Obesity - No Problem!
Obesity
It appears that in the next 10 years "obesity" will be the number 1 problem in America. I'm here to tell you that obesity is not an excessive problem, obesity is a deficiency problem. So don't think you have to go out and get a gym membership (even though some cardio wouldn't hurt) because what you're about to learn is quite different from what you've always been told.
Now remember you're hearing this from an Ex-Certified Personal Trainer. It took me some time to wrap my mind around the actual concept but in the end I found it to not only be true but the main thing main-stream companies like Ballys Total Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness, Golds Gym and all those exercise commercials you see late at night do not want you to know.
Let me start off by saying that in the early days words like cribbing and pica were used to explain hunger or cravings. Cribbing is usually what happens when you see a cow or horse knawing on a fence post or wooden fence. Any good farmer will know to put out a salt-lick or salt-block because the animal is lacking some sort of mineral. In women it's called pica and this is when women are pregnant with weird cravings like pickles at 2am, peanut butter, cola and ice cream. Again this is stemming from a deficiency in minerals and nutrients.
Cravings - What They Might Mean
Cravings, which can sometimes mean allergies, are more often nature's way of letting you know that you're not getting enough of certain vitamins or minerals. Frequently these specific hungers develop because your overall diet is inadequate.
Some of the most common cravings are:
Peanut Butter: This is definately among the top ten, and it's not at all surprising. Peanut butter is a rich source of B vitamins. If you find yourself dipping into the jar often, it might be because your under stress and your ordinary B intake has become insufficient. Since 50 grams of peanut butter - a third of a cup - is 284 calories, you'll find it easier on your waistline to take a B complex supplement if you do not want to gain weight.
Bananas: When you catch yourself reaching for this fruit again and again, it could be because your body needs potassium. One medium banana has 555 mg. People taking diuretics or cortisone (which rob the body of needed potassium) often crave bananas.
Cheese: If you are more a cheese luster than a cheese lover, there's a good chance that your real hunger is for calcium and phosphorus. (If it's processed cheese that you've been snacking on, you've been getting aluminum and salt, too, without knowing it.) For one thing, you might try eating more broccoli or just simply supplement.
Apples: An apple a day doesn't necessarily keep the doctor away, but it offers a lot of good things that you might be missing in other foods - calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium - and is an excellent source of cholesterol - lowering - pectin!
Butter: Most often vegetarians crave butter because of their own low saturated-fat intake. Salted butter, on the other hand, might be craved for the salt alone.
Cola: The craving for cola is most often a sugar hunger and an addiction to caffeine. The beverage has no nutritive value.
Nuts: If your a little nutty about nuts, you probably could use more protein, B vitamins, or fat in your diet. If it's salted nuts you favor, you could be craving the sodium and not the nuts. You'll find that people under stress tend to eat more nuts than relaxed individuals.
Ice Cream: High as ice cream is in calcium, most people crave it for it's sugar content. Hypoglycemics and diabetics have great hungers for it, as do people seeking to recapture the security of childhood.
Pickles: If your pregnant and want pickles, you're probably after the salt. And if you're not pregnant and crave pickles, the reason is most likely the same. (Pickles also contain a substantial amount of potassium.)
Bacon: Cravings for bacon is usually because of it's fat. People on restricted diets are more susceptible to greasy binges. Unfortunately, saturated fat is not bacon's only drawback. Bacon is very high in carcinogenic nitrites. If you do indulge in bacon, be sure you're ingesting enough vitamins C, A, D and E to counteract the nitrites.
Eggs: Aside from the protein (2 eggs gives you 13 g.), sulfur, amino acids and selenium, egg lovers might also be seeking the yolk's fat content or paradoxically, it's cholesterol-and-fat-dissolving choline.
Cantaloupe: Just because you like it's taste might not be the only reason you crave this melon. Cantaloupe is high in potassium and vitamin A.
Olives: Whether you crave them green or black, you're likely to be after the salt. People with underactive thyroids are most often the first tp reach for them.
Salt: No guesswork here, it's the sodium you're after. Cravers quite possibly have a thyroid iodine deficiency or low sodium Addison's disease. Hypertensives often crave salt and shouldn't.
Onions: Cravings for spicy foods can sometimes indicate problems in the lungs and sinuses.
Chocolate: Definitely one of the foremost cravings, if not the foremost. Chocoholics are addicted to the caffeine as well as the sugar. If you want to kick the chocolate habit try supplementing.
Milk: If you're still craving milk as an adult, you might need a calcium supplement. Then again it might be the amino acids - such as trytophan, leucine and lysine-that you're body needs. Nervous people also seek out the trytophan in milk, since it has a very soothing effect.
Chinese Food: Of course it's delicious, but often it's the monosodium glutamate in the food that fosters the craving. People with salt deficiencies usually go all out for Chinese food.
Mayonnaise: Since this is a fatty food, it is also craved by vegetarians and people who have eliminated other fats from their diets.
Tart Fruits: A persistent craving for tart fruits can often indicate problems with the gallbladder or liver.
Paint and Dirt: Children have a tendency to eat paint and dirt. Frequently this is an indication of a calcium or vitamin D deficiency. A hard reevaluation of you're childs diet is essential. This craving for no-food items is called pica. It's a condition also experienced by pregnant women.
It appears that in the next 10 years "obesity" will be the number 1 problem in America. I'm here to tell you that obesity is not an excessive problem, obesity is a deficiency problem. So don't think you have to go out and get a gym membership (even though some cardio wouldn't hurt) because what you're about to learn is quite different from what you've always been told.
Now remember you're hearing this from an Ex-Certified Personal Trainer. It took me some time to wrap my mind around the actual concept but in the end I found it to not only be true but the main thing main-stream companies like Ballys Total Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness, Golds Gym and all those exercise commercials you see late at night do not want you to know.
Let me start off by saying that in the early days words like cribbing and pica were used to explain hunger or cravings. Cribbing is usually what happens when you see a cow or horse knawing on a fence post or wooden fence. Any good farmer will know to put out a salt-lick or salt-block because the animal is lacking some sort of mineral. In women it's called pica and this is when women are pregnant with weird cravings like pickles at 2am, peanut butter, cola and ice cream. Again this is stemming from a deficiency in minerals and nutrients.
Cravings - What They Might Mean
Cravings, which can sometimes mean allergies, are more often nature's way of letting you know that you're not getting enough of certain vitamins or minerals. Frequently these specific hungers develop because your overall diet is inadequate.
Some of the most common cravings are:
Peanut Butter: This is definately among the top ten, and it's not at all surprising. Peanut butter is a rich source of B vitamins. If you find yourself dipping into the jar often, it might be because your under stress and your ordinary B intake has become insufficient. Since 50 grams of peanut butter - a third of a cup - is 284 calories, you'll find it easier on your waistline to take a B complex supplement if you do not want to gain weight.
Bananas: When you catch yourself reaching for this fruit again and again, it could be because your body needs potassium. One medium banana has 555 mg. People taking diuretics or cortisone (which rob the body of needed potassium) often crave bananas.
Cheese: If you are more a cheese luster than a cheese lover, there's a good chance that your real hunger is for calcium and phosphorus. (If it's processed cheese that you've been snacking on, you've been getting aluminum and salt, too, without knowing it.) For one thing, you might try eating more broccoli or just simply supplement.
Apples: An apple a day doesn't necessarily keep the doctor away, but it offers a lot of good things that you might be missing in other foods - calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium - and is an excellent source of cholesterol - lowering - pectin!
Butter: Most often vegetarians crave butter because of their own low saturated-fat intake. Salted butter, on the other hand, might be craved for the salt alone.
Cola: The craving for cola is most often a sugar hunger and an addiction to caffeine. The beverage has no nutritive value.
Nuts: If your a little nutty about nuts, you probably could use more protein, B vitamins, or fat in your diet. If it's salted nuts you favor, you could be craving the sodium and not the nuts. You'll find that people under stress tend to eat more nuts than relaxed individuals.
Ice Cream: High as ice cream is in calcium, most people crave it for it's sugar content. Hypoglycemics and diabetics have great hungers for it, as do people seeking to recapture the security of childhood.
Pickles: If your pregnant and want pickles, you're probably after the salt. And if you're not pregnant and crave pickles, the reason is most likely the same. (Pickles also contain a substantial amount of potassium.)
Bacon: Cravings for bacon is usually because of it's fat. People on restricted diets are more susceptible to greasy binges. Unfortunately, saturated fat is not bacon's only drawback. Bacon is very high in carcinogenic nitrites. If you do indulge in bacon, be sure you're ingesting enough vitamins C, A, D and E to counteract the nitrites.
Eggs: Aside from the protein (2 eggs gives you 13 g.), sulfur, amino acids and selenium, egg lovers might also be seeking the yolk's fat content or paradoxically, it's cholesterol-and-fat-dissolving choline.
Cantaloupe: Just because you like it's taste might not be the only reason you crave this melon. Cantaloupe is high in potassium and vitamin A.
Olives: Whether you crave them green or black, you're likely to be after the salt. People with underactive thyroids are most often the first tp reach for them.
Salt: No guesswork here, it's the sodium you're after. Cravers quite possibly have a thyroid iodine deficiency or low sodium Addison's disease. Hypertensives often crave salt and shouldn't.
Onions: Cravings for spicy foods can sometimes indicate problems in the lungs and sinuses.
Chocolate: Definitely one of the foremost cravings, if not the foremost. Chocoholics are addicted to the caffeine as well as the sugar. If you want to kick the chocolate habit try supplementing.
Milk: If you're still craving milk as an adult, you might need a calcium supplement. Then again it might be the amino acids - such as trytophan, leucine and lysine-that you're body needs. Nervous people also seek out the trytophan in milk, since it has a very soothing effect.
Chinese Food: Of course it's delicious, but often it's the monosodium glutamate in the food that fosters the craving. People with salt deficiencies usually go all out for Chinese food.
Mayonnaise: Since this is a fatty food, it is also craved by vegetarians and people who have eliminated other fats from their diets.
Tart Fruits: A persistent craving for tart fruits can often indicate problems with the gallbladder or liver.
Paint and Dirt: Children have a tendency to eat paint and dirt. Frequently this is an indication of a calcium or vitamin D deficiency. A hard reevaluation of you're childs diet is essential. This craving for no-food items is called pica. It's a condition also experienced by pregnant women.
