Sourced from: Infinite Health Blog, by Dr. Davis,
originally posted on the Wheat Belly Blog: 2013-02-13
Prisoner to food
Jacey posted this plea for help in gaining control
over her wheat-induced binge eating:
I have read your book and have read the blog
over and over again. I also attempted to eat wheat-, sugar-, and grain-free
over and over again. I have a real addiction and I can’t get
past a couple of days.
I’m at a loss and I am desperate to stop being
a prisoner to food. PLEASE do not just tell me to stop eating it; if it was
that simple for me, I wouldn’t have an addiction.
I binge, and I do mean binge. It’s not weekly
or monthly – it’s just about daily. I can go a couple of days wheat-free,
and then I cave. It only takes one pretzel, or a handful of popcorn, and I
am done. I probably consume 5,000 calories, if not more, once I start the binge.
I do need some help here. I really want to lose
weight and be healthier. Anyone out there who has the same problem I do and
has overcome? How did you do it? I feel so hopeless at times.
If anyone has some good advice for Jacey’s
predicament, please speak up. The two pieces of advice–not perfect,
by any means, but possibilities–I proposed were:
–Find a doctor to prescribe
naltrexone, the oral opiate blocker that
1) blocks the opiate effect of wheat, and thereby
2) reduces hunger. Downside: Naltrexone, besides being costly
(usually borne out-of-pocket), will also trigger the phenomena of wheat
withdrawal. So I view this strategy NOT as a first-line strategy, but
one for those who have failed at all the usual methods (which
is uncommon). Your doctor might also consider recreating the effects of
the combination drug pending FDA application for weight loss that
combines naltrexone with the antidepressant bupropion. Anyone who knows
me recognizes that I am NO friend to drugs nor the drug industry; but,
like an antibiotic for pneumonia, drugs are sometimes a necessary evil.
For some, the power of opiate addiction to the gliadin in wheat is so
overpowering that such help might be needed.
–Use the Wheat Belly recipes
to create wheat replacement foods. You can still overeat and gain weight
if consumed in large quantities, but at least they will not provoke
appetite any further, will generate satiety more quickly, and not wreak
havoc with health in all the ways that wheat does.
Recognize what we are discussing here:
overwhelming addiction to food triggered by wheat (and perhaps corn,
2nd in line after wheat), the foods Jacey and all of us are told
repeatedly to eat MORE of. You can sense the desperation in
Jacey’s plea, as such binge-eating has real socially- and
emotionally-disruptive effects.
Any further suggestions from anyone?
