sugar craving

Reactive hypoglycemia in binge eating disorder, food addiction and intense sugar cravings, and how glutamine stops the cravings

February 9, 2024 By Trudy Scott 6 Comments

A number of years ago a woman came to see me looking for help for her anxiety, insomnia and out of control sugar cravings which she described as an “almost demonic urge to eat sugar and all things sweet.”

Before working with me she had been trying to control her low blood sugar levels (or hypoglycemia) by eating the right foods at the right times i.e. healthy fats and quality protein especially at breakfast. But this wasn’t enough to eliminate her intense sweet cravings. She would make and eat sweet treats all day long, using “healthier” sweeteners like monk fruit and maple syrup.

I had her complete the brain chemistry symptoms questionnaire and she scored high on all the low blood sugar symptoms as well as low GABA and low serotonin. We focused on low blood sugar first and the solution for her cravings was using 500 mg of glutamine opened onto her tongue.

Initially she was sure this would NOT work – how would she possibly be able to use glutamine in the midst of experiencing reactive hypoglycemia or low blood sugar?

I had the same conversation that I have with all my clients who would obviously rather eat something sweet than open a glutamine capsule onto their tongue: “If you have an intense craving for something sweet, tell yourself that you’re going to indulge, but also humor your nutritionist and take the glutamine anyway. You may be surprised to find your urge completely disappears.”

She did that and it worked time and time again, ending her demonic urge to eat something sweet every time and very quickly. And it helped her with all her low blood sugar symptoms.

This blog addresses the role of low blood sugar or reactive hypoglycemia in intense sugar cravings, binge eating disorder and food addiction, and how glutamine helps.

Research: Reactive hypoglycemia in binge eating disorder and food addiction

The 2023 paper, Reactive hypoglycemia in binge eating disorder, food addiction, and the comorbid phenotype: unravelling the metabolic drive to disordered eating behaviours, highlights the fact that “impaired metabolic response” such as fasting blood glucose fluctuations are a factor in binge eating and food addiction, driving out of control and “repetitive consumption of highly processed food.”

The researchers “investigated hypoglycemia events during a 5-hour-long oral glucose tolerance test” in 200 participants and “the association between the severity of eating psychopathology and the variability in hypoglycemia events was explored.”

The authors conclude as follows:

People with binge eating disorder/BED or food addiction/FA are prone to experiencing reactive hypoglycemia; food addiction severity may predict early and symptomatic hypoglycemia events. This can further reinforce disordered eating behaviours by promoting addictive responses, both biologically and behaviourally.

You can read the study here.

It’s worth noting that the participants did not have diabetes. I mention this because most of the reactive hypoglycemia research looks at diabetic patients. Reactive hypoglycemia in the non-diabetic population is considered controversial even amongst functional medicine and/or integrative practitioners. This paper stands out for this reason.

It’s also recently published which makes me excited. This research is confirming what we see clinically.

This research is very much in line with the demonic urge my client described, and directly tied to her low blood sugar and blood sugar swings. My client did not do a 5 hour oral glucose tolerance test. Instead we used the low blood sugar symptoms questionnaire (see below) and a trial of glutamine.

My client was also not diagnosed with binge eating disorder or food addiction but didn’t have to be for us to recognize the issue and have her benefit from nutritional support in the way of glutamine and learning to eat for blood sugar stability.

Unfortunately the authors do not discuss glutamine as a solution in this particular paper or in any other research on human participants who are non-diabetic. There are a few animal diabetes studies, with this 2013 study reporting that “glutamine was more effective in promoting glycemia recovery if compared with glucose, lactate, glycerol, or alanine.” The authors call for further investigations which I look forward to reading.

Low blood sugar symptoms and a glutamine trial

As a reminder here are the signs of low blood sugar:

Sugar cravings, binge eating and addiction symptoms:

Crave sugar, starch or alcohol any time during the day
Very intense cravings for sweets/sugar
Binge eating and/or food addiction (updated with this based on this research)

There are also anxiety, mood, sleep and energy symptoms when you have low blood sugar:

Nervous, anxious, panic attacks
Irritable, shaky, headachey – especially if you go too long between meals
Lightheaded if meals are missed
Agitated, easily upset
Eating relieves fatigue
Waking in the night or early hours with a jolt of anxiety/shakiness (I blogged about this here)

As I mention in the waking with a jolt/low blood sugar blog the good news is it’s relatively easy to figure out if low blood sugar is causing your symptoms. First I have clients rate their symptoms on the low blood sugar questionnaire and do a trial of glutamine. Next is figuring out the dosing and timing of glutamine, looking at a current food log and making dietary changes as needed.

Glutamine is always best opened on to the tongue but it must be used this way for stopping the intense sugar cravings quickly – as in immediately. It’s also used away from meals like all the amino acids.

If you notice improvements it’s very likely that reactive hypoglycemia or low blood sugar is a factor.

Glutamine for low blood sugar cravings: dosing and timing

As I share in my book and other blog posts, typically 500 mg glutamine is a good starting dose for intense cravings for sugary foods. We may increase based on individual needs and you may find you do need to use 500 mg -1000 mg two to three times a day when the intense desire for something sweet strikes – as blood sugar dips. Using a glutamine powder is a great way to use it especially if you find you do need more than 500 mg each time.

As I mentioned above when you use glutamine powder directly on the tongue (rather than mixed in water), the benefits are seen almost immediately and even if you don’t believe it could possibly work – like my client – your desire for sugar disappears.

GABA and serotonin support too

My client also needed GABA and serotonin support for her anxiety and sleep issues. Again, we used the low GABA and low serotonin symptoms questionnaire and did trials of GABA and tryptophan for her which helped further.

Sugar cravings and binge eating with other neurotransmitter imbalances too

Keep in mind that there is a sugar cravings aspect to all the neurotransmitter imbalances. The type of craving can be found on the above symptoms questionnaire. It’s not uncommon to need support more than one area:

Low blood sugar /hypoglycemia – glutamine for intense cravings at any time of the day
Low serotonin – tryptophan or 5-HTP for afternoon/evening cravings
Low endorphins – DPA for comfort/reward eating
Low catecholamines – tyrosine for low energy sugar cravings
Low GABA – GABA for stress eating

Glutamine product options – capsule vs powder

Products I recommend include Pure Encapsulations 500 mg l-glutamine (capsules opened on to your tongue) and Designs for Health l-glutamine powder as you find you need higher amounts. You can purchase these from my online store (Fullscript – only available to US customers – use this link to set up an account).

If you’re not in the US, Now l-glutamine 500 mg and Doctor’s best l-glutamine powder are products I recommend on iherb (use this link to save 5%).

Additional resources when you are new to using glutamine and other amino acids as supplements

We use the symptoms questionnaire to figure out if low blood sugar and/or low serotonin and/or low GABA and other neurotransmitter imbalances may be an issue for you.

If you suspect low levels of any of the neurotransmitters and do not yet have my book, The Antianxiety Food Solution – How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings, I highly recommend getting it and reading it before jumping in and using amino acids on your own so you are knowledgeable. And be sure to share it with the practitioner/health team you or your loved one is working with.

There is an entire chapter on the amino acids and they are discussed throughout the book in the sections on gut health, gluten, blood sugar control (this is covered in an entire chapter too), sugar cravings, anxiety and mood issues. The importance of quality animal protein and healthy fats is also covered.

The book doesn’t include product names (per the publisher’s request) so this blog, The Antianxiety Food Solution Amino Acid and Pyroluria Supplements, lists the amino acids that I use with my individual clients and those in my group programs.

If, after reading this blog and my book, you don’t feel comfortable figuring things out on your own (i.e. doing the symptoms questionnaire and respective amino acids trials), a good place to get help is the GABA QuickStart Program (if you have low GABA symptoms too). This is a paid online/virtual group program where you get my guidance and community support.

If you are a practitioner, join us in The Balancing Neurotransmitters: the Fundamentals program. This is also a paid online/virtual program with an opportunity to interact with me and other practitioners who are also using the amino acids.

Have you had success with glutamine for blood sugar stability and binge eating, food addiction and intense cravings for sugar and carbs?

Have you also found it helps with sleep, leaky gut and anxiety during the day?

If yes, how much helps you? And how often do you use it? And what sugary foods have you been able to stop eating?

If you’re a practitioner do you use glutamine and with clients/patients with these low blood sugar cravings? Do you recognize reactive hypoglycemia as a very real issue in non-diabetics?

And please let me know if it’s helpful that I’m now including product recommendations and where to get them?

Feel free to share and ask your questions below.

Fatigue, sleep disorders, depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia and cardiac troubles as the expression of a classic mild thiamine deficiency

October 8, 2021 By Trudy Scott 15 Comments

Fatigue, sleep disorders, depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia and cardiac troubles are some of the symptoms we see as the expression of a classic mild thiamine deficiency. Thiamine deficiency is very under-rated and under-recognized, and can have far reaching ramifications. And a magnesium deficiency and high dose magnesium can actually cause a thiamine deficiency. There are also many other causes of thiamine deficiency that may not be on your radar: a high carb/processed food/sugar diet, coffee, tea, alcohol, genetics, environmental toxins, medications, celiac disease, leaky gut, bariatric surgery and malabsorption.

It’s for this reason that I invited Chandler Marrs, PhD to speak on the Anxiety Summit 5: Gut-Brain Axis. We had so much to cover and it ended up being so long, that we split it into part 1 and part 2.

This is what we cover in Thiamine Deficiency in Anxiety and Gut Health (Part 1)

Excessive carbs, alcohol, medications and genetics as causes of low B1/thiamine
Dysbiosis, dysmotility, constipation, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, low energy
Psychiatric and digestive effects: research, history and other symptoms

This is what we cover in Thiamine Deficiency in Anxiety and Gut Health (Part 2)

The mitochondria, dysautonomia and POTS
Other symptoms: hyperemesis, exercise intolerance, muscle pain, neuropathy
Thiamine supplementation – forms, dosing and paradoxical reactions

Thiamine deficiency is under-rated and under-recognized

We start with why it’s an under-rated and under-recognized deficiency and Dr. Marrs shares that the assumption is that deficiency is not common and even when you test it looks like you are not deficient:

“The assumption is that there is no such thing [as a thiamine deficiency] and that it’s rare unless you are a chronic alcoholic. And even then, it’s missed 80% of the time. Or you have a severe injury or illness that depletes thiamine rapidly.
The presumption is that we’ve solved it, and it’s rare, and it only happens in countries where food availability is problematic.
The reality is that the chemistry of our foods, the chemistry of our environment, the medications that we take all combine and accrue to not only deplete the available thiamine on the basis of intake but to increase the need and to damage a lot of the enzymes involved in the processing of thiamine.
So a lot of folks are functionally deficient in that even though by definition they meet the daily requirement and they may, based upon lab testing, show up as being sufficient and not frankly deficient.
And so, I think that we just have taken our eye off of the ball with regard to this particular nutrient.”

Magnesium deficiency (and high dose magnesium) can actually cause a thiamine deficiency

Dr. Marrs also shares how a magnesium deficiency (which is very common) can actually cause a thiamine deficiency:

“One of the things that’s interesting is it requires magnesium to activate thiamine into its active form.
If someone is thiamine sufficient and magnesium deficient, then they are actually functionally deficient in thiamine because you cannot take the free thiamine and activate it into thiamine pyrophosphate.
So magnesium deficiency itself can cause thiamine deficiency. And there’s a good percentage of the population that doesn’t get enough magnesium.”

And she also shares how when taking high dose magnesium it’s so crucial to also be addressing low thiamine in order to prevent them becoming more thiamine deficient:

“Now, the flip side of that is really interesting. And I think this is important for your audience, in particular, is that magnesium supplementation, when someone has a problem with thiamine, will actually shut down thiamine processing and mitochondrial processing at one of the enzymes. Because if you don’t have thiamine with magnesium, then the enzyme α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase kind of shuts the whole sequence down.
So if you are giving someone high dose magnesium, which is common to supplement, and not tackling the thiamine as well, you risk them becoming more thiamine deficient and reducing ATP output, energy output even further. So everything has to be in balance to some extent or another.”

I can think of one situation where this could be common. You use high dose magnesium due to constipation. Low thiamine may be one of the underlying causes of your constipation and now high dose magnesium is going to make the low thiamine situation worse.

Up to 30% of psychiatric patients have a thiamine deficiency

We talk about how up to 30% of psychiatric patients have a thiamine deficiency but that there hasn’t been enough work on psychiatric disorders which Dr. Marrs says “is strange given the fact that some of the strongest symptoms involve brain function and the most dangerous or some of the more dangerous damage is relative to areas of the brain.”

I share some quotes from a 2019 paper that does actually look at the psychiatric aspects – Neurological, Psychiatric, and Biochemical Aspects of Thiamine Deficiency in Children and Adults:

“The brain is highly vulnerable to thiamine deficiency due to its heavy reliance on mitochondrial ATP production. This is more evident during rapid growth, i.e., perinatal and children.
Thiamine deficiency contributes to a number of conditions spanning from mild neurological and psychiatric symptoms, confusion, reduced memory, sleep disturbances, and severe encephalopathy, ataxia, congestive heart failure, muscle atrophy, and even death.”

This paper also looks at the beneficial effect of thiamine supplementation in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other neurological conditions.

Below, I share some additional studies that we didn’t talk about in the interview but add value to the topic.

Fatigue, sleep disorders, depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia and cardiac troubles as the expression of a classic mild thiamine deficiency

This paper, High-dose thiamine improves the symptoms of fibromyalgia, states that “It is our opinion that fatigue, sleep disorders, depression, anxiety and cardiac troubles are the expressions of a classic mild thiamine deficiency.”

The authors share 3 cases where thiamine/vitamin B1 improved symptoms in all areas for all these women:

Patient 1: Female, 58 years old, weight 59 kg. From 1998, the patient began to have widespread pain accompanied by severe fatigue, depression, anxiety, irritability, sleep disorders, trouble concentrating, dry skin, general sickness, continuous headache, intolerance to low temperatures and, more recently, episodes of tachycardia and extrasystolia [alteration in heart rhythm].
Patient 2: Female, 37 years old, weight 74 kg. From 1999, the patient has had widespread pain and all the symptoms described for patient 1, with the only exception being that of cardiac symptoms.
Patient 3: Female, 60 years old, weight 65 kg. From 2006, the patient began to have widespread pain, fatigue, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders. Trouble concentrating.

As you can see the symptoms can be very varied and this is what makes it challenging to identify low thiamine as being the issue.

Thiamine deficiency after bariatric surgery

Here one case study where thiamine deficiency occurred after bariatric surgery: Wernicke’s encephalopathy mimicking multiple sclerosis in a young female patient post-bariatric gastric sleeve surgery:

We describe a case of Wernicke’s encephalopathy secondary to thiamine (B1) deficiency in a patient status post-bariatric sleeve gastrectomy.

The presenting symptoms of new-onset weakness, diplopia [double-vision], and confusion in a young female patient raised suspicion for multiple sclerosis (MS), but given a history of bariatric surgery, thiamine levels were checked, revealing significant Vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency.

This case highlights the importance of thorough history taking, as a misdiagnosis of MS in this case could have resulted in irreversible neurological deterioration and hematological and infectious consequences associated with the inappropriate administration of disease-modifying therapies.

Bariatric surgery is one of many causes of thiamine deficiency.

Some of the other many causes of thiamine deficiency

Other causes of thiamine deficiency include factors that may not be on your radar: a high carb/processed food/sugar diet (and even consistent smaller amounts of “healthy” sweeteners), coffee and tea consumption, alcohol consumption (excessive consumption and even moderate consumption i.e. social drinking), genetics (we talk about specific genes in the interview), environmental toxins, certain medications, celiac disease, leaky gut and malabsorption etc.

We do a deep dive into all this in the two interviews (and much more).

chandler marrs interview — (As you can see, when I do interviews I take notes throughout for a few reasons: writing consolidates the information into my brain and it allows me to make notes for follow-up questions. It also helps the video editing process later.)

Interviews that dove-tail well with this topic are these ones:

Michael Collins – Sugar/Fructose Addiction: Anxiety, ADHD and Aggression (because sugar and carbs lead to low thiamine)
My interviews, Glutamine, DPA and Tyrosine for Anxiety and Sugar Cravings and GABA & Tryptophan: Gut-Anxiety Connections (because the amino acids help you quit sugar/carbs, coffee and alcohol easily)
Tara Hunkin, NTP, CGP, RWP – Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Anxiety (because low thiamine adversely affects the mitochondria)

I encourage you to tune in if you have:

Anxiety & feel overwhelmed & stressed by little things
Panic attacks &/or obsessive thoughts or behaviors
Social anxiety/pyroluria
Phobias or fears (flying, spiders or even driving on a highway)

And also if you suffer from…

Food sensitivities, IBS/SIBO, parasites or gallbladder issues
Constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas, pain & other digestive issues
Leaky gut, a leaky blood-brain barrier or vagus nerve issues

Join us if you are also an emotional eater with intense sugar cravings (and know you suffer from low blood sugar), experience insomnia, low mood, PMS, poor focus and/or low motivation.

This is THE online event to learn about the powerful individual amino acids – GABA, theanine, tryptophan, 5-HTP, glutamine, DPA and tyrosine – to quickly ease anxiety and help with gut symptoms while you are dealing with other root causes which take longer to address. (They also help with cravings as with this example, and sleep and immunity).

With research-based anxiety nutritional solutions and practical steps, you can determine your root causes, ease your anxiety and prevent it from coming back so you can feel on top of the world again!

If you are a practitioner, please join us too and find advanced solutions for your clients or patients too!

You’ve heard me say the Anxiety Summit has been called “a bouquet of hope!” My wish for you is that this summit is your bouquet of hope!

I hope you’ll join me and these incredible speakers, be enlightened and find YOUR solutions! More about this summit and other Anxiety Summits here.

Here’s to no more anxiety and you feeling on top of the world again!

Please share if these thiamine deficiency symptoms are new to you.

Also let us know if you’ve benefited from thiamine in the past or are currently using some form of thiamine – and how helped/is helping.

Have you seen this correlation between low magnesium and low thiamine OR taking high doses of magnesium and low thiamine symptoms?

Feel free to post your questions here too.

Learn more/purchase now

“A demonic urge to eat sugar and all things sweet”: glutamine opened onto the tongue stops the urge every time!

October 1, 2021 By Trudy Scott 15 Comments

In my interview, Glutamine, DPA & Tyrosine for Anxiety & Sugar Cravings, on the Anxiety Summit 5: Gut-Brain Axis, I share the story of a client of mine who described her sugar cravings as an “almost demonic urge to eat sugar and all things sweet.”

Before working with me she had been trying to control her blood sugar levels by eating the right foods at the right times i.e. healthy fats and quality protein (especially at breakfast). But this wasn’t enough to eliminate her sweet cravings. She would make and eat sweet treats all day long, using “healthier” sweeteners like monk fruit and maple syrup.

The solution was using 500mg of glutamine opened onto her tongue. I had the same conversation that I have with all my clients who would obviously rather eat something sweet than open a glutamine capsule onto their tongue: “If you have an intense craving for something sweet, tell yourself that you’re going to indulge, but also humor your nutritionist and take the glutamine anyway. You may be surprised to find your urge completely disappears.”

She did that and it worked – it stopped her demonic urge to eat something sweet every time and very quickly!

As a reminder here are the signs of low blood sugar –

Anxiety and mood:

Nervous, anxious, panic attacks
Irritable, shaky, headachey – especially if you go too long between meals
Lightheaded if meals are missed
Agitated, easily upset
Eating relieves fatigue

Sugar cravings:

Crave sugar, starch or alcohol any time during the day
Very intense cravings for sweets/sugar

I also share an excerpt from this March 2021 paper, The role of glutamine in supporting gut health and neuropsychiatric factors, highlighting the role of glutamine in gut health and depression/anxiety, and the gut-brain connection:

Glutamine can positively affect gut health by supporting the gut microbiome, gut mucosal wall integrity, and by modulating inflammatory responses.

As modulated by the vagus nerve, via the enteric nervous system, the gut-brain connection can impact the brain’s neurochemical environment.

Poor gut health can disrupt the balance of neurotransmitters, which can result in neuropsychiatric based conditions such as depression [and anxiety].

Glutamine supplementation may provide significant adjunctive nutritional support in cases of depression [and anxiety] by promoting proper gut health.

Here are all the topics I cover in my interview:

Sugar addiction: impacts on the microbiome, tryptophan metabolism, zinc & B vitamins
Glutamine for intense sugar cravings, anxiety & support of the microbiome/mucosa
DPA for comfort/reward cravings, pain & acute stress
Tyrosine for focus & calm energy

Dr. Aimie Apigian, MD, kindly interviewed me. She is also a guest expert on the summit so be sure to tune into her excellent interview too: The Biology of Trauma and the Freeze Response.

I encourage you to tune in if you have:

Anxiety & feel overwhelmed & stressed by little things
Panic attacks &/or obsessive thoughts or behaviors
Social anxiety/pyroluria
Phobias or fears (flying, spiders or even driving on a highway)

And also if you suffer from…

Food sensitivities, IBS/SIBO, parasites or gallbladder issues
Constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas, pain & other digestive issues
Leaky gut, a leaky blood-brain barrier or vagus nerve issues

Join us if you are also an emotional eater with intense sugar cravings (and know you suffer from low blood sugar), experience insomnia, low mood, PMS, poor focus and/or low motivation.

With research-based anxiety nutritional solutions and practical steps, you can determine your root causes, ease your anxiety and prevent it from coming back so you can feel on top of the world again!

If you are a practitioner, please join us too and find advanced solutions for your clients or patients too!

You’ve heard me say the Anxiety Summit has been called “a bouquet of hope!” My wish for you is that this summit is your bouquet of hope!

I hope you’ll join me and these incredible speakers, be enlightened and find YOUR solutions! More about this summit and other Anxiety Summits here.

Here’s to no more anxiety and you feeling on top of the world again!

Please share if glutamine has helped you with low blood sugar symptoms such as an intense desire for something sweet.

Feel free to post your questions here too.

Learn more/purchase now

The Anxiety Summit – Conquering those yeastie beasties (candida) once and for all

November 6, 2014 By Trudy Scott 43 Comments

Dr Mikell S. Parsons, DC. Certified Clinical Nutritionist was interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Conquering those yeastie beasties (candida) once and for all

Yeastie beasties/ candida: what it is and how common it is
How to assess if you have it and symptoms of overgrowth
Why craving sugar is a HUGE sign of a yeast overgrowth
How yeast can be a cause of weight gain
How do we get it and is it contagious
Protocols for getting rid of the yeastie beasties
Methylation and mercury toxicity and candida?

Here are some snippets from our interview:

We’ve got a lot of different microbes in the gut, and we’re supposed to have them, but they’re all supposed to be in the right balance. It’s when the body gets out of balance, yeast is opportunistic. I tell my patients yeast is like a covert spy. It’s laying in the background, doing its thing, acting like everything is cool until the body gets out of balance. And then it can just grow like crazy. And that’s when people start to get symptoms. So we’re all supposed to have it, but the question is will your body provide the opportunity for yeast to kind of take over.

I’ve found it in people who may not have had antibiotics in the last five years or so. But they’re eating a lot of food that is higher in sugar, and they’re not eating vegetables and even good sources of protein. So if you coat your body from the inside with a lot of sugar, that candida starts to kick up their heels, and it’s like a fire. If you want a fire to build, keep putting wood on the fire. If you want to put the fire out, you take the wood away and you cover it with water.

Candida can cause anxiety, depression, leaky gut, reflux and heartburn, brain fog, irritability, low libido, chronic fatigue, weight gain and the feeling of where is my next sugar fix.

Here is the 2013 study we discussed: Could yeast infections impair recovery from mental illness? A case study using micronutrients and olive leaf extract for the treatment of ADHD and depression.

Micronutrients are increasingly used to treat psychiatric disorders including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), mood disorders, stress, and anxiety. However, a number of factors influence optimal response and absorption of nutrients, including the health of the gut, particularly the presence of yeast infections, such as Candida. As part of a wider investigation into the impact of micronutrients on psychiatric symptoms, many participants who experienced a yeast infection during their treatment showed a diminished response to the micronutrients. One case was followed systematically over a period of 3 y with documentation of deterioration in psychiatric symptoms (ADHD and mood) when infected with Candida and then symptom improvement following successful treatment of the infection with olive leaf extract (OLE) and probiotics.

You can get a copy of her fun and educational video here Sexy from the Inside Out: The Art of Poop.

If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com

HMN twitter Food Mood party: more on sugar and cravings

January 20, 2012 By Trudy Scott 10 Comments

honey sweet tooth sugar addiction

Are you looking for the next “healthy” sweetener and have a sweet tooth? If yes, then read on.

On January 10^th The Holistic Moms Network invited me to answer questions at their January 10^th Twitter party on Food and Mood. It was a great virtual “event” with really great questions.

A colleague, Mira Dessy, Certified Nutrition Educator and holistic health columnist, provided a great summary of much of the discussion. I’m doing this post to add to it and to clarify a few things…

I think this is a great statement Mira made: “The chat started with a discussion of whether or not folks noticed if there were certain foods that made them anxious or affected their mood. Answers were fairly consistent across the board with responses including sugar, caffeine, gluten, McDonalds, and processed food.” I love that gluten was a hot topic and want to add the possible issue with GMO grains.

But what I’d really like to address the whole sugar discussion. With regards to this statement on Mira’s blog: “Sugar was by far the biggest offender with many participants discussing how difficult it can be to break the sugar habit” and this recommendation which didn’t actually come from me 🙂 “choose lower process sweeteners such as sucanat, evaporated cane juice crystals, honey, molasses, maple syrup”. I believe that if you replace white sugar with equal amounts of any of the above then it’s an issue. Ideally, a moderate amount of fresh fruit should satisfy your desire for something sweet and you shouldn’t have a sweet tooth. And you should not be seeking out the next “healthy” sweetener that comes on the market! If you do, it’s a message that you need to address your diet, nutrient deficiencies, imbalanced brain chemistry or even an addiction, or candida. This may apply whether you’re craving “healthy” sweeteners, stevia or xylitol sugar, or foods with artificial sweeteners. I asked this question “why do u eat sugar – comfort, calming, energy?” and these were some of the responses: “all of the above” and “I’d need to lose both arms to stop myself from eating sugar”. It really doesn’t have to be this way! You can quit and not have to use willpower and not feel deprived!

We didn’t have time to get completely into the individual amino acids (a future Twitter party ??) but they are incredible for stopping cravings in their tracks and improving mood. For example if you eat sugary food to calm down perhaps its low GABA and you may benefit from GABA supplements. Here is a Low GABA questionnaire.

Again, thanks to Mira and read her blog to get the rest of the discussion. And thanks to HMN! Do come to the next HMN twitter party – they are a lot of fun and very informative!

Much of this information relating to anxiety and mood and food (and so much more) is covered in The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings, available in major books stores, at Amazon and via www.antianxietyfoodsolution.com