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When Food You Love Doesn't Like You

In advance of my doctoral program - which required me to narrow down to a specialty (sugar addiction) - I had studied food intolerances. Many books on the subject start with food reactions, then move into chemicals in our homes and offices, gasoline fumes, and more. Important as those things are, they're not about nutrition. My interest in food intolerances has always been their link with addiction. Recently, I "attended" some sort of webinar by J. J. Virgin, whose first book (I believe) was on food intolerances and how to eliminate those foods to improve health and lose weight. The webinar re-sparked my interest in food intolerance and addiction. Common triggers for food intolerance include chocolate, corn, soy, wheat (or other gluten-containing foods), peanuts, dairy, eggs, sugars and other sweeteners. What Does Food Intolerance Are similar to? Signs and symptoms can include headache/migraine, joint pains, fatigue, sleepiness, heart palpitations, depression, irritability, stomach pains, bloating, and many more. Because digested food moves through the bloodstream, the effects of an intolerance can show up virtually anywhere in the body. Food reactions might be the same every time the food is eaten, such as a rash. Or the reactions might vary - say, a non-itchy rash one time and itching with no rash another time period. The reaction might be cumulative. Maybe a small portion of the food causes no reaction, but a portion eaten again that day, or several days in a row, does causes one. Addiction is another possible reaction that may develop over time. What Causes Food Intolerances? The causes are many, but let's keep it simple. One cause is a genetic intolerance or a tendency toward it. We can become intolerant to a food we eat often or in large quantities. Overeating a food uses up enzymes specific to digesting that Maela Braaten, so complete digestion is prevented. That may result in improperly digested food particles moving through the digestive tract and bloodstream, triggering an immune reaction. The undigested, unabsorbed food provides no nutrients. We can also become reactive to a food we eat together with an additional triggering food. So the list of triggering foods may grow, resulting eventually in malnutrition. Food Reactions May Change Over Time The guiding principle of the human body is homeostasis. When a trigger food is first eaten, the body attempts to restore homeostasis by ridding itself of the offending food. It prevents absorption by attaching antibodies to the partially digested food while it's in the intestine. That might properly eliminate the food before it can pass into the bloodstream. If the food does enter the bloodstream, it can trigger inflammation. The acute reaction may be short, and the body may return to homeostasis quickly. If someone continues to eat a triggering food over time, the body undergoes an adaptation. The immune system may become slower (or less able) to respond. The reaction may now manifest more slowly ın comparison to the acute reaction. Signs or symptoms may last longer, sometimes hours or days. How Can That Become a Food Addiction? The immune response to a triggering food involves a release of stress hormones, opioids, such as endorphins (beta-endorphin), and chemical mediators like serotonin. The combination can produce temporary symptom relief through the analgesic action of endorphin and serotonin, plus mood elevation and a feeling of unwinding. In that way, eating the triggering food may make someone feel better almost immediately and even think the food is beneficial. Endorphin release typically involves a concomitant release of dopamine. The combination of those two brain chemicals and serotonin forms what I've always called the "addictive package. " Avoiding the food could lead to withdrawal. After long-term use, someone may eat the triggering food not to go through the pleasure of the chemical "high, " but to relieve the distress and withdrawal without it. It's almost textbook addiction. How Does Intolerance/Addiction Affect Health? As someone addicted to a triggering food continues to eat more of it, the immune system must keep adapting, and may become hyper-sensitized, reacting to more and more foods - especially those eaten together with reaction-triggering foods, or with sugar. The constant require on the immune system can lead to immune exhaustion and degenerative reactions, depending on genetic weaknesses. The signs and symptoms listed above are just a start. Sugar can be a major player in this because it causes inflammation in the body and makes it more susceptible to food reactions. Eating triggering foods plus sugar can make it even more likely that new reactions will occur. I recall a book by Nancy Appleton, who suggested that offspring might trigger reactions in many people because they're so frequently eaten at breakfast with orange juice. Cake is another example: sugar plus wheat, eggs, milk. As the addictions continue, cravings occur, leading to increased consumption. As more and more foods trigger an immune response, the result may be malnutrition, as explained above. Stats say that rates of food intolerance are rising. My principles is that it's at least partly due to sugar in our diets - including sneaky sugars that are often viewed as healthful, such as agave, fruit, fruit juice, and sweeteners. Stopping the Cycle Definitely give up any foods you suspect may be causing any reactions - even if you love them. Think about foods you eat with those triggering foods on a regular basis, and consider eliminating those, as well. Above all, avoid sugar. Stick to this plan, as J. J. Virgin recommends, for 3 weeks. In the meantime, you may have cravings. If so, use my proven, time-tested recommendation of a teaspoon of liquid B-complex (complete B-complex) to kill the craving within minutes.

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Survival Tips - The Best Emergency Food Kit

Which Needs The Best Emergency Food Kit? Who knows what the future holds? If only we knew, day to day, what challenges would arise, we would never be caught unawares. Unfortunately, life just doesn't work that way. Those who prefer to look forward and make preparations for the "just in case" scenarios are often painted as fringe lunatics and doomsday preppers. However , assembling the best emergency food kit for yourself and also your family should be something every responsible adult takes seriously. Just a few of the "normal" situations that could arise, when having emergency rations for your family would make sense, include: loss of a job, temporary lay off, extended storm damage or power outage that traps your family at home. Or perhaps you'd just like to be a position to help another family in need, should the opportunity arise. Then there are Armageddon type examples that plague the mind of some, and no better way to put those fears to rest than to look ahead and prepare for the worst. Whatever your reasons for looking forward and setting up emergency rations against a difficult time ahead, we are here to help you build the very best emergency food kit for your family. Identifying Your Needs First, lay out your preparation strategy. If you're just getting started in emergency preparation, you do not have more than a day or two worth of food in your cupboard. If that's the case, building up a thirty day supply of food is a good place to start. If you already have 30 days of emergency rations laid by, the next step may be building up a six month or year emergency food kit. The important thing is to start somewhere, and build your supplies up until you've assembled the best emergency food kit that you're able. Who ? re You Feeding? Do you have children in the house? Teens? Older or elderly adults? Infants will require special feeding accommodations like milk or formula, while the elderly may have some unique nutritional needs, as well. Map out on paper who you're building a food supply for and any special things you need to prepare for them, or for yourself. Then consider what it takes to feed that person for a single day. How Many? Once you've published down what it takes to feed one person for one day, you'll need to multiply that by the number of people, and the number of days for which you're preparing. What Do They Like To Eat? There's no need to live for a month on nothing but rice and beans. You don't want to stock up on three months worth of food that your family won't touch with a six-foot pole, just because it was cheap. It may keep you alive within a pinch, but you want to enjoy it, if possible. So take the likes and dislikes into consideration as you plan. Don't forget to consider food allergies, as well. In an emergency situation, you wouldn't want to face an allergic reaction from cross contamination, so better to avoid problem foods altogether, if possible. Types Of Emergency Rations There are dozens of ways to build up a great emergency food kit. The easiest, though certainly not the least expensive, is to invest in commercially prepared catastrophe rations, offered by various companies. These kits come as single servings, or a month's worth of food for a single person. There are dozens of options to choose from. Another method, requiring a little planning and management, is to simply take what you buy and use on a weekly basis, and start building up a supply that will last. If you ordinarily use three cans of beans and two boxes of macintosh 'n' cheese and a jar of peanut butter each week, then begin buying double that, and set the extra aside for your emergency food kit. Then manage your stock by rotating it so that your food stays as fresh as possible. Freshness would be a significant advantage in a long-term disaster, where you're relying on your emergency rations for months, or even years. Once you've built up a few months supply of foodstuff, organize your cans and boxes with the soonest expiration date in the front and the furthest out in the back. Then, when you do your grocery shopping, put the new stuff in the back and use from the front. This keeps your stock fresh and ready to use if and when the need arises. Home canning is another less expensive way to build up your emergency food kit. Canning is becoming some sort of lost art, so if you're not familiar with how to do it, you're not alone. Canning food in glass jars requires a little learning and effort but can allow you to preserve tasty, homemade food for years. Be sure to learn which foods require pressure cooking versus water-bathing methods of preservation. Properly canned goods keep best in cool, dark places between 50 and 70 *F (10 - 21 *C) and are safe to eat for years after canning. For bulk dry goods that are intended for long term storage, wheat, beans, rice, sugar and other dry goods can be vacuum sealed and stored in five gallon buckets with O2 absorbers to last for thirty years and more. For the truly prepared minded, a few buckets of wheat and corn will go a long way toward peace of mind. A vacuum sealer constitutes a investment for anyone serious about their emergency rations. Sealing foods in smaller quantities not only preserves them longer but allows you to use them a little at a time, rather than having to use a large container up quickly once you've opened it. If you're worried about the expiration date on store-bought canned goods, keep this story in mind. A steamboat named the Bertrand was trying to reach Montana in 1865 when the idea sunk to the bottom of the Missouri river. One hundred years later, canned goods from that wreck were recovered. In 1974, 109 years after the accident, the food was tested by chemists and found safe to eat. You should use good sense when eating canned foods that have passed their expiration dates. If it looks odd, smells bad or tastes bad, don't eat it! Signs That Food In Your Emergency Food Kit Has Gone Bad Signs canned goods have gone bad: the can is bulging, or the lid has come unsealed. Check for mold or fermentation bubbles in the liquid. If the food rushes out of the can or jar when you open it, there is pressure on the contents that wasn't there when the can or jar was sealed. This is a good indication with bacterial activity causing a chemical reaction. Comfort Foods Once you've established a good base for emergency rations, you might want to start thinking about adding some comfort foods to your store. In stressful situations, we all turn to food for comfort, and yummy food might not be easy to come by in the event of a disaster. Some things to store include: Chocolate - powdered cocoa keeps the best, but chocolate bars over 70% hot chocolate will keep for several months, and much longer if frozen. Hot chocolate mix has a shelf life of several years, and could easily be added to the rotation of your emergency food kit. Mac n' cheese - Best preserved dried by separating the noodles and cheese, and then vacuum sealing them with O2 absorbers. If you're worried about being able to cook macaroni and cheese, it can be canned, but it don't have the same texture as freshly made. Under cooking the noodles before canning will help it to be less mushy. Honey - made with natural preservatives, honey will keep indefinitely, as long as water never gets near it. Store in very clean, very dry glass jars. If it crystallizes, you can return it to its liquid state with a little heat. Freeze dried fruit or even dehydrated fruit can be a great energy booster and will keep well when stored properly. Hard candy - store with desiccants and vacuum sealing to provide a much needed pick me up under stressful conditions. Coconut oil, especially virgin coconut oil will store for a very long time and provide added fat for comforting recipes when butter isn't available. Spices - if you get to a place the place you're having to make all of your food from what you have on hand, you'll be very glad for some extra spices to... well... spice things up. Alcohol - Obviously, a comforting item, but it serves many purposes in a disaster scenario and it keeps well. High alcohol content (over 20%) will keep the longest and over 40% can serve as a disinfectant if needed. Tea - will keep well without special accommodations. To keep it the very freshest, store in small quantities with an O2 absorber. Coffee - For those who really need their cuppa to keep their chin up, coffee will be an important part of the very best emergency food kit. Roasted coffee keeps, vacuum sealed in Mylar bags, for up to two years. If you rotate it through your emergency rations, you will have good coffee for some time. For prep beyond that, you can store green coffee beans in Mylar bags with O2 absorbers, then roast and grind them as needed. What To Choose? How to decide what goes into the very best emergency food kit? A good rule of thumb is six months to a year of food that you would eat every day. This is easily managed through good shopping and rotation. For preparation beyond that time frame, vacuum covered Mylar bags will keep dry goods for years. Many companies and even faith-based family preparation programs offer dry goods preserved in #10 cans that will keep up to 30 years. Building an emergency food kit that can last several years in a pinch is possible, with planning and forethought. Water will be critical to surviving certain types of disaster scenarios. When planning for emergency situations, one liter of mineral water per person per day is a good starting point. You'll need some extra for sanitation and cooking, as well. Be sure you have plenty of water on hand, or a way to obtain water and sanitize it. Sanitation tablets and filtration systems would be a major component of the best emergency food kit. Looking Ahead For total preparedness, it's important to think ahead to food preparation during an emergency. If the power was out for three weeks, how does one cook that mac 'n' cheese you took such care to store? Even if you have a power generator for emergencies, stoves and microwaves pull too much energy to use the generator for cooking. A propane or butane camp stove with plenty of fuel cells, or a propane or charcoal grill are great options to have on hand. And don't forget to include a manual can opener in your unexpected emergency food kit. Where To Keep It? Storage space can be tricky, depending on your housing situation. If at all possible, you'll want to designate a neatly organized room that's specifically for food storage. You'll label your shelves, and keep things nicely stocked and rotated. If you don't live in this kind of fairy tale situation, you may have to get a little more creative about how you store your emergency food kit. A lot of food can be neatly stored, with cardboard boxes, under beds, in the bottoms or tops of closets, and under the stairs. You may need to reduce unnecessary clutter, to make room for emergency rations. The reward will be worth the effort. Be Prepared, Not Scared Taking the steps required to create the best emergency food kit that you possibly can will pay off in peace of mind. To know that you have the ability to care for those you love, and to be able to reach out to those available you in their time of need, will put you in a category reserved for just a few. You'll rest easy at night, knowing that whatever tomorrow holds, your family is provided for.