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Childhood food addiction prevention techniques

September 24, 2015

Childhood food addiction prevention techniques : The best feeding habits for kids

Childhood food addiction

Techniques for preventing childhood food addiction involves incorporating the children in decision making on what they want to eat ant to what quantity.

We are all concern in seeing how our children are being brought up in all dimensions. In our quest of bringing them up, we sometime do certain things ignorantly that impacts quit negatively in the development of our children. We spoke with experts from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center a facility that was established by a veteran addiction expert primarily to make a difference in people’s lives. In her over two decades of working experience doctor Akoury has really made immense contributions in transforming peoples’ lives from all walks of life across the globe. We are therefore privilege to have such brains to help us understand some of the childhood food addiction prevention techniques  even as we progress into this discussion. Doctor Akoury is very categorical that children can eat and enjoy a wide variety of foods and textures and will not complain much as we do. It is therefore very important that all parents and guardians to taking opportunity when the children are still young to encourage them to enjoy family meals and even go beyond the family means by trying a wide range of other foods, tastes, flavors and textures.

Experts from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center have established that toddlers and young children have a natural ability to sense when they are hungry and when they are full a function that most of us adult may not have. Ordinarily children will learn to eat what the family eats and that will only be possible if they are offered the same food and encouraged to try it. Low-fat or restricted diets are not always recommended for toddlers primarily because this may result in poor growth and development. Nonetheless we all ore our children the duty of care to ensure that as we feed them they do not engage in feeding habit that can have serious addiction impact in their lives in the future. In that regard, let us take some time to briefly highlight some of the concerns parents may have in bringing up their children to be free from the temptation of being addicted to food.

Childhood food addiction prevention techniques: Common parental concerns

In the process of feeding kids we must all appreciate that quit often selective way of eating will be a common occurrence in toddlers. This selectiveness is not just with the children but take a keen look at the kind of lifestyle we live today. For sure we can all attest that the world has become an exciting place and ironically food may be less important when there are many other things to do. In that breath the following are some of the reasons why children’s eating patterns may change:
Slower growth – ordinarily children’s growth often slows down in their second year. This means at this point of time they will often have smaller appetites and consequently need less food. That also means that the quantity of food eaten from day to day can change dramatically. It is however important to note that even though sometimes parents get worried of these changes, they actually normal and doesn’t mean that your child is being difficult or is unwell.
Eating and snacking – children rarely follow our triangular traditional meal pattern of breakfast lunch and dinner instead they tend to feed on smaller and regular snacks. This satisfies their small tummy sizes and provides them with adequate energy to keep moving all day. The amount eaten at mealtimes, and more so in the evening meal may be smaller than parents would like. However, children can balance the amount of food eaten with exactly how much they need if they are given the opportunity to enjoy good foods and are not forced to overeat or finish all the food on the plate. This means that healthy snacks are important to help provide the energy and nutrition your child needs during the day.
Fussy eating – showing independence is part of normal children development and this often includes refusing to eat foods that you offer. Remember that by rejecting any given food does not necessarily mean the child doesn’t like it therefore next time if you offer it on another day they are likely to enjoy it. Other common children eating behavior may include:
• Meal-time irritabilities and food refusal
• Delay in self-feeding
• Preference for pureed foods or difficulty with chewing
• Overeating
• Reduced intake of food or reliance on drinks.

Childhood food addiction prevention techniques: Empower the children to make decision

Your role as parent to your child is to decide what food and when to offer it, but the child decides whether or not to eat and to what quantity they’ll eat. Remember that children eat when they’re hungry. They have a natural ability to sense when they are hungry and when they are full. Therefore insisting that your child eats more than they choose to is not advisable because doing so is likely to encourage them to overeat in the future and probably become addicted to certain foods particularly those that you are forcing on them. Professionally doctor Akoury recommends that it is you let your children decide whether they will eat and how much they will eat. This may not sound reasonable for you but remember it is one of the best techniques for preventing childhood food addiction.

Childhood food addiction prevention techniques: Mealtime suggestions for parents
As a parent you need to be on top of everything and the following are some suggestions you could adopt:
• Be a positive role model by eating a healthy, balanced and varied diet together as a family.
• Serve the same foods as the family eats.
• Remember that children need smaller meals and regular snacks.
• Don’t worry too much, a child’s appetite and food intake can vary daily.
• Offer small serves and give more if needed.
• Let them tell you they’re full and don’t force a child to finish all food on their plate.

Finally it is always said that teach a child the way to go and when they grow up they will not depart from it. This is often taken for granted but if we want to bring up healthy children who will be lean and free from food addiction, we must chose to lay good foundation from the beginning. Therefore if you are not so sure on how to go about it, then you may want to schedule an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury today for more professional advice.
Childhood food addiction prevention techniques: The best feeding habits for kids

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Why some food stuff motivates food addiction

August 8, 2015

Why some food stuff motivates food addiction: When the food you feed on becomes the problem to your health

Why some food stuff motivates food addiction

Why some food stuff motivates food addiction? Responding to the root cause of food addiction is very fundamental in containing all the triggers of food addiction.

Ordinarily we need food to supply our bodies with energy it needs to function well. Food is actually healthy for the body and we cannot do without it. And even though food is necessary for our lives, when we do not take some of these food stuff well they can be the cause of our health problems. In other words when we over eat we are likely to become overweight or obese and on the other side if we take inadequate food consistently we risk being malnourished and underweight conditions which can lead to serious health complications. It is on that back drop that we want to take time and consult with the experts from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of doctor Dalal Akoury a renowned veteran addiction expert of several decades. It is regrettable that in many cases overweight people are often seen or believed to be either going through this because of their laziness or that they just don’t have the will power to actively operate normally. This analogy is actually misleading because the choice of food one feeds on, when they feed on it and the frequencies of exercise you do will affect your weight significantly. Doctor Akoury is explaining that some of the food stuffs that were previously ignored may actually the drivers of an addiction in our lives. It is because of this reason that we want to benefit from doctor Dalal Akoury in the discussion of the topic “why some food stuff motivates food addiction in our societies.” And some of such food stuff may include: chocolate, sugar, cheese, milk and meat. The question that will now follow is that, how are they causing addiction? Let us now respond to that as we progress into the discussion as follows:

Why some food stuff motivates food addiction: Chocolate

From various studies experts have now established that chocolate stimulates the very same part of the brain just in the same way as opiate drugs does. It therefore means that chocolate even though it is food, it acts in the same way a drug producing food addiction that causes us to crave for more food. This will then continue and before we realize, we are on the road to being addicted to chocolate. According to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center we all have a duty to be on the watch out and therefore emphasis should be made to everybody that food addiction is a serious issue and must be given all the due attention lest things get out of hand. Remember that chocolate as food contains other stimulant drugs like caffeine, theobromine and pheylethylamine and according to expert’s chocolate is not just a drug but a whole drug store wrapped up in one.

Why some food stuff motivates food addiction: Cheese

We have now seen how chocolate can be a serious threat to addiction and that immediate attention must be taken expeditiously if we are to kick off addiction from our societies. Now besides chocolate, experts have established that it is not just chocolate that brings food addiction. However when people who were consuming meat and other dairy products are stopped from consuming the same, the yearning for cheese was described as a “deep seated craving” that stayed with them much longer than their compulsion for other foods. Researchers also found a chemical in cow’s milk similar to morphine, and after testing it repeatedly, they discovered that it was, in fact, morphine. It was only a trace amount, and not all the samples contained the chemical in recognizable levels, but there was indeed a small amount of morphine in cow’s milk.

Therefore assuming that the morphine must have come from the cows’ diets, researches were actually shocked to find that the cows actually made traces of it within their bodies, along with codeine and other opiates that were produced in their livers. Besides the findings were equally surprising to learn that cow’s milk (and the milk of any species) contains the protein, casein that breaks down during the digestion process, and releases other opiate-like compounds called casomorphins. What does this have to with cheese? Casein is concentrated in cheese. So we have the makings of another possible food addiction.

Why some food stuff motivates food addiction: Milk

From the illustrations and explanations above, the question that rings in everyone’s mind would be why are there traces of morphine in milk? (Actually, it’s not some environmental problem.) Scientists believe that the mother’s milk has a relaxing effect on the baby, and this drug-like effect on the brain is responsible for the bonding that is necessary, for the baby to get the nutrition he needs. In one of the studies, researchers gave volunteers yogurt and skim milk, and found that the casein (milk opiates) not only acted within the digestive tract, but some of the fragments actually entered the bloodstream, with direct access to the brain. The effect was greatest about 40 minutes after eating. And as we had mentioned before, cheese has more casein than other dairy products. (Recent studies have found that meat also stimulates the brain’s pleasure centers.) To further prove their theory, researchers found that when volunteers were given naloxone, (a drug that blocks opiates, used in the treatment of heroin and morphine overdoses), their desire for cheese, meat, chocolate, and other addictive foods was greatly decreased.

Why some food stuff motivates food addiction: Sugar

In addition, scientists have discovered that fast foods, like hamburgers and fries, may also be responsible for food addictions. The high fat and carbohydrate content causes changes in the brain that are normally correlated with drug addiction, (and the result is food addiction.) Sugar and fat stimulates the release of natural opiates in the brain, and may be triggering the same response as heroin. After giving rats a diet that was one quarter sugar, he abruptly withdrew the sugar, and the rats went into high anxiety mode, experiencing trembling and teeth chattering, similar to the effects that occur during morphine or nicotine withdrawal. So, in review, the sugar produced the same withdrawal effects that highly addictive drugs do.

Finally doctor Dalal Akoury says that food addiction plays an enormous role in our eating habits, when we’re depressed, tired, lonely, anxious, worried, fearful, etc. we often run to the addictive food of choice. People may be different and for many people, it is chocolate and sugar, with carbohydrates following close behind, which is particularly bad and that, explains why diabetic is rising. Certain foods act as drugs, because our body responds to the natural opiates in them, just as it would to drug opiates. As we experience these effects over and over, we may develop a food addiction. Therefore if you are suspecting any possibility of an addiction of whatever form or kind, you will need to take treatment action promptly so that you can be help with less or just minimal pain. Talking to doctor Akoury should be your staring point and therefore you can schedule for an appointment with her today for the commencement of your recovery process.

Why some food stuff motivates food addiction: When the food you feed on becomes the problem to your health

 

 

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What do you know about food addiction

July 3, 2015

What do you know about food addiction: Can food be addictive like other substances?

What do you know about food addiction

What do you know about food addiction. This this kind of behavior, the consequences can be very fatal if a rescue mission is not adopted immediately.

Generally the body of any human being needs sufficient fuel to remain operational. It is no secret that all the fuel for energies we need come from the food we eat meaning that food is very essential for human survival. So if food is that essential, then what is this madness called food addiction? Can food be addictive? Ever since scientific evidence associated food with other addictive substances, the debate of food addiction has been on going and we are not lest out and so we ask “what do you know about food addiction?” and are you addicted to any kind of food? I believe these concerns you too and that is why we are choosing this platform to inform you by way of explaining to you something about food addiction. doctor Dalal Akoury MD and founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center says that, currently there are so many studies that have suggested that food and drug addiction have some common similarities more in relation to the way both reacts in the disruption of the brain which is involved in the pleasure and self-control.

What do you know about food addiction? It will interest you to know that with the many discoveries; today the idea that an individual can be addicted to food has been receiving a lot of support from the scientific findings to the extent that experiments in animals and humans now shows that, for some people, the same reward and pleasure centers of the brain that are triggered by addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin are also activated by food, especially highly palatable foods which may include foods rich in sugar, fat and salt.

According to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center, in the same way addictive drugs reacts, highly palatable foods can also trigger the feel-good brain chemicals such as dopamine. Therefore the moment people experience pleasures associated with increased dopamine transmission in the brain’s reward pathway from eating certain foods, they quickly feel the need to eat again. The reward signals from highly palatable foods may override other signals of fullness and satisfaction. As a result, people keep eating, even when they’re not hungry and that is one of the reasons as to why food addiction is real today. Besides that individuals who demonstrate signs of food addiction may also develop tolerance to food. That way they will be eating excessively more units of food only to find that they are not really getting the satisfaction from the food they eat despite the quantity and the frequency.

What do you know about food addiction? With the advent of scientific findings, it is believed that food addiction may play an important role in obesity and weight related complications. Nonetheless people of normal-weight are not immune to this either they are also likely to struggle with food addiction as well. This may not be reflected in their weigh because many at times their bodies will be genetically programmed to better handle the extra calories they may take in. besides their body responding in their favor, they may also increase their physical activity to compensate for overeating. Doctor Akoury is very categorical that once addicted to food, such people will continue with their habits despite negative consequences like weight gain and dented relationships. And just like people who are addicted to other substances or gambling, food addicts will also have difficulties in stopping their behavior, even if there is evidence of willingness to cut back.

What do you know about food addiction: Signs of food addiction?

Before you can attempt to treat the problem of food addiction, you must be well informed of the possible signs of food addiction. Therefore how do we know that we are now at risk of food addictions? The following are some of the questions that can help determine if you have a food addiction. Are you able to identify any of these actions in your life? In other words do you …

  • End up eating more than planned when you start eating certain foods
  • Keep eating certain foods even if you’re no longer hungry
  • Eat to the point of feeling ill
  • Worry about not eating certain types of foods or worry about cutting down on certain types of foods
  • When certain foods aren’t available, go out of your way to obtain them

What do you know about food addiction? Questions in relation to the impact caused in your relationship with food on your personal life. Do these situations apply to you when:

  • You eat certain foods so often or in such large amounts that you start eating food instead of working, spending time with the family, or doing recreational activities.
  • You avoid professional or social situations where certain foods are available because of fear of overeating.
  • You have problems functioning effectively at your job or school because of food and eating.

What do you know about food addiction? Questions in relation to psychological withdrawal symptoms like for example, when you cut down on certain foods (excluding caffeinated beverages), do you have symptoms such as anxiety, agitation and other physical symptoms? Remember that these questions are not just tailored to trigger you if you are being addicted to food but also to gauge the impact of food decisions on your emotions. Therefore do these situations apply to you?

  • Eating food causes problems such as depression, anxiety, self-loathing, or guilt.
  • You need to eat more and more food to reduce negative emotions or increase pleasure.
  • Eating the same amount of food doesn’t reduce negative emotions or increase pleasure the way it used to.

What do you know about food addiction: Help for food addiction?

Even though there is evidence that food addiction is real, its treatment is still under investigation and the experts are working towards getting a scientific treatment solution for food addiction. At the moment a lot of debate around this is going on with some arguing that recovery from food addiction may be more complicated than recovery from other kinds of addictions. Alcoholics, for example, can ultimately abstain from drinking alcohol. But people who are addicted to food still need to eat. This is very interesting however while these studies are still being conducted, there are avenues of hope that you can get from experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of doctor Dalal Akoury. All you need to do to access this help is to schedule for an appointment with her today and all your addiction concerns will be professionally addressed without any hesitation.

What do you know about food addiction: Can food be addictive like other substances?

 

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Food addiction

February 26, 2014

Food addiction-Fighting food addiction

food addiction

food especially sugar is becoming the biggest luring substance to food addiction

There is one common addiction for all mankind, we are all in one way or the other addicted to food. Visualize how it feels like when you aren’t able to eat. You will probably start to crave for food, and become more physically and emotionally uncomfortable. The longer the cravings go on for, until eating becomes the most important thing for you to do. This is the constant experience of people struggling with food addiction, even if they have plenty to eat.

However food is essential to survival, and unlike other addictive behaviors, it is normal to eat repeatedly every day, and to look forward to eating for pleasure. But several characteristics separate normal or occasional binge eating from a food addiction.

The first point, food addiction is maladaptive, so although people overeat to feel better, it often ends up making them feel worse, and gives those more to feel back about. Food addiction can threaten health, causing obesity, malnutrition, and other problems.

The second point, the overeating that people with food addiction do is persistent, so a person addicted to food eats too much food and most of the time it’s the wrong kinds of food taken repeatedly. Everybody overeat from time to time, but people with food addiction often overeat daily, and they eat not because they are hungry, but as their main way of coping with stress.

The Controversy of Food Addiction

As behavioral addictions, the concept of food addiction is a controversial one. Opinions differs between those who think that overeating can be a type of addiction, and those who think that true addictions are limited to psychoactive substances which produces symptoms such as physical and withdrawal. Although this has been demonstrated in research with sugar and fat (the two most common obesity-causing constituents of food), and other studies show that food produces opiates in the body, many think that this does not necessarily constitute an addiction.

However, the growing epidemic of obesity over the past years has raised public health concern. In almost all US states, one in five adults are obese. Childhood obesity was ranked as the top health concern for children in 2008, higher than either drug abuse, rated second, or smoking rated third, both of which were ahead of obesity in 2007.

This concern, along with effective treatments for addictions, which are being successfully applied to more and more problematic behaviors, is contributing to a movement towards understanding over-eating, and the consequences of obesity and related health problems, in terms of addiction.

Food addiction is now included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), named as Binge Eating Disorder, and categorized with the Eating Disorders. Excessive eating is also a characteristic of another eating disorders outlined in the DSM, known as Bulimia Nervosa. Some controversy remains over whether eating disorders are actually addictions, but many experts believe that they are.

Food Addiction like Other Addictions

There are several similarities between food addiction and drug addiction, including effects on mood, external cues to eat or use drugs, expectancies, restraint, ambivalence, and attribution.

Neurotransmitters and the brain’s reward system have been implicated in food and other addictions. In animal studies, for example, dopamine has been found to play an important role in overall reward systems, and binging on sugar has been shown to influence dopamine activity.

Food, drugs and other addictive substances and behaviors are all associated with pleasure, hedonism, and social, cultural or sub-cultural desirability. When advertising or the people around us tell us that a food, drug or activity will feel good, it sets up a self-fulfilling prophecy. We are more likely to seek it out, and we are more likely to experience pleasure when we indulge.

Food addiction and Mental Health

Similarities between food addiction and other addictions suggest a universal process underlying food and other addictions. Some experts go further, theorizing that overlaps, similarities, and co-occurrences of mental health problems, including addictions, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and eating disorders, and the phenomenon of a new addiction or mental health problem developing when an old addiction is treated, indicate that they are expressions of related underlying pathologies. It has been argued that viewing these conditions separately hinders the development of a comprehensive view of addictions.

In the study involving 39 healthy women with different weights from lean to overweight or obese, the participants were asked to complete the Yale Food Addiction Scale, which tests for signs of food addiction. Women with full-fledged eating disorders of any type were not included in the study.

Then, using fMRI, researchers led by Yale’s Ashley Gearhardt and Kelly Brownell looked at the women’s brain activity in response to food. In one task, the women were asked to look at pictures of either a luscious chocolate shake or a bland, no-calorie solution. For another brain-scan task, women actually drank the shake made with four scoops of vanilla Häagen-Dazs ice cream, 2% milk and 2 tablespoons of Hershey’s chocolate syrup or the no-calorie control solution, which was designed to be as flavorless as possible (water couldn’t be used because it actually activates taste receptors).

The scientists found that when viewing images of ice cream, the women who had three or more symptoms of food addiction things like frequently worrying about overeating, eating to the point of feeling sick and difficulty functioning due to attempts to control overeating or overeating itself showed more brain activity in regions involved with pleasure and craving than women who had one or no such symptoms.

These areas included the amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex and medial orbitofrontal cortex — the same regions that light up in drug addicts who are shown images of drug paraphernalia or drugs.

Similar to people suffering from substance abuse, the food-addicted participants also showed reduced activity in brain regions involved with self-control (the lateral orbitofrontal cortex), when they actually ate the ice cream.

In other words, women with symptoms of food addiction had higher expectations that a chocolate shake would be yummy and pleasurable when they anticipated eating it, and they were less able to stop eating it once they started.

Interestingly, however, unlike drug addicts, the participants with more signs of food addiction did not show a decrease in activity in pleasure-related regions of the brain when they actually ate the ice cream. People with drug addictions tend to derive less and less pleasure from drug use over time — they want drugs more but enjoy them less, creating compulsive behavior. But it’s possible that this tolerance may be seen only in serious addictions, not in people with just a few symptoms.

Notably, the study also found that food addiction symptoms and brain responses to food were not associated with weight: there were some overweight women who showed no food addiction symptoms, and some normal-weight women who did.

That’s why addictions aren’t simple: they involve variations not only in levels of desire, but also in levels of ability to control that desire. And these factors may change in relation to social situations and stress.

Neither heroin nor Häagen-Dazs leads to addiction in the majority of users, and yet there are certain situations that may prompt binges in people who otherwise have high levels of self-control. So the answers to addiction may lie not in the substances themselves, but in the relationship people have with them and the settings in which they are consumed.

Food addiction-Fighting food addiction

 

 

 

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