Hormonal cycle effects on cravings

[LulaZula]

Picking up the discussion from the one started in this thread (http://www.proteinpower.com/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=69211)...
That's a good idea. You start one and I'll go back and reread that section in GCBC. It was really interesting.

The notion of hormonal/neural cravings (not food hunger) comes up again in "Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival" which I am reading.

And in all those books about the reward centers with respect to food (Breaking the Food Seduction, Sugar Shock, Potatoes not Prozac, Julia Ross) .

Thanks for the recommendations so far :thumbsup:. I'm familiar with Potatoes not Prozac, but not the others. I'll take a look. Looking forward to your findings from GCBC.
Lula

[laughingW]

GCBC talks about hunger and satiety in Chapter 24, The Carbohydrate Hypothesis, III: Hunger and Satiety

The part I was thinking about when I read your post about carb cravings that seemed totally disconnected from any need for food... the parts where he talks about Le Magnen.

And so hypophagia and hyperphagia, satiety and hunger, Le Magnenn wrote, are "indirect and passive consequences" of "the neuroendocrine pattern of fat mobilization or synthesis."
...
Hunger and satiety are manifestations of metabolic needs and physiological conditions at the cellular level, and so they're driven by the body, no matter how much we like to think it's our brains that are in control."

So then I looked in GCBC for neuroendocrine forces other than insulin, like epinephrine, or endorphins, or dopamine, but it really doesn't go into those. So I must have been mixing together other of my background reading.

So the question for that situation of craving when it seems like there has been plenty of food, is, what is triggering hormones? All this is grist for data log or journal.

If one is hungry, that means that sugar and fats have been swept from the bloodstream, most often by a triggering of insulin.

Or it could be brain-receptor hunger like an addict gets with the joneses.

Could it have been the sight or sound of something?

Could it have been non-caloric insulin raises, like fake sweets or intense exercise?

Could it be unresolved stress, where adrenaline causes the fight-flight to shoot sugar out from the liver, thus insulin too?

And then the whole dopamine-serotonin thing from Lights Out which would be a separate post.

[LulaZula]

Wow - so many good questions... I definitely feel like I'm on a journey to figure out the answers. Thanks for working on it with me! ;)

I'm going to stop and write the next time this happens to me... (I hope it doesn't) and I hope I can actually intercept this body-level stuff with my brain long enough to journal...:rolleyes:

Thanks again, LaughingW, for your energy and attention. You've been most gracious.

[laughingW]

I hope I can actually intercept this body-level stuff with my brain long enough to journal...:rolleyes:
You made me laugh. In my experience I had to see things happen a few times before some light bulb lit.

And, the cause can be days apart. For example there is a 3-4 day "drop" after a very exciting event, where you are as low as you were high, and want to eat everything in sight. It's called the 4-day endorphin cycle and high-level performers of all kinds (athletic, entertainment) can experience it especially if they are using lots of rollercoaster stimulants like excess carbs and caffeine and who knows what else!.

Or another one is 3 days of not enough fat and then cravings out the wazoo.