Food and Sobriety?

In my opinion, food can certainly help with sobriety! Why? You see not only have I become health conscious over alcohol. I have always been very mindful of what I eat. Mostly in my younger years, it was down to weight loss. I had an irrational fear of my husband not fancying me. As well as believing that others may think that I “had let myself go” if I didn’t look my best.

Weight loss woes

I, like many of you, struggled with yo-yo weight and it seemed I was constantly on a diet. That is until I discovered the real reason around 5 years ago not looking my best. I looked ok but never quite managed to keep the weight off. As I have said before in one of my sobriety posts, I worked out ridiculous amounts. This never gave me the results or changes in my body that I expected. But how does this connect with my drinking? Not only did the change in what I ate impact my weight, but it also changed my mood. A few months into my new eating regime I recognised I had been suffering from depression.

Food can mess with your brain chemistry, as does alcohol. I believe I was drinking more and more because I didn’t feel truly happy. The drink helped me to numb all that. Yet as we have discussed before this is a very bad cycle. In turn, drinking then causes anxiety which leads to more feeling rotten. Then, you guessed it, you drink again to numb it. #Bonkers

Little did I know at that time it was all to do with food, not exercise. In light of the fact that more than half of the population follows the trusted food pyramid. Most of them are overweight and or unwell, the good old pyramid is definitely not the answer. It doesn’t add up, does it?

The food discovery

So how did I get on this journey? It was the beginning of worrying about my health rather than weight loss for the first time. This gave me a completely different view of food and what I should be eating. It is also how I begin to understand how food can affect your sobriety.

I discovered after a few tests that I was well on my way to being pre-diabetic (Type 2). A test I had showed that my insulin levels were getting too high. This frightened the life out of me and I couldn’t understand why. The doctor diagnosed me with IBS for my bloating of the stomach and wanted to prescribe medication for it. The doctor then offered medication rather than a discussion on how foods could relieve my symptoms. This I found quite concerning. I politely declined and immediately began my own research on how to heal. There the problem lies, my doctor was not 100% sure my symptoms were IBS. The medication may not have helped but hindered it. Most medicines prescribed are to ease symptoms rather than cure illness. Not to mention most come with nasty side effects.

Armed with determination I began to dig around on subjects about IBS and high insulin. It didn’t take me long to come across an amazing company called Diet Doctor. Now I know that it says diet but honestly if you just take a look. These people do so much more! Sign-up is free for the first month and it allows you access to so many videos about food and health. The best thing is they are by genuine doctors and scientists from around the world. All there ready to help.

Cut the Carbs!

I learned from them that it was carbohydrates that were leading me to my ill health. We all know that sugar is bad for us. Thinking of sugar we immediately imagine the rotting of our teeth. We don’t think about sugar and what it does to our insides. We only know it helps us gain fat, but how? I will explain quickly the impact of sugar. You eat it, it raises your blood sugar, this is harmful to our bodies and so we release insulin. The body’s fat-storing hormone is insulin. Voila, sugar is then stored as fat!

The trouble is, like many of you, I hadn’t understood that carbohydrates have the same effect as sugar when eaten. Your body turns it into glucose for energy just like you would have eaten a few teaspoons of sugar. So even when you eat that slice of bread. You think there is no sugar in that. you are still, in essence, consuming approx 1.5 teaspoons of sugar.

The best way to test this for yourself is to get a blood glucose monitor. You can prick your finger and test the spot of blood. At varying times after your meal, you can see how your blood sugar reacts. If you don’t want to do this yourself, check out Dave Feldman. He tests himself like this with various experiments all the time and the results are fascinating.

More next time

In my next post, will dive deeper into how this food section relates to sobriety. I thought I should just give you a brief overview of my path. Mostly regarding my health since I have so much to say about this topic. I have become very passionate about it. But for now, this is all I have without this post being 10 pages long. So I bid you adieu until next time.

In the meantime try my post Alcohol – Do I Really Have a Problem?