What would you say if I told you that the inability to stop with "just one" cookie has to do with what's put in the food?  Research by Dr. David Kessler has uncovered a frightening thing: manufacturers rake in your money and ruin your health by creating products designed to induce you to:  "conditioned hyper eating." 

Brain studies tell this former FDA chief that some people really do have a harder time resisting bad foods.  As Kessler says, "layered and loaded" with fat, sugar and salt, and so processed that little chewing needs to be involved are the devilish components that cause hyper eating in many cases.

Don't be mistaken to think that overeaters need not take responsibility. However, there is a whole world out there, conveniently created by Madison Avenue to entice Americans to indulge.  Nearly  two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Obesity is truly reaching epidemic proportions.

When I was 14 struggling with binge eating and compulsive consumption of high sugar foods, being overweight or obese was considered an oddity and shameful. If you were overweight (which I was for years), you were considered weak of character and will power.

Today even children as young as 9 years old are developing type II diabetes!  How can this be?

Here's just one of the things Kessler (currently at the University of California, San Fran.) found, along with other colleagues, in studying rats in order to learn why some people have such a hard time choosing healthier foods to eat:

They found well-fed rats work harder and harder for sips of a vanilla milkshake if the correct combination of fat and sugar is put into the shake.  However, adding sugar steadily increases their consumption.  Beware of low-fat foods that have high sugar content. That sugar gets turned readily into fat under the right circumstances of overeating high simple sugar, low nutritional content, low fiber and highly processed foods.

Additionally, there are factions of any and all populations who are at even greater risk for addiction to sugar.  Kenneth Blum, Ph.D., D.A.C.A.C.D. and Jay M. Holder, D.C., M.D., Ph.D. have shown through their research, the correlation between sugar, alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex and workaholism (the five major addictions) and a genetic deficiency in the brain that interferes with something called the "brain reward cascade."

There actually is an addiction gene, and for those born with it, given enough exposure and repetitive consumption of these sugar laden foods, serious addiction is an unfortunate and seriously potential outcome.

What to do?  The knowledge that this danger exists may not even be new to you.  But while knowing what is a problem and why it's a problem is all well and good, what the majority of people struggle with is how to solve the problem.

It would seem extremely simple -- i.e., "just say 'no.'“ With all due respect, if that worked, we'd have an addiction-free nation with no DUI's or drug-related crimes.  We'd have no obesity and the manufacturers of these highly unhealthy foods would simply go out of business.

No, we have "legalized addiction" that is literally killing Americans with obesity and obesity related diseases such as type II diabetes, and heart disease.

So what DO we do then?  It took me years to find the solutions and create real recovery for myself.  My passion is to assist the movement to get America healthy again – and most especially, to assist others born with the addiction gene who have developed full blown addictions to food and other substances.

My search lead me to the post-graduate program with the American College of Addictionology and Compulsive Disorders.  There are real answers and ones using alternative medicine instead of drugs.  That will be the subject of my next blog.  I want to shout from the rooftops things that many suffering people don’t know:  there are many doctors around the country able to assist people addicted to sugar and other substances through several really amazing alternative methods.

Until next time, I'm hoping some of you may want to comment in a discussion thread about how this issue has affected you or someone you love.

Blessings to All,

Dr. Chris

For more information, visit my website at http://www.theicandoctor.com and http://www.theicandoctor.com/freedomwellnesscenter.html

I want to share a question from a client about the mind body connection and my answer becaues it explains how our thinking affects our body and our world.

Dear Coach:

Can you help me understand more about the whole “body-mind” connection idea?  I was in a conversation with one of my dear friends and she told me her mother had cancer, but that she had a miraculous “healing” by utilizing her mind to heal her body.  I have always been fascinated by things like hypnosis and mental powers over matter.  Can you use it to lose weight, for instance?

In wonder in Ohio

Dear “In Wonder”:

With my coaching clients, one of the first things we do is begin turning around any negative thought patterns and self-talk.  Eastern science ancients knew long ago that the mind and the body are one.  The mind (some include spirit here) is the essence of you that thinks, talks and expresses your unique spirit and character – both conscious and subconscious.  However, the brain is the anatomical organ which allows your mind to function.  It does this through countless nerve cell communications.

Your brain is the controller of the entire body and it depends on harmonious body chemistry and physiology.  The thoughts you think and the things that stimulate your senses have a measurable affect on health. Western science has now proven that “thoughts really are things”.  In his series “Magical Mind, Magical Body” Dr. Deepak Chopra tells us that just the split second of seeing or hearing a terrible thing decreases the effectiveness of the immune system.  Luckily, the reverse is also true.  This connection of mind and body is called “psychoneuroimmunology and can explain why some patients have seemed beyond hope to their medical doctors and have miraculously turned around to thrive and live very long, healthy lives. 

All this being said, losing weight and maintaining that weight loss requires

a. breaking bad habits,

b. breaking free of sugar and carbohydrate addictions,

c. eliminating foods you’re allergic to,

d. changing behaviors that are associated with overeating,

e. finding a food plan that will fit your lifestyle for the long-haul, not just for weight loss. 

Now does the mind play a big role?  Absolutely – it (the brain/mind) is the primary “organ” that will assist you or hamper you.  What you believe is “real” to you.  This is why some people look in the mirror and see their reflection distorted from what it really is (i.e., they may be slender but see a fat image).  The brain doesn’t know the difference between what is real and what is imagined, so imagining what you want to see is actually giving suggestion to the subconscious (and conscious) mind that you want to look and feel great because of what you see in the mirror (or in your mind).

Hypnotherapy is very effective.  The key to affirmations and “programming” the mind to believe is not to force yourself to believe what you consider a lie.  Michael Losier, in his book “Law of Attraction” recommends saying to yourself: “I am in the process of.”  That is always a true statement and non-threatening.

This is a huge subject and there is so much more to discuss.  Hope this has given you some new information and added to your questions.  The quality of the questions you ask determine a lot!  Believe it or not that subconscious mind of yours will set about finding the answers.  You may meet just the right person or end up at just the right row in the library for that right book, etc.

Many blessings,
Dr. Chris
The “I Can” Doctor

For more information, visit my website at http://www.theicandoctor.com

Exercise Helps Lift Your Mood!

Experts at the University of Maryland found that there's a strong link between watching lots of TV and being unhappy. So toss the remote and get out and see friends or go to the gym. It'll boost your mood on the spot!

The warm water of an indoor pool beckons on a cold winter’s day, and swimming is excellent exercise for any age. But before you jump in, keep these tips in mind:

• Stretch It Out - Before you get into the pool, be sure to stretch your arms, shoulders, chest, lower back and legs for a few minutes to warm up.
• Shake It Up - Break down that mile you usually swim into a series of sprints, followed by brief rests. For example, swim five lengths as fast as you can, then rest 15 seconds, and repeat for 10 lengths.
• Go Deep - Tired of laps? Put on a lifejacket and head for the deep end. In the water, run in place, pretend you’re skiing, kick, twist around - whatever is fun for you. Just don’t overdo it - water provides 12 times the resistance as exercise on land.

Kids and Smart Snacking

Be a role model for your kids when it comes to healthy meals and healthy snacking. If you keep healthy snack items for your children in the house, it helps them get used to healthy flavors. Try some of these with your kids:

• 2% fat String cheese
• Fat Free flavored Yogurt (Best yet, take plain yogurt and use stevia (natural sweetener) and vanilla extract.  Yummy!
• Toasted Almonds – “dust” with cinnamon and stevia (natural sweetener)
• Apples with peanut butter
• Veggies and low-fat dip
• Snap peas and salsa – kids love crisp, slightly sweet veggies

Dr. Christina Winsey, The “I Can” Doctor: www.TheICanDoctor.com

Insulin Resistance – linked to Diets high in High-Fructose Corn Syrup

High-fructose corn syrup is a sweetener found in most sodas and many other processed foods.  In a new study on mice, this sweetener is shown to be at least partially the cause of insulin resistance.

How would you like to eat something that turns to fat quicker than sugar?  Fructose is the culprit – it is metabolized into fat storage over glucose storage in the liver.  What is worse, in the process it can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which then leads to an insulin resistance of the liver (“hepatic insulin resistance” and eventually type II diabetes!

New cases of diabetes have ballooned.  The increase doctors have seen is 90% in the last ten years!  One in four Americans is now afflicted with either pre-diabetes or diabetes.  What are we doing to ourselves?

On top of this, food – particularly sugar – is an addictive substance for those who have what used to be considered just an “alcoholic gene.”  In fact, there are five major addictions, all of which are the same disease.  Approximately 20% of the population is born with this “alcoholic gene”.  What they’re born with is an inability, due to the right brain chemicals, to feel good.  Called the “Reward Deficiency Syndrome,” the startling fact is that this syndrome is why all five addictions: alcohol, drugs, food, sex, gambling and work, become the “substance of choice” to feel good.

But I couldn’t end this blog without urging that if you or someone you love or care about seems to have an addiction problem – if you even think there is one – please seek out an addiction expert in your area, or alcoholics anonymous (AA).  AA has lists of meetings related to the other addictions as well.

In my next blog I will clarify how sex, gambling and work are considered addictions that have a chemical basis, and I’ll share with you some answers about how to get help.  I’ll also share with you some simple amino acid therapies that assist in reducing addictive cravings and what the cutting-edge successful treatments for addiction (now being successfully used by some many drug courts around the Country).

Sources:

-Science Daily March 3, 2009

-Cell Metabolism March 2009; 9(3):252-64

-The Reward Deficiency Syndrome by Kenneth Blum, Ph.D., D.A.C.A.C.D. and Jay M. Holder, D.C., M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Christina Winsey, The “I Can” Doctor: www.TheICanDoctor.com