Toxic Hunger and Food addictions
In this section of Seattle Organic Restaurants, I’m going to talk about toxic hunger and food addictions. Our bodies go though anabolic and catabolic phases. In catabolic phase, our body is busy digesting foods we just ate and is in glycogen storage or refueling phase, in anabolic phase our body is done digesting our foods and can rest, repair and rebuild itself and get rid of toxins. Many people in catabolic phase feel toxic hungry but they aren’t actually hungry.
It’s always difficult to break a bad habit at the beginning, but once you pass the toxic hunger phase, your body can recover and repair itself. It always feels worse at first until it feels better later! Imagine you are hooked on cigarettes and smoke 5 cigarettes a day and suddenly you stop smoking, of course at first it feels awful. But if you can pass the detoxification phase, you actually start feeling better. It’s the same thing with food. If you are addicted to the American diet high in fat, sugar and salt, you should start consuming a well balanced diet high in real nutrients, You will be amazed how fast your body can detoxify and repair itself once you pass the detoxification phase.
The American Diet is Toxic
It might not be a wrong comparison to comparethe American diet with drugs; they both are toxic, addictive and harmful for the body. It’s normal to feel withdrawal, pain and confusion for a short period of time after you change your diet. Keep in mind that you might feel shaky, weak, hungry or even sick during detoxification phase but as soon as you pass this phase you will start feeling better.
Many cannot pass this short detoxification period because they feel toxic hunger in catabolic phase. So they eat more macronutrients and they think they feel better by feeding toxic hunger. But the truth is that over a period of time feeding toxic hunger with more fat, carbohydrates, sugar and salt would increase the accumulation of free radicals in the body. Our body can really take care itself and recover fast if we start paying attention to it and take a better care of it by controlling stress, consuming healthy nutritional diet and exercising. But once the free radicals are built up and you never had any detoxification or cleansing, your body starts giving up on you.
Many Americans do not even Know How Real Hunger Feels
Our bodies are so much contaminated with heavy metals, GMOs, antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, herbicides, high fructose corn syrup and chemicals that many Americans do not even know how real hunger feels. You are truly hungry when you let your body go though catabolic phase and throws toxicity and free radicals out. However if you do not eat when you are really hungry, your body has to break down your muscle tissues to feed itself, so it’s important to distinguish between toxic hunger and real hunger. If you are truly hungry and you do not eat, you end up losing muscles and that’s not what you want. However to if you are overweight or obese, you must have overeaten because of toxic hunger (too much macronutrient), stress or food addictions. Once you pass this toxicity phase and your body is lean again, you know exactly how much to eat and when to stop eating.