Food addiction or how to fight cravings

Question
Hi I heard a theory on food addictions and being over weight.  I was wondering if there is truth to this.  I was told that gluten and/or diary can have a chemical reaction that makes you crave food (certain types of food)  -- that people who can't control their cravings and desire for food is the same as people who have an alcohol addiction.  Thus dieting doesn't work because the food isn't eliminated and they struggle with food control.  I was told that the grain in alcohol is what kept them alcoholics.  It's an allergy -- negative chemical reaction

Is this true? if so -- do you know if its gluten or casein (dairy?  both.  
Thanks, Meg

Answer
Gia,

Just imagine what would've happened if in wild nature, animals wouldn't care about getting as much food as they can. Do you think they would survive? They HAVE to be very motivated to get busy with foraging in order to survive so Mother Nature looked into it and connected eating with the sense of ultimate pleasure. The center of satiety in the brain practically coincides with so called center of positive reward. Read about it here:

Eating and Rewards
http://atkinszone-tips.blogspot.com/2008/10/eating-and-rewards.html

We don't have to be permanently in search of food, but the biological part of our nature remains so eating still "rewards" us whether we really need food or not. However, some foods are better than others in this respect.

Carbohydrate-rich, sweet-tasting foods are more addictive than planer-stasting foods. When people cut down on sugar, sweets, pastries, pasta, etc., in several days, they usually stop craving sweets and more "oily" food become more attractive to them.

This happens because carbohydrate stores in the body is very small so when we make our bodies run on carbs for fuel, we make it permanently worry about filling those stores with sweet carbs.

When we switch our fuel use from carbs to fats, the body doesn't have to worry about permanent refilling of the depots because fat stores are potentially huge. Result? The cravings stop, appetite becomes healthier, the hunger decreases -- no signs of addiction!

Read more:

http://agelessbrain.com/2010/08/carbohydrate-addict-diet-an-intermittent-ketosis...

http://atkinszone-recipes.blogspot.com/2007/05/salad-recipe-for-muscles.html

Tanya Zilberter

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