If You Cannot Eat "Just One," You Might be a Carbohydrate Addict!

Hi,

I think the way that Jeff Foxworthy talks about rednecks could be a down to earth model for looking at carbohydrate addiction which is the real cause of both obesity and diabetes, in my mind. So here goes:

If you think that you cannot stop eating cookies or potato chips until the whole bag is empty, you might be a carbohydrate addict.

If you often daydream about eating junk foods that you know are not good for you, you might be a carbohydrate addict.

If once you get a junk food picture in your mind, you head directly to the place where you can get some, you might be a carbohydrate addict.

If someone mentions not eating any grains and you think to yourself, "yeah, right," you might be a carbohydrate addict.

If someone mentions not eating any sugar at all and you think to yourself, "never happen," you might be a carbohydrate addict.

If sugary foods have such a hold on you that you don't think there is any way to walk past them without having some, you might be a carbohydrate addict.

If the thought of not eating bread or dessert makes you shudder, you might be a carbohydrate addict.

If the color green is almost never found on your breakfast, lunch or dinner plate, you might be a carbohydrate addict.

If the colors on your plate are all shades of brown, beige and white, you might be a carbohydrate addict.

If a plate of sweets or a bowl of candy has your name written all over it, you might be a carbohydrate addict.

If the bread basket has your name written on it, you might be a carbohydrate addict.

If you sometimes bake a cake or make a batch of fudge for someone else, then eat it, and make another one for the intended, you might be a carbohydrate addict.

If when you shop, you avoid the produce department and do most of your shopping in the center aisles, you might be a carbohydrate addict.

If something just takes hold of you sometimes, and you cannot stop eating, you might be a carbohydrate addict.

If you have failed at every diet you have ever tried, you might be a carbohydrate addict.

I must share with you that I got the term and the concept of carbohydrate addiction from the Heller's. Here is a link to their web site where there is plenty of good information:  http://www.carbohydrateaddicts.com/

But let me warn you, I did not overcome the problem with the information that I found there and the books that I bought there. It was not their fault. I did get an education there that made a difference, I just needed something more, which I have finally found in the raw food program. And the help and guidance of the Lord who gives me the strength to overcome temptation.

I had to go farther away from the standard American diet than what they presented. If it works for them, and you, I applaud it and them and you. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It was simply not enough for me.

If you think that you cannot face one more diet, you might be a carbohydrate addict, and you have not been given the tools you need to overcome that addiction. It is not your fault. It only takes three days of not eating sugar and starchy carbs for the cravings to disappear. Try it for yourself. Test it out. See if that is the truth, or a lie. You won't know for sure, until you do it your self.

It only takes three days. You could do that, couldn't you? Sure you can. You've actually avoided some foods for months at a time, until you went back to them. You can do three days -- just to test it out and see. What have you got to lose?

I want to emphasize something else, too: It is not your fault. There is nothing wrong with you. You are not broken and you are not a bad person. You don't have cravings because you are not a good person, or not a strong person, or are a person lacking will power -- you have cravings because the last few meals you have eaten were loaded with carbs. Carbs are addictive. The more of them you eat, the more of them you want. Cravings do not happen to you because the universe is playing a joke on you -- the starchy carbohydrates you are eating are addictive. You just need better and more accurate information and whatever nudge you need to take that first step away from them.

I always felt "put upon" because other addictions, like smoking, or alcohol, or illegal drugs could be overcome by completely stopping them. You take the first step, you get the help you need, you get honest with yourself, and you stop doing them. You walk away. You do what you need to do, to not fall back into temptation. You don't go back. You go on with your life. But food? Well that is a different story. You gotta eat every day, don'cha? Well now I know that I was wrong about food. I can stop the thing that I am addicted to and walk away. It is not "food" you need to avoid, it is starchy, processed, refined carbohydrates and you can leave them behind for good. You can be free of your carbohydrate addiction.

The doctor telling you that you have prediabetes or diabetes could be the nudge you need to open up your eyes to this very real problem. But, and this is almost insidious, if your doctor recommends that you go see a nutritionist to learn how to eat, don't go. The standard American diabetes diet will only help you stay where you are and even get worse -- it will not reverse your diabetes because that nutritionist will NOT tell you to stop eating the carbs. They will tell you to manage them. Just eat a few. Only this little bit. That is exactly like giving just a little bit of alcohol to an alcoholic every day. He or she cannot control the addiction that way, and neither can you. Eating that little half cup serving of rice every day will get you into trouble and only continue to feed your addiction and make you feel deprived.

It will not help you get off the diabetes medication and get back to good health. How many diabetics that you know of have continued to take their prescribed medications and eat the way the doctor and the nutritionist have advised them to eat, and they are still diabetics, and still taking medication? Has their medication not been upped to a stronger one recently, and maybe they are even on insulin, now? Or a higher dose of insulin, now? Their diabetes is getting worse, not better. Look at the evidence you have seen and heard with your own eyes and ears. You know a person like this. You have seen them. Maybe he or she is one of your loved ones. Maybe you are the one. Don't lose hope, there is a real and simple solution.

Think about this. Hasn't your doctor told you that your blood sugars are too high? Think about what might cause that? How could a person's blood sugar get to be too high? How does sugar get injected into your blood stream? Did someone come up behind you and insert a needle full of sugar water into you just before the test was taken? I doubt it. The test was a tiny little teensy eensy bit of blood taken out of your finger which they then measured for sugar, with a little machine. The machine only reports the sugar numbers, it does not create them.

I know. I apologize for going to that level. You are an intelligent person and you know where the sugar is coming from. It comes from what you are putting in your hand, and then putting in your mouth which injects the sugar into your blood stream. It is so obvious, but sometimes we just don't see the forest for the trees.

We are so bombarded with visions of sugar plums and platters of spaghetti and sandwich shops and fast food that we do not even recognize that we are no longer eating natural food. We don't even notice that something is wrong. Natural food grows in a garden. Natural food, that God created, does not have unpronounceable ingredients listed on the side. It does not come from a box, or a sealed package found on a shelf with other identical sealed packages, or a tin can. We have been blinded by advertising, convenience, our personal history, and our own stupor. We just don't stop and think about what has slowly crept up on us. The vast majority of the food we have been eating is not natural. It is, by default, not healthy, not good for human consumption and is what is causing our epidemic sized health problems.

Our own habits were created in the not too distant past by the misguided good intentions and the misinformation of other people who have been stumbling around in the dark, and sharing their bits and pieces of unrelated information with us. We are blinded by red herrings (bits of misleading and odd information) and our own habits. I am avoiding using the word "lazy" because when it comes to food we are not lazy. We get up and go where it is. We pay for the best we can afford. We have just forgotten that natural growing living beings, like us, need to be fed natural growing living food.

Don't worry. There is natural living food out there and you can actually eat it!!  It is what we were created to consume. Did you ever wonder why Adam and Eve lived in a GARDEN? That's where the food was! They got in trouble and left the garden behind but they planted another one. We got into trouble, too, when we left the garden behind, we just didn't plant another one, we changed what we eat. Fortunately we have two feet and can pivot on one of them whenever we want to. If we pivot left (or right, depending on the layout of your grocery store) and head for the produce section we will be getting as close to a garden as most of us get in a life time. If you are like me, and don't own a plot of ground to plant a garden we can still find good organic fresh living foods to feed our bodies properly. We only have to look for them and then choose to eat them.

If you have a plot of ground and a garden, WAHOO! You can grow your own living food. If you have a green thumb, you are blessed beyond measure! And your good health will show it.

Other than that, we depend on the grocery store and need to wise up about what to choose to put in our mouths to inject into our blood streams.

I heard a lady (Donna Gates http://www.rawfor30days.com/blog/?p=122 ) say today that for good health our plates of food should be eighty percent fresh raw vegetables and the other twenty percent can be some bit of protein. It really is simple and the only instructions we need. If you started doing that, you would, in a very short time, see real improvements in your health.

The next problem will again be our ingrained habits. We think that every meal should be a feast and we love what we call variety. When I first started eating Mexican food in the seventies at a fast food restaurant I was always amused by the fact that every item they offered was the exact same ingredients, just molded into a different shape and given a different name and even a different price. Is that what the "variety" in your life looks like? The same food, just molded into a different shapes by cooking, or a distant manufacturer whose name we know, but whose face we have never seen? How natural is that? How healthy could it be? Do we even know what "variety" means when it comes to food?

Your diabetic health is, literally, in your own hands. What you choose to pick up and eat, is entirely up to you. It has taken me a very long time to even begin to actually see that as truth in my own life. I got started with the "30 Day Diabetes Cure" by Dr Ripich and Jim Healthy, which I recommend with the reservation that when you get to the point where they add the grains and the fruit back in, don't do it. Continue reading the book and following the advice in the first ten day section, for as long as you need day by day hand holding, but skip the grains and skip the fruit. They will only activate the addiction.

At that time, start reading "The No Grain Diet" by Dr Mercola and focus on fresh raw organic vegetables. Second best is fresh raw vegetables that are not organic. Start looking around on the internet. Do a search for "raw foods." See what you find. You may also want to read "Going Against the Grain" by Melissa Diane Smith. Be careful, and make the vegetables your friendly alternative food, with only a little meat or protein as you feel the need. If you make the fresh raw vegetables the main course, you will begin to see real improvements in your blood sugar numbers and in your health. And it will happen very fast. It did for me.

Do your own "laboratory" tests. Check your own blood sugars after you eat particular foods and see what actually happens to your blood sugars, with your own eyes. You will soon know what you can eat to lower your blood sugars and lose weight -- and also what you need to avoid. Just leave the rest of the manufactured foods behind. It is actually imitation food. It ain't natural and you won't grow or improve your health on it. Don't leave your doctor out, because you will need his or her help to reduce any medications you might be taking. It pays to be wise. But if you are not on medication you have no need to fear. You can take it step by step if you need to slowly increase the vegetables and drop out the carbs. Or you can plunge into the vegetables in the produce section and never look back. Whatever works for you. I think "slow and steady" is probably the easier way to go -- but you do need to drop out sugar of any kind immediately. Just follow the instructions for the first ten days of the "30 Day Diabetes Cure" book and then stay there. It will give you the impetus to start by dropping out the sugars. Then, when you get there, transition to the raw vegetables and don't add back the grains or fruit.

(Starchy carbs to avoid: anything made with refined flour of any kind, sugar of all kinds, including artificial sugars except xylitol or Stevia -- white potatoes, rice, pasta, noodles, bread, cake, candy, cookies -- you know what they are. No grains, no fruit, no fruit juice, or sugary or diet drinks.)

(Things to add to your diet in any amount at any time you are hungry: any and all fresh uncooked green leafy vegetables, all fresh uncooked growing living red, yellow, or green vegetables [like broccoli, radishes, cucumber, and red peppers, etc.], raw nuts, raw seeds of any kind. )

(What to drink: water, unsweetened tea, unsweetened coffee, sparkling unsweetened water if you like it. Do not drink soda or diet drinks -- the fake sugars are even worse than white table sugar for your health.)

 (Proteins in moderate amounts whenever you want them: any meat, fish, poultry, eggs that you are familiar with eating. Avoid cheese, except for feta or cottage cheese -- but only after you test your blood sugars for them.)

Note: if any food makes you act like a carbohydrate addict (see above) -- stop eating or drinking it -- you very likely can live without it. I had to give up most cheeses because of my addictive behaviors. If cheese does not affect you that way, then eating cheese or eating dairy is OK for you. You get to decide by observing your own blood test results and your own behaviors after eating them.

Note: I am not a doctor. I don't have a college degree, and am not a health or food expert. I only know what I have personally been through and what has worked for me through much trial and error. I added the list of foods to eat or to avoid for anyone who feels they need that much clarification. You be the judge of what you eat. This is not a new diet full of menus for you to try for a short time. If you are not thinking that you need to make this change for good, that decision and the consequences are strictly up to you.)

I'm done with starchy carbs. I am happy with lots and lots of raw vegetables and raw nuts and seeds. They are satisfying to my body and me. I did not know that was possible before. Now I know.  I do eat some hard boiled eggs with my salads. Sometimes I have tuna. You can add any healthy protein you like. And you can have a big bowl of salad whenever you want one! You can be free of guilt about how often or how much you eat. When you start eating fresh raw foods, your appetite will find its own healthy place. I did not know that before either. Now I know because I've been there and I have done that!!

Where are you with your addiction?

Be back soon, love you,

--Marcia