LS 21 - Listen to Your Body and Your Cravings with Alexandra Jamieson

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Welcome to the Longevity Show, Informing listeners on the important aspects of health, wealth and happiness to ensure you live life to its fullest. With fascinating interviews with top authors and gurus in the field, along with the latest news in the science and technology of longevity, we're going to reveal expert advice and amazing secrets of living a longer, happier life. And now, here's your host, Jason Hartman.

It's my pleasure to welcome Alexandra Jamison to the show. She is a holistic health counselor, natural foods chef, and co creator of the hit documentary Super Size Me. She's co author of the bestseller the American Detox. Feel better, look better and lose weight by cleaning up your diet. And author of the new book Women, Food and Desire. Embrace your cravings. Make peace with food restrictions. Reclaim your body. Alexandra, welcome. How are you?

Thank you, I'm great. Good to be here.

It's good to have you. And you're coming to us today from New York, right?

Live from overcast Brooklyn.

Live from New York. It's, it's Tuesday afternoon rather than Saturday night. So you talk a lot about the gut and the importance of gut health. You know, what does that all really mean?

Well, our gut health, your digestive system, it is the seat of your health. If it's in good shape, everything else is going to be in good shape. If it is ill, if it is leaky, if you have constipation, diarrhea, stomach pain, bloating, if you have constant digestive trouble, all the other areas of your health and your energy are going to be degraded. And that's one of the first places I look when people come to me as a health coach, as a nutrition coach. How is your gut health? How's your digestion? Do you have any stomach pain? How's your elimination? And when we can start healing that, everything else starts to feel better. But it's not just about changing what you eat. It's also changing how you eat and how you handle your emotions.

So I was surprised when I was traveling a few months back and I was kind of feeling a little bit under the weather and, and I walked into a GNC store and said, you know, do you have an immune booster? Thinking he's going to give me echinacea, golden seal, vitamin C. He says, take this probiotic. I was kind of surprised at that.

How forward thinking for a gnc. No, it's absolutely true. We are nine to ten times more bacterial than we are human. You know, bacterial and yeast cells are much smaller than human cells, and there's a lot more of them than there are. So we have this symbiotic relationship with the bacteria in our body. And because of our modern lifestyle and our modern diets and our overuse of antibiotics, we are unfortunately creating a happy home in our body for the quote, unquote, bad bacteria and yeasts. So what a lot of people are experiencing, like you might have been experiencing, is that their immune system is constantly low. They get a lot of colds and flus. They have a lot of food allergies, seasonal allergies, aches and pains, headaches, brain fog. All of these things can be connected back to an imbalanced microbiome or your bacteria in your body and your gut is really their main domain. That's really where they like to live the most. Although they're spread throughout the body, all around our orifices, in our brain, like everywhere. They're everywhere, but they really like to hang out in the gut. So when your immune system's low, it's always a good idea to add more good bacteria to your diet.

Okay, so can we have a problem and still feel fine, Alex? I mean, you know, assuming our elimination seems normal and good, and we don't have any stomach pain, could we still have a problem and not know it?

Well, there's other symptoms that can be going on, and I think a lot of people, unfortunately, have become used to feeling less than a hundred percent. Most people are walking around feeling, you know, not great, but they're used to it. So they may not really associate how they feel with, wow, something is wrong here. You know, people don't get enough sleep. They're tired, they need caffeine to get through the day. Well, that just seems to be kind of normal, right? Everybody's like that. Well, no, not everybody's like that. We don't. We're not born with a human need for caffeine. Right. It's something that.

Well, you know, that's kind of an interesting question, and I don't want to. We don't need to go on a big tangent on this, But I just want to ask you, is caffeine bad for you? I mean, you know, there. I just wonder. Every study that says coffee is so good for so many things, I wonder if it's sponsored by the Coffee Industry Association.

Well, always look at who supports the research.

You know, it's just so hard to tell anymore. I mean, it is hard to tell.

And you know what? Everyone's right and everyone's wrong. That's the challenging thing about nutrition and health, is that there are some things that are not good for a lot of people. And those same things, like coffee or caffeine, can actually be a help or a drug that helps someone in certain situations. So I can't say that coffee is bad or good. It depends on the person and what goals they have and what state of health they're currently in.

So where do we go from here? I mean, how do, how do we know if we have a problem if we can't necessarily feel it, if we, you know, I mean, I assume everybody gets cravings, don't they? Or is that not normal?

I think it's true. I think everyone has cravings. We are craving creatures. We have desires. And this is where it gets a little uncomfortable for people to talk about cravings because cravings are considered kind of bad or weak. You know, if you want something that seems to be, you know, out of bounds or off of the the plan, then there's something wrong with you or you're a weak willed person. But actually humans just desire they want. And that's what has kept the human race going. You know, we crave pleasure. We are pleasure seeking machines. That's what human beings are. And that can be food, that can be experiences, that can be intimacy, it can be learning. It can be all kinds of different things. So cravings, in my view, are not bad. They're actually a message from your body that something is out of balance. Your body is always craving homeostasis. It wants to be in a happy middle somewhere. And if you're having certain cravings and you start to realize, wow, these cravings might actually be keeping me off course from my big life goals or, wow, I'm starting to get sick. Are these cravings helping me or hurting me? Then it's time to look at the underlying root causes of cravings.

Okay, so tell us about some of those root causes.

Well, I see that there are four root causes, and the first goes back to the bacteria and your gut health. The first is bacterial cravings. So like I said, There's 10 times more of them than there are of us. And they communicate with our nervous system, with our body, via the vagus nerve. They produce neurotransmitters. They are, like I used to joke and call them the puppet master or the beast within. These bacteria are actually running the show a lot of the time. And science is starting to show this, that if we have a predominance of candida yeast cells in our body, those candida yeasts and other bacteria crave sugar. That is their fuel. So if you are trying to get off sugar and you cannot, and you experience terrible pain, aches, headaches, depression when you go off sugar, that might be pointing to a candida overgrowth. And if you take away their sugar, they start to die and they make you feel really bad. Their die off feels like a dying in you. So that's a bacterial root cause.

So, so what do we do about this Candida then? I mean, lots of people crave sugar. So you're talking to a huge audience now, myself included, by the way. Especially when it's in the form of chocolate.

Oh, absolutely. I love. And chocolate is the perfect bridge food to talk about when it comes to cravings, because we all crave sugar. It's a very human craving. It's actually built into us. It's our only taste preference that we're born with. Because if you didn't crave sugar as a baby, you wouldn't eat enough. Mother's milk is sweet, and sweet foods in nature are safe to eat. So it's built into humans to like sweet so that we keep eating and growing and thriving, but not, not too much of them.

I mean, even, even if you eat a lot of fruit, you can really spike your blood sugar too much with just fruit, you know, natural fruit. Right?

Absolutely. And, and anyone who has candida overgrowth, that's really the only time I tell people you have to go off sugar. You have to balance your bacteria in your body, and to do that, you got to get them under control and you have to go off sugar. And usually that means all fruits for a period of time as well.

Okay, so in other wor. Stop sugar cravings. We need to stop sugar, stop consuming sugar.

That's only if it's a bacterial root cause. And you'll have other symptoms, like yeast infections for women, other skin outbreaks. You'll have puffiness, bloating, headaches, brain fog. You'll find that if you don't eat sugar consistently, then you'll start to get those, you know, those die off symptoms that I talked about.

If we're craving sugar, this may be a reason. How do we know? And I know you said there's four areas, so I want to make sure there's time to get to all of these. But, you know, the broad question is, how do we know if we have these problems that you're talking about?

Well, for the bacterial root cause, for Candida, you might experience any symptoms of a yeast infection. For women, there's discharge. Men might have less discharge, but they might have a lot of white coating on their tongues, bad breath, and again, any kind of skin outbreaks, rashes, acne as well.

So, so we can just take a blood test or something.

It's not as easy with blood tests. There are stool sample tests. You know, usually for women, they'll go to their gynecologist and get diagnosed that way.

What kind of test is, is this called like, what, what are you, what is it called? A.

You know, I don't, I can't tell you the exact name, but if you go to any functional medicine doctor or any gynecologist, they'll be able to do, you know, a pap smear. They'll be able to do the appropriate blood tests for you.

Okay. Functional medicine doctor. Right. Okay. Yes, that's good to know. All right, so we talked about sugar, but there, there's more.

We were talking about chocolate. And chocolate's a perfect bridge food to talk about the next root cause of cravings, which is nutritional cravings. And your body will actually crave when it is not getting the nutrients, minerals, and trace elements that it needs. You know, a lot of us are overfed but undernourished. Right. We get a lot of calories and a lot of food, but not the nutrients that we need. So your body may continue to crave food because you're not eating a nutrient rich diet. And one of those nutrient deficiencies that so many people, especially women and I see higher and higher numbers for men as well because of our, again, our refined diets that aren't as nutrient rich. Women are experiencing terrible rates of magnesium deficiency. And what do you think? One of the most delicious diet foods we can get magnesium through.

That's chocolate, right?

It's chocolate. Right.

Well, so I've got to go have my magnesium every day.

Absolutely. And that it is actually a supplement that I encourage women to take, especially my serious chocoholics. Like if they know they need to reduce their chocolate intake, I'm like, take more magnesium. Eat more magnesium rich foods like hemp seeds and chia seeds. Get more of that mineral into your body and they naturally see their chocolate cravings from reduce.

Why are you dividing it by gender though? I mean, guys love chocolate too. I love chocolate.

So this information applies to men and to women? Absolutely. Most of the people who come to my website and follow me are women. So I sometimes put only female words into when I'm talking. But this applies to men as well. Certainly you know, our biology is the same. Women seem to identify themselves as emotional eaters more often. Although I believe that we are all emotional eaters. Humans are emotional creatures and I think men just don't have that connection to defining themselves as emotional eaters as women do. So when we talk about the next root cause of cravings, it's emotions. You know, what is going on in your life, what stresses anxiety, fear, anger, guilt, depression. What's happening in your life that might be causing you to seek comfort? You know, the part of the, the brain that lights up when we feel loneliness, real loneliness, is the same part that lights up when we feel physical pain. So pain and loneliness, they're really tied together and many us, many of us feel disconnected or aren't in a relationship and that can lead to emotional food cravings.

So like I've heard that, you know, when, when someone is suffering a breakup and they're feeling sad, eating chocolate is kind of the natural thing because some of the chemicals in chocolate duplicate the in love chemicals that, you know, that response that goes on in one's brain. Is that really true or is that an urban legend? Oh, it is true.

Okay. Well, it feels as close to love as you can get through food.

So chocolate is probably a lot less expensive than love.

It might be true, unless it leads the type 2 diabetes and then you're in trouble.

Fair enough, fair enough. But yeah, okay.

The theobromine in chocolate is a, it's a very unique compound found in food. It's not quite caffeine, but it gives us this rush that feels very much like love.

Is it only chocolate? Is that the only food?

It's the, it's the, it's the biggest dose. It's the largest dose.

And do you want to make any distinction between, you know, the, the healthy dark chocolate and the not as healthy or maybe not healthy at all? Light or milk chocolate?

Yeah, milk chocolate and white chocolate do not have the same levels for sure. Dark chocolate, which has, you know, I would say 65 to 85% cocoa in it, is going to really give you that hit that you're looking for. So when you're going for chocolate, like get the best quality kind you can. None of the fillers, none of the fructose, you know, the high fructose corn syrup in it, you know, nothing. You don't need the soy or the corn or any of that other junk in it. Just go for the straight up chocolate with really healthier sweeteners in it.

Taste wise, though, I like the lighter chocolates better. Than the dark, you know?

Well, you know, and what's wrong with that? When I talk about emotional cravings, like, we have so much anxiety and guilt and right and wrong and judgment wrapped up with our food choices. If we could just enjoy and eat the things that we like and really be there for them without the judgment around it, then we wouldn't be so drawn to them. Then we, then we could naturally enjoy the healthier foods.

It sort of wouldn't be. It's kind of like the taboo concept. When you make something wrong, everybody gets attracted to it. Is that what you're saying?

Absolutely.

Okay, so what other kinds of emotional eating do people do? I mean, I've heard that term used before, but I never really investigated it much. You know, certainly when you're in a cold place, you know, people crave comfort food, warm food, but that's not really emotional eating, is it?

And, you know, that's more of a physical root cause. And that's the final root cause of cravings is physical. You know, a few emotional causes could be anxiety, fear, boredom, and really disenchantment. I feel like disenchantment is a big one. Not really being in a career that you love, being quote, unquote stuck in your life, feeling like you don't have a lot of choice or that you're trapped in some way that can cause a lot of emotional cravings.

So what do we crave when we have these various emotions? I mean, is there a specific food tied to it?

Well, there are foods that can answer the first two root causes, nutritional and bacterial. When it comes to emotional and physical, we're often looking for something to relax us and something to give us a nice dopamine hit. So that can be the starchier foods, the foods with chemicals. Cheese. Cheese has casomorphin in it, which is an opiate like substance, which is really relaxing. And if we're really stressed out over scheduled, we're constantly traveling or commuting and life is really stressful, we are going to need some way to calm us down. And most people aren't practiced in meditation, stress release techniques, or getting even the consistent, consistent physical movement throughout the day. That can be a good source of relaxation.

Okay, okay, Good, good stuff. So what about GMOs? Everybody's talking about GMOs nowadays. You know, maybe you can make a distinction for us, Alex, as to what the difference is, if any, between the, the stuff we all learned in, you know, 8th grade science class maybe. I think that's when I learned about it. Where you know, I mean, we've been genetically tampering with food and vegetables and flowers for centuries, haven't we? I mean, this is not a new thing, but maybe Monsanto does it, has taken it to a whole new level, I'm sure. Right.

Well, there's a difference between putting two plants next to each other and grafting a branch onto a tree to grow a new kind of fruit. There's a difference between that, like cross breeding and taking a gun, an actual gun, and putting genes from one species, like you know, a mammal, onto the tip of the gun and shooting it, literally shooting it into a totally different species, like a plant. That's genetic modification. You're forcing, you're shooting a bullet with genetic material from a completely different species into another being. So it's very, very different.

So like what, like, what's an example of that? I mean, what are they doing? You know, they're, they're making these crops, you know, pest resistant and, you know, Roundup is a whole big issue. And I mean, this stuff is pretty scary. We're definitely playing God and, you know, maybe our body just doesn't recognize these foods and know what to do with them. Right.

Well, if you, if you look at the example of what's happening with butterflies and bees and we're taking bacteria and forcing it into corn and a totally new bacteria forced into corn, which is supposed to act as a pesticide and a natural herbicide, and then the butterflies and the bees go and pollinate and there's huge amounts of die off. We're having a crisis in terms of numbers of healthy beehives in this country. And there's very good science that we are ignoring in the United States that's being used in Europe to keep GMOs out of the fields. There are that they show animal studies, animals having real trouble with their digestive systems, increased rates of cancer and obesity. So if we look around and we really can't figure out why we're having all these health problems, maybe we should look to what Europe is saying, hey, we're not going to do this because it's causing lab rats and other animals to have all these health problems.

Very disconcerting, for sure. I mean, anything we can do about that. There's no GMO labeling anywhere in the US So far that I know of, requirements acquired yet.

Unfortunately, the only way to be sure you're not getting GMO in your food is to buy certified organic everything. And that can be a little bit more expensive. But if you can stretch yourself to Widen your food budget to protect yourself and your family. I really think that's most important.

But can it be organic and GMO at the same time? I mean, those are different, different things entirely, aren't they?

No. So far organic standards say the food cannot be genetically modified if it's labeled organic.

Okay, okay, good, good. So just buy organic and then, and then you're good. But see, the hard part is it's not the vegetables and the fruits so much, it's the meats. That's where it gets a little tougher, doesn't it?

Well, the, the meats aren't, they're not labeled in the same way that, you know, fruits and vegetables are. So the best thing to do is buy grass fed beef, wild caught salmon, you know, otherwise farm salmon can be genetically modified wild caught seafood, free range chicken. And you know, you have to do your homework when it's buying these animal products, dairy, meat products and fish because it's not super clear about what is safe to eat. So, you know, maybe do a little bit of homework, go on to the Environmental Working Group website, search around there. They're going to help you make the best decisions when you go to the store.

Okay, Environmental Working Group, can you tell us about that organization at all?

Yeah. EWG.org they have a couple of great apps that you can get on your phone. One's called the Dirty dozen and the clean 15. The Dirty Dozen you can put right on your phone or download it and keep it in your wallet. And it's the list of the top 12 fruits and vegetables that are the most, when they test them, they have the most pesticide and herbicide residue on them. So those 12 fruits and vegetables you should definitely buy organic. The clean 15, those have very little to none residue left on them. So those are safer and you can save some money buying those. Conventionally raised, excellent stuff.

Alex, is there anything that you want to mention that I didn't ask you about as we wrap up?

Yeah. You know, I really want to go back to cravings. I feel like so many people are in a war with their bodies. They're frustrated by their body. Either they've had a tough time losing weight or they're trying to overcome a health concern. And I believe that having compassion and a lot of love for your body and start listening to it, you know, really ask what is the cause of this craving that I'm having right now? Maybe it's not just I want some sugar. Maybe there's a deeper question or a deeper need behind that. And if you start looking at it and really questioning and giving yourself what you need. More pleasure, more play, more fun, more rest, more good, nutritious food. You'll find those sugar cravings really relaxing and having a full life filled with the things that you really want.

Great advice, Alex. Give out your website, if you would.

So you can go to womenfoodanddesire.com and you'll see info on my new book and then you can get to my blog. So womenfoodanddesire.com and again, now that website.

Has tips that apply to men too, right?

Oh, absolutely. And I have to say, men have picked up this book because they say, wow. Well, I like all those three things, women, food, and desire. That sounds right up my alley. But actually, I've had several men write to me and say, you know what? This really helped me understand my eating and it helped me understand my wife or my partner or my girlfriend in a way that I hadn't understood before. So if there's any kind of emotional eating going on at home, then this is a great book for either person.

Fantastic. Alex Jamison or Alexandra Jamison, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you.

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