Gut Reaction
Obese mother and child
From: Childhood Obesity News 04/24/2012
Maybe we can get to a place where food addiction never even needs to be treated, because it won’t exist anymore. Maybe the way to prevent it lies not just in the psychological self, but also deep in the gut. Stranger things have happened, and humans don’t yet know everything. One thing we do know is, even if it turns out there is no direct link to obesity, keeping optimum intestinal health can only do a person good.
Dr. Wilson replies:
I think we are starting to understand food addiction and cravings much better. Over the years I have learned that patients with normal functioning brains never have cravings for sweets and junk food. These cravings always indicate some level of brain dysfunction.
It has now been well documented that people with type II diabetes have a form of reversible brain dysfunction. They also tend to crave foods with sugar, HFCS and high glycemic carbohydrates. What’s the connection?
We now believe that these people have a condition we call Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. As this disease progresses people develop up to 21 brain dysfunction symptoms. The lead symptom is craving food loaded with sucrose, HFCS and high glycemic carbohydrates, especially from grains. The primary triggers of CARB syndrome are excessive fructose mainly from sucrose and HFCS and high glycemic carbohydrates, especially from grains.
Although it is true that these cravings will tend to subside over time if a person avoids these foods, for many people this is impossible to do because their cravings eventually overwhelm their best intensions.
At the Wilson Institute of Neurobiology we have developed various techniques for suppressing these cravings, making it much easier for people to comply with a healthy diet. One of the most useful tools is taking the amino acid l-glutamine as a supplement. Taking 1,000 mg of l-glutamine between meals on an empty stomach is an effective way to suppress carbohydrate cravings. L-glutamine is inexpensive and extremely safe.