Natural Healing Remedies for Sugar Addiction
At this time of year, you may feel an overwhelming pressure to eat and drink.
Between endless parties, the stress of preparing for family gatherings and the time and financial constraints of shopping for gifts on top of your regular obligations, you may be craving sugar even more strongly than usual.
Here are a few highly effective natural healing remedies you can follow to overcome sugar addiction:
- The 4S and P Program
- The Bach flower remedy Agrimony
- An early morning anti-binge remedy
- Discover the sweetness of your life
The 4S and P Program. This was a simple program I put together years ago to explain to my clients what they can do to get their sugar cravings under control.
This program is so effective I have yet to have had a single client who actually followed this advice who was not able to get their sugar cravings under control.
What do the 4 S’s and 1 P stand for?
- Sleep
- Sunshine
- Supplement
- Skinny meals
- Protein
Sleep. Focus on getting 10 hours rest every day. Take the number 10 and subtract the number of hours you slept last night. The remainder is the number of hours of total rest and relaxation I recommend you get the following day. Also make sure you get to bed by 10 p.m. since every minute of sleep before midnight is worth 10 minutes of sleep after midnight. Simply put, your insulin won’t work right if you don’t get enough sleep and you won’t be able to rebuild your neurotransmitters to combat sugar cravings if you don’t get enough sleep. You can make yourself insulin resistant simply by being sleep deprived.
Sunshine. I do a tremendous amount of healing work on the brain. I notice when I work with clients with eating disorders that most of their pineal glands are not working right. I recommend my clients with sugar cravings get at least 30 minutes a day of direct sunlight, which is actually good for your eyes. Avoid wearing sunglasses unless the glare inhibits your driving. In case anybody argues with me on that point, let me say I teach a two-day seminar with healing exercises for the eyes, and many of them revolve around sunlight. Some people of northern European descent or those experiencing seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, may actually need up to 2 hours per day of direct sunlight. Many people live at a latitude on the planet (think Boston, New York, London, Paris) where during the fall and winter months they literally can not get enough natural sunlight. I am a great fan of the Alaskan Northern Lightbox which you can order at this link. Even though I walk my dog in the Atlanta sunshine throughout the day, I own not just one but two of these light boxes — one in my office and one in the room where I do distant healing work — so that I can receive a therapeutic light treatment while I am working.
Supplement. I recommend that people with sugar cravings do a zinc test. Zinc deficiency usually results from inadequate intake of foods high in zinc such as seafood, oatmeal, bran, meat, eggs, and nuts, or from impaired absorption caused by short bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, or pancreatic insufficiency. You may also have a zinc deficiency due to excessive intake of foods containing iron, calcium, vitamin D, or too much fiber from the phytates in cereals that bind zinc to form insoluble chelates that prevent its absorption. Alcohol, cirrhosis, dialysis, burns, draining wounds, and corticosteroids increase the kidney’s excretion of zinc.
There are quite a few signs of zinc deficiency:
- White spots on the finger nails and soft nails
- Poor immune system
- Acne
- Macular degeneration
- Delayed wound healing
- Severe iron deficiency anemia
- Eating disorders
There are also other supplements I sometimes use if a client has severe sugar cravings, but I always start by testing for zinc. Other supplements would need to be reviewed on a case by case basis. Sometimes I recommend the amino acid glutamine or a high-quality protein shake depending on the health of your gastrointestinal system.
Skinny meals. Skinny meals are smaller portions eaten frequently. If your sugar cravings are out of control, you will need to be eating every two hours to get your appetite back into balance. These days the idea of intermittent fasting is all the rage but I find my clients who truly suffer from sugar cravings are more likely to binge if they try to starve themselves. Get off the vicious cycle of starving and overeating by eating small, frequent meals. The key thing to understand about a skinny meal is that if you eat too much of anything — protein, fat, vegetables or carbohydrates — your body may secrete too much insulin, and as a result you’ll feel even hungrier, store what you do eat as fat, and your digestion won’t work right.
Protein! When you eat carbohydrates alone — even fruit — or just bread, candies, pastries, pasta — your insulin surges, causing fat storage and poor energy levels. The way I like to explain insulin resistance is this. If I go to my neighbor with a box of donuts, the first time I come he may be thrilled to see me and invite me in. But if I bring a box of donuts to my neighbor everyday, three times a day or all day long, he may get so sick of me he not let me in. When you overeat sugar on a constant basis your cells become insulin resistant in the same way. Insulin is also the hunger hormone, so eating too many carbs can actually make you hungrier. Eating protein brings down the glycemic effect of your food, keeping blood sugar balanced. I recommend that you also eat red meat — at least 9 ounces per week — since red meat contains methionine, an amino acid the body needs to keep blood sugar balanced at a really deep level.
The Bach flower remedy Agrimony. Someone once asked what I thought was the most powerful kind of natural healing remedy. Without hesitation, my answer would be flower remedies.
Here’s the official description of Agrimony from the Bach Centre:
Agrimony is the remedy for people who keep their troubles hidden under a mask of pleasure and happiness. The sad clown masking inner hurt by being the life and soul of the party is an Agrimony archetype. Friends are often the last to know that anything is wrong in the Agrimony person’s life.
Sometimes Agrimony people turn to drink or drugs to help them stay “happy.” They tend not to like being alone: the mask slips when there is no company. They seek out friends, parties and bright lights. Only at night when they are alone with their thoughts will the mental torture they have repressed come back to haunt them.
Agrimony helps us come to terms with the darker side of our lives and personalities, so that we can become more rounded human beings. We won’t lose our sense of humour or our ability to get through the day, but will find that laughing at our troubles dispels them rather than hides them. As a mood remedy, Agrimony helps anyone who is trying not to face a trouble and using jokes and false smiles to avoid a painful reality.
Dr. Edward Bach, the creator of Bach flower remedies, described Agrimony this way:
The jovial, cheerful, humorous people who love peace and are distressed by argument or quarrel, to avoid which they will agree to give up much. Though generally they have troubles and are tormented and restless and worried in mind or in body, they hide their cares behind their humour and jesting and are considered very good friends to know. They often take alcohol or drugs in excess, to stimulate themselves and help themselves bear their trials with cheerfulness.
To take Agrimony, put two to four drops directly under your tongue five times per day or put two to four drops in your water bottle and drink frequently. You can also put two to four drops in your bath.
An early morning anti-binge remedy. Over the years, I’ve had clients walk into my office with prescription appetite suppressant drugs.
Many people have also fallen prey to so-called natural herbal remedies to boost their metabolism and curb their appetites.
This anti-binge remedy has zero negative side effects.
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon liquid chlorophyll
- 1 tablespoon fenugreek seed
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 8 ounces of water
Mix this together in a glass and drink first thing in the morning.
This remedy was taught to me by the late Olympic strength coach Charles Poliquin, author of eight books about health and fitness.
Just take this natural healing remedy once, first thing in the morning, and you will notice this combination tends to reduce your appetite not just first thing in the morning but throughout the day.
Discover the sweetness of your life. As a healer who has helped clients overcome literally every kind of eating disorder you can imagine — anorexia, bulimia, overeating, orthorexia nervosa and more — I find a common denominator in sugar cravings is that you have disconnected from the sweetness of your own life.
Where can you find true sweetness?
- Cuddle a baby
- Take your puppy for a walk
- Snuggle with a loved one
- Visit a friend in need
- Walk through a beautiful garden
- Simply sit in the sunshine, enjoying the light on your face
- Listen to the silence of trees
Perhaps you can think of many other ways to connect with what is truly meaningful in your life.
Use these affirmations:
- I RELAX AND MY LIFE IS SWEET.
- I SAVOR THE SWEETNESS OF EVERY MOMENT.
What are the benefits of these simple approaches?
- Easier, more effective withdrawal from drugs, cigarettes and alcohol
- Your body weight normalizes
- You heal your metabolism so that it’s easy to maintain a healthy weight
- You free your soul from the chains of addiction
Sugar cravings underlie addictions to drugs, cigarettes and alcohol so as you get your insulin back into balance you may also find it easier to conquer even more life-threatening addictions.
How effective are these approaches? I have had countless clients say to me, “When I eat my way, I eat more food and am constantly hungry. When I eat your way, I’m not hungry at all and somehow I end up eating less.”
Getting your sugar cravings under control is a crucial step in healing your metabolism. You will not be able to enjoy a healthy metabolism as long as you are bingeing on sugar as the pattern of spiking your blood sugar will keep your insulin levels erratic.
What is healing? Healing happens when you rediscover the natural sweetness of your life and get your sugar cravings under control.
To set up a medical intuitive reading or receive healing work from anywhere in the world by phone, Skype or Zoom.us video conference, call 678–612–8816 or email catherine@catherinecarrigan.com.
