[00:00:00] It. This is episode number 237 of the reversing diabetes with Delane M. D. Podcast.
[00:00:08] Welcome to reversing diabetes with Delaine, MD, where women who are confused and worried about their type two diabetes come to learn strategies to fix it. I'm your host, Dr. Delane Vaughn. Ladies, if you know you are capable of doing badass things at work and for your family, but you're frustrated with why you can't see to stop eating the chocolate cake, this podcast is for you. Let's talk.
[00:00:30] Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for joining me today. Thank you for committing to your health. Today we are going to chat about desires and cravings for foods. We're going to talk about what causes them and some strategies to help manage these. So stay tuned for that. Before we get started, I do want to give my warning about medications. If you have been medicated for your type two diabetes, you are medicated because of the way you are eating in the past. If you change the way you eat, you're going to need to change your medications. If you don't, you can get very sick. So before you start making any dietary changes, I need you to call your primary care or your provider that prescribed these medications to you, and I need you to tell them that you are going to make some dietary changes. They're probably going to ask you to share your blood sugar logs, which you should be keeping. If you're making these changes, they're going to ask you to share those logs with them, and then they're going to tell you how. They intend to tell you how they want you to change your medications. So they're going to give you an avenue of communication with them, and they're going to tell you how you can expect to hear communications from them about changing your medications. If you don't do this, you can get very sick, the kind of sick that looks like ER visits, hospitalizations, and worst case scenario, death. So I need you to take it seriously and to make that phone call to your primary care provider so that you can stay safe while you make these dietary changes. Okay? I also want to encourage you to download the 14 days to better blood sugars guide. This is a workbook that will give you 14 days of menus of breakfast, lunch, dinner menus that you can eat. And when you eat them and you do this, you will see your blood sugars lower in that 14 day period. This is really all it takes to see lower blood sugars. Lots of women believe that. It took me years to develop this disease. It's going to take me years to improve it. And I want to offer to you that that is not the case. You can normalize your blood sugars. You can improve your blood sugars. You can help reverse your insulin resistance. That does take a little longer, but this is the first step to getting there and you can do it in just two weeks. So where do you find the guide? Where do you find the workbook? You can find it at httpsdelanemd combetter. So again, htpsdelanemdcombetter okay, that has taken me so long to get the redirecting to that site down to just a short one. So delanemd.com better. We'll get you to this 14 day workbook, download it, start utilizing it. If you have any questions, holler at me. You will get put on my mailing list so you can get updates on other help that's available. Like on the 21st of this month, February 21, there will be a webinar. You can get information on that when you end up on my mailing list. You can also find information on Instagram and Facebook at delanemd. So find me on those platforms. Follow me. Lots of information there.
[00:03:56] As always, if you have any questions, email me.
[email protected] I get those emails. I answer those emails. I will respond to your questions. I'm happy to help in any way I can. If you've emailed me and I haven't responded, I am imperfect. I am human. So just email me again. I won't see it as harassing. Email me again. There's help out there for you. Email me until you get the answers that you need. Lastly, I do have an ask of you. If you are finding this podcast helpful, if you are finding this information imperative, or if it's changing your health, please like and review and rate this podcast on your podcast player. The more likes, the more reviews, the more ratings that this podcast gets, the more the algorithms put this podcast in front of other people so they can get the same help that you're getting. Remember, nine out of ten americans are experiencing insulin resistance. They are either already diabetic or prediabetic or on their way. Everybody needs to hear this information so that they can realize they do not need to live sick and tied to the health care system, a quote unquote health care system that will never produce health in you. They don't need to be tied to that forever. Please rate and review this podcast so others can hear this message too. People need to hear this. So let's talk. Let's talk about cravings.
[00:05:23] The strategies I have found to be most beneficial for my clients to reverse their insulin resistance and normalize their blood sugars in their a one c are three, there are three things. One, cleaning up your diet, cutting out the processed foods. That's what that means. Two, intermittent fasting, and then three, increasing your muscle mass. Of these 366 percent, two thirds of them are impacted by cravings and food desires. So let's talk about that today. Everybody. Many women, I don't know everybody, but many women, I hope the women that I work with at least don't believe this. They believe, though, many women come to me believing that the food that they desire is what's creating the desire for the food.
[00:06:11] They think that if the donuts weren't in the break room, they wouldn't want them. They think that if the candy jar wasn't filled with candy, nobody had refilled it with candy, they wouldn't want the candy. They believe that if their partner, their spouse, hadn't brought home the candies, the bagels, the burgers, the fries, then they wouldn't want them.
[00:06:30] We believe, we humans believe that the food creates the cravings. And I want you to hear me that it's not the food creating the cravings. That is not what creates your desire for food. It's the thought that you have about the food that creates the cravings. Okay? And I want to dive into that. I want to dive into the belief like it is truly the belief. And, you know, I use this example and I'll use it again probably in this podcast. My mother loves brownies with nuts in them. When you put nuts, walnuts, pecans, pick your nut, I don't care. When you put them into brownies, they are automatically ruined. For me, I am not interested in them anymore. The only difference between brownies with nuts in them and brownies without nuts in them, the only difference between my mother's desire for wanting those brownies with nuts and mine not wanting them is my belief about them. I don't like brownies with nuts in them. They are ruined in my brain once they have had nuts added to them.
[00:07:38] My mom doesn't eat them without nuts. Right? That's my mom's preference. The only difference between a brownie without a nut and my mom's thought that they're not appealing and my thought that they're amazing is our thoughts. The brownies are the same.
[00:07:53] This is true. If you find that you like hot tamales or starbursts, those are not appealing to me. They never have been. But you put something with chocolate in it, and I'm all over that, right? Some people are the opposite.
[00:08:08] The hot tamale and the starburst and the chocolate are not different when presented to person a or me. To one human that loves the hot tamales. And to me, there's no difference between the hot tamale. They aren't doing. The hot tamale is not doing anything differently. The difference is my thought versus their thought. It is not the food that creates the desire. It is your belief about them. And I want to talk about that because we believe, we women think that the struggle comes from, or what we don't realize, I guess, is that the struggle comes when we believe we shouldn't want the food.
[00:08:50] Okay. If I just didn't want the food, then it would be easier. I wouldn't have to struggle with it. If they just didn't bring the food, it wouldn't be there. I wouldn't want it. No.
[00:09:05] That is not what creates the want. The food being present is not what creates the want. Okay? The food being present is not what creates the struggle.
[00:09:17] The struggle. Well, the want and the desire comes from our belief about the food, and we can change that. And the struggle, the thing that makes it hard, comes from us fighting the belief that we should not want the food. Like that is what creates a struggle. So I want to talk about that first, and then we're going to talk about how to change our thoughts about it. The hard part of the food is not that you want the food. That is not what makes it hard. The hard part and the struggle. What makes it so hard? The struggle that makes it so hard is that you tell yourself you should not want the food, and that then you believe that the answer lies there. It lies in how do I stop wanting the food?
[00:10:02] I tell my clients this all the time. There is no alternate universe you are going to find yourself in where your brain doesn't want chocolate, where your brain doesn't want the chips. There is no alternate universe where that is going to happen, because the way the human brain is, like, the science of the human brain is just that you're going to want this food.
[00:10:37] Recognize that the human being in nature does not come into contact with foods with these macronutrient ratios. Okay? The macronutrient ratio in a snickers bar is not found anywhere in nature.
[00:10:53] The macronutrient ratio of potato chips is not found anywhere in nature. Our brains do not come into contact with these foods in nature. So the intensity and the concentration of those macronutrients together don't exist in nature, and our brain only has one way of responding to that macronutrient mix and what that means. So whether it be potato chips, the amount of salt, the amount of fat, the reason that no salt potato chips have not taken off the way that regular lay potato chips have is because they aren't as good.
[00:11:35] It is the combination of the fat, the carbohydrate, and the salt that makes Potato chips to where you can't just eat one.
[00:11:43] It's that combination. Same thing with a snickers bar. There is nowhere in nature that that combination exists together.
[00:11:52] Our brain only has one way of responding to these foods, and that's with a huge surge of dopamine. This dopamine surge feels good, but more than that, it heavily motivates you to repeat the eating behavior of the action of eating those foods. My friend, you are not broken. You do not need to be different.
[00:12:13] You do not need to crave it. And the food does not need to go away.
[00:12:19] We need to have an understanding of how our brain works. Part of this understanding is an acceptance. Like, this is just the way my human brain works.
[00:12:32] Part of this understanding is a surrender. Like, of course I'm going to crave and desire this food.
[00:12:40] My brain will always want this food. That's the way my brain works.
[00:12:46] So you can argue with this as much as you want to. Like, my brain shouldn't want it. I wish it wasn't there. If it wasn't there, I wouldn't want it. I shouldn't desire it. This is horrible. It's so awful. It's so hard. You can do that as long as you want to if you're okay being wrong about it. It's science you're arguing against. What is.
[00:13:07] What is there is that you want this food. You can argue with it as long as you want to. As long as you're okay with being wrong, okay, you're always going to want this food. It's how your brain works. It's science. So think about other things that you want. Think about other things that you crave. So when I think about things that I crave, I frequently will come up with my grandchildren, my grandson. I only have one grandchild and probably will only have one grandchild for many, many for the next decade or two, and that's okay.
[00:13:37] I want hugs from him all the time. I want hugs from him all the damn time. There's not going to be a time that I don't want a hug from him, and I don't expect it.
[00:13:49] I also think about this with my teenagers, like with my grandson's father, there were times where I always wanted hugs from him and I wish I didn't because he was kind of a little shut sometimes. Okay. Like, the reality of it, I love my son deeply, and he's grown into be the most amazing human, and I'm so proud of him. Deeply proud of him. But the teenage years are hard and sometimes our kids act like buttheads and we still want hugs from them even though we wish we didn't, right. Because we're disappointed with them or we're upset about something that they did. Okay. You don't think, like, sometimes we will think that there's something wrong with it, but most of the time we don't think anything's wrong with it. When I think about the fact that I always want a hug for my grandson, I don't think anything's wrong with it. When I think about the fact that I always wanted a hug from his father, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. When I think about my sweet 15 year old twins right now and I think about how I always want to hug and I do always want a hug from them, I don't think anything's wrong with that. Even when I'm upset with them, there's never a time that I wish I didn't want one. And even when I can't have one because they're far away, like my grandson lives in another state, I can't get a hug from him. Even when my son is at school, my teenagers are at school, and I can't be with them physically. I don't get upset because I want a hug from them. I don't think anything is wrong with wanting a hug from them.
[00:15:10] So this is how I approach food, too, also, like, I approach chocolate this way. I want chocolate all the time, period, end of sentence. I want many varieties of chocolate all the time, period, end of sentence. Right now, as I'm recording this podcast and saying these words, I want chocolate right now, I don't ever expect that I'm going to not want chocolate because I have a human brain, and my human brain gets stimulated in a way that produce cravings. Stimulated in a way that produces cravings, desire and motivation to eat chocolate. Whenever I think about it, because that's just how a human brain works.
[00:15:56] I don't think anything is wrong with it.
[00:15:59] Even when I can't have the food, I don't think anything is wrong with it. So many women think it's different because I shouldn't eat the food. The food is wrong to eat, and they don't believe that about hugs. And that's fine.
[00:16:13] I want you to consider if you did believe that about hugs, like some people do have this belief that when my child does something bad, I should not give a positive reinforcement in the form of a hug. Suddenly the hug becomes wrong.
[00:16:26] Giving them the positive reinforcement of a hug is doing it, quote unquote wrong. If you think about wanting to hug your children and that doing it, that is wrong. Suddenly we've created that struggle.
[00:16:39] We create a struggle about wanting it, and if I do it, I'm doing it wrong. This is where the struggle and the work comes in. This is where it gets hard. It's the same thing with food. When you make eating the candy mean that you're wrong, suddenly you fight against being wrong. Because we don't want to be wrong. We're human beings. We want to do it right. We don't want to be wrong. This is true for the parenting, too, right? I don't want to be doing it wrong as a parent.
[00:17:04] So what if it's not wrong? What if it's never wrong to want it? Most of us would agree that it's never wrong to want to show our children love.
[00:17:15] I personally believe that love, true, unconditional love for our family and our children, covers a multitude of sins. Covers a multitude of questionable or even bad decisions. Decisions we made because we just didn't know better.
[00:17:31] None of us get a manual with our kids. We don't know when we're making a mistake all the time. But loving them unconditionally, regardless of our mistakes, and regardless of their mistakes, I believe that covers a multitude of sins. Loving our teens is never wrong. We don't need to fight against it. The desire to give a hug, we understand. We don't need to fight against that. The same can be true for candy. Wanting to eat the candy is not right or wrong.
[00:17:58] When we believe that it's wrong, we want to fight to not be wrong. And that creates the struggle. My friend, you are always going to want the food. Now. Yes, again. Some people want the candy in the form of hot tamales. Some people want the candy in the form of snickers. That is a personal preference. Some people want to show their kids love in the form of a gift. Some people want to show love in the form of an attigirl. Some people want to show love in the form of hugs. Like there's a preference there. Absolutely.
[00:18:27] But wanting the thing is never wrong. You're always going to want the food. The food that stimulates our brain in that way. You're always going to want it. This is a step to making eating healthy easier. Ladies, if you want it to be easier, this is step one. Right? Understanding, accepting, surrendering means that you don't need to fight against it. And that means there's no struggle, and it ain't hard. Okay. Your food doesn't create the desire. The food will create a dopamine. Hit a dopamine rush into your brain, and that will create the motivation, I. E. The desire. But that happens after you ate it. That's not what's happening before you eat it. The desire for the food that you haven't eaten yet, the desire for the food that's in the break room comes from the thoughts that you have about the food.
[00:19:20] Thoughts like, it's my favorite. I love that so much. It's so rare that I get to eat it. It's never around. I wish I could have it. It tastes so good. These are the thoughts and all of the friends to the thoughts, right? Like all of this family of thoughts that create longing, desire, want, interest, and intrigue in the food, they are optional. You don't have to think that. It may be the first thing that comes into your brain because it's been well practiced. It may be the first thing that comes into the brain because there's a reality there. I like chocolate. It tastes good. Brownies are delicious. Those are realities, but they are not the only thing that's true.
[00:20:03] The food that you think is so tasty that you desire so much in the moment, the truth may be that it was made with something you don't like. The example of my mom liking brownies with nuts and me liking brownies without them is a great example. If somebody just walked by me and was like, hey, brownies in the break room, I'd be like, I'd go through all the thoughts immediately. I'd pop into all of those thoughts, oh, my God. Brownies are my favorite. They're so delicious. If I can get the ones that are crunchy on the edge and gooey in the middle, those are the best. Brownies are so good. I love them so much. They're never around. They're never made, right? I mean, there's a long list of things that go into what I think about brownies.
[00:20:42] But if I walk by the brownies in the break room and they have nuts on them, it's gone. They're not there. I don't care how crunchy the edges are and how gooey the center is, it's just gone. So think about that. Like, somebody could have made this food that you suddenly had all this desire. You created all this desire feeling in your body for with something you don't like, like nuts or splenda. My brother and I used to have a joke. I don't know if my mom will hear this, and it will be really funny to me if she does, but my brother and I used to have a joke that mom used to always try to make foods healthy. She always used try to alter recipes to make them healthy. And so my brother and I had this joke that mom removed all the good tasting stuff and replaced it with sawdust, right? So it just didn't taste as good. Right.
[00:21:27] All of the food that we think is so tasty. They may not be as tasty, but then there are the foods that are tasty. Okay? There are the foods that you really do have that thought, but recognize of even the food you go in there, it's everything you ever hoped. A brownie or the candy or the chips or the nachos. It's everything you ever hoped them to be.
[00:21:55] The reality is, there's another thought in your brain that makes you not want to eat them. If this wasn't the case, the food would just be the same as the hugs from your grandson, my grandson or my son. They would just feel great and be good. There was no need to limit them. But the fact is, there is a reason you don't want to eat that food, and that's a thought in your brain. Okay? Why do you want to limit the food? Why do you want to not eat that food? Why do you not want to eat the chips? Why do you not want to eat the brownies? Why do you not want to eat the candy? Answer this question. Because this answer is your other thought, and you need to start building time with that thought.
[00:22:37] You need to nurture that other thought. You've been nurturing the thought that, I love it. It tastes good. It's my favorite. I want it. You've been nurturing that thought for long enough.
[00:22:47] You need to start nurturing the other thought, not only the thought about how you like it. You need to start building the neural groove in your brain, the connection of neurons in your brain, of the thought about why you don't want to eat that food. You need to practice that thought, not only the thought that creates the desire.
[00:23:07] Thoughts like, again, ask yourself the question, why do I not want to eat this food. I don't want to eat this food because it makes me sick with type two diabetes. That is a thought that you have. That is just as true as brownies taste delicious. Okay. Instead of desire, you might produce a feeling of the brownies are delicious. That creates desire. Instead of creating desire, the thought this food makes me sick with diabetes might produce a feeling of avoidance or resistance to eating it. Or even enough time to take a pause. Right? Like I'm questioning, I'm curious. This food makes me sick. Maybe that's a pause that you're creating there.
[00:23:47] This food makes me want more of it. That is also true about these foods, right? They're going to bind the receptor in your brain. That's going to make you crave more of it, right? The more you eat this food, the more you create dopamine about this food, the more you're motivated to eat it again, the more you create more desire for it. When I think this food makes me want more of it, it pisses me off and I don't eat it because I'm pissed and obstinate and stubborn. And that's okay. It works for me. Sometimes avoiding this food makes it easier on me.
[00:24:21] When I don't eat this food, it means that I don't desire it all the time. That feels good. It feels kind. It feels self serving. It feels self loving. It feels protective. I love all those feelings. All of these feelings are vastly better than the desire produced from that's my favorite food. And that's what you've been practicing all this time.
[00:24:43] It's the desire thoughts, not the food.
[00:24:47] I'm going to say it again. It is the desire thoughts. The thoughts that create desire. Not the food, not the brownie, not the candy, not the chips.
[00:24:56] Those things are what create desire. The thoughts, not the food.
[00:25:01] There is something you love, and there is something that is ma or matt or even blah like that. You don't. You're going to have to figure out how to distinguish between those two, right? Maybe you have the super intense desire that comes from that's my favorite food. Maybe it's the I could eat that that creates all that excitement.
[00:25:23] Yes, you're going to have that. And maybe the thought that this food makes me sick.
[00:25:28] Maybe that's not as enticing or sexy or as intense as the desire is, and that's okay. But you're going to have to start spending time with this other food or, I'm sorry, with this other thought, so that you stop having the desire you're going to have to grow these other thoughts. That's how it makes it easy. You have got to stop fighting the idea that you've got to remove this food from your life so that you don't want it.
[00:25:58] Unless you move to a deserted island. And that would be awesome. We could start our own colony. I hope it's warm and tropical all the time and there is not any of these foods. That would be grand. I have not yet been able to master how to get onto that island, so I don't think that's going to happen and I don't know if you do, that's awesome. Great. But I doubt it's going to happen for you either. What you do have much more agency to do is to grow the other thoughts that you have about these foods. They make me sick. They make me want more. It's easier on me if I stop eating these foods. Long term, it's going to be easier to live a naturally healthy life without these foods in my life. Those are the thoughts you're going to need to start spending more time with. So let's talk about some strategies to make it easier on you. Okay. You're going to have to work on this thought process that's just going to have to happen. But there are some things that you can do. One, you can start to identify the reasons that kind of drive you to these foods. Are you bored? Are you frustrated? Are you overwhelmed? Are you angry? Are you tired? How are you going to manage those when you're bored and you desire candy to give you some jazz in your life, some jazz hands, some pizzazz, some spice in your life, there's nothing wrong with that. But there are other ways to manage boredom and frustration and overwhelm in all of those things. Okay? Other things that you can do. Stay hydrated. If you are thirsty, many times your brain will interpret that as hungry. Make sure you are well hydrated before you start eating. Make sure you are well hydrated when your body or your brain is saying chocolate's the answer. Make sure you're well hydrated. Eating well balanced meals. Making sure that you're getting enough fat and protein. Fat makes you feel satiated, makes you feel satisfied. It makes you feel full. Make sure you're getting enough healthy fat. And what I mean by that is usually olive oil. All the other fats are. There's some sketch going on with those. So be aware if you need to add fat to your vegetables. If you need to add fat to your meat, to your chicken breast, do it in the form of olive oil. It's the safest. It's got the most evidence that it's healthy, and it makes you feel satisfied.
[00:28:05] Adding protein, making sure that you're getting adequate protein. Protein binds neurons in your gut that extend to the brain and send your brain signals of satiety. It makes you feel satisfied.
[00:28:17] That's how that works. So make sure you're getting plenty of protein and quality protein. You need a variety of different amino acids to do that. So make sure, I mean, arginine, lysine, and methionine are the big ones, but make sure you're getting a variety of. Don't just depend on one source of protein, okay?
[00:28:34] Those are some things that you can do. Eating these well balanced meals are some things that you can do to create some satiety, some satisfied feelings in your diet. Okay. The other thing that I cannot stress enough, you must stop eating processed foods in order for you to eat mindfully. So, this is something that people talk about, mindful eating, and I don't disagree. It's important, but you cannot trust the messages being sent from your body about your hunger when you are eating processed foods, because processed foods are meant to hijack those messages in order for you to keep eating those processed foods, because it makes the food manufacturers money. Okay? This is food science. This is what food scientists do. They spend millions and billions of dollars in research and development to find ways to make foods something that you want to eat, and you want to eat them exclusively.
[00:29:27] Processed foods does this. This is just what happens. So you cannot eat mindfully if you are eating processed foods. The sooner you let go of this, the sooner your cravings and your desires start to subside and become more manageable.
[00:29:42] Those foods are created in a way to make you desire them. If you want to make the desire less, stop eating those foods.
[00:29:49] I also think practicing fasting is another strategy that you can use. You're practicing the muscle of not eating, of having a desire for food and not consuming it. Fasting can be a really powerful tool to help you learn to get a handle on your cravings. Normalizing your insulin function again, doing this via avoiding processed foods, exercising, fasting, those things are powerful ways to resolve your insulin resistance. When your insulin resistance is gone, your brain starts to receive satiety signals from your body. And this again allows your cravings and your desire for foods to subside. Getting adequate sleep. This is another huge thing. There are multiple studies out there that show that you will have more hunger, more craving, more food desires when you are poorly rested, when you are fatigued. Okay? And you and I know you're not craving carrot sticks and celery sticks. It's salt, sugar and fat. And again, this has been proven multiple times in studies. Make it easier on yourself. Get some sleep when you're asleep. Also, your insulin drops and that allows your insulin resistance to normalize. It also allows you to burn some extra some adipose tissue, some extra stored fat. Get sleep. Get plenty of sleep. You're a human being. You require seven to 9 hours of sleep a night. Give yourself that gift to make it easier on yourself. Lastly, manage your stress.
[00:31:17] Implement some meditation, some exercise strategies, journaling strategies. This will help determine your triggers right about your food, but it also helps you lower your cortisol and lower your stress hormones so that you can improve your insulin resistance. And then you start managing your hunger a little bit better. Okay, I hope you found this helpful. There's a lot of information in this podcast, so come back to it as much as you need to. If you have any questions about it, make sure you send me an email.
[email protected] follow me on Instagram follow me on Facebook. You will get more information about the February 21 webinar. There is a link in my Instagram profile. It says link tree. That's where you will find. You can also get a link to the 14 days to better blood sugar in that link tree lists out all of my different links. You can get to my website, you can get to the podcast, you can get to the YouTube, all of that jazz. You can get to the Facebook group. You can get all in there. If you haven't joined the Facebook group, I highly recommend to you it's wonderful environment, community of women doing the same work that you're wanting to do. So join that. But you can also get access. The registration link for the February 21 webinar will be in that link tree. So go find that there. Until then, keep listening. Keep avoiding foods that make you sick. Keep making choices for your health, your vitality and your longevity. I will be back next week and I'll talk to you then. Bye.
