Carbohydrate addiction can be defined as an uncontrollable and constant craving for starches such as bread, pasta, rice or potatoes, or for snack foods such as chips, popcorn, pretzels or for sweets such as cookies, cakes, pies, donuts, muffins or chocolate. This need for carbohydrates increases with each passing decade; as we grow older weight gain becomes easier and losing weight far more difficult.
In this book ‘The Carbohydrate Addicts Lifespan Program’ you will find the information you require to put an end to your cravings for starches, snack foods, or sweets and regain control over your eating and your life. You will learn what researchers know about a prevalent hormonal imbalance that triggers carbohydrate cravings and causes weight gain.
Furthermore, if you are suffering from carbohydrate addiction, you might have noticed that certain food such as bread, pasta, chips make you feel hungry and this is particularly true after a heavy breakfast with juice, cereals and croissants.
The authors have also noticed that overweight carbohydrate addicts do not necessarily consume more food than do slim people in fact they often eat far less.
The idea of food addiction is not new. As early as the 1940s, scientists began reporting that some people could become “addicted” to certain kinds of foods and in 1963 Dr. J. Kemp was the first scientist to use the term “carbohydrate addiction” observing that many overweight individuals showed intense and recurring cravings for carbohydrate food such as starches, snacks and sweets.
Here are the seven most common signs of carbohydrate addictions:
1.A difficulty in stopping once you start to eat starches, snack foods, or sweets.
2.A tendency to gain weight easily or to regain weight that has been lost through dieting.
3.A desire to snack or eat again about two hours after eating.
4.Extreme sluggishness or tiredness after a large meal.
5.Signs of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), including one or more of the following symptoms about two hours after eating such as hunger, dizziness, weakness, headaches and irritability.
6.Hunger and /or tiredness in the mid-afternoon, on a regular basis.
7.Hunger or cravings in response to stress, tiredness, or boredom.
We now understand that an addiction to carbohydrates may be caused by an excess of the hormone insulin, a condition known as “chronic hyperinsulinemia.” This excess in insulin has been linked to high blood pressure, undesirable blood-fat levels and atherosclerosis, heart disease, stroke, adult-onset diabetes, gout and some forms of cancer. Dr. Judith Rodin of Yale University nicknamed insulin: the hunger hormone. An excess of insulin in the bloodstream causes you to crave carbohydrate-rich foods, ushers the food energy into your fat cells for storage, and then locks it into your fat cells.
At this stage you are probably wondering whether you are a carbohydrate addict or not. The answer to this question lies in a special quiz set up by the authors. This Carbohydrate Addict’s Life Span Quiz consists of just fifteen questions. All you need to do is answer yes or no to each question. And a few minutes later, you will know how serious your addiction is. Rather than thinking that there is something wrong with you, it is important to understand that your ability to stay slim, fit, and healthy depends on learning how to change the messages that your body gets from the food you eat, the medication you take as well as the physical changes and stress that you experience throughout your lifetime.
The Carbohydrate Addicts Life Spanprogram enables you to eat the whole range of carbohydrates but you must learn how to eat these foods so that they do not set off the excess release of insulin that triggers your cravings and causes you to gain weight.
Incidentally even sugar substitutes cause an excess release of insulin followed by the usual cravings for carbohydrates. Even if you are eating low-calorie desserts as long as it tastes sweet, your body thinks that it is getting sugar.
It is also interesting to know that traditional low-fat diets often fail to reduce blood-fat levels and the presence of carbohydrates in these diets strongly increase blood-fat levels and other risk factors too. If your physician advises you to follow a low-fat diet, you will find in this book special suggestions that will help you reduce your fat intake, your cravings, your weight, and health risk.
The lifespan program consists of two parts that complement each other, the Program’s Basic Plan and its Options for Life. This program is not based on calorie counting and it is adaptable and versatile. If you are hungry, you can eat more. If you are busy, you can eat out. If you are in the mood for an exquisite dessert, you can have it without breaking your program and without guilt.
This Carbohydrate Addict’s diet succeeds because it rewards you with weight loss and the foods you like. In a nutshell, you are allowed a so-called Balanced Reward Meal once a day which consists of a 1/3 of craving reducing protein,1/3 of craving reducing vegetables and a 1/3 of carbohydrates-rich foods including desserts. But you should only have craving-reducing foods at all other meals and for snacks.
The authors provide an extensive list of craving-reducing foods. Within a few days on the Program, as your insulin levels drop, your cravings will gradually disappear. After two weeks, you are offered a choice of nine options which will help you further reduce your insulin levels and achieve a permanent weight loss.
One of these options for life is the chromium option. Research scientists have found that as many as nine out of ten of us have diets that do not supply us with adequate amounts of chromium. When our body does not have enough chromium it needs more insulin to do its work and therefore the body releases additional insulin. “An entire domino effect of eating, weight, and health problems can begin with a simple deficiency of chromium. Supplementing your daily chromium intake with a single dose of chromium could be an essential aid in keeping your insulin and blood sugar levels in balance.”
This book also includes an extensive choice of craving-reducing recipes which are low in carbohydrates (sugars and starches) so they can help keep your insulin release low while reducing your cravings and your tendency to gain weight as well.
Drs. Rachael and Richard Heller have conducted extensive research into the carbohydrate-insulin connection and discovered that excess amount of insulin in our blood cause us to store more fat and crave for starches and sweets. This book is the fruit of their labor and the proven Lifespan Program will help you break the cycle of food craving and weight gain.
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