EMOTIONAL EATING WEIGHING YOU DOWN?

Some thoughts on the three basics: fat, protein and sugar.

It seems like weight gain and anxiety go hand in hand in my household. Do you ever notice this correlation? Well today I had an interesting experience as I started to notice this playing out. I was driving around this cloudy Seattle summer day, and though I’d eaten just an half hour earlier I started feeling the strong urge to eat again. I checked in with my stomach, it was quite full still, and I knew that if I gave in to this sense of craving that I wouldn’t be able to eat much more without feeling stuffed.

So, I began to look around for what could be causing this- I was near an upscale mall, and so I wondered was it a feat of marketing with all the signs for fast food? Or the sophisticated appeal of fancy restaurants that were making my mind hungry? As I’ve been instructed in meditation, you can do one of two things you can apply an antidote or you can sink into the sensation even more. I decided that aversion (the antidote) would be too time consuming- I’d have to think of the decomposition of food, perhaps even it’s form after going through my digestive tract, etc. Geez! Thus, I decided I’d stick with the sensation of craving, and drop deeper into the sensation of wanting, which felt so strong it uncovered a neediness.

What was I truly needing that was driving this sense of urgent wanting for more food? And, noticing that the foods that were most appealing to me at the time (pasta, rich sauces), I asked myself, what was it that was beneath this hunger for richness- a desire for fat.

After I relaxed into the sense of craving, I began to feel a slight buzz. At the beginning there was quite an unpleasant sense of resistance, like a magnetic repulsion that with a decision to just sit with whatever was happening, and resisting the resistance to overcome or succumb to something, it became palpably different. Amazingly enough, I didn’t reach for my cell phone or pull into a drive thru restaurant (Can I have an enormous burger with extra fat to fulfill my extreme craving for sanity? And, a super sized side of inner peace, please?) I thought of something I’d heard the word of before, “the suchness”- isn’t that a lovely word?

That word, suchness allowed my mind to attach a label to a heightening of my senses as if I could feel the air around me become more present, like it had a pleasant viscosity and the signs and colors became more vibrant without drawing me in. In fact, the cool thing was I felt like I was in the “in” and that there was no “into” to be concerned about. Hmmm, the “suchness of now,” the richness of all these different inner and outer sensations, and interactions with my mental and physical body became my focus instead of a lack or a struggle to be at one pole or another of giving in or pulling away from a craving. It was cool, and then it transitioned into my more reliable state of monkey mind that went back to focusing on what I had to do next.

I finished my errands, without distraction, and decided if I felt hungry when I returned home I would have some avocado with a healthy left-over, curry beet quinoa. (Perhaps having a yummy leftover at home was another positive driver for resisting temptation!)
When I got home, I continued contemplating the experience, the craving sensations and the fact that I was craving fat. What was at the basis of fat as the focus of my craving? I asked myself, if, and, what emotional need was driving my craving for fat. The answer my brain produced almost immediately, was the need for comfort, for structure, for a sense of security. I had just been through a few days of indecisiveness and having a bit too much laxity in my life. I thought of how fat is the major ingredient in breast milk, and how it represents the emotional structure of Mother.

Then I started to think about protein craving, like when people feel a need to eat lots of meat. I realized that usually came about when people wanted to feel stronger, or ground as in strengthening their root chakra. I thought of how protein resonates with the emotional structure of father.

So what about sugar? That’s probably the most familiar phenomenon for most people including myself (which perhaps is why I was able to be surprised and curious about a craving for fat. The almost compulsive ingestion of simple carbs or sugary foods is a prime reason for the epidemics of obesity and adult onset diabetes worldwide. Of course, from a nutritional and physiological standpoint one could argue that a craving for sugar is actually a need for protein.

I find myself eating lots of simple carbs, when I am trying to push through something like a long day, a tall stack of papers, as if I need to reward or convince myself that I can do it if only in spurts. This is an interesting concept as it jibes with the anthroposophic medicine point of view, (which stems from the teachings of Rudolf Steiner and Eva Wegman), that increased sugar intake occurs when there is a need for more “Ego structure,” like inspiration, drive, or a sense of Will.

Does this ring true for you? I invite you to look at what your drives, be it food cravings or shopping addictions, tell you about your emotional needs are. What the emotional triggers are and how you might make them your allies when you need to get through the day without pushing yourself at an oral level when you might do better receiving at an emotional level. Like a hug instead of butter, a game of basketball or wrestling instead of a 16 oz sirloin, or finding inspiration in a person, a sunset, or yourself, instead of the chocolate bar or a stiff drink.

As always, I welcome your feedback (including recipes) and send you wishes for good health, laughter and insight.

Here's a recipe for a non-dairy, non-wheat, good for your liver nourishing meal, measurements aren't exact so experiment ; )

Curry beet quinoa (or rice)

Ingredients:
3 small beets raw/sliced
2-4 cloves garlic (depending on your taste or you can omit)
1 tsp yellow mustard seed
1-2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp coconut oil
1 bunch of fresh cilantro
3 cups of cooked quinoa or brown rice
1 can tomato sauce

Garnish:
1 fresh lemon
1 Avocado slices
Sea salt and pepper to taste.

Saute garlic, mustard seeds in warm oil, add in onions if you want,raw beets, and curry powder, cook for few minutes while beets absorb spices and soften, add in quinoa or rice, tomato sauce (1/2 can) and water in about equal amounts (taste as you go), and cilantro. Simmer for few minutes until beets are soft and the liquid is resorbed.
Squirt with lemon juice and sea salt to taste, and garnish with fresh avocado slices and more cilantro leaves if desired. Make a lot so you can refrigerate for left overs.

Surprisingly my daughter and her friends are always asking me to make this for them- go figure kids like curry beet rice! Beets and cilantro are excellent for helping your liver detoxify, and the spices help with circulation. Coconut oil nourishes your thyroid gland, and along with avocado, are great sources of good fats. Quinoa is a good protein source. Bon apetit!

Irritable Bowel Syndrome, a misnomer?

The great catch all diagnosis when your doctor can’t find out what is going on in your gut. Some docs refer to it as the new “female hysteria” condition, seeing that the sex ratio is 2:1 in (dis)favor of women.

That said, it happens to be one of my favorite conditions to help patients with- mainly because after all the many doctors, tests and years of suffering without a reasonable grasp of the causes or treatments I can help patients investigate their situation in a methodical and purposeful way. Often, this leads to a new level of self awareness, much less a handle on what is at the bottom of their endless bottom problems, so to speak ; )

Irritable bowel syndrome can manifest in unruly ways that would leave anyone irritated- like getting ready for a party or a meeting or an exam, only to be running to the toilet every few minutes unable to leave the house on time, or at all. When you spend the day in bed worrying about the grumbling in your tummy or the next time you go to the bathroom if will there be any end, it can really degrade one’s confidence and set up a vicious cycle of opting out as a preventive measure.

And, let me tell you, life is a terrible thing to opt out of day after day. Staying home waiting for it to pass, may be a good way to prevent embarassment in public, with the bloating, flatulence and the grimace you wear from the painful spasms in your gut; perhaps you’ve noticed, though, it’s part of the problem. As Neil Young would say, don’t let it get you down. Because, I remind you in a hushed tone: the nervous system is listening. The more you stress about that abominable abdominal stress the more it continues to feed itself.

Still, I laugh to think of the 2+ years I took a prescription drug for IBS, that caused a few very undesirable side effects like fainting at work, dry mouth and dizziness. No stress there. My initial diagnosis of IBS was made in less than a 4 minute office visit with my then PCP. He prescribed me bentyl immediately. I asked him how he knew that was appropriate as he hadn’t done any testing; he said there were really no tests besides a colonoscopy which was highly uncomfortable. I insisted that I be tested as I didn’t believe in taking a prescription drug for something that lacked a clear diagnosis. Yes, I got to experience the charm and grace of a colonoscopy, and because there was no other finding other than pain the specialist said that IBS was indeed the diagnosis. Doctor’s aren’t always right, they do the best they can and they sometimes are just there to help us feel more ignorant, (though they may very well match us in that department at the time). And, anyway ignorance is bliss, right? Not!

So back to IBS, I think irritable bowel syndrome is a misnomer; it really stands for Irritating Bowel Symptoms. I know most everypart of my body has the ability to be irritated, but most everypart has been doing it’s job with no complaints. It’s like by some blind curse we’ve stirred up trouble in the bowel and we have got to step lightly around the volcano of our tummies-cause my goodness it’s active. And, many docs may prescribe you antidepressants or an antispasmodic narcotic to hush the volcano- they can help with those irritating symptoms, but they don’t treat the cause.

So, now, we see in the research that the gut contains nearly as many autonomic nervous cells as the central nervous system (that means your brain and spinal cord)—and that melatonin, the biorhythm hormone, is found in much higher concentrations in the gut than in the pineal gland. Interesting, huh? (As an aside, did you know that the pineal gland is just about where your third eye is? Nothing like unruly bowel habits to cloud your insight).

Traditional medical systems focus on the gut as the primary predictor and protector of health; basically, if the tummy no good, then the rest will go to pot. And, isn’t that so? IBS is now entwined with other diagnoses like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, where they see them as the IBS of the musculoskeletal and sympathetic nervous systems, respectively.
According to an article the Role of intestinal bacteria in nutrient metabolism, each of these diagnoses could be strongly related to a dysbiosis in the gut. Dysbiosis is the art of harmful bacterial anarchy in the gut; where the balance of good to bad bacteria is not happening (if only there were a Batman in our the Gotham city of our bowels, sigh). Yet, there is—lots of them, 2-8 billion cultures to be exact of bifidobacterium could set things aright again. Which leads me to the spiritual scientific part of this article; why are you bloated after you eat.


Why am I bloated all the time?


Though you may be feeling the effects of the bloating in your large intestine (the colon that leads to the area where you may feel the end result of all that bloating ; ), the origination may be due to what’s found in the small intestine—an overgrowth of bacteria that like to make sulphide. These bacteria are usually confined to the large intestine, and a few studies suggest that the type of food these bacteria need is not getting all the way down to where they were in the large intestine so the bacteria end up moving up to where they can get it in the small intestine. Yep, that’s right the kind of food you eat makes a difference. Simple white rice is already digested in the small bowel and doesn’t make it to the large intestine (thus bacteria will have to move up to get it); whereas legumes take a longer distance in the colon to get digested and thus the bacteria can stay put in the large bowel and still get their pickings. (By the way this is the spiritual part, in case it isn’t clear).

The starch in these foods is what the bacteria like to eat. And when you can get your starch in a more dense, complex fibrous form like artichokes it is more likely to go the distance, so to speak. It will also satisfy your hunger sooner; along with keeping the bacteria in your large intestine well-fed which enables them to rid your body of more byproducts that you no longer need-do you see the correlation with losing some weight and some irritable bowel symptoms, too?

Additionally, you could set out to supply your large intestine with all the delicacies it desires—propitiating the bowel, hmmm the newest religious rite. Foods like artichoke, garlic, onions, leeks and chicory are their faves because they have oligosaccharides. But, wait you say, “arent’ garlic and onions full of sulphur?” Why, yes they are and I’m glad to see you have been paying attention. My suggestion then is this, if you have a ton of bloating because of all that bacterial displacement why not eat lots of artichokes, chicory and foods with inulin and/or supplement with FOS (fructooligosaccharides) that when encapsulated are termed “prebiotics” until you’ve replaced the small bowel population with a new homestead in the large intestine.

Oh, and to ensure that those displaced small bowel bacteria don’t stay too attached to their current place, add in some, well lots, of probiotics-bifidobacterium and lactobaccillus to carry the torrent back into the large intestine? After some weeks, you can begin to add garlic and onions back in to your diet. Of course, if you’re like me and can’t be parted from garlic at least, don’t worry you can still take the pre/probiotics and it will be ok. Listen to your body, your whole body not just that joker in your mind that keeps pointing out the snowball donuts are on sale, and your bowels will be chiming in good time. Remember propitiate the bowel, and until, next time here’s a link for some lite reading. Stay in good health and good humor!



Reference: Role of intestinal bacteria in nutrient metabolism
JPEN: Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, Nov/Dec 1997 by Cummings, J H, MacFarlane, G T