Overeating

Parasites or worms in the gut, or emotional issues can make people overeat. And a disruption of organ function or gland imbalances can cause this too. When we eat too much meat, for example, we can inflame the stomach lining which causes an excess of heat in the stomach itself. This heat makes you want to eat more.

Food cravings

Sugary, carbohydrate-rich foods and sweets raise the level of the feel-good chemicals in your body (these are the endorphins serotonin and norepinephrine). The trouble with eating high sugar foods is that sugar enters your blood stream very quickly and causes a rush of insulin along with a rush of serotonin. If there is a sudden rise in sugar levels, the insulin breaks it down very quickly, leading to a drop in both sugar and endorphins. This leaves you feeling worse than before and you may reach for more sugary foods to boost your mood, setting up a cycle of food cravings, weight gain, fatigue and mood swings which is hard to break. Every single participant on the show had a sugar addiction. Most of them did not even realize until I showed them just exactly how much sugar they consumed in a week.

Insulin imbalances

When we eat food, glucose from the digestive breakdown of the food is absorbed into your gut and blood. The body takes what it requires and then produces insulin to lower glucose levels back to normal, converting the excess glucose into a compound called glycogen which is stored by the liver.

On a healthy diet this process works perfectly, but excessive consumption of refined carbohydrates, particularly sugary foods, upsets the balance and everything starts to go haywire. Your body has to produce increasing amounts of insulin to break down the sugars. Eventually you become resistant to the insulin, and instead of converting excess glucose into glycogen, it turns into fat. You are then caught in a vicious cycle where the more unstable your blood sugar levels, the more prone you will be to craving sweets and unrefined carbohydrates like bread.

An imbalance of the hormone insulin can often be the root cause of overweight. Too much sugar causes glucose intolerance in the body, and when you are overweight you break down sugar less effectively. It’s a Catch 22 situation.

Food intolerances

We often crave the same foods day in and day out. I had one patient, an artist, who told me that she had to have her oatmeal every morning for breakfast, and only ate breaded chicken legs for dinner every evening for the last 30 years! She was exhausted, no longer wanted to paint, and lacked interest in life. When I forced her to change her same food regimen she became energized, felt creative, started to paint again, and even lost over a stone in weight within a month.

If you eat the same foods every day, for years, in many cases you can often become sensitive to those very foods, sometimes referred to as food intolerances. And usually the foods that we crave are the same ones that lead to weight gain. It is a vicious cycle.

If you are food intolerant, a delayed immune response occurs in your body. This can happen over several hours or days after the offending food is ingested. Side effects to these foods can be from irritable bowel-like symptoms to skin eruptions, ulcerations in the mouth, Crohn’s disease or inflammation of the digestive tract, colic, ear problems and tiredness, to name a few. It is not always so obvious. But food intolerances can have a direct effect on the assimilation of nutrients, digestive organ function and weight management. The more common foods such as wheat, dairy, sugar and corn are often implicated as food intolerance triggers, simply because many of us eat too much of these foods anyway. They can be found in so many prepackaged foods. So, it is easy to become food intolerant these days, especially if you eat too many chemically altered and processed foods.

The problem is that when you eat foods to which you are intolerant, every day, you cause a drastic slowdown of metabolism. Digestive enzyme function is impaired, which means that your body will not break down fat properly.

In addition, by eating the same foods every day, you limit your intake of essential nutrients, vitamins, minerals and co-factors. So my best advice here is:

• » Always rotate your foods. In other words, if you eat a food today, then try not to eat it again for say three or four days. Thus, you may prevent food intolerances.

• » It is a good idea to get tested for food intolerances or allergies. In this way, you can know exactly which foods are possibly causing you to gain weight or feel horrible or overly tired and lethargic. I require all of my weight loss patients and many other patients too, to get tested at my clinic for food intolerances. If you would like us to test you for food intolerances at the McKeith Clinic, then please let us know. Also, do the pulse test .

How will eating well break the cycle?

Eating a balanced, nutrient rich diet will help you break this cycle of cravings, sugar and weight gain. This is because eating well not only nourishes your body but regulates your blood sugar levels so that you don’t get those lows when you crave sugary pick-me-ups. Your energy levels are less likely to dip, which means you are less likely to crave food that you don’t need or isn’t good for you.

Chronic dieting

Fad diets, or yo-yo dieting, won’t help you lose weight in the long term. You may get some short-term weight loss but it will be virtually impossible to sustain. This is because the rate at which food is broken down and used by your body – a process called thermogenesis – is weakened by the stress of constant dieting, making it virtually impossible for you to lose weight and keep it off. Here are my top tips for getting back on track if you have been a chronic dieter.

• » Eat a healthy, balanced diet that is high in nutrients.
• » Eat widely from my good food list of choices.
• » Eat little and often to keep your blood sugar levels stable, reduce food cravings and set you on the right path.

• » Choose foods that keep blood sugar levels stable, so anything you like from my Diet of Abundance . Cut out foods that cause hikes in your sugar levels, particularly sweets and processed foods.
• » Get more active. Exercise is an essential long-term weight management tool and ingredient for a healthy, happy life.
• » Cut down on salt and drink lots of water to reduce fluid retention (6–8 glasses a day).
• » Make breakfast and lunch the biggest meals of the day as you are more likely to be active during the day and burn off the calories.
• » The herbs cinnamon, ginger, cayenne, cardamom and ginseng can all help stimulate thermogenesis (the rate at which food is broken down) and promote weight loss.
• » Make sure you get enough good quality sleep. Sleep deprivation increases the risk of unhealthy eating and weight gain.

Motivation:

• » Think about why you want to lose weight and how good it will be for your health and wellbeing.
• » Start today writing down everything you eat and drink. Once you become more aware of your eating patterns and what triggers food cravings you can start to deal with them.
• » When you do eat take your time. Chew your food really well. Put your knife and fork down between mouthfuls and really savour your food. It takes a while for your stomach to tell your brain that it is full and many of us eat so fast we never get the signal in time.
• » Write down your weight loss and/or healthy eating goals and make a commitment to yourself. Studies show that writing down your goals helps you stay focused on achieving them.
• » Tell yourself that you are not on a diet. Dieting for a day, a week or a month or a few months belongs to the past. From now on you are simply eating healthily to create a new and exciting you.