Riverside Medical Clinic

1. Riverside Medical Clinic Handling Hunger and Controlling Cravings Health Education Department Sheila Clarke, MBA, RD Registered Dietitian Health Education

2. Handling Hunger and Controlling Cravings • Distinguish between hunger and cravings. • Learn what triggers a craving. • Identify strategies to head off a craving before it starts. • List techniques to manage a craving once it hits.

3. The Primal Hunger Drive • Biological (not an issue of willpower!) • Under eating causes a brain chemical to trigger our desire for carbohydrates. • The more you deny your true hunger, the stronger and more intense the cravings become. • Accompanied by physical sensations

4. Basic Hunger Scale 0Starving 2 Preoccupied with feeling of hunger 4 A little hungry but can wait to eat 6 You sense food in your belly, but could eat more 8 Full belly not uncomfortable 10 Thanksgiving-day full painful

5. The Continuum of Emotional Eating Sensory Gratification Comfort Distraction Sedation Punishment

6. Sensory Gratification(Cravings) • May never disappear completely… just need to be managed. • Caused by environmental cues or emotional triggers. • Temporarily boosts the brains reward center.

7. New Theories on Why We Overeat • The layering of sugar, fat and salt overstimulates the brain’s reward center. • Food industry’s role in marketing, portion explosion and availability has added to the problem. From The End of Overeating by David Kessler, MD

8. New Theories on Why We Overeat • Once the brain’s nuerocircutry is stimulated, it doesn’t shut off. • Conditioned hyper eating emerges. From The End of Overeating by David Kessler, MD

9. Emotional Eating… • Drive to eat originates in thoughts and feelings. • Compelled to seek food to distract, cover up, and/or push down feelings to change thoughts/feelings. • Since food can’t resolve an emotional issue, the eating continues. • Food is temporarily soothing.

10. Hunger vs Desire vs Cravings • You haven’t eaten for hours and your stomach is rumbling and you feel ravenous …Hunger • You ate a big meal and you still wanted to continue to eat more…Desire • You had a very strong desire to eat, accompanied by tension, and an unpleasant yearning sensation in your body…Craving

11. Emotional Triggers • Boredom and procrastination • Bribery and reward • Excitement • Stress • Anxiety

12. Emotional Triggers • Figure out your emotional triggers by keeping an ABC food and mood diary. • A= Antecedent (the trigger situations or emotions that come before eating). • B=Behavior of eating (what did you eat or drink and how much). • C= Consequences (what were your feelings and attitudes that occurred after eating.

13. ABC Food Journal www.nourishingconnections.com www. Nourishingconnections.com

14. Heading off a Craving • Planned eating • Avoid hunger by eating every 3-4 hours. • Have healthy snacks on hand. • Get adequate sleep • Reset your sweet stat

15. Heading off a Craving.. • Recognize it for what it is( it’s a craving, not an emergency!) • Create negative associations with the food and positive associations with healthy eating. • Empower yourself with positive self-talk.

16. Handling a Craving..Learn to Wait It Out • Cravings are like waves…

17. The Stop Watch Method • The average craving only lasts 8-14 minutes! • Set an alarm for 15 minutes. • Drink a glass of water and have a protein snack. • Distraction game plan.

18. Environmental Cues

19. Food Rehab • Avoidance of cues • Avoid deprivation, which primes the cues • Retrain your brain so the salient stimuli loses its power. • Rules • Disclosure • Public Health Successes From The End of Overeating by David Kessler, MD

20. “Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you want and let the food fight it out inside.” • Mark twain (1835-1910)

21. Additional Resources • www.bedaonlin.com • www.intuitiveeating.com • Crave; Why You Binge Eat and How To Stop by Cynthia Bulik, PhD • The End of Overeating by David Kessler, MD