I’ve been thinking lately about binging. Mostly because I’ve been doing it lately! I just recently bought a car. In order to make the car payments, I had to cut back on some of the more expensive things I buy. I stopped buying protein bars for snacks and started eating nuts and raisins instead. Whoops. Bad mistake. Nuts don’t have as much protein as I need. Plus I don’t digest them very well. I started to be hungry all the time. Had that starving feeling between meals. So I started buying a lot of junk food to binge on after work. So I wouldn’t feel so hungry. Finally I realized this weird cycle was going on.
I have a theory that when people binge, they crave what their bodies are deficient in. It’s interesting the specific things I have craved recently. Dairy, for one. Whenever I feel like binging I always crave cheese. I believe it is because I need more protein. Giving up the protein bars was a bad bad idea, I guess. I still spend extra money on all the junk foods (so I haven’t saved money), and I’ve gained 6 pounds in a month. I also craved cinnamon rolls a lot. I figure maybe it’s because cinnamon helps control blood sugar. I don’t usually crave cinnamon things. Just lately, I do. Sometimes I crave chocolate. Which could be because it has magnesium in it. Or could just be for the oxytocin, the feel good chemical.
Anyway, I decided to put an end to this rapid weight gain and binging by buying my high protein foods again. I decided to buy my old favorite PureFit Nutrition Bars
I also decided to eat raw nuts with my raisins, to see if I digest them better. They certainly taste better. I’ve been eating raw pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds lately. They’re better than roasted, I think. Better tasting, I mean. And better for me. Hopefully more digestible!
I can’t believe how long it took me to realize I was binging because of dietary deficiencies and not from stress. Not that I’m not plenty stressed. I am. Car payment! Which is probably why I didn’t notice this sooner.
It reminds me of the disorder Pica, where people crave non-food items, like clay and dirt. Possibly because of nutritional deficiencies. What if compulsive overeating has something in common with Pica? It would make sense if that was partly the cause. Physical, not all psychological.
It’s also true that food grown in the US is very deficient in vitamins and minerals, because it is grown in soils depleted of nutrients. Here is an interesting article on the subject. It makes me wonder if part of the reason Americans are so prone to obesity is because we have to eat more food to get an adequate amount of minerals and vitamins. If we even can from food alone. You can see how this might contribute to compulsive overeating. And the feeling of never being satisfied.
The solution to this problem? I believe it’s best to eat the healthiest food you can find, and then also supplement with vitamins and minerals, which is what I do. And now that I’m paying more careful attention to what I eat, maybe I can lose those 6 pounds! And then, you know, 50 more…
‘Til next time. ~Me.
