Overcoming Toxic Hunger: A Major Cause of Obesity
This is a guest post from Dr Joel Fuhrman MD.
Most people never experience the healthy sensation of feeling hungry. Most of us keep eating to avoid hunger! But actually, feeling hungry is healthy. It directs your body to consume the amount of calories it requires for optimal health and ideal bodyweight.
Hunger, in the true sense of the word, indicates to us that it is time to eat again.
Instead of TRUE hunger, people experience TOXIC hunger--detoxification or withdrawal symptoms that they mistakenly consider hunger.
What is Toxic Hunger?
Toxic hunger is the group of symptoms a person experiences as our body mobilizes toxic wastes for elimination.
When our diet is low in nutrients, we build up intra-cellular waste products. So when digestion stops, our body goes through a period of "cleaning." Meaning our tissues release toxic substances into circulation for removal. Our cells can harbor toxic products that will eventually make us sick.
These uncomfortable "detox symptoms" occur after a meal is digested and the digestive track is empty. We start to feel shaky, head-achy, weak, get abdominal cramps or spasms, which we believe are hunger symptoms because they are relieved by eating.
What is Real Hunger?
Consider that real hunger is not often experienced in our modern, overfed population. Most people no longer even remember or are aware what hunger even feels like. Most people are surprised to find that true hunger is felt in the throat and not in the head or stomach. Removing toxic hunger and getting back in touch with true hunger makes eating more pleasurable and we are able to maintain our ideal weight without dieting.
Continually eating to alleviate these withdrawal symptoms is one of the most important contributors to our population's overweight condition. We eat the wrong foods and just a few hours later we feel ill and we are driven to eat again to relieve the discomfort--typically the wrong foods again.
An Alternative to Hunger
Now, you do not want to go hungry and deny yourself food to achieve an ideal weight. However, there is another answer. When we eat a high nutrient diet, rich in colorful vegetables and fruits, you will better meet the nutrient needs of our body--thus reducing or eliminating the withdrawal symptoms, that I call toxic hunger.
These super foods eliminate toxic hunger and overeating:
• Berries: blackberries, strawberries, blueberries
• Seeds: flax, sesame, sunflower
• Green Leafy Vegetables: kale, bok choy, spinach
• Colorful Raw Foods: tomatoes, carrots, peppers
• Steamed Greens: broccoli, string beans, asparagus
High-nutrient eating enables us to deal better with all types of stress, but in the case of hunger. Eating more high-nutrient foods will enable you to avoid "stress hunger" and not have the cravings and drive to overeat.
Joel Fuhrman, M.D is a board certified family physician specializing in nutritional medicine. He is the author of the best selling Eat To Live, Disease-Proof Your Child and his most recent work, Eat For Health. Visit him at DrFuhrman.com or on his blog DiseaseProof.com.
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105 Comments
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Created / Updated: November 8, 2011
this is why this is my favorite site, i learn something new everyday.
ReplySo the point of this is what? Are you trying to sell everyone on the idea that a veggie diet is the key to optimal health, is it a super food ramble, maybe your trying out one of those detox arguments.Please do enlighten me because for now this looks to be no more than your talking points/advertisement for your website and books.
ReplyHey cereal-
That is a pretty thumbnail analysis of the post. You don't see ONE grain of info in there?
Also, how is this an advertisement? I think you need to reread. :)
Peace.
Reply-Gerry
Were did I say I didn't see one grain of information ?
It sounds like talking points/advertisement,because it brings no information to back up his argument here just buzzword type journalism Toxic Hunger, Super Foods,anything like this bothers me.
I'm sure you agree with his statements and decided to give him a platform were he could state his beliefs. All I did was ask for some clarification on the subject otherwise, I call this as I see it a copy paste job with no thought behind it other than getting him some advertisement.
Please do reread what I wrote Gerry.
ReplyCertainly this topic could benefit from some more comprehensive discussion. First, there is a lot of interesting data out there suggesting that fat and protein are much better at satisfying hunger than carbohydrate so whilst I do not disagree with the point that nutrient rich foods like those listed are a good way to alleviate hunger, I think high quality fats and meats would complete the picture.
There is also an interesting study recently published by a guy called Dr Zane Andrews in Nature which suggests that high carbohydrate content in the diet damages the cells that regulate appetite - so this could also be contributing to this 'toxic' hunger effect in some way.
ReplyHey Methuselah-
Dr. Fuhrman wouldn't agree with your position on fat and protein. So it wouldn't "complete the picture." No offense.
Peace.
Reply-Gerry
Gerry - no offense taken :-) I know what the Doc's position is on diet so I guess I was just implicitly disagreeing with him by suggesting that the picture needed completing...
ReplyHey Methuselah-
LOL. I think I'm just jumpy. I know a wave of haters is coming. Eep!
Peace.
Reply-Gerry
I agree that some foodstuffs do cause a "rebound" hunger effect (usually refined sugars) but I'm not convinced that the symptoms listed in the article are inevitably indicators of TOXIC hunger. ARen't they just normal digestion taking place?
Personally, if I eat a small breakfast/lunch, I'm often hungry -- and I mean genuinely hungry -- 3-4 hours later. I definitely get rumbles in my stomach then... I also find that eating some protein helps me stay full for longer (for the same calories as just eating carbs).
"Toxic hunger" is an interesting topic, but one I'd like to see some thorough research on. I must say that I'm still a bit sceptical that feelings of hunger are caused by toxins.
ReplyI, too, would like to see the thorough research on "toxic hunger." But we won't, because there isn't any. It's a marketing gimmick, that's all.
-Steve
ReplyHuh.
I disagree with this.
Also, I feel what he claims are symptoms of "toxic hunger" after eating his "superfoods"
ReplyAnother good way to eliminate overeating is to just not to do it.
ReplyIf I felt shaky, head-achy, and weak, and was getting abdominal cramps or spasms, I wouldn't eat more. I'd lie down. I've never experienced those symptoms on an empty stomach. Slight rumblings yes, but nothing more. I also eat a high nutrient diet so maybe I'm not experiencing toxic hunger. Whether it exists or not, Dr. Fuhrman does provide an excellent list of foods to incorporate into your diet. Overeating is eliminated by not overeating.
ReplyFeeling hunger in the stomach is Toxic Hunger. I used to have the worst diet ever and I would always get massive pains in my stomach when I didn't eat and especially when I woke up in the morning and did not eat right away. Now that I am a Nutritarian I never feel hunger in my stomach nor get headaches anymore. It is exactly where Dr. Fuhrman says it is, in the throat. My sense of smell heightens as well.
It's is a pretty cool feeling once you go through the detox!
ReplyHaha, this was good for a laugh. Even when my diet consisted exclusively of McDonald's and grilled cheese sandwiches, I never experienced this "toxic hunger." I have experienced REAL hunger after fasting for ~25 hours (religious reasons), and it is NOT felt in the throat...it is felt in the stomach like you would expect.
Sorry, but these "super foods" (which I do eat frequently) do not fill me up nearly as good as protein and fats do. I could easily eat 3 pints of strawberries in one sitting and still be hungry, but a couple tablespoons of peanut butter fills me up instantly.
ReplyI agree... I can't see how "real" hunger is felt in the throat. When I'm hungry, my stomach lets me know!
ReplyIt is an odd concept at first but it is true. I feel true hunger in my throat all the time. Never in the stomach or head. A person should not feel pain to let them know they are hungry. The word addiction means that a person will feel physically uncomfortable when they stop doing it.
Replyperhaps the point is that the peanut butter stops it because it is "bad" for you... ie it feeds the toxic hunger... not that I believe it mind you.
ReplyI think you are correct. When you roast foods it creates acrylamides which are known to b e carcinogenic and toxic. Most all peanut butter is by default, roasted and therefore toxic.
ReplyFunny, but I wrote about this on my blog just today before checking in here. Well, not with all the scientific stuff, but it was on my mind.
Great information. Thanks.
ReplyTwo questions, answers would be greately appreciated..
>>When our diet is low in nutrients, we build up intra-cellular waste products.
What kind of waste products and is it ONLY related to level of nutrients or are there other factors? Such as the amount we eat?
>>So when digestion stops, our body goes through a period of "cleaning."
Why does the body wait for digestion to stop, to clean itself? Aren't there two different systems in the body responsible for these tasks seperately?
ReplyI've never felt hunger in my throat - are you saying that in 25 years I've never once been actually hungry??
Isn't feeling weak, irritable and headachey after a period without food related to low blood sugar? "Toxic" hunger just sounds like a gimmicky buzz word. Not to mention utter crap.
ReplyI will tell you that in my 24 years I had never felt true hunger. It was bloody toxic hunger all along! I am so glad I do not feel those symptoms anymore! I am 27 now and only feel hunger in my throat, true hunger!
It rocks!! I can skip a meal if I am real busy and don't have to worry about becoming cranky, snappy and irritable because I didn't eat!
What a wonderful feeling!
ReplyI have to say this is one of the weakest postings I have read on this blog.... disappointing... if there is any real data to back up these claims bring it on.
No matter how good or bad my diet has been I have never experienced this "toxic" hunger of which you speak... it sounds more like the few episodes of hypoglyceamia (low blood sugar) I experienced several years ago (long story, but it was related to some medication I was taking and is now all sorted)...
ALso.... the body is not a production line. The body doesn't wait until one process is finished (digestion) to start another (cleaning/detoxifying)...
I think you are right in that we often ignore real body cues such as hunger and satiety ... how many times do you have that last piece of pie because you are full & it is delicious (or is it just me lol)... but the rest of the posting is an undocumented mishmash of buzzwords.
ReplyUsing the word buzzword is a buzzword ;).
ReplyWell, my husband, who is a doctor could surely explain this in much greater detail, however, I just want to mention that there is a reason why the digestion and detoxification don't happen simultaneously. Its basically because the liver plays a large role in both processes. The liver has a lot of work to do during the digestive process which overwhelms its resources. Once the digestion is complete, the liver is then better able to do the work of detoxification which is associated with uncomfortable symptoms. In order to alleviate the symptoms, you can keep eating more food, and keep yourself in a constant process of digesting food. It should be pretty clear that your body doesn't have a genuine need to be constantly digesting food. You shouldn't feel hungry every time you stop digesting food, and if you do, then what you are experiencing is actually withdrawal. You think it is hunger, because eating more food appears to solve the problem. It is sort of like if a smoker stops smoking, they feel uncomfortable, and smoking takes away the discomfort.
ReplyI agree with the person who commented that this is one of the weaker postings on this blog. While I'm not debating the health benefits of eating the foods listed, I don't think that the thesis of this post is backed up. What is the biological/neurophysiological basis for his assertion? All I'm seeing is a bunch of gimmicky buzzwords.
ReplyGood points raised here. I'm hoping to get Dr Fuhrman on - to respond.
Jim, Editor, Diet-Blog.com
ReplyHey Jim-
LOL. I'm working on it. ;)
Peace.
Reply-Gerry
Did he just describe low blood sugar and call it Toxic Hunger?
ReplyMany people will feel symptoms of toxic-hunger and incorrectly think is hypoglycemia. Very very common.
ReplySo what's the difference?
ReplyThey don't actually have low blood sugar and are just experiencing the withdrawal symptoms from the toxic substance - similar to what a person would feel with a caffeine, nicotine or other addictive substance/drug withdrawal.
Reply