Open Future Health Blog

What Foods do you Crave for?

You know that young children given free choice of food actually choose a diet that's remarkably mixed and healthy. Our bodies tell us what we need, unless your body has become damaged by poor eating habits over a long period of time. This comes back to homeostasis. Your body will create cravings to eat certain foods in order to restore homeostasis.

If your system is out-of-order, those cravings will restore you to the unhealthy state you consider normal.

For most of us that means we crave too much sugar, too many carbohydrates (more sugar), making us continually "hungry" and leading to metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and a cascade of end of life health problems. 75% of the population are on that trajectory, CAUSED by the "healthy diet" we are eating that's not healthy at all.

Making Saturated Coffee

If you do as Open Future Health suggests, cut out the sugar, and cut back on the carbohydrates, your weight will begin to fall. You are probably eating 300gm of carbohydrate a day. If you can cut to less than 120gm a day, you'll most likely begin to lose weight. That's one "secret."

Another open secret I keep repeating is, "make your dinner the last thing you eat each day," followed by "change what you eat for breakfast." That simple formula will allow everyone to lose weight if they want to.

NOTE: two things are important. BOTH; what you eat, and when you eat it.

If you eat as instructed the only problem you might have is a mild craving for something sweet or carbohydrate between 8pm and bed-time. It's not real hunger; your glucose levels are falling, just ignore it. Drink saturated tea or coffee if you wish, by adding butter. (As illustrated with my coffee above.)

Three to four hours after your evening meal your glucose levels will be normal, insulin will turn off, and normal fat burning will begin and run all night. In the morning, if you avoid ALL sugar and carbohydrate, and eat a cooked breakfast, you won't feel hungry until lunch time. (Or maybe until much later.) And fat burning will continue, until you break the cycle by eating carbohydrate.

Once you give yourself a sugar boost, by eating sweet or carbohydrate, you'll begin craving more every two hours. Back to being continuously hungry.

Seed and Nut Crackers

These nut and seed based cracker biscuits have almost zero carbohydrates. You can butter them, of have butter and cheese, or cream cheese on them. If you are having a drink, when others are "eating" you can eat ONE of these with the topping and be perfectly satisfied. (If you eat too many; you'll have very soft poo. Too much fruit does that too.) Search for nut and seed crackers online and you'll find many versions.

Most people will prefer the variety, of the mixed diet, where nothing is banned, just restricted. You'll feel a little bit hungry, and have to say "no" to your craving for carbs once a twice a day, but that's not too hard to do. "Success." That's how my wife chooses to eat.

I've chosen to be a bit stricter. I cut back on carbohydrates to less than 50gm a day. When you do that, in 7 days or less, your body will be in ketosis, running on fatty acids and ketones, instead of glucose. When in ketosis, you never feel hungry. You never feel a craving for sugar or for carbohydrates. For energy, you MUST eat a lot of fat, and that's both tasty and enjoyable. I do have cravings when in ketosis, for fruit. (I wrote about my problems with fruit above.) You can eat fruit, but not too much at a time. (1/4 of an apple.)

Many people in ketosis, living a Banting lifestyle, make a choice to eat a meal only twice a day. That's a decision I made about two weeks ago. It seems to work well, there is no hunger, and it frees up your day. Very convenient actually.

John Stephen Veitch