Originally published August 25 2012
Having unhealthy food cravings? Here is what your body really wants
by PF Louis
(NaturalNews) Even while kicking the standard American diet (SAD), even after leaving SAD behind, those nasty little junk or processed food cravings can re-emerge. They're like the munchies after coming down from pot or booze.
But cravings don't need any drug or alcohol stimulus to overcome us. Cravings have more than one motive or causality. A slow detox from SAD while eating healthy over time encourages toxin elimination.
The toxins from the foods that had invited those toxins earlier stimulate the desire for another taste of that food as those toxins are eliminated.
Another craving syndrome could be more like addictions to those foods that harm you the way a heroin addict or smoker is addicted, immediate gratification with long-term negative consequences. Yet there are reasons for addictions beyond merely satisfying impulses.
The persuasive power of sugar
An example of how a parasitic growth or condition demands addiction satisfaction is Candida demanding sugar. The Candida needs the sugar for its survival. A basic tenet of Candida overgrowth is kicking sugar completely. The same is true for cancer patients.
Cancer cells thrive on fermenting glucose because as normal cells they had lost the ability to metabolize with oxygen.
Before Dr. Max Gerson arrived in the USA from Germany, he was treating cancer patients in France. At one point he was perplexed about the lack of progress his patients were making on his natural vegetarian diet-based juicing and liver cleansing therapy.
Then he discovered a clinical assistant was bringing pastries to them. The pastries were banned and soon so was the cancer. Sugar is a nasty "feel-good" addiction. One can exacerbate conditions of insulin resistance, insomnia, hypoglycemia, adrenal fatigue, and cancer.
Unfortunately, sugar in various forms that include high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is ubiquitous in processed foods that aren't even sweet, like French fries. It's in those foods to make you eat more, because sugar is highly addictive.
That's another reason for sticking to fresh, organic bulk foods and produce.
Cravings as signals for lacking nutrients
This craving explanation is more controversial, but plausible. There could be a nutritional deficiency your body's begging to fulfill. After all, thanks to the early mid-20th century's Green Revolution of large mono-crop factory farming with chemical fertilizers and pesticides, most of our farming topsoil is mineral depleted.
An example of a positive craving was given by Debi Gouge in her article on dailytransfromations. (Source 2 below)
She was having a chronic low iron issue despite taking Fetron Iron twice daily. Then she was struck by a huge craving for apples, which she indulged. She ate up to eight apples a day. Her iron levels came up. She discovered that the pectin in apples helps keep iron in the body. She didn't know this until after her cravings were satisfied.
So a healthy craving can be a good thing. But what do apparently unhealthy cravings tell what you may need?
Craving chocolate indicates you may have a shortage of magnesium. Magnesium is the most influential mineral in our cellular metabolic functioning. It's needed in over 300 metabolic functions, which is why it's been dubbed the "master mineral." (http://www.naturalnews.com/026768_magnesium_food_supplement.html)
Craving white breads and processed flour pastas has been cited as trying to fulfill a chromium shortage. Chromium regulates insulin.
Cheese cravings indicate an Omega-3 imbalance. According to naturopathyworks.com, craving sodas demonstrates you need calcium, while coffee or tea binging indicates a shortage of sulfur, phosphorous, or both.
What is covered here is a sampling from a very extensive list of different cravings, what nutrients are needed because of those cravings, and what foods will take care of those nutritional deficiencies. See source (1) below.
Sources for this article include:
(1) http://www.naturopathyworks.com/pages/cravings.php
(2) http://www.dailytransformations.com
(3) http://www.ultimatelifespan.com
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