Unchaining Yourself from an Unhealthy Food Addiction
Protica Research

The cry of I have no willpower! often emerges from the consumers who jokingly surrender to their lack of will when it comes to eating something clearly unhealthy. However, scientific nutritional research has identified that something much more serious much more dangerous is often at work here. For many people, what they perceive as a harmless lack of willpower is actually an addiction an addiction to chemicals that the brain secretes in response to stimulation by certain foods, such as chocolate or cheese[i].

As dangerous as this addiction is, however, recent studies suggest that it is actually much more frightening than it first seems. According to one notable study, the human brain can release dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter linked with feelings enjoyment, when a person merely sees or smells certain foods[ii]. As such, people who may be sensibly avoiding foods that release serotonin and other chemicals (such as chocolate) may still be susceptible to a sight and smell-based addiction to unhealthy food.

Understanding this complex problem begins with understanding the word addiction. Defining a clear-cut definition of addiction is in itself a challenge and a rather hotly debated pursuit at the moment. Still, there is enough unity among credible social and biological scientists to say that a person who is powerless to stop an action is addicted[iii]. When applying this rather grave concept to eating, it becomes starkly clear that choosing an extra slice of pizza or bar of chocolate may be the expression of a very serious addiction to unhealthy food.

Remarkably, unlike how addictions to things like alcohol, drugs, and sexual activity viewed biological and psychological illnesses, addiction to eating is often ignored or, at the very least, diminished to be something that is based on willpower. The insulting advice of just dont eat it if you dont want to get fat! that some obese people actually hear from their doctors, relatives, or colleagues is one of the most common manifestations of this often well-meaning, but potentially harmful, ignorance.

The bottom line fact and one that more medical professionals are accepting based on scientific evidence is that obesity and related eating disorders are often the results of an addiction they are a serious health condition that must be approached methodologically like other diseases[iv].

Understanding that food addiction is indeed a problem a severe disease, in fact is a fundamental key in addressing this unique health challenge. At the same time, the notion of willpower should be removed, in most cases, from the eating disorder vocabulary, and replaced with the word addiction. This will make that extra piece of pizza or that third slice of chocolate cake be seen for what they often are: the means to satisfy a bonafide addiction.

Once the eating disorder as an addiction paradigm is in place, then and only then can both unhealthy eaters and those supporting them take steps to solve the problem. While there are no overnight solutions, there are paths that eaters can take that head in the right direction: freedom from eating addiction. The first step on this path is to eat a complete and balanced source of nutrition.

Taking this first step, like so much else associated with the addiction to unhealthy food, is easier said than done. Eating sensibly is unusually difficult in a time-starved culture and even more difficult when there are arrays of self-described nutritious dietary sources to choose from. Whether it is energy bars or fad diets, finding a simple, convenient, and practical source of balanced nutrition is hard to find.

However, some exceptional products are garnering serious positive attention from scientific community. These products deliver complete protein in a vitamin enriched formula. Furthermore and of critical value is that these products contain no carbohydrates, no unsaturated fat, and few calories none of which are from fat. These products are helping people unchain themselves from food addictions, and reflect a trend towards nutritious and ethical nutritional supplement manufacturing.

Of ultimate importance, however, is that these products return eating choice control back to where it must always remain: with conscious and empowered consumers, and not to some hidden and potentially destructive addiction.

About Protica

Founded in 2001, Protica, Inc. is a nutritional research firm with offices in Lafayette Hill and Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Protica manufactures capsulized foods, including Profect, a compact, hypoallergenic, ready-to-drink protein beverage containing zero carbohydrates and zero fat. Information on Protica is available at www.protica.com

You can also learn about Profect at www.profect.com

References

[i] Source: Thats Why We Call it Junk Food. MSNBC. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3606198/

[ii] Source: Food on the Brain. Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/home_europe/free_forbes/2005/0110/063.html

[iii] Source: Addiction. eHealth Connection. http://www.ehealthconnection.com/regions/ehealth/health_information/ 00036220.asp

[iv] Source: Obesity as a Disease. MPR News. http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/03/29_bensonl_desease/

Copyright 2004 – Protica Research – http://www.protica.com

About the Author

About Protica

Founded in 2001, Protica, Inc. is a nutritional research firm with offices in Lafayette Hill and Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Protica manufactures capsulized foods, including Profect, a compact, hypoallergenic, ready-to-drink protein beverage containing zero carbohydrates and zero fat. You can learn more about Protica at www.protica.com — Information on Profect is available at www.profect.com

Copyright 2004 – Protica Research

Tags: Alcohol Drugs, Author, Biological Scientists, capsulized foods, Cheese, chemicals;, Chocolate, Conshohocken, Consumers, disease, Diseases, Dopamine, Eating Disorder, Energy Bars, Expression, Extra, Feelings, Food Addiction, food addictions, Forbes.com., head, Human Brain, Lafayette Hill, Msnbc, Neurotransmitter, nutritious and ethical nutritional supplement manufacturing, obesity;, overnight solutions, Pennsylvania, Protica Inc., Psychological Illnesses, ready-to-drink protein beverage containing zero carbohydrates, related eating disorders, Serotonin, severe disease, Sexual Activity, Slice Of Pizza, Unhealthy Food, Unity, Willpower, www.profect.com, www.protica.com —

The basic goal when people undertake spiritual practice is enlightenment. The culminating point marked in the practices is when one already attains the spiritual enlightenment therefore they feel the unity of soul, leaving behind all physical and mental engagements and everything else. It is possessing highly evolved souls, and to share the kind of enlightenment that these spiritual masters experience they propagate it through the world.

For practical purposes, attaining spiritual enlightenment comes into levels. The spiritual masters evolve from the first to the third levels.

The first one is the animality levels to which many individuals have a tendency to degrade themselves. In this stage, you experience and live the reality as any individuals would. You may continuously engage in ordinary activities like talking, gossiping, planning the future, analyzing everything about us, and so on and so forth. You are the normal, ordinary individual walking around just like everybody else.

You are experiencing just like everybody else is experiencing, although in this stage, you are already taking the cue to uplift the enlightenment of your soul towards a more meaningful existence. When spiritual enlightenment is considered, you are at a stage when you are taking just everything as presented but you are also undergoing an effort to detach worldly things from your existence.

In the second levels, you rise into humanity, to which now constitutes the very nature of the human individuals. In this stage, the individual experiences a connection to every individual around them and even to every object surrounding them. The experience makes them like losing their own individuality; however, the culmination is already taking its mark signaling that a merge is happening between their own with the Supreme soul.

As you feel you are no longer the individual that you are and instead one with everything around your environment, you are closing in with the Supreme Soul as everything comes from Him. This is a great experience that anyone can undergo because enlightening of the soul is starting to dawn with more promises to be a lot better later on with the succeeding stage.

In the third levels is the divinity, to which now spiritual masters convene back and unite with the very source where humans came from. In this stage, you don’t feel connected with everything around you anymore. And this is not a sense of disconnection, instead you are already realizing that you are that everything. It means the spiritual enlightenment is taking its course up to give you the experience where oneness with God is already culminating.

So after experiencing the humanity, the divinity makes you feel you are everything. Meaning, you are no longer your own body, mind, senses, and your intellect faculty. And in this stage, you are directly undertaking the divine experience, the attainment of God, which is the highest level that spiritual masters undergo.

When an individual undergoes spiritual enlightenment, all luck is in them for it is that fruit that sets them free from the material wants, wishes, and desires. It does not only make you feel the complete bliss of being free but gives you the experience that rarely is being undertaken by everybody else.

Tags: Cue, Culminating Point, Culmination, Engagements, Experiences, Human Individuals, Individuality, Meaningful Existence, People, Spiritual Enlightenment, Spiritual Masters, Spiritual Practice, Supreme Soul, Tendency, Unity, Uplift, Worldly Things —