Cravings
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I'm wondering about the nature of cravings. I believe we should eat what we crave. But what can we make of times when we don't crave things? Is this a good time to fast? What about when cravings change - what drives that change?
I tried to drink a regular Coke today and gagged. It tasted awful. A few months back I was having 1 or 2 every day (hfcs, Mexican, cane sugar root beer). I think I slowly stopped craving it, and I basically don't drink it now.
It's puzzling. My thought is that cravings also program habit and repeatability. I think maybe this is carried out until it is "satisfied," and then goes away.
It's easy when you're sick and go without food for a few days. I always start craving a sub, ginger ale or pop, pizza, burgers, etc. That makes sense because salt, fat and sugar are all being depleted when you're sick and fasting with soup and tea.
But again, when you're just managing long term health, what is being "depleted" over long stretches? And what is being rebuilt? Like, I think I'm in a more fat craving mode now, as the weather became cold again, and is only slightly returning to warmer temperatures. Butter, whole milk, things like that, are appealing a lot more than fruit, pop, etc.
Another question - I remember a doctor saying I had a yeast infection in my mouth from eating too much sugar once when I was younger. Would unconscious consumption of sugar cause this? I sugar my coffee and I think that's plenty, as I don't crave coke or sweets later in the day.
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I'm wondering about the nature of cravings. I believe we should eat what we crave. But what can we make of times when we don't crave things? Is this a good time to fast? What about when cravings change - what drives that change?
I tried to drink a regular Coke today and gagged. It tasted awful. A few months back I was having 1 or 2 every day (hfcs, Mexican, cane sugar root beer). I think I slowly stopped craving it, and I basically don't drink it now.
It's puzzling. My thought is that cravings also program habit and repeatability. I think maybe this is carried out until it is "satisfied," and then goes away.
It's easy when you're sick and go without food for a few days. I always start craving a sub, ginger ale or pop, pizza, burgers, etc. That makes sense because salt, fat and sugar are all being depleted when you're sick and fasting with soup and tea.
But again, when you're just managing long term health, what is being "depleted" over long stretches? And what is being rebuilt? Like, I think I'm in a more fat craving mode now, as the weather became cold again, and is only slightly returning to warmer temperatures. Butter, whole milk, things like that, are appealing a lot more than fruit, pop, etc.
Another question - I remember a doctor saying I had a yeast infection in my mouth from eating too much sugar once when I was younger. Would unconscious consumption of sugar cause this? I sugar my coffee and I think that's plenty, as I don't crave coke or sweets later in the day.
Yes, sometimes having 0 cravings mean good time to not eat anything specifically if you feel as good or better. Many of your life factors Can change cravings, such as light, temperature, your interactions with people, what your body might need more of, and Many other factors.
Sometimes cravings will make you feel better if you eat the foods, sometimes it will make you feel worst, if it make you feel worst, better to stop eating the food and potentially try to understand why you craved it
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Sometimes cravings will make you feel better if you eat the foods, sometimes it will make you feel worst, if it make you feel worst, better to stop eating the food and potentially try to understand why you craved it
This is interesting. I'm not sure cravings have made me feel worse, but I would say unconscious choosing can do this.
Like, for example, I ate some big pufa meals / fast food junk here and there, and kinda reckoned with the feeling of it. The craving is basically empty, because none of the food is filling like regular milk, beef, or fruit.
I think my energy levels are better now so I didn't stay bogged down in pufa lethargy (and took aspirin). But I know it's nothing I crave regularly, or seek out normally. I'm convinced of a mind body connection with food, eating, dysphoria, etc.
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I don’t think it’s “empty”, there is a reason for it. But it’s not always obvious. You could be deficient in some niche trace element and you wouldn’t even know.
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I'm wondering about the nature of cravings
When eating the same kind of food (no diversity) or to often one type (sugar + fat), you modify the microbiome.
Bacteria are able to control what we eat by a number of marked mechanisms.
Excerpt 1: Experience
Microbes can also alter food preferences of guests changing the expression of taste receptors on the host. In this sense, for instance germ-free mice prefer more sweet food and have a greater number of sweet receptors on the tongue and intestine that mice with a normal microbiota.
The feeding behaviour of the host can also be manipulated by microbes through the nervous system, through the vagus nerve, which connects the 100 million neurons of the enteric nervous system from the gut to the brain via the medulla. Enteric nerves have receptors that react to the presence of certain bacteria and bacterial metabolites such as short chain fatty acids. The vagus nerve regulates eating behaviour and body weight. It has been seen that the activity of the vagus nerve of rats stimulated with norepinephrine causes that they keep eating despite being satiated. This suggests that GIT microbes produce neurotransmitters that can contribute to overeating.Excerpt 2:
Some bacteria induce hosts to provide their favourite nutrients.
Neurotransmitters produced by microbes are analogue compounds to mammalian hormones related to mood and behaviour. More than 50% of dopamine and most of serotonin in the body have an intestinal origin. Many persistent and transient inhabitants of the gut, including E. coli, several Bacillus, Staphylococcus and Proteus secrete dopamine. In Table 1 we can see the various neurotransmitters produced by GIT microbes. At the same time, it is known that host enzymes such as amine oxidase can degrade neurotransmitters produced by microorganisms, which demonstrates the evolutionary interactions between microbes and hosts.
To be continued on this link:
Bacteria in the gut control what we eat
https://abordonseng.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/bacteria-in-the-gut-are-controlling-what-we-eat/ -
When bacteria in the gut take control of what we eat
The type of microbiota affects nutrient acquisition (assimilation), energy recovery (calories extracted) and host metabolic pathways (hormones and immunity).
• If you disrupt the microbiome on a regular basis, you disrupt harmony and trigger a deleterious process: low-grade inflammation, dysbiosis and leaky gut at the end of the race.
• The stomach and each section of the intestine are colonized by a different type of bacteria, at different concentrations, with a different ecology.
Particularly case:
The trinity of salt, sugar and fat is going to hack into our brain's reward circuitry. For example, humans often crave salty, sugary, and fatty foods such as potato chips, candy or soft drinks. When we eat these types of foods, our brain rewards us by producing the chemical dopamine, which makes us feel good.
But a craving for salty food could most often only indicate a regular need for the minerals which support the adrenal glands. If you’ve learned to listen to your body. One restriction: You eat on a various way, not an over-simplified easy way (like fast food or pasta / rice type twice a day). Otherwise, you’ll get an unperceivable change in your microbiome … Already heard of the reward system (and the corollary one: the punishment when you eat some kind of food), combined to quorum sensing?
*) Quorum sensing
In short: Capacity of bacteria to communicate to share information in order to coordinate one or several actions.
Quorum sensing bacteria produce and release chemical signal molecules called auto-inducers that increase in concentration in order to obtain a function from host cells. Expressed differently, if some bacteria come predominant they may take the control of what you want to eat. In some circumstances (same kinds of foodstuff, without a variety from macronutrients and vegetables), they overgrow and take the control of other bacteria. It’s no longer a community with more or less the same rights to exist, but slavery (exploitation of the weakest ones to the profit of the strongest ones from the new association). -
In this sense, for instance germ-free mice prefer more sweet food and have a greater number of sweet receptors on the tongue and intestine that mice with a normal microbiota.
Interesting, and great post, @LucH. So much information.
On this, do you think, then, there's an indication of diminished microbiota when craving sweets?Another question: how would this microbiota balance be thrown off by the so-called "honey diet" or by a keto high-fat diet?
My natural conclusion is none of these short-term diets are logical if they are skewing and throwing off the microbiome.
Bacteria in the gut control what we eat
It's also hard for me to understand this because it seems like people gravitate towards a specific diet that already sounds good to them, based on the quality of their microbiome. I wouldn't entertain high protein for a second because I like carbs too much.
Carnivore often appeals when we crave meat, but then when the restrictions come into play, people become limited.Thoughts on this dietary restrictions and microbiome change?
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On this, do you think, then, there's an indication of diminished microbiota when craving sweets?
It not always the cause. It could be glycemia problems (...);
but it could be:
When people have more bacteroidetes than firmicutes, they don’t eat on the same way.
Namely, the bacterium Bacteroides vulgatus was causally linked to an increased intake of sugar.Is eating behavior manipulated by the gastrointestinal microbiota? Evolutionary pressures and potential mechanisms
doi: 10.1002/bies.201400071 -
Another question: how would this microbiota balance be thrown off by the so-called "honey diet" or by a keto high-fat diet?
Well, it takes time. Some people are border-line or more fragile.
Not everyone will be impacted on the same way.
And some phyla become more "dangerous" when they take the control of neurotransmitters. Or more resistant after antibiotics ...
So if you like meat, eat 8-10 kinds / portions of fruit and veggies,; vary to avoid problem with antinutrients (seeds, nuts, pips)
People who don't get polyphenols, will not have the same microbiota.
As a general advise: Too much of a good thing is bad.
And don't tell me that Amazonian folk or eighties from Crete manage well without all these "supposed" problems. They move, live outside, don't overeat, don't drink cola or eat chips or refined food. Or not so often. etc. There are other parameters too. -
