Food Addiction
Here’s a good news, bad news thing for you. It’s not just an emotional craving for some foods that you should have complete control over with your will power. That’s the good news, believe it or not. The bad news is that we can become physically addicted to these trouble foods I keep talking about.
Once again, 60-70% of the calories in the standard American diet (S.A.D.) come from dairy products and wheat alone. Cheese is the most addictive food on the planet it appears, both from personal interviews I have done and from what I have read. When I speak of dairy addiction, it is very common for people to say, “Oh, I don’t drink that much milk”. But then I ask about cheese. “Well, that’s a different matter. I’ve got to have my cheese”, they will exclaim. One morbidly obese woman with fibromyalgia, migraines and diabetes told me that if she didn’t get some cheese regularly, even shortly after a large meal, she felt that she would “die”. There was no smile on her face. Does this sound familiar?
How can this be? How can we be truly, physically addicted to food? It is very simple, actually. I have already covered the culprits responsible for the addiction in many places on the site. Just like illegal drugs, they come in two categories: uppers and downers. The uppers that we get addicted to are our old friends glutamate and aspartate. The brain loves stimulants and our caffeine, sugar, chocolate, and diet drink addictions prove it. Yes, people become truly addicted to diet drinks once the brain gets hooked on the neurostimulating aspartame (NutraSweet). MSG is also addictive. Most have heard a comedian (or ten) talk about the Chinese food phenomenon: “Hey, what’s the deal with Chinese food, anyway? You eat a meal that would feed a small country and, in a couple of hours, you’re hungry again. What’s up with that?” You couldn’t possibly need more calories, could you? What does your body (or brain) want? It wants more MSG. It loves the stuff. Addiction.
So, what else contains MSG (monosodium glutamate)? Well, look at it this way: They can make MSG from wheat and soy. Oh, oh! And, as you have probably read somewhere on this site that the casein in cow milk is 20% glutamate by structure. Cheese is loaded with glutamate…absolutely loaded. The list of other sources can be found following many of my pain, epilepsy and G.A.R.D. papers.
What about the downers? Most of you who are familiar with this site won’t be surprised to find out that they are the same guys. The depressant narcotics are the morphine-like substances known as the food opioids, casomorphins and gliadomorphins. These LSD-like compounds are formed partly because of our digestive system’s failure to completely break down the casein in cow milk and the gliadin in wheat, respectively. These substances are long-chain polypeptides that are released during digestion and have a chemical structure that is very similar to morphine derivatives. In fact, it has been reported that beta-casomorphin 7 (BCM7) is10X more powerful than morphine. They determined this by subjecting rats to BCM7 and finding that it took 10X more naloxone (an opiate reversing agent) to reverse the effects of BCM7 than was required for morphine.
It is still amazing to me that most people (including doctors) have never heard these terms when they have such a universal application in our day-to-day lives. These downers are responsible for sleepiness after eating, caffeine addiction, chronic fatigue, and the down cycle to ADHD, and play a huge role in autism. Some enlightened medical clinics in this country understand the importance of these substances. They can now make a preliminary diagnosis of autism in children by detecting high levels of these polypeptides in their urine. Wow! And, most people familiar with autism know that these children have a very strict, self-imposed diet comprised of just those things that are contributing to their problem. They are hooked on macaroni and cheese, milk, pizza, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pasta, etc….all of the sources of casomorphins and gliadorphins.
This should be no surprise when we remember that we are dealing with addiction here and we become addicted to the foods that will do us harm. Whether they stimulate us, bring us down, or do both like the wheat and dairy do, the foods that are doing it to us are causing a myriad of problems while they keep us addicted to them. It is easy to see that there are no healthy physical addictions. I’m sorry to say that this not only applies to illegal substances but also to 60-70% (plus) of the food that sits on the American plate (or plastic tray).
Dogtor J
More about the Food Opioids…
