in moderation then maybe abstinence is necessary. 
Change your environment, if you had a drink problem you wouldn’t have a cupboard full of lager if you were trying to get clean, so if you have a thing for chocolate don’t have cupboards full. 

Resisting temptation is easier when you’re not put in certain situations, I try not to go to ‘all you can eat’ places because I know I will eat all I can, instead I opt for portion control in other restaurants. The sight of Greggs where you used to buy your steak bakes might melt your resolve at lunchtimes, so don’t walk past Greggs. Change your routine, if you always have a biscuit or two while watching TV, read a book instead or knit to keep your hands busy as you watch Eastenders.

Retrain your brain - switch to smaller plates and bowls to automatically reduce portion sizes or leave more space on the plate by reducing the amount of food you serve yourself. Never eat directly from the packet, always use a plate this reminds you that you are eating, rather than casually scoffing and not realising the quantity until the packets gone. 

Your tastebuds can change what they enjoy over time.  Think about it you probably didn’t enjoy your first taste of alcohol, but you managed to get used to it, that can work with other foods too.  Start looking at labels and don’t buy savoury food that have added sugar!  Tastebuds are very adaptive, If you let extra sugar and fat into your diet, you could be lured back into your old patterns.

Chocolate bars and Big Macs aren't the only things that satisfy the pleasure centres of your brain, exercise does too. In animals, at least, research has found that it increases dopamine levels and raises the number of dopamine receptors in the brain. Making a commitment to work out can help.

One of the best tips is to only eat when you're hungry, this is something you’ll need to learn.   Use the hunger scale. The scale ranges from 0 to 10, with 0 being ravenously hungry and 10 being overstuffed,  stay away from either of these extremes,” Eat when you begin to feel hungry (2 or 3 on the scale) and stop when you feel comfortably satisfied (5 or 6). Though it's obvious that you don't want to eat to an overstuffed 10, using the scale to gauge when you should start munching is important, too: If you wait until you're at 0, you may eat all the way up to 10.  And always eat foods you enjoy – just don’t overeat.

Last but not least – FEEL – don’t try to eat your emotions, deal with them, tolerating sensations of sadness, anger, or boredom, rather than rushing to soothe them with food can be done. Sometimes it just means asking what you really need rather than food. 

I’m off to get ready for work and I’ve just really enjoyed my punnet of strawberries and glass of water – a great way to start a sunny day. xx