The dietary transitions for improved health described in this book apply to ameliorating addictions, since an improved diet supports increases in hormones and enzymes critical to one’s sense of well-being. Alcohol and overeating diminish the body’s ability to provide these molecules, diminishing one’s sense of well-being. One may try to increase one’s sense of well-being through the addiction, thereby further reducing hormones and enzymes critical to one’s sense of well-being and deepening the addictive feedback loop.
Refined sugar triggers cravings for any addictive behaviour.
One might be overeating because one’s not getting enough vitamins and other micronutrients from the SAD diet. The body craves ever more food in a desperate search for micronutrients.
Binge eating and frequent overeating may signal that one is not absorbing sufficient minerals. When one is deficient in minerals, one may display “pica”, craving anything that contains sugar or salt to fool the body into feeling that it’s getting minerals. Instead one could supplement the range of major and trace minerals that one needs (possibilities: “Vegetarian Mega Minerals” by Nature’s Life, and “Colloida Life Trace Minerals” by Source Naturals).
The B vitamins are essential for a healthy nervous system and alleviating addictions. Therefore taking a multivitamin could prove useful as a transitional step for those who aren’t getting enough whole plant foods and nutritional yeast for B vitamins. A comparison of vegan multivitamins can be found at the website (www.DrGreger.org). If one takes a supplement specifically oriented towards B vitamins, that is a B-complex, using a lower dosage helps avoid any problems with over-supplementation. I do take such a B-complex daily in addition to a balanced diet. (Please see “Appendices: Author’s diet and exercise”.)
Animal products can lead to a deficit in vitamin B6, one of the nutrients needed to make the neurotransmitter serotonin. A deficit of serotonin can lead to relapses in eating disorders such as bulimia, to depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders. Serotonin has been shown to facilitate a sense of calm, to alleviatestress, hyperactivity, coronary artery spasms, pain, migraines, and to reduceappetite, all effects that can lead to improved health.
Studies have shown that the usual SAD diet treatment programs result in only a quarter of abstinent alcoholics remaining so for longer than a year. But with an improved diet building neurotransmitters, three quarters remained sober longer than three years (pg.223, Conscious Eating by Gabriel Cousens ISBN 1-55643-285-2). This diet was nine times more effective for cocaine addicts than the SAD diet.
Any abstinent alcoholic/addict is highly sensitive to alcohol/drugs, so that it’s critical to avoid them entirely.
Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant since it slows down the body’s functions and its effects are similar to those of a general anesthetic. Remove a water molecule from the active ingredient ethyl alcohol and you get ether. Ether is an anesthetic that works on the brain and puts it to sleep.
Alcohol constricts blood vessels in the brain, reducing the blood flow that delivers oxygen and glucose (blood sugar), inhibiting blood from transporting these essentials to blood cells. When brain cells are deprived of oxygen and glucose, they become impaired or die. The brain is the only organ not equipped with pain sensors for such damage or the ability to produce new brain cells should they die. Judgment gets diminished with alcohol, as well as the ability to recognize that loss of judgement. The hypothalamus in the brain controls automatic reflexes: breathing, heartbeat and other bodily operations over which an individual has no conscious control. Alcohol is particularly damaging to the hypothalamus during adolescent years. Alcohol inhibits receptors in the hippocampus, the site of a great deal of learning and storage of new information. Studies show that alcohol interferes with short-term memory.
Alcohol breaks down into chemicals that reduce calcium concentrations in the brain. Brain cells need calcium to communicate; too little slows thought.
Alcohol speeds tumor growth by stimulating angiogenesis, blood vessel formation for the tumor.
Combining grains with sweets, for example in a sweet roll, can result in fermentation in our digestive tract, producing alcohol and toxins. This effect is the reason so many alcoholics crave sweet pastries. If the diet of an abstinent alcoholic consists mainly of sweet pastries, detoxifying and remaining abstinent will prove even more difficult. Children’s diets often are dominated by sweets that supply alcohol during fermentation in their digestive tracts. These children are setting themselves up to crave ever more alcohol, increasing their odds of becoming alcoholics.
As an addict, one may tend to comfort oneself when suffering the effects of allergies by distracting oneself through the addiction. Therefore one could stop eatingallergens such as dairy, wheat, rye, white potatoes, and grapes, and beware of environmental allergens such as gasoline, plastics, paints and art supplies.
The latest quick fix for overeating being promoted by the pharmaceutical companies is to use pharmaceuticals that normally get prescribed to control epileptic seizures like Topamax or Zonegran to control compulsive eating. The rationale is that anti-seizure drugs dampen down the uncontrolled firing of nerve cells that occurs during binge eating. The side effects of Topamax or “dopamax” include tingling in hands and feet, memory problems, difficulty thinking. A side effect of Zonegran is fatigue. How much overall good would it do someone using Zonegran to lose weight to feel too tired to exercise? One could avoid the inevitable side effects of these drugs by implementing a few steps to improve diet instead. If one felt like overeating (which I do sometimes) at least one would be eating broccoli or green veggies, if one were interested in losing adipose fat tissue. (Please see “Fad diet hype” and “Pharmaceuticals: better living through chemistry?”)
Candida yeast thrives on both alcohol and food undigested due to overeating, especially overeating refined food.
For fascinating information on steps to take to eliminate or reduce addictive chocolate and dairy products such as cheese and the biochemical reasons for their addictive possibilities, as well as many useful suggestions for a moderate fat whole plant-food diet please see Breaking the Food Seduction by Neil D. Barnard, MD (ISBN 0-312-31493-0). The dietary transition to whole, unrefined plant foods advocated in that book as well as in this book may well help relieve both food and alcohol addictions.
The AA 12 Step program may prove useful for dealing with a food addiction as well as drugs.
Alcohol can cause increased risk of cancer. (Please see “Dealing with cancer”.)
Almost all alcoholics are hypoglycemic. (Please see “Helping hypoglycemia and diabetes”.)
Alcohol can cause the body to lose the ability to utilize the amino acid taurine effectively. Supplementation of a small amount of taurine (500 mg/day) may reducethe symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.
Alcohol may have anti-clotting effects (“Drink to Your Health?” Scientific American Feb.2003), but so does aspirin. And alcohol may raise HDL, but so does exercise. Alcoholcan lead to atrial fibrillation. Phytonutrients in wine can be consumed via red grape juice (www.DrFuhrman.com).
Flaxseed provides Omega-3s vital for all cell membranes, including those in the brain. (Please see “Outstanding Omegas”.)
It may prove wise for those who have been using alcohol/drugs extensively to make changes in diet step by step. Dealing with health challenges during intensive detoxification of the liver can prove quite challenging. (Please see “Tricks to transitioning one’s diet.”) Nevertheless, the benefits of moving more towards a healthy diet could prove very rewarding indeed.
Addictions may result from a desire to become numb, so in addition to dietary changes the roots of that desire could get explored. The hormones of fear course through any animal’s blood (including fish) during slaughter. Flesh eaters may feel the need to numb the stress caused by such ingested hormones that get transported into the blood, numbing by using socially acceptable or illegal drugs, or “comfort” food.
An excellent section with many very worthwhile tips regarding alcoholism can be found in Balch (Prescription for Nutritional Healing by Phyllis A. Balch MD, ISBN 1-58333-077-1, available at many large health stores).
Addiction may be rooted in an addictive lifestyle: irritating the nervous system with acid-forming foods and drink rather than soothing with alkaline-forming, focusing on the outer, material world to the exclusion of the inner, meditation, balancing. (Please see “Acid-alkali balance”.) Foods and habits that may seem to provide relief in the short term may have longer term irritating effects, deepening the cycle of irritation of the nervous system in a literal and figurative “feedback” loop. Since addictive foods such as alcohol, cheese and caffeine may play a role in an overall addictive lifestyle feedback loop, the book Breaking the Food Seduction by Neil D. Barnard, MD may prove useful. (Please see “Dairy dubious for health”.)
