Thoughts on Cravings

Posted on July 15, 2015

Back in 1999 I went to the University of Minnesota and had surgery to help curb my eating. Back in '99 the term Gastric Bypass scared the hell out of me so I elected, with the doctors encouragement, to have something called a vertical banded gastroplasty. They make a staple line in the stomach and then place a ring at the bottom. There is no alteration to the plumbing and the ring forces the person to eat smaller quantities and really chew the food. Sounded like a wonderful compromise and for a while it worked. I didn't receive any counseling nor did I receive any follow-up and predictably the weight started to return.

Fast forward to 2009. I started to lose weight again which was a pleasant surprise, at least at first. 240, 230, 220, and down it went. Along the way I was tested locally to find out why I was losing weight so rapidly, and why I couldn't eat. When my weight got down to 150 my family doc threw up his hands and sent me to Mayo in Rochester, MN. After more tests I ended up in Gastroenterology where a a wonderful doctor asked me one question. "What kinds of food are you craving?" My answer was Jelly Beans. He nodded and told me that the ring around my stomach channel had developed a stricture and very little was passing into my digestive tract. Sugar cravings were an obvious symptom. If I had cancer I wouldn't be very hungry I guess. He also explained that he was no diagnostic genius. He said that his surgical team had done hundreds of revisions of this particular procedure. When I asked why they used to do this surgery he told me that it was still being performed in some placed. The U of MN was one of these facilities which I thought was very odd for a teaching hospital. Amazingly the surgeon went in, snipped the band and I was cured. The pounds came rolling back, but at least i was no longer malnourished.

The reason that I tell this tale is that Dr. Saar told me the cravings were the tipoff. He told me to never ignore cravings that persist. He said that I should get to the bottom of whatever it is that ails me. I find myself in this position yet again. Once again it is sugar though this time in the form of Gummy Bears. What the hell? I hate those things. So I packed myself back to my family practitioner and he did a whole series of tests. I thought, and still think, that after my Gall Bladder went bye-bye there is something going on with the pancreas, but all of my tests were normal. The doctor, as I have described before is 6'5" and 140 pounds. He's a runner and strictly adheres to the calorie in/calorie out school of thought where weight loss is concerned. I suspect that he thinks that I am becoming a hypochondriac.

And here I am at a real crossroads. If everything is working as designed what is the deal with the Gummy Bears? I am on a sugar purge starting today. My plan is to stay sugar free for a week and see if sanity returns. The alternative to the sanity is unthinkable and frightening beyond belief. I want to believe that this will snap my body back into a healthy mode. I want to believe that everything will be fine once my pancreas settle down. I want to believe that everything is going to be OK...but the words of the mayo doctor keep playing in my head - "Never Ignore Cravings."

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Biking Syl

08/15/2015 4:14PM

That explanation makes a lot of sense. Thanks for sharing! So no gummy bears after surgery, huh? Major disappointment! :-)

Reggie

07/19/2015 1:17PM

We went to a "cookout" last night. (I called it that and got stares and sidelong glances. Cookout must be a throwback to my former life in Pennsylvania as Barbecue is the standard here in Minnesota) The husband of one of my wife's friends is a Nutritionist /Dietitian at the regional hospital. He said that carb cravings after major surgery are common as the body needs quickly converted energy to heal. Who knew? The trick is to access quality carbs and not junk. He assured me that gummy bears are junk carbs. *Damn!* Junk carbs like sugar have an addictive component about them which creates a cycle that is hard to break. His advice was to convert my carbs over to ones with a low glycemic index and see how that works. Gosh darn-it but I hate reasonable people.

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Cmaizy

07/18/2015 10:32PM

Fascinating account! You might want to keep your sugar avoidance going on for another couple of weeks or so. One of those elimination diet sites claims you need about 3 weeks to really rid your body of most substances. Currently there is buzz about a 30-day sugar challenge, too. Oh, speaking of buzz.. http://www.buzzfeed.com/kater11/this-is-what-happens-when-you-give-up-sugar#.dbL3j3eKV4

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MandiLynn

07/17/2015 12:30PM

Amazing post, Reggie. Your jelly bean doc sounds like one of the few really good ones. It is very true that certain cravings can be caused by an insufficiency of some kind. A craving to chew on ice, for instance, is a symptom of anemia. Isn't the human body so weird and amazing!? I wonder if you could speak to your current dr, and ask if you can somehow get in contact with your previous jelly bean doc. You were once a patient of his, and now that you have this somewhat similar symptom, it seems logical that at least consulting with him, even via email or phone call would be within the realm of possibilities? It's frustrating when you don't 'connect' with your physician. I wish you the best of luck in working through this! Keep us posted! :)

Reggie

The Jelly Beans were about malnutrition. My weight was 240 when it began to fall in mid-winter, and 136 the day I went into surgery. My body wanted needed simple quick energy and Jelly Beans, as I found out, were one of the very few things that would pass through the stricture. Must have turned to syrup? I am definitely no malnourished now.

Anne M.

07/17/2015 10:55AM

Reggie, thanks for posting this! I'm still learning so much, and all the replies were helpful, too. I've been amazed this year to find our how often one small imbalance can start creating other problems, thus starting a spiral downhill. I'm trying hard to get that spiral going the other direction!! I've changed many things this year, and still have plenty to learn. I'd never thought of cravings like this. My craving tends to be pastries (like a cheese danish)...thankfully it's been a while since I gave in, but now I'm going to think about this!

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Biking Syl

07/16/2015 1:06PM

Wow, you have quite the journey behind you! Thanks for sharing, it will surely help a lot of people! As for the cravings: I just started reading Eat to Live by Fuhrman, who is very big on perfect nutrition. I did not fully start the program but as I was reading, I decided to get started and add more leafy greens to my meals and also started making smoothies from fruit and spinach (you won't taste it, promise!). Overall, I thought my food was pretty healthy but I was missing green leaves and nuts/seeds. I also decided that I could have a mix of unsalted nuts and raisins whenever I wanted to - but no sugar treats whatsoever. And it worked. The book says cravings come up when nutrients are missing (as Sarah said) and strangely enough, the cravings went away. However, as I just found out: extreme stress and lack of sleep can bring them right back. So the added food plus enough sleep it is (or at least I'm trying to get there). How is your stress level? ...and here are a couple of websites, maybe you can find anything helpful there: http://www.livestrong.com/article/443423-what-to-eat-when-craving-sugar/ http://sophie-skover.blogspot.de/2012/10/gummy-cravings.html

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Reggie

Who would have thought that there would be a Holistic reason for specific cravings. I have a great deal of stress right now and sleep is sporadic. So I suppose that the gummy food thing is possible although weird.:)

Biking Syl

Another crazy thing to try would be tai chi or qui gong exercises to fight stress. I took a beginner class once when I was extremely stressed out and it did relax me, because focusing on the moves and on keeping my balance completely distracted me from the stress. You can find a bunch of youtube videos to try it. Just do it. Sounds like you have nothing to lose at this point ;-) I really did not have the peace of mind to try the other meditation/relaxation techniques people recommended, but having to follow the moves was what took my mind on a mini vacation. Maybe it can work for you too. Best of luck!

Sarah

07/16/2015 8:33AM

Reggie, I am amazed to learn you had that surgery, and it seems good that you had it undone. I know you're still recovering from recent health issues, but you were on such a great roll last year. I hope you can get back to what was working for you then. As for the cravings, have you tried keeping a food diary that you can review? Is some nutrient missing? I like to get my nutrition for food, but recently I added a multivitamin because I was borderline low on B12, not unusual as people age :-P. Sugar is sneaky because the more you eat the more you crave.

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Reggie

I am reading the sugar/pancreas connection everywhere. Somewhere I was looking at an article about the healing that the pancreas goes through after severe bouts of pancreatitis. The take away was that everything from food preferences to blood sugar may be affected. The hope isd that everything returns to a more normal state after a time.

Marcie

07/16/2015 3:03AM

Reggie - sugar is such a powerful addiction. Gummy bears... hmm.. odd I admit! I am going to take a risk and suggest a book to you. The author (and MD) is a little extreme but very well renowned and respected. It is called The Blood Sugar Solution and is all about how to kick sugar addiction. It is what started me on my path to discovering what some of the root causes to my arthritis pain (in food) were. Now I am no MD and I don't know if you cravings for gummy bears are just sugar based (and stress eating based) but regardless it is a good read and will get you thinking about food in a slightly different way (perhaps). On a different note - have you considered going back to the jelly bean doc?

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Marcie

A few things. First, your story about your mom (which gave me goose bumps) hit me on so many levels. I bet it is her way of warning you. But the story about the blue jelly bean is so amazingly poignant and such a good story about the power of sugar addiction. It is like taking that one drink for an alcoholic. And also it hit me how important it is for our health to keep our weight down. 40, 58 - so young, so sad. I am so sorry.Secondly about the book. That makes total sense to me! I definitely read it that way. I took little nuggets out of it, didn't read it as a prescriptive manual at all - some of it is over the top, some of it seems like hype, but there is a ton of good information in there. He is the one that got me on my smoothie kick and he is the one that introduced me to functional medicine which literally changed my life (giving up the foods that my joints are sensitive to and cause inflammation for me - which allows me to manage my pain in a way that made an unbelievable difference in my quality of life). So take out of it what works for you - he is quite right about sugar addiction and type 2 diabetes.

Reggie

Isn't it strange the things we remember? My sister swears that she never heard that story, and maybe not, but she vividly remembers the jellybean and its effect on mom's diet. I read a lot of very things that are science based. On thing that I recognize is that doctors toe the AMA line even when they know it is BS. How many years did we follow that silly food pyramid developed in the 70's? If you have any other suggestions please pass them along. I am open to enlightenment regardless of what my wife says. :)

Julie Lama

07/15/2015 9:40PM

Paragone is a gentle cleanse. It will help rid parasites and yeast. When those get balanced sugar cravings can disappear as early as day 4. This is a realy easy progran of a tingture and herb capsules. Following a bit of a diet that help with not feeding these things. Check it out. Worth a try;)

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Reggie

Julie, thank you for this idea. I am going to do some reading about it. I know little about cleanses but I keep hearing so many good things that it is worth further investigation.