Addictive Foods

Your Weight Loss Struggles are Real

Sugar, salt, and a large variety of favors are addictive. Sugar stimulates your brain to release serotonin, which is one hormone that affects happiness and your mood.(1,2) Salt triggers the brain to release dopamine, the hormone that allows you to feel pleasure and gratification.(3)

Both hormones make you feel good. Everyone wants to feel good.

The negative side is that you build a tolerance to how much sugar or salt will cause the hormone release, so you need more and more over time.(3)

I talked about the other hormones that affect the hunger cycle in my article Battling to Lose Weight?

We overeat and crave processed foods with considerable sugar and salt. These addictive foods are readily available and inexpensive, so the deck is stacked against us. Our food addiction is causing us to overeat, gain weight, and have serious health effects that threaten our longevity.

Reverse preventable deaths.

Because being overweight is related to one or more medical conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and some cancers such as liver, colon, and breast cancers.(4,5,6)

These conditions cost each person more money in medical expenses each year. However, it is well-established that many of these conditions can be reversed with dietary changes.(5,6,7) That is the good news.

The bad news is that the longer you are heavier than your body can tolerate, the more difficult it is for the body to reverse any damage caused over the years.(5,7) Therefore, there is no time like the present to start moving toward a healthier weight.

As I said in the article Why is Dieting So Hard?, I, too, have grappled with my weight like you.

I want to share my knowledge as a registered nurse and my experiences with patients at the bedside to help you become a master at dealing with and avoiding the pitfalls and traps of everyday life.

I invite you to come along on this journey with me. The health improvements, higher energy levels, and mental wellness of weight loss are so worth it.

Visit me at healthyendeavors.co and see if the Get Thin & Stay Thin program is a good fit for you.

References:

1. National Center for Biotechnology Information (2022). PubChem Compound Summary for CID 5202, Serotonin. Retrieved April 27, 2022 from https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Serotonin.

2. Inam QU, Ikram H, Shireen E, Haleem DJ. Effects of sugar rich diet on brain serotonin, hyperphagia and anxiety in animal model of both genders. Pak J Pharm Sci. 2016 May;29(3):757–63. PMID: 27166525.

3. Morris, M. J., Na, E. S., & Johnson, A. K. (2008). Salt craving: the psychobiology of pathogenic sodium intake. Physiology & behavior, 94(5), 709–721. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2008.04.008

4. Ioannis, Kyrou. “Clinical Problems Caused by Obesity.” National Library of Medicine, Endotext, 11 Jan. 2018.

5. Khaodhiar L, McCowen KC, Blackburn GL. Obesity and its comorbid conditions. Clin Cornerstone. 1999;2(3):17–31. doi: 10.1016/s1098–3597(99)90002–9. PMID: 10696282. 6.

6. Haase CL, Lopes S, Olsen AH, Satylganova A, Schnecke V, McEwan P. Weight loss and risk reduction of obesity-related outcomes in 0.5 million people: evidence from a UK primary care database. Int J Obes (Lond). 2021 Jun;45(6):1249–1258. doi: 10.1038/s41366–021–00788–4. Epub 2021 Mar 3. PMID: 33658682; PMCID: PMC8159734.

7. AlGhatrif, Majd. “News Release Archive.” Losing Weight Sooner Rather than Later Gives the Best Chance of Reversing Heart Damage from Obesity, According to Study, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Based in Baltimore, Maryland, 4 Mar. 2013.