Chronic Fatigue and Nutrition

2010/05/05
Published

Sugar cravings are a sign of imbalance in the body. In Part 1 we examined four factors that contribute to the development of your sugar cravings. In Part 2 and 3 discussed the remaining factors that could be behind those persistent sugar cravings. Here we will discuss what you can do to overcome those sugar cravings.

Improve Your Sugar Digestion

When our body fails to make sufficient digestive enzymes, we are unable to break down our food to its simple components from long chain polysaccharides to simple sugars like glucose. A chronic illness such as chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, Chron’s disease, adrenal fatigue or exhaustion, eczema, food allergies, environmental sensitivities takes a great toll on the body for continual repair. Enzymes require the most energy from the body to make and thus their synthesis may be lacking. If we are acidic (from our diet, stress and lack of sufficient minerals) then enzymes made by our digestive tract will not work properly!

Taking a broad spectrum enzyme will not reduce your body’s synthesis of digestive enzymes. Therefore you have nothing to fear but improved digestion from taking a digestive enzyme. If you were to take too much of an enzyme you would simply digest your food faster and get hungry sooner. However, for those of you taking betaine hydrochloride, aka HCL, it does not necessarily facilitate complete cleavage of polysaccharides into simple sugars. The additional downside to HCL is that if you take too much, your body will pull out calcium from your bones to neutralize the excessive HCL, causing demineralization, the last thing anyone needs. 

Change the Type of Carbohydrate You Eat

If your cravings drive you to eat rich creamy food, consider making a healthy fruit and protein smoothie as your snack. You can add a bit of flax seed or oil, powdered magnesium, a scoop of medical food that helps your body absorb amino acids and supply key methylation pathway nutrients, or a simple rice or whey protein powder and your body will love you while your psyche gets the satisfaction of a sweet but healthy creamy treat.

If your cravings drive you to eat pastries such as cookies, donuts, scones, cakes and such, realize that these snacks are all gluten based which in many individuals creates an addictive opoid response to drive you to continue to want more. Change your snack from gluten based to gluten free cookies and snacks.

If your cravings are for chocolate, make sure you eat sufficient foods high in magnesium such as almonds. Taking a magnesium supplement regularly for a while will help to change the intensity of the craving and can eliminate it entirely. Make sure you eat a protein snack instead. This is especially true for women who suffer from PMS. Their bodies require more protein to make serotonin before the onset of their menses and a hidden protein deficiency during this time will create those cyclical chocolate cravings.

With any carbohydrate you crave as a snack it is an excellent idea to eat a protein with it to slow the rise and drop in blood sugar that results from digestion. Eating carbohydrates on an empty stomach has the added downside of feeding hidden virus, bacteria, yeast and candida in your body and can create and make “leaky gut” worse.

Eating a low glycemic fruit on an empty stomach is as sweet as anyone should go. Low glycemic means low in sugar. An example is an apple. The fiber in the apple has the added benefit of slowing the conversion of sugar to prevent spikes in blood sugar followed by crashes in low blood sugar. A banana on the other hand is a high sugar, high glycemic food. That is why to eat a banana as a snack one should add a protein such as almond butter, cashew butter or an egg, slice of chicken breast or turkey to counter the sugars in the banana.

If You Suffer Low Cortisol

Those with chronic illness such as chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, eczema, seasonal allergies, candidiasis, adrenal fatigue or exhaustion, pre-diabetics, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, arthritis, migraines, PMS, the depressed or agitated, irritable or overworked  can have low cortisol at various times of the day that result in being driven by cravings for sweets as an energy pick up. If you give in to that craving it will continue to weaken your adrenals and they will go from maladaptive phase to fatigued to exhausted. The vicious cycle of low cortisol that causes low blood sugar and increased sugar sensitivity can make you feel like you are on a roller coaster where some sugar gives you a boost to be followed by a crash. As the adrenal glands weaken, their ability to respond to sugars to give you that energy boost fades and only low blood sugar results.

The solution besides having your cortisol rhythm checked by a saliva test so that you know where your cortisol values are during the day (order Cortisol Saliva Kit online at www.immunematrix.com) and working with an experienced medical practitioner for supportive therapy to normalize cortisol values, is your lifestyle. You need to eat smaller meals and more frequently to maintain good blood sugar. Each small meal must have protein. You need to watch your body’s energy reaction to what you have eaten. If within an hour or two after eating you feel tired and sleepy, you have eaten too much carbohydrate for you body to handle. Take that as a clue and in the next meal eat less carbohydrates. Eliminate all refined carbohydrates, and no carbohydrates between meals without a protein. These dietary suggestions will help prevent your diet from weakening your adrenals and give your body the strength to help improve its sugar metabolism. A digestive enzyme is essential. 

Cortisol is a hormone made by our adrenal glands located above our kidneys. Without duplicating other articles in this blog on cortisol rhythm, low cortisol results in lower energy and stamina and difficulty in regulating one’s blood sugar on a metabolic level. During times of the day when your cortisol output may be low, your energy will be sluggish. You can feel like you are dragging yourself around and you may want to nap. Your blood sugar may also be low. Your instinctive reaction is to want to eat something to give you a quick pick up, such as coffee, coke, sugars, or a carbohydrate snack. The problem with this apparent solution is that it results in excessive insulin output and blood sugar rise followed by a blood sugar crash. Initially your energy will respond quickly, and then dip as your blood sugar crashes. This cycle weakens your adrenals and causes chronic low cortisol synthesis.

An excellent addition to your diet is BenaGene to improve your energy and sugar metabolism. For those suffering from low cortisol function this added assistance in helping to transport sugars into your cells from BenaGene will have you feeling a new wave of energy to fortify your day.

Have Outlets for Your Stressors

Now that you have identified the stressors behind your motivation to eat something soothing or venting, make changes in your lifestyle to give your body the physical outlet to release pent up energy and frustration, the outlet for creative expression by setting aside at least 15 minutes each day to do what you absolutely love, and/or to take 15 minutes to decompress from your day with a walk, quite time away from a hectic family before you rejoin your family unit.

Where discontent is behind your need to seek satisfying sugars, take time to examine why. Identify the emotion you feel that drives the craving, boredom, sadness, irritability, loneliness, anxiety? Once you identify the emotion there are non-food choices you can make to meet your emotional needs. If you need assistance identifying or eliminating the feelings that prompt our desire behind your food craving, a certified NET practitioner can be found at www.onemindbody.com in the United States, UK, and Australia.

Are Immune Sensitivities Blocking Your Sugar Digestion?

Individuals suffering chronic inflammation such as fibromyalgia, syndrome X, environmental sensitivities, eczema, hives, rashes, repetitive sinus infections, irritable bowel, Chron’s disease, chronic fatigue, lyme disease, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis all have an immune component contributing to their condition. Immune Matrix treats the immune sensitivity by identifying where in the metabolism of sugar the immune system has developed a recognition to a metabolite that it sees as an antigen. The patient is de-sensitized and this eliminates the immune interference contribution to faulty sugar digestion and improves the break down of polysaccharides into simple sugars. The patient is able to eat carbohydrates with improved cortisol values and reduction in reactive low blood sugar.

If you are unable to seek de-sensitization treatments for your sugar sensitivities or your practitioner does not have sugar metabolism antigens to treat, then you can still gain much by taking a digestive enzyme to assist your body in breaking down your sugars. This will allow them to be in the proper form to be absorbed by receptor sites on your cells. Taking BenaGene will assist further in transporting the digested simple sugars into the cells. 

Eliminate Pathogens That Drive Those Cravings?

Low grade chronic infections are common in chronic immune disorders such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, eczema, seasonal allergies, environmental sensitivities, lyme disease, arthritis, ulcerative colitis, acid reflux, some migraines and chronic headaches, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. The most likely location is the colon. You can order a Microbiology Stool Test Kit online at www.immunematrix.com that will identify the good probiotics you have as well as the pathogenic bacteria, yeast, fungi and candida. It will also culture them and give you prescription and non-prescription solutions that will kill your particular strains. You can then take this information to your medical practitioner.  

If you have chronic fatigue, make sure you have a blood test done for chronic viral infections such as Epstein Bar, Echo virus, Cytomeg., Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Coxsackie, & HHV’s. These pathogens thrive on simple undigested sugars circulating in your blood stream. This is a form of chemical warfare designed to help the pathogen thrive in your body! Altering your diet will stop feeding them, improve your adrenal function and thus your immune system!

 Take Your Minerals

We discussed magnesium deficiency in Part 2. However, our soil is also depleted in selenium, chromium, manganese, and molybdenum. Taking a broad spectrum high grade mineral supplement will replenish what we are not getting from our food. Immune Matrix gives their patients a product called BAM (BAM – Beyond Any Multiple – 180 tablets
SKU: SKU16160) that was designed by a doctor to help patients that need to chelate heavy metals. This product will help to re-fortify your body with essential minerals that with fuel your liver’s detoxification pathway.

In addition to a broad spectrum mineral supplement, dark green leafy vegetables are high in minerals. Caution is advised for those with immune sensitivities or chronic illness as many are sensitive to the sulfur in some of these greens such as: kale, kelp, eggplant, garlic, onion. Therefore, choose dark green vegetables that are not heavy in sulfur.

In summary, as you can see, sugar cravings can mean many different things depending upon what is happening in your body. Be aware that it generally takes 6 weeks to form a new habit. Getting to the root cause(s) for your sugar cravings and beginning to make small adjustments in your lifestyle will change your body’s chemistry, improve its hormonal function, alkalinize, boost immune system function, improve your energy, stamina, mental clarity, improve digestion of carbohydrates, eliminate pathogenic virus, bacteria, yeast and candida from your body and make you a more content and happy person to around!

Please note:
Information on this site is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing any medication or other treatment.

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