How do you avoid binge eating when you get "cravings"?

Is food psychologically addictive?

Exercise?

Hobby?

Self control.

Drink a full glass of water prior to attacking food.

- BG

Binge drinking.

Don't keep junk food or soda in the house.

If you binge on celery, brown rice and tuna I doubt you'll have health problems.  

Avoid binge eating by binge drinking of course!!

I am inherently a creature of habit and I get deeply into grooves of whatever food I'm "into lately." So my only option to replace bad habits is with better habits. It's very hard to make the change but easy to stick to once I've made it.

In practice I tend to waffle back and forth. I'll spend six months on a diet (usually low-carb) and lose 50 lbs. then six months off and gain it back.

Not the healthiest life, I realize. But damn, six months of steak and six months of burritos and Fudge Rounds--you tell me that isn't a good year.

Quoted: Don't keep junk food or soda in the house. If you binge on celery, brown rice and tuna I doubt you'll have health problems.

Ding!  Don't buy junk food.  No junk food, no snacking.  I always realize I'm not as hungry as I think I am when snack attack hits and I have two empty glasses for water and some Raisin Bran in my kitchen.

x156

+1 on the glass of water

Purge

Anorexia

It's your mouth.  Don't jam food in it.

You have to change how you think about food.

Bread and other foods containing various types of glutenous grains actually are addictive, as the metabolic breakdown produces morphine-like peptides (exorphins).  Dairy products containing casein have a similar breakdown.

carbs and processed sugars are like crack.

once you get off them it's easy to avoid them, but when you backslide it's a bitch.

think about it a minute... you are in the food industry, and what makes foods sell is when people are compelled to eat it. the way to do that is to make it pleasant for the taste buds AND to make it pleasureable to eat brainwise.

they do both of these things by processing the taste and what happens in the body once you eat it.

good examples are all the fake sugars they put in food, and MSG (which is in damn near everything including ice cream). these things make food addictive, bottom line.

if you want first hand experience with how we are chemically and mentally addicted to BS foods, fast for 10 days and see how crazy you get for no reason.

Quoted: I am inherently a creature of habit and I get deeply into grooves of whatever food I'm "into lately." So my only option to replace bad habits is with better habits. It's very hard to make the change but easy to stick to once I've made it. In practice I tend to waffle back and forth. I'll spend six months on a diet (usually low-carb) and lose 50 lbs. then six months off and gain it back. Not the healthiest life, I realize. But damn, six months of steak and six months of burritos and Fudge Rounds--you tell me that isn't a good year.

I tend to be the same way.  For a few months I'll be going to the gym 4 times a week, cooking all my own (healthy) meals, not drinking much.  Then I'll have some little distraction and I flip 180degrees- no gym, eating fast food, going out drinking a couple times a week, etc..  I think part of the problem is that I get burnt out, so I'm trying to moderate more now.  We'll see...

Embrace it, don't try to fight it.

We live in the greatest times ever, bar none.

It's snowing outside, I live in WI and it's 20 degrees yet I can go to the market and get Bananas for 49cents a pound. If it doesn't boggle your mind that, by weight, bananas are the same price as gasoline you should stop eating.

-JTP

Quoted: if you want first hand experience with how we are chemically and mentally addicted to BS foods, fast for 10 days and see how crazy you get for no reason.

Won't I get kinda crazy fasting for 10 days even with a 100% healthy diet?  

Smoke.  

Shane

We tend to not buy junk food.  So when I get a craving I only have healthier options.  Typically I just find something else to do to get my mind off of it.  It goes away if you let it.

Quoted: You have to change how you think about food.

Truth.

Think of the body as a complex piece of machinery.  It *needs* certain amounts of literally thousands of different nutrients.

It does NOT need "whatever tastes good" or "whatever you want".

Unfortunately it is impossible live a halfway "normal" American life and eat strictly for pleasure like most people do and:

1) Provide your body what it *does* need,

2) Avoid giving it too many calories, saturated/ hydrogenated fats, sodium, refined carbohydrates, etc -- which convert to fat or cause other malfunctions.

Food "cravings" are strange things, and not inherently good or bad.  Vegetarians who become deficient in protein, crave -- protein.  People on the stricted form of the no-carb 'Atkins' diet crave fruit and bread.  Those are "good" or "necessary" cravings, because they are signals of the body telling us to eat things that are good for its maintenance.

On the other hand, the body (and mind) can develop unhealthy allergic-response type cravings for what is absolutely the worst thing.  Exactly like alchoholics *crave* alchohol.  The body has developed a haywire, sort of short-circuited response to something.

Cravings indicate that something is wrong, one way or the other.  

Our job, as body-owners, is to figure out what is missing and to supply it.

If we have developed a haywire 'allergic'/ addictive type craving for something unhealthy -- (chocolate candy for example) -- probably the worst thing we can do is to eat it.

If we have been under a lot of physical or mental stress and crave something like roast beef, that is probably a healthy signal indicating we need protein.  Any form of meat or protein would probably quiet that craving after we eat a moderate amount of it.

But if one has a craving for the chocolate candy, and he eats it, then he will crave more and more of it, getting perhaps sick, but never satisfied.

Cravings mean something is out of whack.

Treat the body like a fine piece of machinery -- not a playground.

go out to restaurant order a cup of hot water steal the Catsup(if available) and make Mater' soup watching the Fatties gorge themselves and savoring that fat rich food,,,,ummm Yes you want to be that Slobbering Fat Tub of Sh*t enjoying that,,Don't Ya'!

Quoted: Quoted: if you want first hand experience with how we are chemically and mentally addicted to BS foods, fast for 10 days and see how crazy you get for no reason. Won't I get kinda crazy fasting for 10 days even with a 100% healthy diet?

Oh definitely... we are addicted to good and bad food by survival. crappy food puts your body into some kind of weird imbalance that is particularly nasty on the fast IMO.

since you eat well you probably get this:
eating balanced, clean food gives you energy and a sort of "lightness" like good fuel. crappy food makes you feel satiated, almost like an opiate or other drug.

the crash from each is different when you fast. think about it, what do we do after a carblicious binge out? the carb crash is like high off a drug.

Eat smaller more frequent meals.  It's a little difficult with American lifestyle, but still possible.  It takes about 3 hours to digest a meal.  Get far outside of that window with no food whatsoever and you are more likely to overeat.

+1 on no junk food in the house.  100 calories worth of apple is more filling than say 100 calories of cookies or chips, and better for you.  Our bodies become accustomed to what we throw at them.  I've found that after a while I don't miss the junk food.

Another +1 on drinking a full glass of water with meals.  It helps your stomach feel full.

I had a heart attack scare last week.  They didn't find anything.  But when my internal idiot light goes off, I pay attention.

The Cardiologist was very specific.  Stay away from foods packed with cholesterol and high fructose corn syrup.  Don't go back for seconds.

It's a bitch, but I'm doing it.

ZM

Quoted: I had a heart attack scare last week.  They didn't find anything.  But when my internal idiot light goes off, I pay attention. The Cardiologist was very specific.  Stay away from foods packed with cholesterol and high fructose corn syrup.  Don't go back for seconds. It's a bitch, but I'm doing it. ZM

HFCS High Fructose Corn Syrup = EVIL.

That stuff does NOT occur in nature, and is more of an addictive drug than a food.

The human body either evolved (or was designed ) to live with only occassional fruits and honey in the way of sweets.  And you have to do a lot of physical labor like climbing trees and swatting bees to get any.

The body can only accept so much sugar/ refined carbohydrate so fast before it goes haywire.  

HFCS is just too mych of a 'hit' for the body to handle.

And we don't even realise how fouled up we were eating that stuff until we get away from it!!!

That stuff makes people miserable and moody -- but almost everyone eats so much of it that most people are messed up by it all the time, and they all think it is 'normal'.

It ain't.

Try only eating when you own the top of a page on ARFCOM...


Ooo.. time for a snack!

Ive been on a pretty big health kick the last 6 months.  You have to treat yourself to "bad food" once a week in order to stay on a diet.  Stay way from enriched flour, too many carbs, and processed sugar.

No matter what happens to me in the future I will NEVER AGAIN drink any crap with high fructose corn syrup in.  I quit drinking all that stuff 6 months ago and I feel so much better.  I lost 10lbs in a week when I stopped drinking coke.

Bike a few miles several times a week, it helps me.

ETA: and use a real bike, not the stationary ones...the change of scenery is great

Quoted: I had a heart attack scare last week.  They didn't find anything.  But when my internal idiot light goes off, I pay attention. The Cardiologist was very specific.  Stay away from foods packed with cholesterol and high fructose corn syrup.  Don't go back for seconds. It's a bitch, but I'm doing it. ZM

I forgot to add, "The Imperial Red-Headed Scorpio Food Nazi" disposed of all the evil snacky-time food.  

She said this to me while I was in the Hospital, "If you die on me, I'll kill you"

I believe her!

ZM

...

Quoted: How do you avoid binge eating when you get "cravings"? Is food psychologically addictive? Exercise? Hobby?

I don't binge eat.

I like food, but in moderation. If I have a craving, I go with it...the key is not over eating, and stuffing your face to the point of being over full.

Eat when you are hungry, only until you aren't hungry, then stop.

Its just not an issue for me.

Quoted: Quoted: How do you avoid binge eating when you get "cravings"? Is food psychologically addictive? Exercise? Hobby? I don't binge eat. I like food, but in moderation. If I have a craving, I go with it...the key is not over eating, and stuffing your face to the point of being over full. Eat when you are hungry, only until you aren't hungry, then stop. Its just not an issue for me.

Fatty

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: How do you avoid binge eating when you get "cravings"? Is food psychologically addictive? Exercise? Hobby? I don't binge eat. I like food, but in moderation. If I have a craving, I go with it...the key is not over eating, and stuffing your face to the point of being over full. Eat when you are hungry, only until you aren't hungry, then stop. Its just not an issue for me. Fatty

Oh NO you didn't!

Always have a chaw of tobacco in our mouth this will keep you from putting food in your mouth.......