Overcoming Toxic Hunger: A Major Cause of Obesity

Wow, Dr. Barry Sears (author of the Zone Diet) was right when he said that few things create as visceral a response as religion, politics, and nutrition.

One thing that is frustrating in the world of nutrition is that people are so dynamic and our environment is so dynamic that it is sometimes hard to generalize laboratory research to the general population.

Another thing that has always been frustrating to me is that so many doctors are fighting with each other about the best approach to everything.

This leaves the consumers wondering which doctor to believe.

By arguing doctors may think they are helping consumers, but in fact they are distracting and confusing consumers.

I am an open-minded and analytical person, and I know for a fact that there are more than 100 ways to skin a cat. And I believe that people can say the opposite things and both be right. Our bodies are so amazing that it I believe it is capable of multiple realities.

One thing I don’t think anyone can refute is that Dr. Fuhrman cares about the health of people and has actually helped thousands of people.

So why be mad at someone who is devoting his life to helping people regardless of him methods.

I feel bad that Dr. Fuhman has to defend his practice to an internet blog community when he could be helping more people.

I wonder if any of the people spewing venom have actually ever helped anyone improve their health.

Carbs, protein, fat… it all has to be balanced. You can not eliminate any one of them for lasting results. Take those high protein low carb diets. People were getting quick results with dangerous future side affects! Not only should you not eliminate any of the food groups, you need to mix & match them. You really can eat a large variety of foods when matched up correctly for balance. Even vegetarians (the ones doing it right) get their protein from alternative foods.

Huh. I have fasting hypoglycemia. (Not reactive)
And I’ve fainted numerous times from it, blacked out others.
I don’t think that’s normal.

Your worried about acrylamide ;the stuff has been around since man used fire/heat to cook, and has only been shown to theoretically increase cancer rates in rats. If your worried about every little negative thing said about food then you’ll be left with nothing to eat.

I understand that some interventions work clinically and take a while to become published but understand that this theory is being presented as fact. I’m all for new ideas and proposals but I prefer they go through the ringer of scientific scrutiny.

Appreciate the dialogue!

Wow, there are a lot of different opinions about this subject. In my experience, I do think that our society is overfed and undernourished. You can be obese and still be malnourished if your diet consists of things like chips and donuts or whatever. I noticed that once I started eating lots of whole, unprocessed foods, I wasn’t feeling as “hungry”…I actually just felt satisfied between meals and I wasn’t tempted to snack so much.

As far as “hypoglycemia” goes, most people who claim that they have it are actually just experiencing the effects of glucagon, the hormone that pulls stored fat out of your body and converts it to glucose for your brain/body to use as fuel. True hypoglycemia usually only occurs if your pancreas doesn’t produce glucagon or if your body is somehow resistant to it. And I’m also pretty sure most Americans don’t ever let themselves get truly “hungry”; most of us eat pretty often…if you have ever fasted, you’ll attest to the fact that the hunger you feel after that is definitely a lot stronger than any hunger you normally feel on a daily basis.

Hi Merry,

The poster actually said that there were hundreds OR thousands of references, so I think she wasn’t really sure exactly how many, but knew it was extensive. I just did a quick check and counted 360 footnotes in the Eat to Live book, and most of the footnotes cite multiple journal references to back up the points he is making, so my rough estimate would be that there might be around 1000 in this one book (I’m not going to try to count them all). Dr. Fuhrman has written a number of books, so when he commented that his books contain thousands of references, that was likely an accurate assessment.

I’m sure you are right that most of the references are not going to be related to what he says about toxic hunger, since hunger is only one of many topics that are covered in the book, however, the reason the ETL book has been referred to by so many people on this thread is because they feel that they were able to overcome their toxic hunger by following the dietary recommendations found in the book. I actually haven’t read ETL in a number of years, so I’m not really sure how extensively the subject of toxic hunger was covered there, however, I do know that the ‘Greatest Diet on Earth II’ DVD definitely does have a major focus on the subject.

I just checked out this book from the library. To be specific, there are 28 pages of small-print endnote references to various studies. While they all do not specifically deal with ‘toxic hunger’, the references all seem to back up various points that are made in the book, and most of the references are to studies printed in highly regarded journals.

Saying “hundreds of thousands of references” is vague. It’s good to be specific when you’re trying to prove a point.

Good day Mike,

I enjoy your healthy discussions and open-mindedness!

I don’t think we will see any studies on this for a while, gotta have some big money for good studies and toxic-hunger is definitely not worthy of drug company sponsors.

In the meantime, thousands of bellies are pain free!

Cheers,

Elijah

Hi Cereal,

You are correct that not all Peanut Butter contains hydrogenated oils. David was mistaken about that, however, even the natural brands of peanut butter that contain no hydrogenated oils have the problem of acrylamides which form when the peanuts are roasted. The reason for the suggestion of raw cashew butter or raw almond butter as a healthier alternative is to avoid the acrylamides.

As for the issue of hunger, it is quite clear to me that fake hunger exists, and drives people to overeat and carry extra weight. How do I know this, and why do I consider it more than an unfounded theory? I will tell you. Most of my life I have experienced shakiness, weakness, headaches, and a gnawing, grumbling stomach after a period without food, and since these symptoms were relieved by eating food I slways thought they signified hunger. How then, can I possibly explain the fact that I can now go for much longer periods of time without food, and yet never experience any of these systems? It has been years now since I have experienced any of these symptoms, and at this point I feel like I don’t even know I have a stomach because the only place I ever experience hunger is in my throat. The throat hunger is not uncomfortable, and I don’t have the same fear of becoming hungry that I used to, and I don’t eat prophalactically to avoid the experience. In fact, I know that if I can wait for the experience of the throat sensation to occur, I will enjoy my food a lot more, because I’m truly hungry. I actually find that I am enjoying my food more now than I ever have before in my entire life. What makes me realize that the ‘hunger’ I experienced previously was only fake is the fact that it has completely disappeared, and no longer exists for me. I think this is what the other nutritarians were trying to say as well.

BTW, I really don’t feel that I’m better or superior to other people. On the other hand, I feel extremely lucky to have stumbled across a body of knowledge that most people are not familiar with, and which has transformed my life. Most of my life I have really struggled to keep my weight down, and I have done a lot of yo-yo dieting. What has been different about the nutritarian way of eating is that I have finally been able to make a healthy, permanent, sustainable lifestyle change, while also enjoying my food more than ever. There are many ways to lose weight, but this does not mean that all methods are healthy or sustainable over a long period of time. People sometimes lose weight by taking illegal drugs, but that doesn’t make it advisable or healthy. Dr. Fuhrman’s diet-style has an unrivaled track record in terms of sustainability of weight loss. If you look at his post above, I beleive he referenced a peer-reviewed study in which a group of people eating his diet-style were followed over time, and found to have
achieved greater success with their long term weight loss than has previously been documented before in any study for any other diet. The bottom line is that a surprisingly large number of people who lose weight following Dr. Fuhrman’s diet-style are able to permanently sustain the weight loss without ever regaining it back. The explanation for what makes this possible, is that when people are eating a diet that is very high in micro-nutrients, they become more satisfied with less calories. Conversely, if a person eats a diet that is very low in nutrients, they will feel driven to eat more calories because the body’s nutritional needs have not been met. Of course the other aspect, which was mentioned previously is that people also will overeat in response to false perceptions of hunger.

Although weight loss is a simple proposition of calories in versus calories expended, Dr. Fuhrman tells us that we should not need to ‘count calories’ in order to achieve an ideal weight. He tells us that our body gives us signals that tell us when we need to eat, and when we need to stop, and that eating processed foods will wreak havoc on our ability to be in touch with our bodies natural signals. We should eat when we are hungry, and stop when we are full, and try to avoid eating recreationally, or when bored or not really hungry. If you look at animals in the wild, eating their natural diets, you can’t find any that have become obese from overeating, and they don’t manage this by counting calories. On the other hand, when animals are domesticated, and fed processed food in place of their natural diet, they will overeat and become fat.

On a personal level, I am finally in touch with my body’s natural signals, and this has allowed me to achieve and maintain what I consider to be an ideal weight at which I feel very comfortable and healthy. At the age of 50, I actually now weigh less than I did in high school, which still surprises even me! I am 4’11″ and weigh 90 pounds, and I look and feel healthier and more energetic now than at any time in my life.

I notice you have referred to this diet-style as being like a ‘religion’, and perhaps you have said that because of people making comments about being ‘believers’ in toxic hunger. I just want to point out that they are ‘believers’ because they have had personal experiences which provided them with proof that could not be denied, such that they could not believe otherwise.

Finally, I just want to say that this diet-style is not really an all or nothing thing. There is actually a continuum upon which there is always more room for stepping things up a notch and further perfecting our diet. People can always make changes to their diet which will have a positive health impact, even if they don’t follow everything 100%. Although many of the nutritarians started out by reading the earlier book called ‘Eat to Live’, Dr. Fuhrman’s latest book called ‘Eat for Health’ is actually focussed on how to gradually make healthy lifestyle changes over time, because for a lot of people it is overwhelming to try to make sudden, drastic changes all at once.

In terms of the toxic hunger discussion, I have to tell you that its been awhile since I read Eat to Live, and I don’t remember how much detail about toxic hunger was covered in that book. What I do know is that he talks about it in the ‘Greatest Diet on Earth II’ DVD. So, if you specifically want to hear more about toxic hunger, that is probably a really good lecture to listen to, and its really a great DVD overall. Of course, I own a copy, however, I’m thinking it would probably be available in the library as well.

Not sure how you could make the argument that vegan activism is irrelevant to one writing a book that recommends shunning meat.

I think Campbell makes some very good cases for different regions and the impact of diet and health on those regions. I also agree that too much processed food leads to chronic disease. I DISAGREE, however with the isoloation of meat and dairy (not extreme excesses therof) in and of themselves as a causational factor in disease.

If Dr Fuhrman is so keen for his ideas to be out there for free, why aren’t his books on the internet for free, on his website say, as opposed to links to amazon, etc? If I were to take his books out of the library he would be paid, and I would rather not have my actions result in money being paid to a possible quack.

I think the astonishment at people asking for some kind of evidence is hilarious. The response is, you can look at the references in the books but you won’t understand? So we should all just trust you anyway? Lovely. Thankyou for that lesson in logic.

People and the scientific community may have been skeptical of Einstein at first, but they were also skeptical of the many many many scientists and studies and theories that were also disproved. Its called Falsificationism.

Please do get back to us when you have some studies to back up your statements. Now I need to go and eat something, you see, I haven’t eaten for a while and I’m a little shaky.