"Potatoes Not Prozac" by Kathleen DesMaisons
A Natural Seven-Step Dietary Plan to:
Control your cravings and lose weight
Recognize how foods affect the way you feel
Stabilize the level of sugar in your blood
From the back cover:
Can't say no to fattening foods, alcohol or compulsive behaviors?
You aren't lazy, self-indulgent or undisciplined; you may be one of the millions of people who are sugar sensitive. Many people who suffer from sugar sensitivity don't even know it; they continue to consume large quantities of sweets, breads, pasta or alcohol. These foods can trigger feelings of exhaustion and low self-esteem, yet their biochemical impact makes sugar-sensitive people crave them even more. This vicious cycle can continue for years, leaving sufferers overweight, fatigued, depressed and sometimes alcoholic.
This is the second book by Ms. DesMaisons that I have read. The first was "Little Sugar Addicts" which I am going to read again and probably buy - I was that impressed. I'll post about that one later. "Potatoes not Prozac" was her first book. Where she comes from is a background of working with alcoholics, and being the child of an alcoholic as well. She started seeing parallels between herself and her clients and decided to explore the possibilities of sugar-sensitivity creating a kind of addictive behavior similar to alcoholism or even leading to it. She found that by treating her clients for sugar sensitivity their recovery rate from alcoholism went through the roof. So she pursued the theory and this book was the first published result.
Let's just say as I was reading through it, lights were going off in my head constantly. She has completely nailed something that I've thought about for years but not fully explored, that being that a "sweet tooth" may be more akin to a dependence than a preference.
The seven steps in this book are (done in sequence and building on each other):
1. Keep a meticulous journal (time, food, physical & emotional feelings)
2. Eat three meals a day at regular times and consistent intervals of no more than 5-6 hours
3. Maintain your vitamin plan
4. Eat protein at each meal
5. Eat only very complex carbohydrates
6. Eliminate or drastically reduce all forms of sugar
7. Create plan for maintenance
So... following are a few highlights from the book. And here is the link to buy it if you want to read the rest:
Potatoes Not Prozac: Solutions for Sugar Sensitivity
The more I listened to the "drunks," the more I was struck by some missing link between what I heard them say and what I felt. I knew in my heart that their addiction to alcohol was not about a lack of willpower. I knew drinking wasn't just an easy way out to escape unpleasant feelings. Something else was going on. I was convinced that if I discovered this missing link our treatment program for alcoholism might succeed.
At the same time there was a troubling discrepancy between my work at the clinic and my own life. Although I hadn't used alcohol in eighteen years, I had never been in any kind of recovery program. I didn't see my compulsive use of food, particularly sugars and carbohydrates, as an addiction. I just thought I was fat and that this was a function of my early childhood issues. A thousand failed diets had convinced me that I was a slug who couldn't get it right.
(pages 20-21)
For my doctoral dissertation I conducted a study to measure the effect of my food plan on the toughest audience I could find - multiple-offender drunk drivers. These people - mostly middle-aged men - had not been able to stay sober despite huge court sanctions and intensive drunk-driving education and counseling. All of them had already gone through an entire forty-hour first offender program, had paid thousands of dollars in fines and fees, and had now lost their driver's licenses for eighteen months. I worked with a group of thirty of these "hopeless" alcoholics for four months and at the end of my outpatient treatment program, 90 percent of them had gotten sober and stayed sober. These clients weren't drinking and for the first time in their lives they were experiencing recovery. Eighteen months later I checked back with them and only a few were back to serious drinking. The rest maintained their sobriety or had significantly reduced the level of their drinking. These same results continue as the program has grown to serve close to two hundred people.
(page 24)
Imagine you come home and go into the kitchen. A plate of warm chocolate-chip cookies sits on the counter just out of the oven. Their smell hits you as you walk in. You do not feel hungry. No one else is around. What would you do?
Does this question make you smile? You may think the answer is obvious, but people who are not sugar sensitive respond by saying, "Why would I eat a cookie if I wasn't hungry?" Or they stop and think about whether they would eat the cookie. Or, with no emotional charge, they say, "Well, I might try one." People who are not sugar-sensitive do not have a visceral response to the idea of smelling fresh chocolate-chip cookies.
People who ARE sugar-sensitive laugh at the cookie question. Their bodies are already responding to the very idea of the cookies. They know they would inhale a cookie - probably more than one, at that! They might eat the whole plateful, even if they were not hungry. For a sugar-sensitive person, hunger is not the driving motivation. What triggers their desire to eat is the smell of the cookies, the anticipation of how the cookies will feel in the mouth, and the warmth and sweetness of the chocolate. Even the feeling of having a cookie in hand will have a powerful association for them.
People who are not sugar sensitive thing this response to the cookies is strange, perhaps even stupid... But people who are sugar sensitive always know exactly what the cookie question means.
A second powerful diagnostic question that I use is this:
When you were little and had Rice Krispies for breakfast, did you eat the cereal or did you eat the cereal so you could get to the milk and sugar at the bottom of the bowl?
People who are not sugar sensitive think the milk and sugar at the bottom of the bowl are disgusting. People who ARE sugar sensitive smile. They remember that the real objective was to get to the dregs of milk and sugar.
(pages 26-27)
I remember the day I sat in the library working on my Ph.D. and first read about the impact of beta-endorphin on self-esteem. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I suddenly saw the connection. I was eating chocolate as self-medication to achieve self-confidence. Instead of feeling totally stupid about my behavior, I began to see that there was wisdom in it. Consciously I wanted to feel better and more secure and unconsciously I knew there was a relationship between chocolate and self-confidence. Of course I turned to chocolate when I felt down.
(page 37)
Serotonin increases impulse control, which allows you to more easily "just say no." People with low levels of serotonin do not have good impulse control. It is almost impossible for them to "just say no" because there is such a short time period between the urge to do something and doing it. This is why the warm cookies on the kitchen table hop into your mouth before you even know what has happened. This is why no matter how many times you vow to stick with your diet, you are not able to. The insufficient serotonin level in your brain isn't giving you the time you need to make good decisions.
(page 65)
... when you have low levels of serotonin, your brain produces cravings for simple carbohydrates, like sugar, that can be used to make more serotonin. In addition, cravings are closely linked to the beta-endorphin system.
Ingesting a small amount of a drug (like sugar) can make a person want more because of a mechanism in the beta-endorphin system called priming. Priming is the reason it is so hard for a sugar-sensitive person to "just say no" after having a taste of something sweet.
(page 73)
I do not encourage snacking for sugar-sensitive people because all too often snacking can lead to "grazing." Grazing happens when you eat your way through the day. People are often encouraged to eat this way in order to maintain a steady level of sugar in the blood. However, for someone with a sugar-sensitive or addictive body chemistry, snacking can create trouble. Grazing reinforces a lack of impulse control, which is already a problem for people with naturally low serotonin: if they get hungry, they eat right away rather than wait. Learning to start and then stop a meal is a very good behavior change for the sugar-sensitive person.
(page 96-97)
People who are sugar sensitive usually do not live in a state of chemical balance. Because of this, you don't get the physiological cues that other people do. All bodies need feed after a period of fasting, such as the time from dinner to breakfast. If you don't feel hungry in the morning, it's because your thermostat is not working properly.
(page 97)
People with addictive bodies love to take something, be it pills, white powder or special mixtures from a can. Taking something becomes the solution rather than creating a lifestyle with a healthy relationship to food. I am careful not to reinforce this mode of thinking. Eating food as your solution to sugar sensitivity demands that you think about what food you will eat, when, how and with whom.
(page 101)
Eating protein causes change to your brain chemistry. One of the amino acids found in protein is called tryptophan and is used to make serotonin, the brain chemical that gives you good impulse control and makes you feel mellow, at peace with the world. As we discussed earlier, if you are sugar sensitive, you most likely have a low level of serotonin. To raise this level, you will want to eat foods that are higher in tryptophan. ... But having tryptophan available for making serotonin requires more than simply eating foods that contain it.
... If you are eating protein at every meal, you are raising the level of amino acids, including tryptophan, in your blood. Eating a baked potato before you go to bed raises the insulin level in the blood and moves the tryptophan to your brain. Your serotonin level rises in the middle of the night. This may even help you dream in a healthy way. Does it have to be a potato? No, it can be any complex carbohydrate eaten without protein, like an apple, oatmeal (without milk or yogurt), a piece of toast or even orange juice. You could do it with a candy bar. But remember the slower the carbohydrate, the more effective the result.
(pages 109-113)
Keep temptation to a minimum around sweets. Remember the power of priming, which we discussed in Chapter 5. One cookie or one taste of chocolate pudding won't throw you totally off your plan. But it will prime your brain to want more. Having something sweet "just this once" will activate an endorphin response and set off craving for more sweets. If you are not paying attention, this craving will catch you off guard and you will soon be sliding into relapse.
(page 160)
Potluck Disaster Plan
Smile. Eat some pasta and lots of salad. Don't tell yourself that since you are having it, you might as well go whole hog and eat everything. Forgo the bread and pass on dessert. Tell your aunt that you aren't doing desserts these days. Have two slices of turkey when you get home and pay attention the next day. You will want muffins for breakfast, bagels for a snack, warm bread for lunch, cookies in the afternoon, wine for dinner and dessert afterwards. Just go back to your plan.
(page 161)
You don't need a whole chapter on exercise. The only thing you need to know is that you have to do it. Exercise is the least complicated part of the equation. It doesn't work if you don't do it. And it works if you do. The key is to start.
(page 183)
Twelve-step programs advise taking life "one day at a time." But when you are in a crisis with food and you don't feel good, a day is way too long. Take your life one choice at a time. Only one choice. This commitment is all you have to make. Start with breakfast. Make the choice to eat real food for breakfast.
(page 187)
All through this book you have heard me talk about finding support. I continue to stress this because I know that sugar-sensitive people with their low levels of beta-endorphin have a natural inclination to tough it out. When we are very little, we experience the emotional sense of isolation that comes with low beta-endorphin. So we adapt. We learn to get by on our own. We don't operate from an inherent sense of connectedness to others and we don't realize that this pattern has shaped our way of being in the world. It just seems as if we are busy or shy and we simply don't move well in circles of shared experience.
(page 187)
Changing your relationship to food means changing your relationship to yourself, to your nourishment and your connection to your birthright. You are a bright, creative, sensitive and awesome person. These are the benefits of sugar sensitivity.
We've talked a lot about the downside of sugar sensitivity, but the other side of sugar sensitivity is a special kind of awareness, intuition and compassion that comes with the very same biochemistry. Lower beta-endorphin means we are less insulated. We do feel pain more intensely, but we also feel joy more deeply. We know in every part of who we are that something creative, awesome and magical is waiting for us. The same molecules that once sang for sugar will not sing for radiance.
(page 196)
