Fruit

As someone with emotional issues (anxiety, depression, etc), I had been advised by a friend of mine to eat more fruit. At first I thought it was stupid. How was fruit going to help me? He cryptically told me that it would change my being.

I've had a horrible diet in the past year or so, basically just eating whatever tasted good, regardless of my health. So I decided to give my friend's advice a try.

Lately, this has been the pattern... I wake up in a terrible mood. Having breakfast, which consists of Old-Fashioned oatmeal, some strawberries, blueberries, half of a banana, and some real maple syrup for flavor. I cannot even BEGIN to tell you how much better I've felt. The only times I didn't feel better were the days I neglected to eat several pieces of fruit.

This morning I was depressed, feeling weak and generally not myself. Unfortunately I didn't have the fruit available that I usually eat, so instead I settled for a few strawberries, an apple, and an orange. Same effect. I felt great once I finished the orange. My energy level went from dismal to awesome in a matter of minutes.

None of this should surprise me, or you. Food was put on this planet FOR US. For ALL LIVING THINGS. And what do most of us do? We eat sugary food, too much meat, and not enough vegetables. (granted, I'm generalizing here, so I'm not picking on any particular people, just basically Westerner society). I wondered why my body was starting to fall apart, idiotically. What I described above is a minimal change. I'm not claiming to have an excellent diet, because I'm still far from that, but a simple and effective change can be made by eating something growing on a tree.

It's so important to remember what our natural diet was like before mass production ruined everything (by solving other issues). In a combination between agriculture and occasionally/seasonally eating meat, it should be easy to see that our diets are mismanaged now because of the relative availability and cost of certain items above others.

It's easy to buy pre-made crap from the middle of the grocery store. It's inexpensive, easy to cook, and we can afford to be picky. It's not so easy to shop the produce section. What's good? What is in season? What will taste like that pizza I had the other day? And, then, there's sugar. Once a prized and scarce substance, we evolved to enjoy that kind of food a lot. Quick energy. Huge highs. Huge lows. Think about it this way: when you are just starting out eating sugar in your life, you are very much affected by it. But, by the time we get to be teens and adults... now we're desensitized to it. We get a sensation of being energized by sugar. It's only those of us who abstain from it most of the time who really understand how it messes with us. And, the body LOVES it.

Fruit, generally, has a lower glycemic index than artificially occurring sugary-substances in things like candy, milkshakes, and the like. This means that while the body LOVES the "sugar" in the fruit, it doesn't cause as much insulin to be produced as the energy is digested over a longer span of time. I would say that this is why fruit can be so good for those of us who don't suffer from an insulin disorder (TI and TII Diabetes for a couple). Fruit preps us up, keeps us alert, and doesn't provide the hard crash that a Starbucks Frappuccino^TM would.

The hardest part of all this? Beating the sugar addiction. I applaud you for having so much control over your diet. I wonder if the transition away from "crappy" foods was difficult.

For me, whenever I make the transition (I seem to yo-yo on this), I find myself in a deep deep low as my body rejects the notion that I'm not eating sugar. But, after maybe a week or two, this addictive feeling goes away. Making it through those two weeks can be extremely difficult. So difficult for me, in fact, that I may have to institutionalize myself into a recovery facility for two weeks to make the transition.

In other words, sometimes making dietary transitions can be excruciating for people with extreme diets. However, you're right, simple changes like substitution (sugar --> Fruit) can be life changing... if you can handle it!

moderation and self control are key elements...

if you listen to your body it will tell you what you need and don't need...

that's what i do, and based upon my last dr's visit it works....

Its called dopamine. Your body secretes it for various reasons. Sugar in any form causes your body to dose you with dopamine because it activates the reward portion of your brain.

Even self control, and making the right choice in diet can do this, as your body rewards you with dopamine, you actually do "feel" better when you do the "right" thing. Of course, it can also do it when doing the "wrong" thing, as the bodies reward function is controlled by your choices, but pleasure, and satisfaction, is multifaceted. As you can feel good eating junk, or by eating healthy, as the triggers are there for both. As a neurotransmitter, what matters it what pathways you choose to strengthen, and that requires essentially training yourself not unlike a dog. Rewarding good behavior, or the preferred behavior if thats easier.

Its not just limited to food, you can cause dopamine to spike in regards to a myriad of things in your life.

Its not unlike people who exercise fairly regularly and then stop, for many, there body was used to an elevated level of dopamine, and endorphins, which working out produces and when they cut back on what was giving them pleasure they suffer depression, confusion, etc.

People with poor diets usually go through a cycle with feeling like crap, eating junk that taste great and is sugary, which floods your body with dopamine, and then after that high, there is guilt, sadness, etc.

The Fat Cycle:

I know that I'm addicted to dopamine. I know that when I bite into this spongy, yellow, cream-filled cake my brain makes a chemical cocktail which makes me feel good. I know that once this high is gone I will be fatter than before. I know that being fat makes me miserable. I need some dopamine.

Great thing about it though, is you can change what triggers your dopamine response. It can also trigger when eating something healthy and in the case of fruit, there is still the sugar aspect to it.

If your going to listen to your body, you have to know the language in which it communicates.

Dopamine and Serotonin, are really the only two things you enjoy.

What triggers them, and what you choose to trigger them, is something you can exert a level of control and choice over, barring any biological interference, as some peoples bodies do not produce it, or in a quantity sufficient to do its job, and then you see its effect psychologically in depression, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine

https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/dopamine

From a holistic/herbal stand point one must keep in mind their environment and harmonic properties. In the summer time we should be eating more Yin foods such as fruits to balance out the yang of summer heat. Just like in winter it is best to eat yang red meats and soups spiked with cinnamon, cayenne peppers, cumin and sage. Eat what is in season, basically.

On the other hand when you eat Yang foods during Yang seasons (Red meat during summer) You will feel fat, lazy and bloated.

Harmony *bows*

Streen wrote: Food was put on this planet FOR US. For ALL LIVING THINGS.

Except for all the carnivores who can't digest it and all the herbivores that have a natural intolerance for specific fruits, and also except for all the fruit that is either covered in razor sharp spikes to prevent them being eaten, or the fruit that stinks for the same reason or the fruit that is poisonous for the same reason.
No. The world does not revolve around us. We are not the reason there are fruits.