When you have a food addiction, the most important step you can take to cure it is to admit that it exists.  You have to recognize within yourself that you are addicted to certain foods, especially fat and sugar, which are scientifically proven to be addictive.  When  you have accepted that you have the addiction, that’s the only time you can come up with any real and effective solutions.  Dealing with food addiction is not an easy task at all.  But with patience, you can always weather it through.

One of the first things you can start with when trying to overcome your food addiction is to get yourself a small notebook or perhaps a diary where you should write the foods  you’ve been eating, when you ate them, how much of them you consumed and how they affected you.  People who are not addicted to food may never understand it, but those who are know that there are certain foods which they feel they cannot survive not eating.  These are the types of food you have to take special note of as you continue writing down or recording what you have been consuming.

Another trick that can help save you from the condition is remembering that nothing drastic will work when it comes to food habits.  This means, once you’ve spotted the addictive foods in your normal diet, you’ll have to cut down on them.  But you should do it gradually.  When you suddenly stop eating fat and sugar,  the tendency will be for you to yearn for fatty and sweet foods the more.

In other words, if you are regularly eating 5 chocolate bars a day out of habit, have four on your first day of food-watching, and then three bars after a week and so on.  This will help you avoid feelings of deprivation which are the most common cause of people never being able to stick to their plans of losing weight.

As you try to wean yourself from sweet or fatty foods, you can follow an alkaline diet which is based on healthy, non-acidic and non-addictive food choices, mostly vegetables and fruits.

An alkaline diet will not only be good for curing you of your addiction.  With it, you can reap other health benefits such as improved overall health as brought about by the alkalizing effect of non-acidic foods.  Remember that foods high in acid content can cause acidity of the blood which can, in turn, cause tissue corrosion.  As a defense mechanism, the body produces more fat to prevent this.  Hence, when you start on an alkaline diet, you can lose weight naturally and healthily.  Plus, you can expect an  improved sense of wellness overall.

It’s not hard to know if you are addicted to food.  Aside from your weight itself, you should be the first one to know that you are having cravings, usually for fat or sugar, and you should view this as a sign that you are hooked.  Although there are still people who claim there is no truth behind the concept of food addiction, this has been scientifically proven through research and experiments.  And the first step for you to cure this addiction is to admit to yourself that you have it.

Another thing you need to realize is, food addiction is not just a psychological phenomenon . It is something that is biochemically rooted.  Hence, do not berate yourself when you often find that you are too weak to resist the temptation of addictive foods.  Remember, a food addict can be cured beyond curing his sense of self-discipline. Of course, this will matter but it is scientifically futile to try to recover from something without tracing everything to the core.  In case of food addiction, this is the core that has to be addressed.

Once you recognize that you are addicted, you can start considering various treatment options.  Depending on your needs and the level of your addiction, you may or may not require professional help.  It is also important to remember that there is no single cure for food addiction for all people.  For every individual, there will be unique factors that will be involved.

For example, some will need addiction counseling individually or as a group.  There are also food addiction centers where people who want to cure their addiction can stay for a few months or until they are cured.  These are examples of unique approaches to food addiction.

However,  there remains one universal tip that can be used by all who want to lose weight and that is to follow an alkaline diet which consists of  purely on non-addictive foods, primarily vegetables and fruits.   It is an established scientific finding that obese or overweight people are mostly addicted to fat and sugar.  But when they follow an alkaline diet, this addiction can slowly be treated by giving the person a chance to be weaned from addictive foods they consume on a regular basis.

Moreover, alkaline diets are good for promoting overall health of any individual through its vast reserve of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that people of all weights and ages need.

]]> http://alkalifestyle.com/161/facing-food-addiction/feed/ 1 http://alkalifestyle.com/149/how-chlorophyll-helps-you-the-weight-watcher/ http://alkalifestyle.com/149/how-chlorophyll-helps-you-the-weight-watcher/#comments Sun, 24 Oct 2010 06:40:58 +0000 Alkalifestyle.com http://alkalifestyle.com/?p=149 Continue reading →]]>

We’ve all heard about chlorophyll back in grade school.  It’s the green component of plants that gives them their green color.  It’s something they need for nourishment and life.  For us, humans, we also know chlorophyll the same way. It is the green pigment on many of our fruits and vegetables, a sign that such foods have high nutritive value.   We are even advised by food experts not to cook our veggies too much, lest we lose their vital nutrients. Many times, we are also advised not to peel off the skin on our fruits and that’s because this is where chlorophyll  is mostly concentrated.

All of these are true, but did you know exactly how food with chlorophyll can help people with weight problems?   Remember that whatever makes  a person gain weight is that which is involved in his gastrointestinal system.  Everyday, we eat all sorts of food that catch our fancy – steaks, salt-laden processed potato chips, pizza glimmering with fat and the like.  Undeniably, these foods taste heavenly and can give a huge boost to anyone’s spirits through the pleasure that they bring.

The problem is, we need more of the food that can sweep  and loosen  our colons for proper food digestion.  This is a major benefit that a weight watcher gets from chlorophyll. Remember that when our digestive system is at its best, we will be able to get all the nutrients we need and we will also be able to dispose of everything we don’t need such as excess fat.  With chlorophyll-rich foods, we can cleanse our colons and weigh healthier.

When it comes to eating healthier, alkaline diets can prove to be very helpful.    Broccoli is a perfect example of vegetables with chlorophyll and is also rich in vitamins A, C and K, folate and fiber.   Collard Greens are also rich in the same nutrients as those found in broccoli plus calcium.   And then there are Dandelion Greens which may taste bitter, but their nutritive effect on health can be very helpful to a weight watcher or anyone who simply wants to enjoy improved health.

These days, more and more processed foods are making in their way into the market.  But it is up to us whether or not they are healthy for us.  Remember that most processed foods have been clinically proven to be addictive.  The more we eat them, the more we are hooked and the more useless weight we gain.  But understanding the weight loss and general benefits of chlorophyll in our green vegetables should  allow us to make wiser and healthier food choices.

Indeed, an alkaline diet which consists of chlorophyll-rich vegetables, among others, can help you as you take on the road to fitness and health.

There’s no question about the fact that cancer is in the genes, but there’s no denying that diet also plays a role. And those who consume acidic diets, which consist of clinically proven addictive food, are more significantly at risk than those with less indulgent food choices.

In particular, studies are pointing to red meat and alcohol being major contributors to the development of the disease. While it’s true that people who had female family members dying of cancer will probably die of the same cause, scientists agree that food can create a major impact that can speed up, delay or even cure the disease.

The specific types of food linked to breast cancer are those considered acidic or those that are also found to be addictive. Acidic residues are carried by the blood around the body and can cause erosion of underlying tissues. When a woman is genetically predisposed to breast cancer, tissue corrosion can trigger the disease. Most health experts are one in recommending a diet of mainly fresh fruits and vegetables but since animal protein remains an essential dietary requirement, it may be allowed but in sparing amounts.

In terms of food preferences, cancer patients can study alkaline diets and how these can help them in their battle against the disease. One of the most important contributions of an alkaline diet is its ability to cleanse the blood of acidic residues, thus, paving the way for more effective oxygenation of the cells. Most alkaline foods are also antioxidants which are considered beneficial for the prevention or delay of the spread of cancer to other parts of a patient’s body.

Perhaps the most significant contribution alkaline foods offer cancer patients is their ability to balance blood pH balance. Remember, all cancer patients have critical levels of acidity in the bodily systems. Alkaline foods give a balancing effect with its vast reserves of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and other valuable nutrients that can, to a certain extent, define the chances of a patient recovering from cancer.

Its is important to note that acidic foods that may cause and hasten the cancer disease process are the same varieties that are now considered addictive in the same way as narcotic drugs such as morphine and heroin are. When a cancer patient avoids addictive foods, he is able to cure his food addiction and, at the same time, increase his chances of beating the cancer.

Food addiction has become a problem for many adults today.  It is not uncommon to find fast food counters having long lines of people waiting to pay for their pizza or hamburger. Even in grocery stores, there is nothing surprising about people lining up to pay for processed potato chips, candies, etc.  One may ask, what has happened to the world today?

People’s food  habits have become remotely similar to the hunt-and-gather system that prehistoric generations were used to.  Today, people just stand before a store clerk and get what they want to eat.  Good of the food is healthy, but when the food they get crazy about is something that makes them addicted, then there must be a problem somewhere.

Given the fact that most popular  foods are acidic and, therefore, unhealthy, one may ask further, how on earth have adults become so addicted to food?

The answer may have to be unlocked in childhood.  A person’s habits are developed during his growing up years, which means, if adults are addicted to food today, they probably had all the opportunity to develop that addiction from the time they were children.  When parents become so busy making a living, they tend to forget that teaching their children to be responsible for themselves is their greater obligation than attending a meeting or making a corporate presentation.  And part of teaching children about self-responsibility is teaching them how to eat wisely.

And why not?  The food we eat is itself responsible for a great chunk of health conditions we experience as we grow up to be adults.  Therefore, what parents sow in their children while they are young is what the children reap when they are old.  Therefore, it is important for parents to realize the value of teaching their children about healthy  and unhealthy food and why it is necessary to choose the former, even when  it seems less palatable at first.

To do this, it is good to have children develop food consciousness while eating alkaline foods such as fruits and vegetables.  This way, they will not have a chance to develop an addiction to unhealthy foods, at least, until they grow up to make their own food choices. After all, a person’s tendency to eat certain foods are a product of eating habits he developed during childhood.  Therefore, a kid who grows up eating healthy food will become an adult who will always prefer healthy food, no matter what is being served.

If you’re a parent to a toddler, this could be the perfect time for you to explore an alkaline diet and introduce it to your child this early so he won’t have to face the same struggles with food addiction as those adults who, as children, have had to eat addictive food.

Overweight and obese are two terms that people almost always use interchangeably. It’s easy to do so – both words point to an individual who has more than enough fat stored in his body. In a social way, both will probably be the same.

A person who is obese often has issues about self-esteem in the same way that one who is overweight does. No matter how tempting it is to think that the fatter individual has the lower self-esteem, usually, the way the self-esteem suffers is not even proportional to the amount of excess weight one has. Except for extreme cases where obese people have to be lifted by cranes to pull them out of their rooms,  self-esteem disturbances are usually the same for all people with weight problems.

From a technical perspective, however, an obese person is quite different from one who is overweight. The difference will lie in a certain number called the Body Mass Index or BMI. BMI is the ratio of body weight to height, whereby a BMI of 25 – 29.9 indicates a person is overweight and 30 above means the person is obese.

BMI calculators are widely available online where anyone can just enter weight and height and wait for the numbers to come out. To have a better appreciation of the measurement, though, it is good to calculate this amount manually and there are two ways to do this:adf

Imperial BMI Formula: (uses pounds for weight and inches or feet)

BMI = weight in lbs * 703 / height in inches2

Metric Imperial BMI Formula : (uses kilograms for weight and centimeters or meters for height)

BMI = weight in kg * 703 / height in cm2

It is important for one to know his BMI because to merely estimate heaviness or obesity does not give an accurate picture about the person’s real weight situation.

Another difference between obese and overweight may be the urgency of the need for the concerned person to start losing weight. Naturally, an obese person will have exposed himself to risks of developing a myriad of diseases such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes while a person is simply overweight may still be healthy, except for the fact that he does need to do something about his weight and not have to wait until he becomes obese.

When it comes to weight loss, whether for the obese or the overweight, the classic formula is increasing physical activity and decreasing food intake. These days, however, diet portion of the weight loss formula also requires a careful choice of the food a person eats. This means now, we recognize the value of different types of food and not just the amounts in which we consume them.

Alkaline diets fit perfectly into the picture. An alkaline diet is one that consists of non-acidic, non-addictive and, most of all, healthy food, mostly fruits and vegetables. We know that acidic food such as meat, corn and beans tend to make our bloodstream acidic as well, prompting our bodies to build more fat as a defense mechanism that keeps the acid away from our cells to prevent corrosion of our tissues. Besides, acidic foods are simply nutritionally fattening.

Indeed, going alkaline will provide the perfect food alternatives for anyone, obese or overweight, who wants to shed off that extra poundage and start being healthy.

The world has not been short of weight loss  advice to those who need it.  Everywhere you look, there’s an article just like this one offering a tip or two about beating the bulge.  Whether you’re talking about the Internet or any other traditional media, weight loss has been a favorite topic of many authors from many parts of the globe. Why not?  Weight is a concern that many people have.  In fact, the number of obese people from over the world is far from declining.   Thus, any weight loss tip will come with great value not only to those who are obese or overweight but even to the people around them.

To somebody who really wants to lose weight, however, all of these tips and tricks offered by fitness gurus and others who simply “have been there” can be confusing.  There are many different recommended diets, so many exercise programs and so many psychotherapists offering to give people an easier time coping with their weight difficulties. The problem is, many of the information are conflicting, some tips work while others don’t The question is, which one of them is the best or which one even works or doesn’t work?

Truth is, the only real, long term answer to weight problems is a lifestyle change.  This means one piece of advice may work and the other may not simply because the effort has been focused on one aspect of weight loss, leaving out the other aspects which could be just as important.  The point is, real weight loss can only happen when the obese or overweight person’s lifestyle changes.

Sure, you can lose five, ten, fifteen, even fifty pounds but unless your lifestyle changes, you’ll find all that poundage sneaking right back into your body UNLESS you make significant lifestyle changes.  That is the only way for any lost weight to stay lost no matter what they say.

To lose weight and lose it forever, you simply have to exercise and eat the right foods.  And we don’t mean you do it for one or two or three or four months.  What you need to do is to do it your whole life.  Yes, you can count that as a personal sacrifice.  When you really want something, you must be ready to give it what it’s worth.

Any type of exercise can be good.  The point is to get you sweating and speeding up your metabolism.  And then, you’ll want to eat good, nutritious food.  When it comes to this, nothing is better than a good old alkaline diet.

An alkaline diet will prevent you from consuming acidic foods such as meat which are also fattening, by the way.  In fact, the acid you expose your body to when you eat these foods tend to make you produce even more fat as a way of protecting your cells from corrosion from the acid.  With an alkaline diet, this is not at all a problem.

Again, whatever diet, exercise program or psychotherapy treatment you’re into, UNLESS you make a lifestyle change, nothing ever works  - at least, for the long term.

There are two things that are inevitable not to be discussed when we talk about obesity or overweight – compulsive eating and food addiction.  Both refer to a situation wherein a person just keeps eating even when he doesn’t have a physical need for it, at least, from a conventional point of view.  When obese or overweight people eat too much, society thinks of it as more than a health risk.  But it may well be understood as any abnormal behavior that has both serious physical and social effects brought about by compulsive eating or addiction to food.

It is easy to say a compulsive eater is equivalent to a food addict. This is true and to define the difference between compulsive eating and food addiction can be all a matter of vantage point.    They both refer to the same condition but explain it in two different ways.

When we say a person is a compulsive  eater, we are talking about the psychological events that happen to him as he feels the compulsion to eat and overeat.   A compulsive eater consumes food out of compulsion brought about by emotional factors.  Stress, depression, guilt and even extreme joy can all cause a compulsive eater to go deeper in his desire to eat even when he has no physical need for the food.   This compulsion can even happen throughout a day when the person picks at food and eats small amounts but frequently.  This can also be called binge eating or eating beyond the point of fullness.  The person usually has a frenzied feeling or is in a state of being out of control.  When we talk about compulsive eating, we are referring to what goes on in the mind of the individual as he is led to eat beyond rational limits.

On the other hand, food addiction paints a very similar scenario but the factors involved are more chemical in nature.  While mechanisms of compulsive eating happen in the mind of the person, food addiction engages the physical brain when it influences the person to overeat.  As we know about food addiction, a person is led to eat certain foods which have components that are the same or similar to those found in narcotic drugs such as heroin and morphine.  Called opioids, these substances engage the same pleasure centers in the brain that addictive drugs do.  Thus, from the vantage point of food addiction, it can be said that a person can be chemically addicted to certain foods.  This means there is more than willpower that is involved when the individual tries to stop eating in response to the physical cravings made possible by the addiction.

Compulsive eating behavior and food addiction can then be correlated by virtue of that common link they share – they put people at risk of obesity, if they’re not yet obese.  Both views on obesity also tell us that food is a most important consideration when analyzing people’s  tendency to gain weight excessively.

To avoid obesity, we must then willfully choose not to be overpowered by our compulsions to eat.  And if we must eat, we must choose food that is non-addictive by nature.  Alkaline diets prove to be perfect for anyone who want to be a wiser and healthier eater.  These diets consist of food that is healthy, both for the obese and non-obese.  And most of all, these diets do not promote food addiction or compulsive eating.

When a person decides to take on the road to wellness, an alkaline diet can be his strength.

It’s not easy to be overweight, but it’s much harder to try not to be.   One may explore all sorts of diets, workouts or  holistic weight loss programs and still end up frustrated.  After all, losing weight is just not something you decide to do today and reap results from tomorrow.  It requires commitment, dedication and a whole lot of self-discipline.  However,  deny as we may, weight loss is not all a matter of hard work.  Sometimes, it also takes some strategies.

Different fitness gurus will have formulated their own weight loss strategies by now, but there is one universal trick that any overweight person can try – identifying trigger foods. It’s not exactly a new idea, but somehow, this trick has been buried deep down in the Internet or in libraries where people have little opportunity to put it to practice and realize its worth.

Truth is, the success of any weight loss program could be hinged on identifying trigger foods and making them less powerful.  Remember, it is at the point when a person is caught off guard by unexpected appearances of these foods that he tends to forget his diet and binge.   If these triggers are identified, he can have a ready plan of action and avoid having to stray from his weight loss diet.

Identifying trigger foods can be very easy.  All it takes is to recall one’s favorites and the list can be completed in an instant.  The more important issue though, is what to replace these trigger foods with.  Definitely, there has to be some replacement so the person’s attention can be easily diverted and the food trigger can cease to become a problem.

As a substitute to the food trigger,  an alkaline diet can be used. An alkaline diet will consist of fruits, vegetables, beans and legumes and none of them will be fattening nor addictive. When the brain understands that the body just can’t have that satisfaction  from that food, which used to “trigger” a craving, it will slowly cure itself against the addiction to such food. Then the person’s appetite will normalize.  After a while, he sees the same food, it will no longer cause a craving.

This is how managing trigger foods will work.  We all know that these “triggers” are often what make a person veer from the diet path that he had planned to take.  By conquering the uncertainties of facing this situation, identifying trigger foods and getting used to responding to the “attacks” with alkaline food can make a world of difference, not only for those who want to lose weight but also for all who simply want a better life through better health.

]]> http://alkalifestyle.com/91/weight-loss-strategy-identify-your-trigger-foods/feed/ 1 http://alkalifestyle.com/82/fast-food-the-fast-lane-to-food-addiction/ http://alkalifestyle.com/82/fast-food-the-fast-lane-to-food-addiction/#comments Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:05:03 +0000 Alkalifestyle.com http://alkalifestyle.com/?p=82 Continue reading →]]>

It will surely take some time for people to accept what health experts now claim – fast food can be addicting.  Whether you’re talking McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut  or anywhere food is quick,   there is proof that common ingredients in these stores’ most popular food picks contain addictive substances that are making people come back for more.

Yes, fast food chains’ impeccable marketing success may no longer even be about marketing at all.  There was a time when people believed fast food chains were raking in fortunes because of their multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns.  Today, there could be one simple reason  a fast food lover will love fast food for life, and that is plain and simple addiction.

What makes fast food addictive?  There can be many substances involved especially as each fast food store will have its own menu for its customers to choose from.  But let’s take for an example, cheese.

Whether it’s a hamburger, salad, popcorn or  any other fast food favorite, cheese will probably find its way into the food somehow.  Not that people have any problem with it.  After all, it’s one of the most ancient sources of gastronomic pleasure.  But today’s society sure doesn’t look ready to give up its fascination for cheese yet, and it could all be about the food’s main dairy protein, casein, which is causing all this addiction.

Casein is the what experts find to be the addictive property in cheese and the scenario is nowhere near reassuring – many people have become cheese addicts and they don’t have an idea.  What’s even less reassuring is the fact that casein can also be found in fast food sausages, salad dressings, whipped toppings and other fast food staples.

So what makes food scientists and nutritionists claim cheese is addictive?  An experiment on rats was conducted to see how casein in the cheese affected the rodents’ brain activity and it was found that as they consumed more and more cheese, the more they ended up consuming each time. The amount of cheese required to satisfy them kept increasing, leading researchers to conclude that cheese has opiate characteristics that make people respond to it they way they respond to opiate drugs such as morphine and heroin.

So what’s wrong about addictive food such as cheese?  The problem with addictive foods is, they’re also acidic.   When there is too much acid in the body, there is an overproduction of fats in order to keep the acid away from and prevent corrosion of the tissues.  Apart from that, acidic foods also tend to be fatty and sugary, two food characteristics that are also notorious for promoting weight gain.

As an alternative to addictive and acidic food, an alkaline diet can be worth exploring. Alkaline foods are fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, roots and tubers – all of which have low acid content.  Low acid means less fat production and no food addiction.