Beat Food Addictions!

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When It’s More Than “Just” Cravings

This is Dr. Nicole Avena. She’s a research neuroscientist who also teaches at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, as well as at Princeton. She’s done a lot of groundbreaking research in the field of nutrition, diet, and addition, with a special focus on women’s health and sugar intake specifically.

What does she want us to know?

Firstly, that food addictions are real addictions.

We know it can sound silly, like the famous line from Mad Max:

❝Do not, my friends, become addicted to water. It will take hold of you and you will resent its absence!❞

~ “Immortan Joe”

As an aside, it is actually possible to become addicted to water; if one drinks it excessively (we are talking gallons every day) it does change the structure of the brain (no surprise; the brain is not supposed to have that much water!) causing structural damage that then results in dependency, and headaches upon withdrawal. It’s called psychogenic polydipsia:

Primary polydipsia: Update

But back onto today’s more specific topic, and by a different mechanism of addiction…

Food addictions are dopaminergic addictions (as is cocaine)

If you are addicted to a certain food (often sugar, but other refined carbs such as potato products, and also especially refined flour products, are also potential addictive substances), then when you think about the food in question, your brain lights up with more dopamine than it should, and you are strongly motivated to seek and consume the substance in question.

Remember, dopamine functions by expectation, not by result. So until your brain’s dopamine-gremlin is sated, it will keep flooding you with motivational dopamine; that’s why the first bite tastes best, then you wolf down the rest before your brain can change its mind, and afterwards you may be left thinking/feeling “was that worth it?”.

Much like with other addictions (especially alcohol), shame and regret often feature strongly afterwards, even accompanied by notions of “never again”.

But, binge-eating is as difficult to escape as binge-drinking.

You can break free, but you will probably have to take it seriously

Dr. Avena recommends treating a food addiction like any other addiction, which means:

  1. Know why you want to quit (make a list of the reasons, and this will help you stay on track later!)
  2. Make a conscious decision to genuinely quit
  3. Learn about the nature of the specific addiction (know thy enemy!)
  4. Choose a strategy (e.g. wean off vs cold turkey, and decide what replacements, if any, you will use)
  5. Get support (especially from those around you, and/but the support of others facing, or who have successfully faced, the same challenge is very helpful too)
  6. Keep track of your success (build and maintain a streak!)
  7. Lean into how you will better enjoy life without addiction to the substance (it never really made you happy anyway, so enjoy your newfound freedom and good health!)

Want more from Dr. Avena?

You can check out her column at Psychology Today here:

Psychology Today | Food Junkie ← it has a lot of posts about sugar addiction in particular, and gives a lot of information and practical advice

You can also read her book, which could be a great help if you are thinking of quitting a sugar addiction:

Sugarless: A 7-Step Plan to Uncover Hidden Sugars, Curb Your Cravings, and Conquer Your Addiction

Enjoy!

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  • The Age-Proof Brain – by Dr. Marc Milstein

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Biological aging is not truly just one thing, but rather the amalgam of many things intersecting—and most of them are modifiable. The cells of your body neither know nor care how many times you have flown around the sun; they just respond to the stimuli they’re given.

    Which is what fuels this book. The idea is to have a brain that is less-assailed by the things that would make it age, and more rejuvenated by the things that can make it biologically younger.

    Dr. Milstein doesn’t neglect the rest of the body, and indeed notes the brain’s connections with the immune system, the heart, the gut, and more. But everything in this book is done with the brain in mind and its good health as the top priority outcome of all the things he advises.

    On which note, yes, there is plenty of practical, implementable advice here. For a book that is consistently full of study paper citations, he does take care to make everything useful to the reader, and makes everything as easy as possible for the layperson along the way.

    Bottom line: if you would like your brain to age less, this is an excellent, very evidence-based, guidebook.

    Click here to check out The Age-Proof Brain, and age-proof your brain!

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  • “The Longevity Vitamin” (That’s Not A Vitamin)

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    The Magic of Mushrooms

    “The Longevity Vitamin that’s not a vitamin” is a great tagline for what’s actually an antioxidant amino acid nutraceutical, but in this case, we’re not the ones spearheading its PR, but rather, the Journal of Nutritional Science:

    Is ergothioneine a “longevity vitamin” limited in the American diet?

    It can be found in all foods, to some extent, but usually in much tinier amounts than would be useful. The reason for this is that it’s synthesized by a variety of microbes (mostly fungi and actinobacteria), and enters the food chain via vegetables that are grown in soil that contain such (which is basically all soil, unless you were to go out of your way to sterilize it, or something really unusually happened).

    About those fungi? That includes common popular edible fungi, where it is found quite generously. An 85g (3oz) portion of (most) mushrooms contains about 5mg of ergothioneine, the consumption of which is associated with a 16% reduced all-cause mortality:

    Association of mushroom consumption with all-cause and cause-specific mortality among American adults: prospective cohort study findings from NHANES III

    However… Most Americans don’t eat that many mushrooms, and those polled averaged 1.1mg/day ergothioneine (in contrast with, for example, Italians’ 4.6mg/day average).

    Antioxidant properties

    While its antioxidant properties aren’t the most exciting quality, they are worth a mention, on account of their potency:

    The biology of ergothioneine, an antioxidant nutraceutical

    This is also part of its potential bid to get classified as a vitamin, because…

    ❝Decreased blood and/or plasma levels of ergothioneine have been observed in some diseases, suggesting that a deficiency could be relevant to the disease onset or progression❞

    ~ Dr. Barry Halliwell et al.

    Source: Ergothioneine: a diet-derived antioxidant with therapeutic potential

    Healthy aging

    Building on from the above, ergothioneine has been specifically identified as being associated with healthy aging and the prevention of cardiometabolic diseases:

    ❝An increasing body of evidence suggests ergothioneine may be an important dietary nutrient for the prevention of a variety of inflammatory and cardiometabolic diseases and ergothioneine has alternately been suggested as a vitamin, “longevity vitamin”, and nutraceutical❞

    ~ Dr. Bernadette Moore et al., citing more references every few words there

    Source: Ergothioneine: an underrecognised dietary micronutrient required for healthy ageing?

    Good for the heart = good for the brain

    As a general rule of thumb, “what’s good for the heart is good for the brain” is almost always true, and it appears to be so in this case, too:

    ❝Ergothioneine crosses the blood–brain barrier and has been reported to have beneficial effects in the brain. In this study, we discuss the cytoprotective and neuroprotective properties of ergotheioneine, which may be harnessed for combating neurodegeneration and decline during aging.❞

    ~ Dr. Bindu Paul

    Source: Ergothioneine: A Stress Vitamin with Antiaging, Vascular, and Neuroprotective Roles?

    Want to get some?

    You can just eat a portion of mushrooms per day! But if you don’t fancy that, it is available as a supplement in convenient 1/day capsule form too.

    We don’t sell it, but for your convenience, here is an example product on Amazon

    Enjoy!

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  • How Old Is Too Old For HRT?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

    Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

    In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

    As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

    So, no question/request too big or small 😎

    ❝I think you guys do a great job. Wondering if I can suggest a topic? Older women who were not offered hormone replacement therepy because of a long term study that was misread. Now, we need science to tell us if we are too old to benefit from begininng to take HRT. Not sure how old your readers are on average but it would be a great topic for older woman. Thanks❞

    ‌Thank you for the kind words, and the topic suggestion!

    About the menopause and older age thereafter

    We’ve talked a bit before about the menopause, for example:

    What You Should Have Been Told About The Menopause Beforehand

    And we’ve even discussed the unfortunate social phenomenon of post-menopausal women thinking “well, that’s over and done with now, time to forget about that”, because spoiler, it will never be over and done with—your body is always changing every day, and will continue to do so until you no longer have a body to change.

    This means, therefore, that since changes are going to happen no matter what, the onus is on us to make the changes as positive (rather than negative) as possible:

    Menopause, & When Not To Let Your Guard Down

    About cancer risk

    It sounds like you know this one, but for any who were unaware: indeed, there was an incredibly overblown and misrepresented study, and even that was about older forms of HRT (being conjugated equine estrogens, instead of bioidentical estradiol):

    HRT: A Tale Of Two Approaches

    As for those who have previously had breast cancer or similar, there is also:

    The Hormone Therapy That Reduces Breast Cancer Risk & More

    Is it too late?

    Fortunately, there is a quick and easy test to know whether you are too old to benefit:

    First, find your pulse, by touching the first two fingers of one hand, against the wrist of the other. If you’re unfamiliar with where to find the pulse at the wrist, here’s a quick explainer.

    Or if you prefer a video:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Did you find it?

    Good; in that case, it’s not too late!

    Scientists have tackled this question, looking at women of various ages, and finding that when comparing age groups taking HRT, disease risk changes do not generally vary much by age i.e., someone at 80 gets the same relative benefit from HRT as someone at 50, with no extra risks from the HRT. For example, if taking HRT at 50 reduces a risk by n% compared to an otherwise similar 50-year-old not on HRT, then doing so at 80 reduces the same risk by approximately the same percentage, compared to an otherwise similar 80-year-old not on HRT.

    There are a couple of exceptions, such as in the case of already having advanced atherosclerotic lesions (in which specific case HRT could increase inflammation; not something it usually does), or in the case of using conjugated equine estrogens instead of modern bioidentical estradiol (as we talked about before).

    Thus, for the most part, HRT is considered safe and effective regardless of age:

    How old is too old for hormone therapy?

    👆 that’s from 2015 though, so how about a new study, from 2024?

    ❝Compared with never use or discontinuation of menopausal hormone therapy after age 65 years, the use of estrogen monotherapy beyond age 65 years was associated with significant risk reductions in mortality (19% or adjusted hazards ratio, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.79-0.82), breast cancer (16%), lung cancer (13%), colorectal cancer (12%), congestive heart failure (CHF) (5%), venous thromboembolism (3%), atrial fibrillation (4%), acute myocardial infarction (11%), and dementia (2%).❞

    ❝Among senior Medicare women, the implications of menopausal hormone therapy use beyond age 65 years vary by types, routes, and strengths. In general, risk reductions appear to be greater with low rather than medium or high doses, vaginal or transdermal rather than oral preparations, and with estradiol rather than conjugated estrogen.

    Read in full: Use of menopausal hormone therapy beyond age 65 years and its effects on women’s health outcomes by types, routes, and doses

    As for more immediately-enjoyable benefits (improved mood, healthier skin, better sexual function, etc), yes, those also are benefits that people enjoy at least into their eighth decade:

    See: Use of hormone therapy in Swedish women aged 80 years or older

    What about…

    Statistically speaking, most people who take HRT have a great time with it and consider it life-changing in a good way. However, nothing is perfect; sometimes going on HRT can have a shaky start, and for those people, there may be some things that need addressing. So for that, check out:

    HRT Side Effects & Troubleshooting

    And also, while estrogen monotherapy is very common, it is absolutely worthwhile to consider also taking progesterone alongside it:

    Progesterone Menopausal HRT: When, Why, And How To Benefit

    Enjoy!

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  • Pine Bark’s Next-Level Antioxidant Properties

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Pine Bark’s Next-Level Antioxidant Properties

    Pine bark extract has been used by the indigenous peoples of N. America for a very long time, to treat a variety of ailments.

    This one falls into the category of “things from traditional medicine that eventually got investigated and their scientific worth noticed by people from outside of those cultures”.

    Not all pine trees!

    If you happen to have pine trees near you, be aware that without sufficient botanical knowledge, you could find yourself bark-harvesting from the wrong tree—but many species of pine do have these qualities.

    Useful (for this purpose) pine trees include, but are not limited to:

    • Pinus banksiana
    • Pinus massoniana
    • Pinus pinaster
    • Pinus radiata
    • Pinus resinosa
    • Pinus strobus

    …which is already a fair list, but there are dozens more that have not been studied, and/or found lacking in medicinal qualities, and/or just didn’t make our list here today.

    What does it do & How does it work?

    We sneakily put those two questions together today because it’s easiest to explain in one:

    The Pinus family in general has powerful antioxidant qualities, and not just like blueberries or coffee (wonderful as those are).

    Rather, it has:

    • Phenolic acids: these are the polyphenols found in many plant foods rich in antioxidants. These are great, but they aren’t the exciting part here.
    • Catechins: these aren’t classified as antioxidants, but they are flavonoids that do the same job in a slightly different way
    • Procyanidins: another class of flavonoids, and this is where pine bark really comes into its own

    And yes, as ever, “those three things that always seem to come together”, it having these antioxidant properties means it is also anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer:

    Procyanidin fractions from pine (Pinus pinaster) bark: radical scavenging power in solution, antioxidant activity in emulsion, and antiproliferative effect in melanoma cells

    …and anti-aging:

    Pleiotropic Effects of French Maritime Pine Bark Extract to Promote Healthy Aging

    …which does of course mean that it almost certainly fights age-related cognitive decline, though studies for that have been animal studies so far, such as:

    Where to get it?

    As ever, we don’t sell it, but here’s an example product on Amazon for your convenience; we recommend shopping around though, as prices vary a lot!

    Enjoy!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

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  • The Lupus Solution – by Dr. Tiffany Caplan & Dr. Brent Caplan

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Lupus is not fun, and this book sets out to make it easier.

    Starting off by explaining the basics of autoimmunity and how lupus works, the authors go on the address the triggers of lupus and how to avoid them—which if you’ve been suffering from lupus for a while, you probably know this part already, but it’s as well to give them a look over just in case you missed something.

    The real value of the book though comes in the 8 chapters of the section “Tools & Therapies” which are mostly lifestyle adjustments though there are additionally some pharmaceutical approaches that can also help, and they are explained too. And no, it’s not just “reduce inflammation” (but yes, also that); rather, a whole array of things are examined that often aren’t thought of as related to lupus, but in fact can have a big impact.

    The style is to-the-point and informational, and formatted for ease of reading. It doesn’t convey more hard science than necessary, but it does have a fair bibliography at the back.

    It’s a short book, weighing in at 182 pages. If you want something more comprehensive, check out our review of The Lupus Encyclopedia, which is 848 pages of information-dense text and diagrams.

    Bottom line: if you have lupus and would like fewer symptoms, this book can help you with that quite a bit without getting so technical as the aforementioned encyclopedia.

    Click here to check out The Lupus Solution, and live more comfortably!

    Don’t Forget…

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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  • Understanding Cellulitis: Skin And Soft Tissue Infections

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    What’s the difference between a minor passing skin complaint, and a skin condition that’s indicative of something more serious? Dr. Thomas Watchman explains:

    More than skin-deep

    Cellulitis sounds benign enough, like having a little cellulite perhaps, but in fact it means an infection of the skin and—critically—the underlying soft tissues.

    Normally, the skin acts as a barrier against infections, but this barrier can be breached by physical trauma (i.e. an injury that broke the skin), eczema, fungal nail infections, skin ulcers, and other similar things that disrupt the skin’s ability to protect us.

    Things to watch out for: Dr. Watchman advises we keep an eye out for warm, reddened skin, swelling, and blisters. Specifically, a golden-yellow crust to these likely indicates a Staphylococcus aureus infection (hence the name).

    There’s a scale of degrees of severity:

    • Class 1: No systemic toxicity or comorbidities
    • Class 2: Systemic toxicity or comorbidities present
    • Class 3: Significant systemic toxicity or comorbidities with risk of significant deterioration
    • Class 4: Sepsis or life-threatening infection

    …with antibiotics being recommended in the latter two cases there, or in other cases for frail, young, old, or immunocompromised patients. Given the rather “scorched earth” results of antibiotics (they cause a lot of collateral iatrogenic damage), this can be taken as a sign of how seriously such infections should be taken.

    For more about all this, including visual guides, enjoy:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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