Diet Rehab: 28 Days to Finally Stop Craving the Foods That Make You Fat (15 page)

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Authors: Mike Dow,Antonia Blyth

BOOK: Diet Rehab: 28 Days to Finally Stop Craving the Foods That Make You Fat
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Once again, to solve the problem, we must identify the problem. So take a closer look at your dopamine levels by taking the following quiz.
Get the Full Picture
 
Make sure to take both the following quiz and the one in Chapter 4 to see whether you are starving for just serotonin, just dopamine, or both. Your individualized 28-day Diet Rehab plan will depend on your own personal brain chemistry, so make sure you’ve gotten all the facts.
 
Are You Ravenous for Dopamine? A Quiz
Score the following:
0—never
1—rarely
2—sometimes
3—frequently
4—always
1. I feel that I’m not getting enough of one or more of the following: adventure, excitement, new or stimulating life experiences.
2. When I feel blue, my idea of a lift might include one or more of the following: action movies, adventure sports, loud music, screaming, hitting something, acting out, gambling, spending lots of money, or casual sex.
3. I crave coffee, energy drinks, soda, sex, cigarettes, cigars, hard liquor, or beer.
4. I crave fatty foods; foods that are new, adventurous, or spicy; or foods that have stimulating textures, such as crunchy chips or salty popcorn, especially when I’m in a bad mood.
5. I don’t mind things being out of place.
6. I often procrastinate or show up late.
7. I have gravitated toward jobs that involve risk-taking, competition, and high stakes.
8. I often find myself working with large groups of people and usually enjoy it.
9. I isolate myself and don’t like reaching out when I’m in a bad mood.
10. I want things when I want them.
11. I’m not a detail-oriented person.
12. If I haven’t reached my goals, that’s not my fault.
13. People would say I make impulsive decisions.
14. I have trouble listening.
15. I often wonder what’s wrong with other people.
16. I can’t finish things.
17. I have trouble staying asleep.
18. I have lost interest in things I used to find pleasurable.
19. I like adventure and change.
20. I would rather say what I mean, even if it means hurting someone else’s feelings.
21. I have trouble concentrating.
22. I feel bored.
23. I have low energy.
24. I feel restless.
25. I feel hopeless.
26. I find myself crying or tearful.
27. I feel generally dissatisfied with life.
28. I use prescription stimulants in a way I know a physician did not intend, or use illegal activating drugs (cocaine, crystal meth, speed, steroids), or ephedra/ephedrine-based workout or diet formulations.
29. I have a history of depression, bipolar disorder, or ADD/ ADHD. (If no, score this item 0; if yes, score this item 4.)
30. I have favorably responded to ADD/ADHD stimulant medication, ADD/ADHD non-stimulant Strattera, or to the following antidepressants or their generics: Cymbalta, Effexor, Pristiq, Remeron, or Wellbutrin. (If no, score this item 0; if yes, score this item 4.)
SCORING
Add up your scores for items 28, 29, and 30.
Total (from boxes 28, 29, and 30 only): _______________
Now, multiply this number by 3.
X3 = _______________ (A)
Add up your scores for items 1–27.
Total: _______________ (B)
If you are a man, put a 5 in box C.
If you are a woman, put a 0 in box C.
_______________ (C)
A + B + C = _______________ (D)
Your score: _______________
Did Just Taking This Quiz Make You Feel Inadequate?
 
People have that reaction frequently, because—especially if you’re deprived of dopamine—you may frequently feel that you’re just not measuring up, can’t get the job done, or don’t have the internal resources to do what you would like to do.
I want to stress that this feeling is not a direct reflection of who you are or what you can achieve. Feeling inadequate is a common reaction to a dopamine shortage, and when your brain chemistry is balanced, you’re likely to feel quite different. The good news is that whatever your score, there is something you can do about it—something that won’t be difficult and is likely to feel good. Remember, gradual detox means that you get to keep eating all the foods you already enjoy while adding dopamine boosters to your diet and your life. These boosters will help you find the motivation to get moving, the patience to reach your goal, and the energy to get there. So shake off the sense of inadequacy, prepare yourself to take action, and read on to find your score.
 
ARE YOU RAVENOUS FOR DOPAMINE? YOUR SCORE
0–20: MOTIVATED AND ENERGETIC
Congratulations! Your dopamine levels are healthy, and you’ve figured out how to keep them that way. Your balanced brain chemistry is paying off with a feeling of excitement and pleasurable anticipation as you look forward to your life. Make sure you have thoroughly read Chapter 4 to explore whether you are hungry for serotonin. Then move on to Part III to learn how to fill your diet with foods and activities that will boost your serotonin and dopamine levels and help you keep them at a healthy level.
 
21–40: RAVENOUS FOR DOPAMINE: MODERATE LISTLESSNESS,
IMPATIENCE, OR SENSE OF INADEQUACY
If you scored in this range, your dopamine is at a moderately low level, and it’s bringing you down. You are not as motivated as you would like to be, and you are frequently plagued with feelings such as “What’s the use?,” “I’m not going to make it,” or “I don’t see the point of even trying.” You can find your energy and rediscover life’s pleasures by beginning your gradual detox from the foods and thought patterns that are contributing to your listlessness. Read on through the rest of this chapter to find out more.
 
OVER 40: FAMISHED FOR DOPAMINE: PERSISTENT, SOMETIMES OVERWHELMING DEPRESSION, LISTLESSNESS, OR FATIGUE
If your score was over 40, your dopamine levels have dropped to a seriously low level, and you may be desperate to bring them back up. You are likely to feel intense cravings for high-fat foods, and you may also struggle with feelings of fatigue, depression, or despair that improve only temporarily when you eat or over-caffeinate. You may be worried or confused about why you can no longer access your usual energy and excitement. Please don’t be concerned. Your brain chemistry has gotten out of balance and while you might be doing your best to restore its health, you perhaps don’t have the right information to help you do it effectively. Now you can take action, starting with your program of gradual detox and Diet Rehab. Keep reading to find the tools you need to make an action plan.
Note:
If you scored anything but a 0 in box A, I strongly recommend that you work with a psychiatrist or psychotherapist to implement Diet Rehab. Your treatment may need to be augmented by medication and/ or professional support.
If you scored 40 or above, please consult a psychiatrist or psychotherapist immediately to be screened and treated for depression, anxiety, addiction, eating disorders, or ADD/ADHD before starting this program.
Dopamine Deprivation: Harder on Men?
 
I am living testimony to the fact that many people don’t fit the gender stereotypes, which proclaim that men tend to be dopamine-deprived while women are starving for serotonin. Speaking as a man who struggles more with serotonin issues, I know that many people do
not
align with the generalizations.
Having said that, I want to acknowledge that many studies do associate women with a craving for sweets and ice cream, while men do seem to be drawn to red meat and other high-fat foods. There does seem to be some biological basis for this difference, whether we’re born with it, develop it in response to cultural conditioning, or a little of both.
However it came about, adult men may produce more serotonin and store it more effectively than women do. When men and women were subjected to the same stressors during research, eight times more blood flowed to the emotional centers in women’s brains than to those of the men, suggesting that women use up their serotonin reserves more quickly than men and are more easily drained by stress. Women are about twice as likely to suffer from low-serotonin depressions than men and are also more likely to be anxious, another sign of low serotonin. Some studies show that women respond better to the antidepressants that target serotonin, suggesting that their problems lie in low serotonin levels, and their problems are eased when their serotonin levels are boosted.
Men, on the other hand, seem to be more hooked on dopamine. A 2006 study found that men are more susceptible to the effects of drugs that actively affect dopamine levels. When both men and women were given doses of amphetamines, the men’s brains were flooded with far more dopamine than the women’s. Men are also much more likely to be diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, also associated with low dopamine.
Some researchers speculate that men are responding to a uniquely male gene that regulates their brains’ production of dopamine. Perhaps this is why men are more likely than women to develop such dopamine-related diseases as schizophrenia and Parkinson’s, a condition in which dopamine-producing neurons in the back of the brain begin to die, producing the body tremors and paralysis that indicate a lack of that neurochemical.
The Dopamine Reward
 
If you’re struggling with low dopamine, you may also have noticed a subtle way that dopamine itself acts to keep all types of addictions going. Any time we feel a sense of pleasure or the satisfaction of a craving, we get a little dopamine kick. This is true whether we’re craving serotonin, dopamine, or any other brain chemical—or whether we’re craving a person, an experience, an object, or a substance. Dopamine gives us a potent reward that makes it even harder to resist our cravings.
At the same time, if our dopamine levels are too low, we don’t get the kick we seek from the high-fat food we turned to—and so we may continue craving fat until our dopamine levels finally rise. This relationship emerged in one study when researchers asked groups of young women to drink a milk shake while they monitored the effects it had on their dopamine levels. The women whose brain activity showed the lowest dopamine levels in the study were most likely to have gained weight when researchers met them a year later. Researchers speculated that if a woman’s dopamine levels were relatively low even after a delicious milk shake, she was more likely to crave fatty foods in other instances.
What does this mean for you? If you’re trying to overcome a craving for dopamine, be extra compassionate with yourself, because it may feel as though your entire body is conspiring to pull you back into the addiction. Since dopamine itself is the reward for any type of pleasure—whether satisfying an addiction or something healthier—it’s hard not to want more and more and more of it. That’s why I want you to be especially careful to load up your diet and your life with dopamine boosters while you are trying to let go of the unhealthy choices that are making you feel both bad and good.
ADHD and Dopamine
 
Many studies have linked dopamine to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD). In a recent study that involved performing brain scans on people with ADD/ADHD who had never taken medication for the condition, the scans revealed dopamine levels that were significantly lower than normal. This makes sense, because the medications used to treat ADD/ADHD, including the antidepressant Wellbutrin and stimulants such as Adderall and Concerta, all increase dopamine levels in the brain.
Other studies have suggested that ADD/ADHD sufferers are more vulnerable to other types of addiction because they are unconsciously self-medicating, desperately trying to increase their low dopamine levels the only way they know how.

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