The American brain has been assaulted for 50-years by ever-more sophisticated food science and is responding, as intended, by generating overwhelming cravings for diabetes-causing, nutrient-stripped refined-carb foods.
The U.S. food industry has perpetrated what I call The Techno-Karbz Takeover: a dependence on ultra-processed, high calorie, 60% nutrient-void edible drugs. These substances disable the brain’s five-part appetite-control system which, for the prior 2 million years, had kept us satisfied, fit, and healthy. We’d actually enjoyed and preferred healthful food before the 1970s! (Read Chapter 5 of The Craving Cure for what went all wrong in that dietary disaster decade.)
Nora Volkow, PhD, Neuroscientist and
Chief of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Volkow estimates that more than half of Americans are biochemically addicted to foods that impact the brain exactly the way that drugs do. By repeatedly over-activating powerful pleasure-promoting brain chemicals like endorphin, serotonin, and dopamine, these Techno-Karbz end up deeply depleting their levels. After that, only more ‘doses’ of Techno-Karbz like sugar and chocolate can briefly elicit pleasure.
Fasting and other forms of low-cal dieting are known to increase craving, over-eating, and unneeded weight gain. For example, they are known to 1) deplete the brain of the specific nutrients needed to regulate appetite, pleasure, and mood chemistry and 2) slow down the thyroid’s calorie-burning functions. The unprecedented epidemics of eating disorders and obesity we still face were triggered by the dieting craze that started in the 1970s. That was when we started to overeat the new carbs, gain weight, and then starve ourselves-in an obviously failed attempt to permanently reverse the damage. But we couldn’t escape our increasingly overwhelming cravings for Techno-Karbz, so we became trapped in the low-cal dieting, rebound overeating, and weight gain cycle.
I have seen too many problems caused by fasting and other forms of food restriction in my work with eating disorders over the past 40 years to ever welcome fasting as a first step toward health. The first step must be to put a stop to the cravings.
Fortunately, There is a Brain-Targeted Nutritional Cure for Carb Craving
Before resorting to extreme and unproven remedies for the already malnourished victims of the sugar industry, let’s stop and tend to the brain deficits that make it impossible for those victims to stick with any recommended diet. Let’s deal with what has made us a nation and world of malnourished, high-carb food addicts most of whom are on the road to diabetes.
My clinic has found that, in 80-90 percent of over 6,000 cases, it has taken as little as 24 hours to turn off brain-generated carb cravings. How? By nourishing the brain’s five appetite-control functions with supplements of the five specific amino acids known to directly support them. Once the cravings are silenced, an adequate-calorie diet, composed of high quality protein, fat, and low-carb veggies can easily sustain high levels, without continued amino supplementation. Amazingly, this nutritional brain-repair process is safe and rapid.
Note: If you are on diabetes medication, do not use these nutrients without medical supervision. Because the aminos quickly normalize appetite and balance blood glucose levels, you will need to reduce your insulin when you start taking them. Otherwise, your glucose levels will drop too low.
Article Date: May 19, 2021
© 2021 Julia Ross, author of The Mood Cure, The Diet Cure, & The Craving Cure
Permission to duplicate with this attribution: No changes may be made without permission in writing by Julia Ross info@cravingcure.com