Summary-
Take a probiotic 100 billion/day -alternate brands every few weeks
Make 2/3 to 3/4 of your daily intake organic (pesticide kills gut bugs) vegetables
Reframe your opinion about your cravings - don't send supplies to the bad guys
Take a magnesium supplement with dinner
One of the most common complaints I hear from patients is about carb cravings.... especially in the evenings. While there are many factors for carb cravings involving insulin resistance and decreased serotonin the one I want to address today is how your gut bugs effect cravings.
Have you heard of probiotics? They are "healthy bacteria" that reside in the gut that has a positive effect on health and digestion. It also greatly effects cravings. The bacteria in your gut, whether good or bad, sends out chemical messengers to communicate with each other. Many people believe that these messengers that are absorbed into our blood stream mimic neurotransmitters and can effect our mood and cravings. This is another way that we get to see how mental or behavioral heath is connected to our physical state of health.
Say we eat a Standard American Diet (SAD) then our bugs that thrive off french fries and sugar will be the highest population constantly sending messengers to brain to crave more of these foods. Your diet attracts, feed and sustains the bugs and cravings you have. Whats a great way to get rid of your cravings? Change your gut bugs! Attract, feed and sustain the bugs that will give you cravings for fresh real food. When we eat fresh vegetables, healthy fats and organic proteins we start to starve out the bad bugs and feed the good ones
My analogy for this is to think of a mini territory war on your gut. Every bite of food is either feeding the good guys or feeding the bad guys. So say you are starting to eat healthy, 2/3- 3/4 of your plate coming form veggies, your good gut bug are down there so happy and energized to take over new land, propelling you towards better health but then the bad gut bugs start getting hungry and tired. They start sending out emergency alerts to your brain and out of no where you think you need dessert, chips or bread. Have you ever been sitting somewhere and just felt kind of blue all of as sudden... the type of "blue" or tired that made you think "I just need some chocolate or some ice cream"? Those are the carb and sugar eating bugs hijacking your brain. We don't want to give in and send supplies to the bad guys... we want to take away there weapons and feed the good guys who benefit our health. Try drinking water, hot decaf tea, taking a walk or even just getting sun on your face on the porch.
Can't shake the craving... try a baked sweet potato with a healthy fat. Not only will this boost our serotonin it will also feed the good guys. Try taking a magnesium supplement with dinner. If you aren't taking magnesium you are most likely deficient and this can lead to cravings for sweets and chocolate along with a host of other health issues.
It takes only one day to start changing your gut microbe population which is great news but it does mean one cheat day can get you off track. 6 weeks seems to be the magic number for most of my patients to eliminate the majority of cravings but with everyday it gets easier. The more you feed your good bugs the more they will send out messages craving healthy foods. Even if you do every once and a while give in to the commands of the bad bugs and eat that slice of pizza (hopefully gluten free) make sure you get in 3x that amount of greens or veggies with it to help keep the population in check.
Summary-
Take a probiotic 100 billion/day -alternate brands every few weeks
Make 2/3 to 3/4 of your daily intake organic (pesticide kills gut bugs) vegetables
Reframe your opinion about your cravings - don't send supplies to the bad guys
Take a magnesium supplement with dinner
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