Have you ever wondered why you find yourself craving a bag of chips or cookies when you are stressed out?

There are four theories explaining food cravings. A food craving is a powerful desire to consume a specific food. Food cravings differ from regular hunger in that hunger can be fulfilled by any number of foods, whereby a craving can only be satisfied by a particular food. So, here are the four theories:

One: Deprivation Theory. When a food is off limits or restricted in some way, cravings increase. Food denial has been linked to overeating; we tend to crave what we cannot have. And when we overeat, we feel guilty which leads to more eating and more guilt – a vicious cycle.

Two: Brain Chemical Theory. Neuropeptide and galanin, two brain chemicals, affect food cravings. Neuropeptide, which causes us to crave sugar, peaks just after waking up. Galanin, which initiates a craving for fat, peaks at night.

Three: Stress Response Theory. During times of high stress the body releases cortisol and adrenaline, initiating the fight or flight response. During such times the body
demands immediate energy. This increases the desire for simple carbohydrates – which the body converts in glucose.

Four: Hormone Theory. This is where women differ so greatly from men. All of us endure emotionally-driven cravings: isolation, resentment, anger, unfulfilled needs. But, it is only women who endure hormonally-driven food cravings.

The Why We Eat . . . And Why We Keep Eating Program goes into each theory in detail so that you can understand where you’ve been and where you are going. You see, it’s not just you; it’s all of use together, facing the same problems. But now, together, we can overcome the old habits that have held us back.

The Why We Eat . . . And Why We Keep Eating Program goes beyond the realm of food to encompass the role of endorphins in depression, alcohol and tobacco use, television addiction, and the impact of food choices on our immune system and specific disease such as Alzheimer’s. These topics may seem to be unrelated, but the thread of diet weaves them tightly together.


We’ll tell you what the healthiest foods in the world are. Here’s a partial list. The rest are on page 143:

Strawberries, Tomatoes
Pineapple, Paypaya, Kiwi
Mangoes
Cantaloupe
Apricots

And we’ll give you the ten most dangerous foods. Here are a few. Find the others on page 148:

Pasta
Grapes
Instant White Rice
Cream Of Wheat


We’ll tell you what you should eat and all the reasons why:

What we eat is a function of who we are. Man is classified by science as a primate. The order Primata evolved from the order Insectivora, or insect-eating mammals. In evaluating the gut ratios (the size of the small intestine to the large intestine) ours is much less similar to other primates and more comparable to carnivores, specifically the wolves.

As explained by Ray Audette in his book Neanderthin, “our relatively small lower gastrointestinal tract inhibits our ability to extract nutrients from calorically sparse food
such as leaves, shoots, barks, etc., making us more dependent on calorically dense food such as meat, fruit, and nuts.” Recent studies have shown that monkeys fail to thrive or reproduce when their diets do not include enough of this food group. And modern people experience the same developmental problems as did the experimental monkeys.


One of the most essential vitamins is B12. Our requirement for B12 can only be met by eating meat or by supplementation. Only meat is packed with enough fat and calories to supply the necessary energy demanded by the brain of man. In fact, since the agricultural revolution, and man’s dependence on grains, our brain sized has decreased by 11%!

How much meat? What kind of meat? Our ancestors gained between 35% of their total calories from animal protein, and 65% from plant food and “good” fats. Because of our sedentary lifestyle, modern man should strive for a diet consisting of 30% animal protein . . . but not just any animal protein. The Why We Eat . . . . And The Why We Keep Eating Program provides all the sources of the very best protein.


We’ve got charts from every fast–food restaurant to help you make the best decisions when you’re surrounded by nothing but the chain stores. Here are some. For the complete list, see page 183 of Why We Eat . . . . And The Why We Keep Eating.

Elizabeth Somer has said, “Our diets today our killing us because they are as alien to our bodies as breathing carbon monoxide.” She goes on to say, “For 99% of the time humans have been on earth, they have eaten and evolved on diets of nuts, seeds, leaves, honey, plants and very lean wild game. Our ancestors not only survived on this diet, but lived virtually free of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, and other modern diseases.

“We may wear designer clothes, and live in air conditioned houses, but we are still genetically programmed to live and eat as we did since we climbed out of trees. Our biochemistry and physiology remain fine-tuned to the diets and activities and communality of our ancestors.”