Myth: Food cravings are our body's way of telling us that we need certain nutrients.On Friday I wrote about how to tell the difference between hunger and cravings. Today I'm going a bit deeper into cravings, specifically the falsehood that it's our body's way of telling us we need certain nutrients. If today's myth were true, you would crave peas, tuna, oysters, spinach, and Swiss cheese since these foods are high in zinc, omega 3 fatty acids and Vitamin D. These three micronutrients are the most commonly inadequate in our diet. Cravings for pizza, ice cream, chips, chocolate, fries, bacon, cheeseburgers are all learned behaviors. Before we dive into today's myth let's first use some common language. Cravings are a state of heightened eating motivation that is directed at a specific food. Hunger is a nonspecific motivation for calorie-containing food in general. It's important not to interchange the two. If you're really hungry, you'll be willing to eat fish and steamed broccoli. If you're not, you're most likely craving something based upon a learned response to it. Cravings follow a predictable pattern of cue, routine, reward. Our brains are hard-wired for specific physiological and psychological needs such as water, social support, physical comfort, sex, and of course, food. When we successfully acquire one of those things our brain releases dopamine. Dopamine is an incredibly powerful feel-good biochemical that we instantly want more of. We form an association, a cue, that the thing we just ate, drank, touched, or had sex with is what makes us feel so good. Of course, we don't know that we feel so good because of the dopamine release. We just want more of the thing. Every time we get it we get more dopamine which reinforces the thing and thus our routine is created. Let's explore a real world craving example of pizza. In the very primal part of our brain, pizza is an outstanding source of calories from delicious fat, carbs and perhaps protein. As you eat it your brain releases dopamine and also catalogs all of the smells, sights, and tastes of the pizza. The association becomes so strong that all you need now is a reminder of the pizza and you'll start salivating and craving it. You experience this when you see a pizza commercial on TV or when someone suggests going out to Bridger Brewery after Friday night's workout. You start salivating and obsessing about pizza. This is because the last time you ate it your brain released one of the most addictive chemicals on earth into your blood stream. Here's an illustration of how this works from the smart folks at Examine.com. Since we're all unique snowflakes some of us crave salty things and some of us crave sweet things. But none of us crave healthy things. That's because cravings are a hold-over from ancient times when highly-palatable high caloric food wasn't available 24 hours of the day. Back when we had to hunt, gather and travel for miles and miles just to get something calorically dense our brains rewarded us. It motivated us to find that amazing food source again. Now, all we have to do is call and it will be delivered to our front door!
Chocolate and sugar cravings are even more interesting because of the addition of another highly addictive biochemical called theobromine. Theobromine is a stimulant that accentuates fat and sugar’s natural ability to spike dopamine signaling. That's why sugar cravings are the hardest to control. Some research suggests that sugar is the most addictive drug on the planet, more so than crack, cocaine, meth and heroine. Good luck controlling that craving! Since cravings are driven by sensory cues (sight and smell) the most straightforward way to control cravings is to avoid exposing yourself to those cues. If temptation is not around you can more easily avoid it. Clear out your freezer, fridge and pantry and "it's out of sight out of mind." In the meantime, the next time you see a social media post about how cravings are our body's way of telling us that we need certain nutrients you can confidently call "bullshit." There's a LOT of silly bullshit on social media and I want you help you identify it. Do you have a myth you want me to explore? Tell me in the comments.
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What's for Dinner?There is one question that every single human on earth asks themself every single day. What's for Dinner? Cooking is a basic human endeavor. We all must eat, multiple times a day, and feeding yourself and others is a basic skill we all must develop. Without it, we will die or be dependent on someone else. I don't want to be dependent on anyone else for my food! Food is the foundation of my health and I want that squarely under my control. When was the last time you were actually hungry? So many times when we feel like eating we might actually be feeling cravings rather than actual hunger. Actual hunger comes on gradually, is felt physically in your stomach, and is easy to satisfy with ANY FOOD. Cravings come on suddenly, are specific to a particular food, are habit driven, and hard to satisfy. One of the biggest myth's in our modern food accessible world is that it's NOT OK to be hungry. We are encouraged to eat at the first sign of discomfort be that physical or emotional discomfort. Often times we eat because we've developed a habit to eat at a particular time or after an event. There's a strong psychological component to why we eat what and when we do. Here's the ultimate test of hunger vs. cravings. Are you hungry enough to eat baked fish and steamed broccoli. No? Then you are not hungry but are craving. I learned that it's ok to be hungry from my nutrition coach. She coached me through a 20 lbs weight loss after I finished my competitive weightlifting season in 2019. Many times our weekly coaching calls focused on how I managed my hunger. I can tell you from experience it's not managed by eating the things I WANTED. The things I wanted to eat did not satisfy my rumbling belly. Things that satisfied my rumbling belly were a very large glass of water followed by lean protein and vegetables. Yes, many times I ate baked fish and steamed broccoli. So the next time you find yourself reaching into the fridge, pause and see if you're willing to eat baked fish and steamed broccoli. If you're not, drink a tall glass of water, step away from the fridge, and plan your next lean protein and veggie rich meal. Good luck! Of course, it's not #foodiefiday without a recipe:) Here's one for delicious baked fish from The Mediterranean Dish. Enjoy!
I follow WOD Science on Instagram. They posted about a recent journal article on why middle-aged women do CrossFit. You can read the entire article here.
The research article states that: Women significantly reduce regular exercise during middle-age by up to 40%. Concurrently, women experience a reduction in basal metabolic rate and loss of lean muscle as they transition to menopause]; thereby increasing their risk for body weight gain and obesity. Obesity is associated with co-morbidities including diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers
It got me thinking about our gym and the amazing middle-aged women in it. Our gym is over 60% women and of those women 60% are 40 years or older. Clearly these women have heard the messages about the importance of lifting heavy shit and high intensity interval training as they age.
On the flip side, I have seen many, many people, men and women, come and go at our gym. So what makes you all so sticky and the rest of the population not? In my nearly 10 years of owning this gym I can usually tell by the end of Foundations how "sticky" someone is. Meaning, I have a good sense based after just 5 personal training sessions if someone is going to stuck with us or not. It's got nothing to do with physical ability. People who stick with exercise, particularly the kind we do at our gym, have particular mental toughness qualities. They are curious, want to improve, lean into hard things, and like having fun with other. The WOD Science folks found this factors lead to the best exercise adherence: CrossFit doesn't work well because it is more effective than other resistance exercise and endurance programs. CrossFit works well because it is fun.
What do you think? Why have you stuck with us for as long as you have?
Feel free to email if have ideas about what makes someone sticky. In the meantime, please take 2 mins and take my non-scientific poll. â By now I should no longer be surprised one someone assumes that lifting weights will make you bulky and inflexible. However, after several years of talking to people about CrossFit and weightlifting I understand many folks don't understand the difference between weightlifting and lifting weights. Weightlifting is a sport, in fact there are two competitive weightlifting disciplines. Powerlifting which consists of the deadlift, back squat and benchpress, and Olympic weightlifting which consists of the snatch and clean & jerk. Olympic weightlifting is an Olympic sport and is governed by the International Olympic Committee. Powerlifting is not an Olympic sport, and has several national and international regulatory committees. Lifting weights is not a sport, but rather a fitness pursuit. We do not lift weights. We practice the sport of weightlifting. Like any sport, weightlifting requires flexibility, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy, power, speed and strength. All of these physical characteristics, along with stamina and endurance are specific adaptions we try to illicit through the demands of our training program. Flexibility (which we often call mobility) is a physical trait that can be trained and it is ESSENTIAL to the sport of weightlifting. You simply must have full range of motion of your ankles and knees to squat to depth. You must have full range of motion in our shoulders, elbows and wrists to support and receive the bar safely in the clean or snatch. One of our favorite methods for flexibility and mobility training is the physical practice of yoga. Yoga asana (the poses) develops flexibility, balance, coordination and to some extent strength. If you don't believe me, take a look at Dmitry Klokov's warm-up in the video below. You will recognize the plow (halasana), seated forward bend (paschimottanasana), wide-angle seated forward bend (upavistha konasana), and the squat (malasana). Klokov is a Russian Olympic weightlifter who won Silver at the 2008 Summer Olympics. His flexibility is so good he can do the splits. So, tell me again why you don't want to lift weights because it will make you inflexible. |
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