Food Addiction Eating raw and whole foods assist the body in maintaining a healthy homeostasis, resulting in the natural reaction of hunger. Processed foods disturb homeostasis, saturated animal fats, refined oils, sugar, salt and additives upset the homeostatic balance. Hunger becomes distorted into cravings. Consumption of massive amounts of sugar, salt, caffeine and fried foods have a drastic effect on homeostasis. The body reacts as it would to any addiction, powerful cravings override the body’s natural needs. Also food allergies can cause addiction due to homeostatic disturbance. You usually feel better when eating the food you are addicted to, however you may exhibit symptoms of feeling irritable, gas, nausea, depression or headache the next day, even in a few hours or minutes after you have eaten the food. Milk, wheat and eggs are the most common allergic foods. Each contain large protein molecules with strong glue-like bonds. Many food allergens are the undigested protein fragments of meat, dairy products, wheat and eggs. If the appropriate enzyme necessary for digestion of these protein molecules is not present, they enter the blood undigested. In the bloodstream these protein fragments cause the immune system to respond, attacking these fragments as if they were invaders. Homeostasis has been imbalance and if these foods are continually eaten, the body will become dependant for homeostatic balance causing an allergen-based food addiction. The brain also maintains homeostatic balance. Eating natural food allows the brain chemistry to function normally. Sugar, alcohol, caffeine, and chocolate cause imbalances in the brain’s normal chemistry. Neurotransmitters are proteins that electrically connect the nerve cells of the brain. In certain people, chocolate induces a neurotransmitter high creating daily cravings for chocolate. Some binge on sweets and starches for the serotonin effect, which acts as a mild sedative. Just like drugs, these experiences are short-lived, resulting in the need for more of the substance that caused the imbalance in the first place. Caffeine Addiction There are more coffee drug addicts in the US than drug addicts of any other kind. Caffeine is highly addictive. Quitting coffee can cause withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, sleepiness and irritability. The acidic nature of coffee can lead to stomach ulcers. When the excess acid enters the bloodstream, it also increases calcium loss in urine. Both coffee and tea have no nutritional value. Tannin, the substance that makes tea cups brown and coats tea pots, is used for tanning leather. Imagine the stomach after twenty years of tea drinking. Coca Cola put cocaine in their drink at the turn of the century. It sold extremely well. Some consumers succumbed to the addictive quality of cocaine and started to drink undiluted Cola syrup. When cocaine was banned for use in soft drink the bottlers switched to caffeine. The top selling soft drinks are loaded with caffeine: Coca Cola, 62 mg; Mountain Dew, 49 mg; and TAB, 45 mg. Similarly, instant coffee contains 66 mg per cup. On those warm summer days, young children can drink large amounts of caffeinated pop. Children with half the adult weight and three times the sensitivity. One can of cola for them is equivalent to 3 cups of instant coffee for an adult. Caffeine, combined with sugar, salt, and a diet high in synthetic food, creates one unmanageable youngster. Caffeine is also be found in cold remedies, diet pills, wake-up pills, chocolate, and pain killers. Over the counter and prescription pain killers will add to your caffeine quota: Excedrin, 65 mg; Midol, 32 mg; Anacin, 32 mg; Darvon Compound, 32 mg; and Fiorinal, 32 mg. Instead of healing the cold, caffeine slows down the elimination of mucus and destroys vitamin C. In a survey, the four top reasons for people quitting coffee were: central nervous system disorders, 39%; gastrointestinal problems, 37%; to break the addiction, 19%; and fibrocystic breast tumors, 15%. Monkeys are sensitive creatures. During the Boer War, the enemies of the British often poisoned their food supplies. Soldiers used monkeys to test the food. They chose what to eat by holding the food to their lower jaw and if the food was poisoned, the monkey would throw it away. A natural health practitioner, fascinated by the account, decided to test baboons to see if they had a similar ability. An apple was injected with strong coffee by a hypodermic needle. Two apples were given, the untouched apple was eaten hungrily by one baboon, a second baboon received the injected apple. He held it to his jaw, let out an angry screeching sound then tried to attack the experimenter. When he was given a good apple he went off to the corner and ate happily. Caffeine is able to penetrate deep into vital tissue. Evidence shows that it may be linked to male infertility and also birth defects by passing through the placenta. Drinking coffee during breast feeding will cause caffeine to be present in mothers' milk. Caffeine has a powerful effect on coronary arteries and the pulmonary and systemic vessels, causing a greater flow of blood to the heart muscle, but decreasing the flow of blood to the brain by constricting cerebral blood vessels. Caffeine can cause abnormally fast, abnormally slow and irregular heart beats. It also wreaks havoc on blood pressure, commonly producing hypertension. Coffee has been linked to heart disease, pancreas and bladder cancer, and hypoglycemia. Here is also a great article on the lies we have all been told about cow's milk and calcium
Excerpt from FOUNDATION TO ALL FREEDOM
by: Ron Lagerquist
Excerpt from FOUNDATION TO ALL FREEDOM
By: Ron Lagerquist
Charles F. Withal
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Food/Caffeine addiction, and Milk
I found an answer to my problem yesterday. Why couldn't I stop eating Papa Johns? I found this great site Freedomyou.com, and copied some of their articles on food and caffeine addiction. It is so interesting!
