Dr. Mark Hyman: How to Cut Your Food Addiction | Big Think

Dr. Mark Hyman: How to Cut Your Food Addiction
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Ten ways you can cut food addiction by changing the information going in your body and upgrading your biological software.
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Dr. Mark Hyman :

Dr. Mark Hyman has laid out his vision for the future of medicine in a new book called The Blood Sugar Solution: The UltraHealthy Program for Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Feeling Great Now! "Instead of treating disease," he argues, "we need to create health." This approach, that he calls "functional medicine," is designed to empower people to stop simply managing symptoms and to start treating the underlying causes of illnesses.
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TRANSCRIPT:

Mark Hyman: Emerging science has found that sugar and industrial processed food stimulates the same reward centers in the brain as cocaine or heroin. On functional MRI testing, with extraordinary tests that block the effects of opiates in the brain, it has the same phenomena that happens with sugar and processed food as it does with heroin or cocaine. So this is not up for debate anymore. When you take a rat and you put him in a cage, if they can have cocaine or sugar, they always go after the sugar. So we have to realize this is a real biological phenomenon. It’s not about willpower. It’s not about being weak willed or emotionally crippled or needing to go to therapy to overcome your bad eating habits.

What people need to realize is they can overcome food addiction and food cravings by learning how to work with their biology. And in my book, The Blood Sugar Solution, I talk about ten ways in which you can cut food addiction by regulating your hormones, by using food as medicine, by changing the information going in your body and upgrading your biological software. Because food is not just calories, it’s information, and if you put the wrong information in, you're going to create the wrong signals and cravings. If you put the right information in, you can shut those off very quickly and change your biological addiction almost over night.

So you may be wondering how you can cut your food addictions. It’s very simply. It’s by using food as medicine and realizing that what you put on the end of your fork is more powerful than anything you’ll ever find at the bottom of a prescription bottle. So to use food as medicine to cut food addictions, here’s what I would do: Eat three meals a day -- breakfast, lunch and dinner -- and two snacks. Make sure you have a balanced meal with protein, fat and good carbohydrates -- and quality is important here so it has to be real food. So, for example, breakfast could be eggs or a protein shake. It could be nut butters or you can just have dinner for breakfast. Lunch you want to create the perfect plate, and dinner you want to create the perfect plate. That's half of your plate as unlimited refills on non-starchy vegetables, like salad fixings, asparagus, broccoli, green beans. One quarter is lean protein. It could be nut proteins, vegetable proteins, beans or seeds or it could be lean chicken or fish. And on the other side, you could have one-quarter of whole grain, brown rice, black rice, quinoa or maybe a sweet potato.

That's going to balance your blood sugar. That's going to keep your hormone levels even and prevent the spikes in insulin and shut off the sugar cravings. But you have to go cold turkey. You can't just reduce the amount of sugar. You have to go cold turkey for at least a week and see what happens. And don't think that artificial sweeteners are going to help you because we’ve found that people who have artificial sweeteners increase their risk of being overweight by 200 percent, increase the risk of diabetes by 67 percent, so there's no free ride.

[percentmilk]

I quit smoking cold turkey, by thinking to myself,
"I can do this. I HAVE the willpower. I DO!"
And I did.
Willpower is indeed real, and as strong as you need it to be.

[Cuddlebunzzzz]

(cont) Of course it depends on the type of damage done. In regards to something like severe burn wounds or brain trauma, then yes it does work on a points system because that damage can't ever be completely reversed. But if it's something like a huge shallow gash on your arm, that sort of damage is reversible. The cells that were damaged are removed and replaced by completely healthy ones. Some injuries even make your body stronger, if a bone is broken a certain way it will grow back stronger.

[KarmicBeats]

I also like your advice on the portions. I have been saying the same thing for many years. People eat a huge portion of fatty meat and a tiny plate of vegetables that usually gets thrown away uneaten.

I think a huge portion of vegetables and a tiny portion of lean meat is the way to go. I make no comments about going completely vegetarian. However I think a more vegetarian-like diet is better.

[ScabeiathraxUK]

Some injuries do appear to strengthen the body, but in fact, the only give the appearance of increased strength. There is good reason that we grow with straight, smooth bones, for instance. A healed broken bone area can cause complications if the bone growth does not stop when it should, and the area of the break could well be a different level of density to the rest of the bone in your limb, like the bone equivalent of scar tissue. That could lead to easy splintering.

[ScabeiathraxUK]

And like I said, I'm not talking about eating too much of one thing. I'm talking about eating everything. Like you said, too much of anything is bad regardless of whether it is healthy or not, so is that argument not already moot?

Eating based on impulse is just a small part of experiencing everything, but important regardless. And eating based on impulse does not bar you from fresh produce.

Anyone can meet fitness goals, because goals are achievable, and therefore subjective.

[LeeMilby]

Interesting -- Once I started eating mostly vegetables and fresh proteins, I have noticed a number of differences when i do eat processed foods. After eating processed foods, I get tired faster, my gut is more sensitive, i have less energy and can't think as quickly. But when i eat fresh stuff, i don't even need coffee to keep me going

[walkingwhiletalking]

in a way i agree, but what would your solution be? which scholars or which topics would you like seeing addressed?

[Abelltd]

"Food is information" - fantastic quote.

[sandracorlett]

This guy is very reasonable. Why would anyone with disagree with this balanced approach to healthy eating?

[Cuddlebunzzzz]

Plus if you are in good shape due to good diet and exercise, all those things you mentioned you want to do will be much more enjoyable. Hiking through a jungle or visiting a war zone is much easier if you're in good enough physical condition to not collapse from exhaustion after 5 minutes. You can't enjoy those things if you live in a bubble, and you can't enjoy them if you're obese or mentally/physically impaired from excessive drug use.

[aluisious]

Yeah, I switched from regular to diet soda, makes a big difference.

[hitssquad]

That means to eat what people might consider typical dinner fare, such as meat and butter, in the morning instead of in the evening.

[AddisonRennick]

It's because they feed the addiction to "sweetness". Eventually everyone cracks under pressure so, on average, artificial sweeteners result in you eating more sugar.

Ironically (and as counter-intuitively as the above) this means that high-fructose corn is actually a good thing. It's sweeter, which means you have to physically eat less of it to satisfy the craving. Of course, is it really better to be able to quickly and cheaply satisfy your craving constantly with HFCS? I won't answer that ;).

[hitssquad]

When you drop carbs, you need to increase your salt intake. This is because the carbs you were eating were stimulating insulin secretion which causes salt retention. When you drop the carbs, you quickly pee out the salt you were retaining, causing your blood pressure to drop.
The balancing problems you were experiencing might have had to do with that blood pressure drop. Again: the solution is to increase your salt intake.

[hitssquad]

The type of carbohydrate in white rice is complex, not simple. An example of a simple carbohydrate would be table sugar (sucrose).

[JamesLikesBeer]

I used to be able to do that when I was 15. Even at 25 it wasn't bad. Now I'm 35 and it's catching up to me even as the past few years I've changed quite a bit of my diet

[Cuddlebunzzzz]

Still, wanting a wide variety of experiences doesn't justify saying that being healthy doesn't really matter, or that cardiovascular disorders aren't a big deal. It is possible to enjoy many things in life without destroying your body through bad eating habits. You can still do exciting things like exploring, snowboarding, and eating huge greasy burgers while still eating a balanced diet that meets all of your nutritional needs, so you can extend the amount of time you have to experience life.

[ScabeiathraxUK]

You are still talking about them as black and white. I'm not talking about being in "good shape", nor am I talking about being obese.

I am talking about a line between the two, where you can live an active life, experimenting with food/drugs/alcohol, and remaining at approximately "average" health due to the extra activity of experimenting with sports/exploration/physical tasks.

I am denouncing the need to aim for a good diet and exercise, as in setting aside time to repeat "healthy" tasks.

[eutahbear]

I eat all whole wheat bread, rye, any whole grain. In moderation, of course. That's the key. I ask myself, Am I really hungry, or just not full up? Can I wait a half hour? 1 hour? Frequent SMALL portions work well for me. I just don't stress about eating anymore. I savor every bite. It's great not to be a slave to food anymore. Be happy!

[krcheti]

i think i am gonna try
thanks for posting