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Weight Loss If You’re Overweight. Chapter 6 Part 3
Articles - Dr. Bernstein Shares His Insights We all have comfort foods to offset depression, anxiety or stress and these are always high in Carbohydrates. Why are these foods so addictive?? Richard K. Bernstein, M.D., F.A.C.E., F.A.C.N., C.W.S has the answer in this week's feature. COMFORT FOODSThe Diabetes Diet Chapter 6 Part 3 of Chapter 6
Part 3 COMFORT FOODS AND CARBOHYDRATE ADDICTION “Contrary to popular belief, the fat in the ice cream or in the crust of the pie doesn’t make much of a difference.” A certain level of this may be true not only of those with the thrifty genotype, but people in general. There’s a reason that some foods are referred to as comfort foods. They tend to be high in starch or sugar, and such foods are comforting because they bring about high serum (blood) levels of insulin and high brain levels of an amino acid called L-tryptophan. Tryptophan is the dietary precursor to the brain chemical serotonin, which is deeply involved in sensations of pleasure and satisfaction. It is the brain chemical affected by the largest number of antidepressants, including Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil. When insulin levels in the blood are normal, tryptophan has to compete with other amino acids to be admitted into the brain. As such, only small amounts get in. When blood insulin levels are elevated, the competing amino acids get deposited into muscle and other tissues, and tryptophan gets a free ride into the brain. What results is a very powerful — if short-lived — sensation of bliss, reduced stress, decreased depression, and diminished anxiety. Comfort food becomes a very easy way to self-medicate, to offset depression or anxiety or stress. When people talk about recreational eating (not in the gourmet sense, but in the quart-of-ice-creamwhile-watching-TV sense), they’re really talking about giving themselves pleasure by loading the brain with serotonin. A frequent television sitcom scenario is the depressed woman who plops down on the couch with a pie or carton of ice cream, a spoon, and the intention of eating the whole thing. She’s not really hungry. She’s trying to make herself feel better. She’s indulging herself, we think, rewarding herself in a way for enduring one of life’s traumas, and we laugh because we understand the feeling. But there is a very real biochemical mechanism at work here. She craves the sugar in the pie or the ice cream not because she’s hungry but because she knows, consciously or not, that it really will make her feel better. Contrary to popular belief, the fat in the ice cream or in the crust of the pie doesn’t make much of a difference. It’s the carbohydrate that will increase the level of serotonin in her brain and make her feel better — if only temporarily. The other effect of the carbohydrate is that it causes her blood sugar to rise and her body to make more insulin; and as she sits on the couch, the elevated level of insulin in her bloodstream will take that enormous amount of food she’s just eaten and help her body pack it away as fat. When I help patients lose weight, I am usually treating an addiction to the brain chemical surges that result from comfort food. As I’ve mentioned before in discussing the “phasing” common in many low-carb diets, it’s completely counterproductive to help someone through carbohydrate withdrawal in phase one, then hit them again in phase two with the carbohydrate you just helped them get over. On television the actress may never get fat. But for the real-life woman, high serum insulin levels from eating high carbohydrate foods will cause her to crave carbohydrate again. If she is a type 1 diabetic making no insulin, she’ll have to inject a lot of insulin to get her blood sugar down, with the same effect — more carbohydrate craving and building up of fat reserves. This is the central reason that the Diabetes Diet has no phasing and no treat days. Too Be Continued in Chapter 6 Part 4 - GETTING IT OFF AND KEEPING
IT OFF Dr. Bernstein will be doing another live teleconference call soon. If you would like to ask a question or just register for the free teleconference call, just go to www.askdrbernstein.com and register. There were over 600 people on the last call. More info at www.diabetes911.net We would like to thank the publisher Little Brown and Company and Dr. Richard K. Bernstein, for allowing us to provide excerpts from The Diabetes Diet. Copyright © 2005 by Richard K. Bernstein, M.D. Author’s Note For information on how you can purchase Diabetes
Diet, go to www.Diabetes-solution.net "Getting to the Heart of Diabetes" is a guide to understanding
CVD, diabetes and insulin resistance. This is a small guide with 4 chapters,
Diabetes, Insulin Resistance, Controlling Diabetes and Warning Signs for heart
attacks and strokes. After reading the booklet, your patient can take the next
step by putting their new knowledge into action. As part of the program patients
receive the following free of charge…………. Other Products by Dr. Richard K. Bernstein.
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Most
of my patients initially feel somewhat deprived, but they are also grateful
to feel more alert and healthier —sometimes more so than they have in
years. I fall into this category myself. My mouth waters whenever I pass a bakery
shop and sniff the aroma of fresh bread, but I am also grateful simply to be
alive and sniffing.
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