addicted to wheaty foods

[lalakis]

ok so i was 100% raw for a while and decided to add in a few non-raw things to keep my weight up because i got tooooo skinny and nothing was helping me gain.....all has been well and im back to my normal weight of 100 lbs...but..

i seriously cant seem to get enough shredded wheat cereal or whole wheat crackers. to the point where my stomach becomes stuffed and gross because i just dont know when to stop eating them.

it's crazy how i am focusing on a diet consisting of fruits and salads, adding in tofu or hummus or whatever to the raw staples...but lately...its like all i want is the non-raw stuff!

when i came home after hot yoga tonight, i made myself a huge salad with veggies and sunflower seeds and it was delicious, then had grapes for dessert. i told myself i would not eat any crackers or cereal, but now i am. it doesnt matter how full i felt on eating raw foods, i still went for the wheat!

is this a craving for carbs? or wheat?

i feel like an alcoholic who thinks they will be okay with one beer every once in a while, only to eventually get drunk every night.

i really think there is something added to packaged/boxed "foods" that makes us compelled to mindlessly munch on them even when full.

has anyone had a similar experience? am i just going crazy now that i dont have the "100% raw" restrictive mentality? do i want these things because i stayed away from them for so long?

it would be so easy to just go 100% because it came so naturally to me, i hope the compulsion to eat so much wheat will pass soon!

[barose]

Have you made dehydrated breads/crackers? That helps my cravings. I haven't had wheat (or anything with gluten) for almost two years due to intolerances so going raw was a God sent because I discovered dehydrated breads. :D

Since I can gain 5 lbs just looking at bread, thats enough motivation for me not to give in, but maybe you can try more dehydrated substitutions for a bit.

[aililiu]

ohhhmigoodness. i know EXACTLY what you mean. EXACTLY.

it used to be my hugest downfall.
boxes of cereal "healthy" though they were, whole wheat crackers... exactly that. it amazed me even then the amount i could get down me. &yes, id try making a meal and it would fill me up but IT DIDNT MATTER. i had to finish with cereal, or crackers (&salsa). COPIOUS AMOUNTS. still i was so bloated and stretched and sick feeling.

it was such an addiction. it was ridiculous. it actually consumed me. that sounds so dramatic but it made me so depressed because i tried so much and it was like i couldnt get out of it.

so my answer might not be of much help to you... b/c the only way i could get out of it was to eat 100% RAW :o so if you want to keep eating some cooked food, i dont know what to tell you :o except for that i understand! its totally addictive!

ive heard stories that on raw some people go way under what theyd like to weigh but after a while, sometime a year or more, they go back to a comfortable weight.

(i still totally dream about cereal. LOL! but one day i will not ;) )

[belleadonna]

I have always been a lover of wheat products and rice. Especially rice. I still indulge in rice now and then but I try and stay away from the wheat if I am going to cheat. Wheat seems to make my sinuses go crazy. I guess that I have an allergic reaction to it.

I am still not 100% raw but my addiction to wheat is not as bad as it used to be. I used to eat pasta about 3 times a week. Now I only have it maybe once a month. Still working on it. Its a tough one to break.

As to the shredded wheat and crackers I think that that is more of a desire for something crunchy and salty.

[Shanti]

LALKIS

I know this isn't what you posted, but it caught my attention, cause I'm not really losing weight raw. In the last 10 days I stepped on the scale and did lose 4 lb, but my pants feel the same, so maybe it's just water weight. Can you answer some questions for me???

Did you limit your consumption of nuts?
How many green smoothies do/did you have each day?
Did you eat till your hearts delight? (I'm totally eating and eating all raw, without worrying about being full etc)
Did you soak all of your nuts and really follow the guidelines to the smallest detail?

And regarding wheat, yeah, I'm familiar with this. And the only time I can stop the cravings is by going 100% raw...... if I eat one cracker, I eat 100.....

[dreamrawalwz]

Wheat isn't too good for the body. Maybe remove wheat, but keep in steamed veggies, rice, etc. if you feel you must. More whole foods and less processed? How do you eat when you're 100% raw? If you havn't played around with how you eat I'd try again. I also had the wheat addiction, until I started getting s ymptoms of celiac disease. THAT put me off wheat for the rest of my life. I can't even look at wheat products without thinking back to that pain. I would say to just not buy wheat products, but I know that addiction and impulse so I understand.

One more thing. The moment you tell yourself "I can't have xyz" You better be prepared to have just that. Your mind will automatically "must have it." Think positively, Secret yourself ;)

[Blossom]

I also had the wheat addiction I could and did eat whole boxes at a time, that is why being 100% raw is such a blessing, as long as I stay raw and don't eat any wheat I don't want any. I am also to thin but hope at some point I will gain on 100% raw.

[greenfeline]

Wheat does have addictive qualities. I read recently, but can't remember the exact wording- wheat does have effects on your brain that make you want it more. Perhaps do some research, but the point is you are not alone! I agree if you must keep some cooked in, limit it to steamed veggies. I love dehydrated crackers too! Try them out they are better than regular crackers.

[lalakis]

yeah, its definitely an urge for something crunchy.....just because even though im full...i still like that little 'snap' i get from biting it. it sounds like a weird obsessive compulsive thing! but i think its true.


and its not me buying cereal or crackers, its my mom. im living with her until i move to california in october. so really, i just need to learn to control myself until i move. i think my brain is now like "whoa, we can eat these things again now that we arent 100%!!!!" and it wants to make up for lost time. ha. i think ill get over it and the excitement will wear off, it just amazes me how powerful the urges are to eat that stuff. scary..



about weight loss - before "going raw" i was vegan and my diet consisted of fruit, salads, tofu, seitan, some nuts (roasted and salted), hummus, chips and salsa sometimes, and some crackers. i never really ate bread or sandwiches. sometimes i would also eat soy ice cream.

so you see the switch to 100% was not exactly difficult. while 100% i ate TONS AND TONS of fruit, big salads with apple cider vinegar dressing usually, and TONS AND TONS of nuts. im talking like a pound of cashews a day if i wanted. i also ate bananas and avocados, still no weight gain! but i will say, i didnt drink green smoothies. i always heard on this forum that people trying to LOSE should drink green smoothies, so i shyed away from them.

when i was more inactive (not doing yoga everyday) i didnt lose any weight while raw. i stayed at 100 lbs. then i made the commitment to train to be able to teach, practicing almost everyday, usually the room is super hot so its a workout.......and i weighed myself a little over a month ago after eating a big meal and i was almost 95 lbs. that was WITH added weight in my stomach. NOT GOOD!



so right now....breakfast is usually fruit sometimes accompanied by a small glass of odwalls super food smoothie with vegan DHA oil. i usually grab lunch at whole foods because its close to work and i make myself a big salad loaded with veggies and tofu and sometimes a grain. i bartend at night and snack on either a couple pieces of fruit or raw cashews. when i get off, i usually have more fruit, or salad, nuts, and sometimes crackers. that's been working for me.



i hope i answered everyone's questions/suggestions. thanks for the responses!!!!

[barose]

Tofu is addictive too. I had to totally eliminate it from my diet many, many months ago. Not to mention its not good for your for so many reasons.

[SmilingRawDancer]

Wheat/gluten has opiotic (is that a word?) effects.
Read this article (everyone!) and learn allll about it:
http://www.purelydelicious.net/PDmarch2007Gluten.pdf



How can one litt le protein result in such widespread symptoms?
Gluten works its mischief in several ways. One is by triggering autoimmune
responses, another is by causing malabsorption of nutrients, and the
third is through activation of opioid receptors in the brain.
Yes, that “once I start I can’t stop” feeling that many people have about
bread and other baked goods is actually similar to cocaine addiction. But
more on that in a bit. Let’s start by looking at the autoimmune
eff ects of gluten. Autoimmune diseases are those in which
antibodies (the cells produced by the immune system to defend us from
foreign invaders) attack specific body tissues. For example, in autoimmune
thyroiditis, there are antibodies that attack the thyroid gland. In lupus,
there are antibodies against a wide range of tissues. Scientists have
found that there is cross reactivity between gluten antibodies and
specific body tissues, including the cerebellum (the part of the brain
responsible for balance), the small intestinal lining cells, and thyroid
tissue. In one study of patients with autoimmune thyroiditis and antigluten
antibodies researchers found that after 6 months of strict gluten
“Depression, migraines, ADHD, autism, and the
inability to concentrate... have now been linked to gluten intolerance.”
avoidance, not only were the gluten antibodies gone, but so were the antithyroid
antibodies, and symptoms
were resolving...........


....As promised, back to the explanation
of the “once I start I can’t stop”
feeling that many people experience
when eating bread and other baked
goods. This leads us to the least well
known and most recently explored
eff ect of gluten--- on opioid receptors.
These are receptors in the brain
that control our pain and pleasure
responses. You’ve likely heard of
endorphins, released by the body
during exercise and other activities,
and their eff ects on decreasing pain
and increasing the experience of
pleasure. The breakdown of gluten
produces several endorphin like opiate
compounds, similar to cocaine,
which when absorbed, bind to the
opioid receptors in the brain. These
can displace our own natural endorphins,
and lead to widespread problems.
In order to bett er explain this
mechanism, let’s take an aside concerning
the digestion of proteins.
Recall that gluten is a protein. Proteins
are long strings of amino acids.
Digestion breaks these components
apart. An intermediate step is the
formation of what are known as
peptides - short chains of
amino acids. In many
people, particularly
those whose digestion has
been impaired by years of
poor dietary choices and
medications or those with
a genetic tendency, the
peptides never get split
into amino acids, but are
absorbed as peptides. The
gluten peptides have been
demonstrated to be especially
resistant to breakdown, even in
the laboratory test tube, with strong
digestive enzymes added, so the
absorption of opioid peptides is a
widespread problem.
One of the complaints I hear when
people embark upon a gluten free
diet is that the cravings are so intense.
This can be explained by the
reaction of the opioid receptors to
sudden withdrawal of the opioids.
Now left unbound they are starving
for more, similar to the mechanism
found in drug, alcohol and nicotine
withdrawal, and cravings result.

[Rossk]

have you tried sprouting wheat? then turning it into a raw bread , its very simple and loads better for you .