Combating Food Cravings

Dietary Technician/Author, Beth Castle from Calgary has set out to help people all over Alberta with the mental part of food in her book/audios and seminars. As North American’s we have tripled the statistics to 67% of the population are overweight or obese since 2006.

Comments from a recent talk –“It was a very interesting, very informative, fun and inspiring evening for me. I learned a great deal. I really appreciate your approach – you are kind in sharing your information, knowledge, experiences and I appreciate and admire that you truly “care” about people – it really shows in your presentation and words.”

Combating Food Cravings - as published in Calgary Neighbours Newspaper Feb 24/11
Having a craving and being hungry are very different. A craving is that nagging feeling of wanting a certain food item or a particular taste in your mouth. Sometimes our imagination will work overtime to focus on that food and then we can end up desiring that food all day!

Cravings for food can emerge at anytime. Cravings are not always negative—they can signal our bodies’ deficiencies in certain minerals, vitamins, or enzymes; they may be related to our nutritional needs, or they may alert us to certain hormonal imbalances, adrenal fatigue, or even insulin resistance.

All food cravings, however, can become a negative in our overall health when we respond inappropriately to them. The result is that we damage our metabolism, increase weight gain, and endanger our health. You should consult a qualified nutritionist and/or your doctor if you have concerns about cravings and the effect they have on your metabolism.

Here are some strategies for coping with and eliminating common cravings. There are two important ideas about cravings. First, they have nothing to do with will power. Secondly, we need to pay attention to what foods we crave and how we respond to them. Here are some strategies to help you recognize and deal with food cravings:

Foods that have a strong flavor may cause you to crave another food. For example, tomato sauce, cream sauce, or spicy foods containing garlic may cause you to crave a sweet food. This is because your palate and tongue are full of taste receptors; the strong flavored food may have a lingering taste and you need to cleanse your palate to get over it. Eating grapes, apples, watermelon, pineapple and cucumber can help to do this. Other non-food alternatives are to try a tongue scraper to get rid of the taste, or brush your teeth or chew some gum. You will be quite surprised by the results. Beth can help when it comes to that potato chip craving as well!

Beth’s goal is to lessen the pain associated with food. More information on this and other topics are at www.bethcastle.com in “Stop Emotional Eating, Fix Food Cravings, Find your Metabolism and More” Audio Guide.