Many people the world over are becoming more overweight. And we’re seeing more diabetes and more heart attacks and more diseases related to obesity and overweightness. And it doesn’t have to be.

Hallo graceful viewers, and welcome to today’s Healthy Living where we are focusing on the issue of food addictions.

Do you crave to drink high-sugar soft drinks and intensely desire to eat sweets like cookies, candy bars, donuts and cakes loaded with unhealthy refined sugars? Have you experienced constant yearning for cheese? Do did you know that eating meat is addictive? Why is it some people cannot stop consuming these foods even if they have decided to quit them? It may not be simply a lack of willpower as these foods can have an addictive quality, the same as tobacco and alcohol.

Eric Stice, a researcher at the Oregon Research Institute in Oregon, USA used brain imaging to study the physical reactions of people who were about to receive a chocolate shake versus a tasteless solution. The brain of those about to receive the shake released more dopamine, a neurotransmitter similar to adrenaline, than when they actually were consuming the shake. In other words, their body was more excited before they tasted the shake than when they actually drank it.

This phenomenon is similar to other addictions in that the brain is conditioned to demand more and more of the craved item to achieve the same effect. Ms. Robyn Chuter, an experienced vegan Australian naturopath has noted this phenomenon with her clients.

People don’t normally describe it as a craving, although I suppose plenty of them do experience it as a craving. Usually the ones that I find are most common are people crave cheese, they crave sweets, you know, lollies.

In 1981, Eli Hazum and his colleagues at Wellcome Research Laboratories in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA found traces of a chemical that appeared to be morphine in samples of cow’s milk. Upon further investigation they concluded it was morphine. How did morphine, a highly addictive opiate, enter the milk?

Research has shown morphine is actually produced by a cow’s liver and may appear in her milk. Studies have also found that the digestion process of casein, a milk protein found in the milk of mammals creates a great number of opiates called “casomorphine.”

According to Dr. Neal Barnard, a vegan physician from the US who is the founder and president of the non-profit group the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, in nature these opiates produce a calming effect in infants and enhance the bond between mother and child. The degree to which casein fragments can enter the adult bloodstream and impact the brain is still unresolved. However the consumption of large amounts of dairy products, especially of cheese which contains a high concentration of casein may be a factor in cheese addiction.

Cheese consumption can lead to chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, arthritis and migraine headaches. Cheese has a high concentration of saturated fats that can increase one’s low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or “bad” cholesterol levels. Those with high cholesterol levels typically experience a build up of plaque in the coronary arteries or atherosclerosis. If enough plaque accumulates, the arteries can become blocked, thereby causing a heart attack.

In addition, studies show that eating cheese and other dairy products may also increase the risk of ovarian and breast cancer in women and prostrate cancer in men because it increases the levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in the body. IGF-1 facilitates the growth of cancer cells.

Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a respected nutritional biochemist from the United States and author of the critically acclaimed book regarding the benefits of the vegan diet, “The China Study,” has stated, “IGF-1 appears to be a very good indicator of cancer risk.” In some countries the scale of sugar consumption is absolutely astonishing.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, in the United States over 68 kilograms of sugar and other sweeteners are consumed annually on a per capita basis. Brigitte Mars is an herbalist and author from the United States who believes a raw vegan diet can cure addictions. She says we should avoid refined sugars like white sugar or corn syrup.

I’ve written a book called, “Addiction Free Naturally.” People do something to elevate their blood sugar level. It goes up and then it drops, and then you feel like down in the dumps and so you need to do it again. But what we need to realize is sugar and refined carbohydrates are at the roots of a lot of the addictive behavior.

If we would just saturate our beings with more superfoods, more wild greens, or even more dark, dense, leafy green vegetables, get more alkaline, really say “No” to the refined sugar and get our sweet from fresh fruit, from naturally sweet vegetables, we would be nourishing ourselves.

When we return, we’ll further discuss the addiction to refined sugar as well as other foods. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to Healthy Living where we are exploring the topic of food addictions. Research suggests that some people may become addicted to food in the same way we may become dependent on alcohol or illegal drugs. Food addiction is a disorder where one keeps craving and eating a certain kind of food or foods which are harmful to the individual. Some people lose control of their eating not because they lack willpower, but because they are addicted both in a physiological and/or psychological way.

In her lectures on health and nutrition, vegan dietician-nutritionist Anne-Marie Roy of Canada warns people about the consequences of consuming refined sugars.

Now, we are going to explain what sugar is. Where can we see the quality of sugars? On the table of figures or the list of ingredients? The list of ingredients. White sugar, what is it? It is produced from cane. And there, they treat it with lime. They purify it with carbonic nitrite and sulfuric nitrite. They bleach it with sodium sulfate.

They clear it with bone char; this is the bones of cows heated at 1,200 degrees Celsius. They dry it out with some isopropyl alcohol, which is rubbing alcohol. They also dry it out with sodium acetate and finally, they re-whiten it again. That's what white sugar is. Sucralose, Splenda, what is it? It is white sugar mixed with atoms of chlorine. They call this chlorinated sugar. It is even more transformed than white sugar.

And fructose certainly does not come from fruits, but comes from syrup of corn, which has been genetically modified. The by-products of corn are usually genetically modified, therefore, when you see fructose it is GMO (genetically modified organism). In addition, what is particular about fructose is that it is difficult to control our appetite when eating it. Then in the long term, this leads us to problems with being overweight.

What we do not want on a list of ingredients: sugar, sucralose, fructose, corn syrup, soft brown sugar, which is white sugar re-colored with molasses, or anything that has the “ose” ending. What we want is good quality sugars, maple syrup, concentrated fruit juice, fruit purees, and things like that.

High daily sugar consumption significantly increases the risk of diabetes and pancreatic problems. It is also responsible for bowel diseases, poor dental hygiene, arthritis, obesity, and many other illnesses. Meat is also addictive in nature.

British researchers found in a study that opiate-blocking drugs can effectively reduce the attraction of meat to people. According to their research, using such drugs reduced the study participants’ appetite for salami by around 25% and reduced their tuna consumption by nearly half.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman is a vegan US physician who is an expert on nutrition. He now describes how people get addicted to certain foods.

People try to diet, they try to cut back on calories and eat less food and most of the time it doesn’t work. The reason it doesn’t work is because the quality of the nutrients they’re consuming is not adequate. In other words, they’re eating a diet with so much processed foods and so many animal products, and so much sugar, and so much salt, and so much soda drinks and things that aren’t healthy so they try to eat less. They keep craving to eat more food because you become addicted, you become a food addict.

I call this “toxic hunger.” And toxic hunger means a raving desire to overeat. Two hours later after they just ate, they already start to feel shaky and weak again and they have to eat again. What I’m saying is that the poor of nutritional quality of their diet and all the unhealthy foods they’re eating causes them to become food addicts.

It’s like if you’re drinking 10 cups of coffee a day or you’re smoking cigarettes and you try to stop smoking or stop drinking, you’ll feel sick, you’ll feel ill. Well, people eat so unhealthy that if they try to stop eating, they feel ill. They can’t tolerate not overeating. Otherwise they don’t feel well enough.

How can we overcome dependence on unhealthy foods? Dr. Fuhrman provides some practical suggestions.

So trying to be healthy and trying to lose weight is not just about eating less food, it’s about eating more of healthy, high-nutrient foods. Eating more of the right food is the method in which you can more comfortably eat less of the wrong foods.

When you eat a diet with a larger amount of fruits and vegetables, especially green vegetables and beans and berries and nuts and seeds. It lowers your appetite. And then when you’re not eating food you don’t feel shaky, you don’t feel weak, you don’t feel irritable, you don’t feel stomach cramps, you don’t feel headachy.

Dr. Neal Barnard similarly believes that in order to overcome food addiction one needs to eat healthy nutrient-rich foods throughout the day. Eating enough food will help one ensure that the appetite-taming hormone leptin is maintained at normal levels in the body. In addition, he also encourages people to exercise regularly, take enough rest and to seek support from friends and family.

From his professional experience, a low-fat vegan diet helps people end the desire for harmful foods. Another recommend tip for overcoming food addiction is to eat as much fruit as one desires before each meal. This method also helps reduce the cravings for unhealthy food.

We would like to thank the experts featured on today’s program for their invaluable perspectives on food addictions. May we all adopt the tasty and delicious organic vegan diet in order to always enjoy the best of health. Generous viewers, thank you for joining us on this edition of Health Living. Up next is Science and Spirituality after Noteworthy News. May Heaven’s love and light be with you forever.

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Learn more on the wonderful works of “Trish Bourke – The Angel of the Stray Animals,” Thursday, March 25, on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants.