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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Fuhrman has many hours of free information on his website! I spent a week reading his website before it finally convinced me to join the online member center! I love the member center so much that I have been a member ever since August of 05'. Its odd how some people will pay $100/month or even $20/month for media delivery via tv/internet but not pay $8/month for their health! We only get one body, our vehicle to experience life to it's fullest.
I am not trying to get anyone to join the member center though. Just trying to express that I was a bit of a skeptic at first so I went to his website and just kept reading and reading and reading for quite some time to get a general idea of his thoughts! I think it is the best bargain on EARTH right now! I often think that it should cost $100 month after having used it extensively (Don't raise the price though Dr. Fuhrman)
Ellie - I guess you could say it is just a theory since toxic hunger has not been in any peer-reviewed scientific journals and I don't think the studies will be out for quite a while! It has been proven with my belly though :)
All I can say is that I hope you try it! No more belly pains, shakiness or headaches await us!
Warmly,
Elijah
ReplyI am a 55 year-old whose life has been changed profoundly for the
better by Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live program. I have been following Eat to Live for close to 4 years.
Arguments on the concept of "toxic hunger" deflect attention
from critically important aspects of Eat to Live. I fear that
negative posts may keep people from checking out a program that
just might be the best thing that ever happened to them. It certainly
has been for me.
I love the way I look, I love my energy level, and I love how easy it
will be for me to stay the same weight for the rest of my life. As
someone who had struggled for decades with yo-yo dieting, that is like
a dream come true.
Please, if you are someone with a weight problem or a health problem,
take time to read and consider:
1. Dr. Fuhrman's main point is that we should eat the most of foods
that are highest in nutrients, and the least of high-calorie junk
foods. That recommendation fails to set off my "this guy might be a
quack" alarm.
2. I almost can't believe it myself:
here I am, by far the happiest I have ever been in my life, eating
nothing but vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts & seeds, with various
flavor enhancers (vinegars, spices, soy milk, dried fruits, etc.)
Hey, if I'd been told that, I would have cried.
I now absolutely LOVE these foods. It is partly that I have learned great recipes,
and partly that our tastes in food can change very dramatically.
No, I never would have believed it. You just have to try it.
3. I am convinced that eating foods high in nutrients satisfies our
hunger. I am a highly experienced dieter, and I have never been this comfortable in my life.
I'm convinced that cravings are our cells crying out to us that they need nutrients.
I did several years of Dr. Ornish's and Dr. McDougall's programs
before starting Dr. Fuhrman's, and I find Dr. Fuhrman's to be
the best of a good lot. The Eat to Live foods make me feel pampered,
and I am not hungry between meals. My health and energy levels have
been the best on Eat to Live.
4. I have not even touched on the disease-reversal that can be
accomplished with Eat to Live, and the programs of Drs. Ornish and
McDougall (and others). I think that for a number of scientific
reasons, Dr. Fuhrman's program is the most powerfully effective
reverser of disease, but even if you don't believe that, you'll be
MUCH better off with Dr. Furhman, Ornish, McDougall, or Esselstyn than
with the American Heart Association diet, for instance (and that has
been studied), or heaven forbid, the standard American diet.
Information on disease-reversal is available for free at www.drfuhrman.com
Don't be distracted by arguments about toxic hunger!
Eat to Live is a lifesaver.
Laurie
ReplyWow, 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.
ReplyHuh. I have fasting hypoglycemia. (Not reactive)
ReplyAnd I've fainted numerous times from it, blacked out others.
I don't think that's normal.
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.
ReplyWell I did find ONE thing I agreed with in this article - and that's that most of us don't get to a point of feeling hunger. As for in the throat???? And the idea of toxic hunger - well let's just say It would be interesting to see evidence of this....
ReplyWow, 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.
Reply