This really chaps my hide. >:( [sugar, wheat, opioids, addiction, salvia]
I'm reading this article on how sugar damages skin elasticity, causing wrinkles and it all sounds copacetic until I get to this part:
Q: What steps can sugar junkies take to save their skin?
A: People will experience a rapid rise in blood sugar from eating skin-destroying sweets and carbohydrates, but what goes up must come down, and their mood will soon crash and give them a real addiction craving for more sugar. The best thing a sugar addict can do to deal with their cravings is to very carefully control their blood sugar and insulin by staying away from the bad carbohydrates and eating more protein for just a few days. At the same time their skin is becoming firm, their blood sugar will stabilize and their cravings will go away. They're free! Then they might have a piece of chocolate once in awhile, but it's based on their free will instead of "I have to have it."
Free, my ass! No more cravings after just a few days?? Then why, after MONTHS of being on a nearly-completely sugar-free diet do I STILL DREAM of eating COOKIES, DOUGHNUTS, and CAKE with FROSTING? I am NOT free. I do NOT feel free at all. My body may not feel like it needs sugar, but my mind salivates, drenching my neurons in sugary lust.
Hrm... Looking at what I just wrote that I crave leads me to wonder whether it's the sugar/wheat combination that does it. I know wheat can be addictive.
[insert many many hours of required research time]
Ah ha!
"The high carbohydrate intake of depressed patients, especially in the winter months, may not be related to brain tryptophan and brain serotonin levels but to the more complex brain effects of gluten proteins, food allergic mechanisms, and/or light-deprivation changes in hormone regulators such as melatonin. This "seasonal affective disorder" could be another food allergic disease, increased by altered food intake in the winter, and not just a light-dependent hormonal change. Many depressed, over-eating patients have obvious symptoms of food allergy and improve when they try the clearing diet which is high in carbohydrate but relatively free of allergenic effects. Eating wheat-containing foods triggers a typical craving, compulsive-eating cycle, an addiction pattern." -Mechanisms of Brain Disturbances, S. J. Gislason MD [my emphasis]
In some people, the gluten found in wheat (and rye, oats, and barley) is "not completely digested, leaving small protein fragments called peptides. Certain of the peptides derived from gluten... get through the intestinal wall into the blood stream, and are carried to the brain, where they have opioid activity--that is, they act like morphine! People with this problem are actually addicted to the gluten-derived opioid peptides (called gluten exorphins).... While under the influence of the opioids, the [person] may not feel pain, and may seem spacey. As the dose of the opioid peptides wears off, [he/she] goes into a withdrawal state, just like a drug addict, and may behave in an agitated or aggressive manner." (Nutritional Interventions for Children with FASD by Diane Black, Ph.D.)
So yes, wheat gluten affects some people in a fashion similar to morphine and/or opium. Casein, from dairy, does the same thing, but different people have different sensitivities. While I was vegetarian, I more or less gave up dairy sans problème; however, giving up wheat has proven extremely difficult, so therein lies my sensitivity. This would explain the intense doughnut cravings, the cookie dreams, the literal salivation while walking through the bread aisle at the grocery store. And you wonder why they say to bake bread right before showing your house. It's supposed to make people more apt to want to buy your house... but they don't tell you why. For many people, bread is an addictive substance that, upon eating, produces feelings of well-being, comfort, and a sedate happiness. Hrm... sounds like a mild opiate high to me.
"Even long after the person has stopped using opiates, brain abnormalities can persist, causing feelings of discomfort and craving for more of the drug to relieve these feelings." Moyers on Addiction: Herion, a Close to Home Animation
Discomfort, I know thee well. It's a very emotional ordeal for me, and I'm searching for something to help put my psychophysiology at ease so that I don't have to deal with the cravings. According to Erowid, "psychological symptoms [due to withdrawal from opioid dependence] can be quite painful. Depression, mood swings, hypersensitivity to pain are some common symptoms." Tell me about it. I want wheat more than I want sugar, sometimes. But because there is such a high instance of sugar being used in processed wheat products, it's more that I want sugared wheat than either sugar or wheat alone. Given the choice between a sucker, a pastry, or pita, I'm gonna go with the pastry 90% of the time.
Happily, I came across this article (complete with scientific references, too!) that discusses the use of a Salvia Divinorum extract, Salvinorin A (aka U69593), to treat heroin and cocaine addiction. While cocaine is a whole different ball of wax, heroin is an opiate. Salvinorin A is touted as the "only known non-nitrogenous kappa opioid receptor selective agonist". Um, as far as I can tell, this means it helps biochemically negate cravings for addictive substances by stimulating the kappa opioid receptors in the body. I still need to learn more about the different types of opioid receptors (mu, kappa, sigma, delta, epsilon), their relation to one another, how drug addiction comes into play (mostly with the mu, delta, and kappa receptors), and what it means when one type of opioid receptor is stimulated versus another type. Regardless, this gives me an even greater reason to give Salvia a go, even though I hear the side effects aren't anything to look forward to. But who knows? It might help even a little. Plus, there are spiritual reasons for use of the plant, as well.
So yeah, wheat (and it looks like gluten in general) is just as bad for me as sugar. Sugar is more physically addictive; whereas, wheat seems to affect me more psychologically (at least, as far as withdrawal goes).
Q: What steps can sugar junkies take to save their skin?
A: People will experience a rapid rise in blood sugar from eating skin-destroying sweets and carbohydrates, but what goes up must come down, and their mood will soon crash and give them a real addiction craving for more sugar. The best thing a sugar addict can do to deal with their cravings is to very carefully control their blood sugar and insulin by staying away from the bad carbohydrates and eating more protein for just a few days. At the same time their skin is becoming firm, their blood sugar will stabilize and their cravings will go away. They're free! Then they might have a piece of chocolate once in awhile, but it's based on their free will instead of "I have to have it."
Free, my ass! No more cravings after just a few days?? Then why, after MONTHS of being on a nearly-completely sugar-free diet do I STILL DREAM of eating COOKIES, DOUGHNUTS, and CAKE with FROSTING? I am NOT free. I do NOT feel free at all. My body may not feel like it needs sugar, but my mind salivates, drenching my neurons in sugary lust.
Hrm... Looking at what I just wrote that I crave leads me to wonder whether it's the sugar/wheat combination that does it. I know wheat can be addictive.
[insert many many hours of required research time]
Ah ha!
"The high carbohydrate intake of depressed patients, especially in the winter months, may not be related to brain tryptophan and brain serotonin levels but to the more complex brain effects of gluten proteins, food allergic mechanisms, and/or light-deprivation changes in hormone regulators such as melatonin. This "seasonal affective disorder" could be another food allergic disease, increased by altered food intake in the winter, and not just a light-dependent hormonal change. Many depressed, over-eating patients have obvious symptoms of food allergy and improve when they try the clearing diet which is high in carbohydrate but relatively free of allergenic effects. Eating wheat-containing foods triggers a typical craving, compulsive-eating cycle, an addiction pattern." -Mechanisms of Brain Disturbances, S. J. Gislason MD [my emphasis]
In some people, the gluten found in wheat (and rye, oats, and barley) is "not completely digested, leaving small protein fragments called peptides. Certain of the peptides derived from gluten... get through the intestinal wall into the blood stream, and are carried to the brain, where they have opioid activity--that is, they act like morphine! People with this problem are actually addicted to the gluten-derived opioid peptides (called gluten exorphins).... While under the influence of the opioids, the [person] may not feel pain, and may seem spacey. As the dose of the opioid peptides wears off, [he/she] goes into a withdrawal state, just like a drug addict, and may behave in an agitated or aggressive manner." (Nutritional Interventions for Children with FASD by Diane Black, Ph.D.)
So yes, wheat gluten affects some people in a fashion similar to morphine and/or opium. Casein, from dairy, does the same thing, but different people have different sensitivities. While I was vegetarian, I more or less gave up dairy sans problème; however, giving up wheat has proven extremely difficult, so therein lies my sensitivity. This would explain the intense doughnut cravings, the cookie dreams, the literal salivation while walking through the bread aisle at the grocery store. And you wonder why they say to bake bread right before showing your house. It's supposed to make people more apt to want to buy your house... but they don't tell you why. For many people, bread is an addictive substance that, upon eating, produces feelings of well-being, comfort, and a sedate happiness. Hrm... sounds like a mild opiate high to me.
"Even long after the person has stopped using opiates, brain abnormalities can persist, causing feelings of discomfort and craving for more of the drug to relieve these feelings." Moyers on Addiction: Herion, a Close to Home Animation
Discomfort, I know thee well. It's a very emotional ordeal for me, and I'm searching for something to help put my psychophysiology at ease so that I don't have to deal with the cravings. According to Erowid, "psychological symptoms [due to withdrawal from opioid dependence] can be quite painful. Depression, mood swings, hypersensitivity to pain are some common symptoms." Tell me about it. I want wheat more than I want sugar, sometimes. But because there is such a high instance of sugar being used in processed wheat products, it's more that I want sugared wheat than either sugar or wheat alone. Given the choice between a sucker, a pastry, or pita, I'm gonna go with the pastry 90% of the time.
Happily, I came across this article (complete with scientific references, too!) that discusses the use of a Salvia Divinorum extract, Salvinorin A (aka U69593), to treat heroin and cocaine addiction. While cocaine is a whole different ball of wax, heroin is an opiate. Salvinorin A is touted as the "only known non-nitrogenous kappa opioid receptor selective agonist". Um, as far as I can tell, this means it helps biochemically negate cravings for addictive substances by stimulating the kappa opioid receptors in the body. I still need to learn more about the different types of opioid receptors (mu, kappa, sigma, delta, epsilon), their relation to one another, how drug addiction comes into play (mostly with the mu, delta, and kappa receptors), and what it means when one type of opioid receptor is stimulated versus another type. Regardless, this gives me an even greater reason to give Salvia a go, even though I hear the side effects aren't anything to look forward to. But who knows? It might help even a little. Plus, there are spiritual reasons for use of the plant, as well.
So yeah, wheat (and it looks like gluten in general) is just as bad for me as sugar. Sugar is more physically addictive; whereas, wheat seems to affect me more psychologically (at least, as far as withdrawal goes).