Dr. Kerri Fullerton ND

Intuitive Eating. Health At Every Size (HAES) Doctor

food cravings

Intuitive Eating and Food Sensitivities

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Cheese is delicious. And my body isn’t such a big fan. My mouth and brain are all in. My guts…not so much.

Making peace with food can be tricky and more nuanced when there are food sensitivities. How can I have unconditional permission to eat if I know that some foods will cause unpleasant symptoms?

I have to remember that I am allowed to eat anything that I want, including cheese. I’m a grown woman with full autonomy over my food choices. So if I want to eat cheese, I can. And if I choose to eat cheese I will also experience some uncomfortable gut stuff.

How does that saying go? You are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequences of that choice.

So I ask myself, which experience would I prefer? I can enjoy the experience of the cheese and suffer the experience the gut stuff. Or I can experience the sense of loss by not eating the cheese and have no gut stuff.

As long as I don’t judge one choice as right and one as wrong, I just get to choose. Sometimes the cheese is the right choice. Pizza for instance can sometimes be an experience worthy of some gut stuff. Often it’s not.

Here’s another example of choose the experience.

I’m prone to under-eating during the day. I get into whatever I’m working on and don’t notice my hunger cues until I’m REALLY hungry. A really hungry body makes difference choices than a comfortably hungry body does. From what it craves to how much food is needed to satisfy. I prefer the comfortably hungry choices to the over hungry choices. So, I set reminders to check in with my hunger levels throughout the day. If I’m hungry but find myself wanting to “just do one more thing,” I ask myself which experience I would prefer. Again, without judgement.

And if I choose to work instead of eat, and I find myself into old food patterns later in the day, I remind myself with compassion that that was the experience that I chose for the day.

We get to make these choices so many times during the day. As long as judgement is left out, it can be an empowering experience.

If you’re looking for help in designing a strategy to allow you food freedom, book a call to see if we’re a good fit.

Let’s Connect!

Can you be addicted to food?

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Ten years ago if you’d asked me “can you be addicted to food” I would have said “absolutely, yes”.

In 2009 I attended my first Overeaters Anonymous (OA) meeting. I started out with phone meetings because I just couldn’t bring myself to walk into an in-person meeting. Shame whispered “what if you see a patient or someone else that you know?”.

Back then I was part of the 90% of people who believe that food can be addictive. I believed with all of my heart that I was an addict – a compulsive overeater. The pattern after all – craving, loss of control, excessive consumption, tolerance, withdrawal and distress.

So I got a sponsor, made my list of ‘trigger’ foods that I would abstain from, and attended my meetings.

As with any diet before, I threw myself into it fully. I read all of the books, did all of the work, and recorded my food intake and weight with the diligence of any ‘good girl’. 

But I started to notice something the longer that I stayed in OA: nobody was actually getting food freedom. The lists of trigger foods were getting longer. I thought that was really weird. How could a food that they were eating without issue last month now be a trigger food? Instead of  bingeing on junk foods they were bingeing on vegetables and meat. The foods may have changed but the behaviours hadn’t.

That was when I started to question the whole food addiction theory. I started to do a deep dive into the research and I was surprised by what I found.

Food Addiction Research

It’s not very clear cut at all. Consensus isn’t even close to being achieved.

When self-proclaimed addicts were assessed using the Yale Food Addiction Scale, only 12% actually met the criteria. Using the scale assumes that food addiction is real, which is still up for much debate, but even based on that assumption, almost 90% weren’t addicts.

Researchers have not been able to identify the addictive substance. And that’s a problem. Those who are in the food-addiction-is-real camp believe that sugar is the addictive food. But it’s blurry. All sugar? Just some sugar? Foods that converts to sugar?

The other sticky bit is that Food Addiction is eerily similar to Binge Eating Disorder (BED).

Another interesting thing about food addiction studies is that they’re not corrected for restriction (read dieting; read hunger). In animal studies the way that they get the animals to exhibit the food addiction behaviours that I was going through they had to starve them first – or at least restrict them.

In a hungry state our brains create chemicals that lead us to obsess about food. And those chemicals make us vulnerable to hyperpalatable foods (junk food, fast food) because we’re not going to let ourselves starve.

Why does this matter?  Because as a society right now, we’re focused on restricting. We’re watching what we eat and trying to eat smaller portions. We’re forever putting ourselves into this vulnerable state.

So, are you addicted to food?

Maybe, but you’re probably not.

More likely, you’re overeating because of one of two things.

  1. You’re vulnerable due to restriction.
  2. Food is being used as a distraction.

I’ll dive into using food as a distraction in another blog/video.

For now, let me share a few tips on how you can start to overcome binge eating:

  1. Stop skimping or skipping. Hunger wins every single time. Shift your attention away from maximum calories and start focusing on minimums. Eat regularly so that your body doesn’t ever think that it’s going to starve. *this step speaks from my privilege; food scarcity is very real for a lot of people, do the best that you can with what you have
  2. Find a community. Shame kept me from addressing my binge eating disorder. I didn’t dare tell anyone about my binges and nobody asked. Everyone seemed quite content to help me lose weight and restrict but nobody talked about the binges or the emotional side of things. I created a Facebook Group called Applaud Your Bod for this purpose. A safe place to share and feel normal and to feel inspired. Consider this your cordial invitation. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1437974869844063
  3. Take the Binge Eating Quiz. https://psychology-tools.com/test/binge-eating-scale We don’t know if Food Addiction is real but we do know that Binge Eating Disorder is. Treatment for Binge Eating Disorder is available and effective. If you’d like to talk, you can book a free Food Freedom Discovery Session with me. You don’t have to go it alone.

Dedicated to helping you find peace and power with your body,

Kerri

Neuropsychopharmacology 2018 Dec; 43(13): 2506–2513

What my food cravings were trying to tell me

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All of my life I’ve felt like I had demons in my head telling me to eat. Those demons were my food cravings.

Each and every day they were a reminder that I couldn’t be trusted with food.

When I’d finally give in, I’d eat to excess and feel awful. Physically I’d be stuffed and bloated. Emotionally I’d be so ashamed.

Monday morning was my reset. The day that I’d get control.

Except that the control only lasted a few days at best. Often I’d be back into the food by Monday afternoon.

So how did that change for me? Why is this no longer my normal?

It changed when I stopped seeing my cravings as these awful demons, and started to see them as compassionate confidents.

I realized that my cravings for foods that didn’t serve me, but actually harmed me, must have a purpose. Otherwise, why would they still be there?

Think about it. Why would I continue to engage in a behaviour that didn’t give me some kind of benefit? That doesn’t make sense.

At first, I acted like a rebellious teenager. Even though I’d realized that the food cravings were a compassionate voice, I’d still yell and rebel when those voices tried to guide me. I’d push them away and act out (usually by restricting my food severely or by overeating).

Until one day, after I’d overeaten, I sat there bloated and uncomfortable and ashamed, I didn’t want to do this anymore. So I said “OK crazy food brain – what is it that you’re trying to tell me?”.

What I heard was that I was tired. Or overwhelmed. Or scared.

Each time I got a different message with the same theme.

I needed to be nurtured. I needed to be comforted. I needed to feel loved.

Sometimes it was something leading up to the cravings. Often for me it was lack of sleep or an over-scheduled life.

Other times it was something that was coming up. A presentation. An event.

No matter what the cause, it became clear that my food cravings were me trying to take care of myself.

That was  hard pill to swallow.

It was easier to make it the foods fault. To tell myself that I was a food addict or that it was these deceitful food companies putting addictive ingredients in there.

Looking within is a lot more uncomfortable. And it’s worth every moment of discomfort.

Now when I have a food craving, I have choices.

I can eat some of what I’m craving. I can do it sanely. I can do it moderately.

And when enjoying that bit of food doesn’t satisfy, then I can see the continued food craving as a gift.

It means that my stress has surpassed my ability to cope with it.

It means that something needs my attention.

And just like when a baby starts to cry we go down the list “Hungry? Wet? Dirty? Tired?” I too can go down my list.

Am I getting enough sleep? Am I getting enough rest? Am I moving my body enough? Am I acknowledging and dealing with my feelings?

Once the real reason for the food cravings is unveiled, they go away. Just like that.

 

 

 

P.S. Watch the video on YouTube for more Food Cravings goodness