Hunger Hacked

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Transforming the Hunger Experience

Speaker 1 0:00

If you're following any of my programs , such as the programs I introduced , for instance , in my wheat belly books , in my undoctored book most recently , detailing the addition of microbiome strategies in Super Gut , what you may have noticed is that you're no longer hungry , or that hunger has taken on a completely different feel for you . So you may recall in the days before you did some of these things , that it wasn't uncommon to have this kind of gnawing , desperate hunger every few hours . It wouldn't be unusual , for instance , to have your breakfast , say , of stone ground organic oatmeal and skim milk with a banana , at 8 am , and by 9.30 or 10 , you're starving again , looking for a snack and then counting the minutes till lunch . You have your lunch and then at 2 o'clock you're starving again , looking for a snack and then counting the minutes till lunch . You have your lunch and then at two o'clock , three o'clock , you're starving again . And it was this constant search for food , this constant aching , gnawing hunger , that you're dealing with . Another common phenomenon you may have noticed is that you may have had a big bowl of pasta and that even when you're filled to bursting , you're still somehow hungry . These are very unnatural situations that should not develop in normal , wild living humans . It's a product of our lives . It's a product of all the things we're exposed to that increase appetite . So what is it in my programs that has allowed this to be subdued or go away completely , such that you have your breakfast at 8 am .

Speaker 1 1:29

You might not have breakfast at all . Let's say you did . Let's say you had two eggs and maybe some ham or some sausage , whatever . You might not be hungry till maybe 2 o'clock , 3 o'clock . You might forget , actually forget to eat lunch . Or you nibble at something and have a second meal , a major meal , say at three or four or 5 pm , and then you're done . You don't have that desire for after-meal snacks or in-between-meal snacks . You don't need a dessert . Snacking is a thing of the past . In other words , hunger is different . It also feels different . You may have noticed it's not that gnawing , desperate feel . Many people report , for instance , just having this kind of gentle restlessness that you might not even recognize as hunger at first , and then you realize , oh , it might be time to eat something . So the entire experience is very different . But why ? What is it we're doing that has allowed hunger to become a thing of the past , at least the desperate sort of hunger .

Gliadin-Derived Opioid Peptides and Appetite

Speaker 1 2:27

One is we've eliminated all sorts of gliadin-derived opioid peptides , and all that means is there's a class of proteins in wheat and grains . There's a class of proteins called prolamins , because they're rich in proline , and those are amino acid sequences involving proline that we don't have digestive enzymes to break down . So if you had most proteins , like , say , an egg or a piece of beef or salmon , your digestive system would break those down , the proteins down into single amino acids and then they're converted to the components of your body . When you consume the gliadin protein of wheat and related proteins and other grains , you can't break them down to single amino acids . You can break the gliadin protein down into four or five amino acid long peptide fragments . Now , these peptide fragments are very unusual in that they cross into the brain and stimulate opioid receptors . Now , they don't make you high . By stimulating these opioid receptors , it stimulates appetite , typically causing you to take in at least several hundred more calories per day and be exposed , not uncommonly , to around-the-clock hunger . This is a big problem . People who are prone to conditions like bulimia or binge eating disorder , these are people who have 24-hour-a-day food obsessions . These are the people you might find camped out in front of the refrigerator at 3 am binging and then going to the bathroom sticking a finger down their throat and throwing up Very demoralizing , low self-esteem and very unhealthy . When those people get rid of glide and drive opioid peptides , it's not uncommon for them to say for the first time in 20 or 30 years I'm freed of food obsessions . So getting rid of glide and derived opioid peptides by limiting wheat and grains is a big deal , also

Insulin Resistance and Carb Management

Speaker 1 4:22

in my programs .

Speaker 1 4:22

Because we recognize that two-thirds of Americans have insulin resistance . That is , their body , their muscle , liver , brain , other organs don't respond normally to insulin . So the pancreas compensates by massive overproduction of insulin , not like a 10% or 30% worse , but tenfold , 30-fold , 100-fold higher levels of insulin . And that causes expansion of abdominal fat , inflammation . That leads to coronary disease , dementia , breast cancer , other health conditions .

Speaker 1 5:00

So in an effort , as part of our effort to minimize or reduce or eliminate insulin resistance , we limit net carbs , that is , total carbs minus fiber , to no more than 15 grams per meal . Please don't mistake this for ketosis or our ketogenic diet . We are intermittently ketotic , but we're not purposefully ketotic . I don't think that's necessary for great health . Ketotic , but we're not purposefully ketotic . I don't think that's necessary for great health . So we limit our net carb exposure to 15 grams or less per meal .

Speaker 1 5:30

Well , what that does is it avoids the rollercoaster ride of high blood glucose , because high blood glucose triggers even more insulin . That causes an overshoot and you get low blood glucose , hypoglycemia , and you get low blood glucose , hypoglycemia . So 99 plus percent of the time , hypoglycemia low blood sugar is preceded by hyperglycemia high blood glucose . So the key don't allow the high blood sugars to occur , and we do so by limiting net carbs . We start , of course , by limiting wheat and grains , because the amylopectin , a carbohydrate unique to wheat and grains , is an extravagant cause for high blood glucoses . We eliminate that . We limit other carbs to no more than 15 grams net and you don't get that roller coaster , you don't get hyperglycemia . We don't get hyperglycemia , hypoglycemia , because it's hypoglycemia that sets in motion not just mind fog , irritability , but also desperate hunger , and it typically occurs in a 90 to 120 minute cycle . We've eliminated that .

Speaker 1 6:34

Another thing we do in my programs is we don't limit fats and oils . We don't limit saturated fat . We don't limit oils . We don't trim the fat off our steak or pork . We don't throw away the skin on poultry or fish . We eat it . Now we do limit seed oils because there has been overexposure through such products as corn oil , cottonseed oil , mixed vegetable oils that are often added to foods or used in restaurants . So we do limit those . Don't here eliminate those oils , omega-6s or linoleic acid sources , because linoleic acid is actually an essential fatty acid . You can't do away with it entirely . You just don't want the wild overexposure that comes from consuming a modern diet .

Fats, Oils, and Processed Foods

Speaker 1 7:18

We also eliminate or avoid processed and ultra-processed foods . These are foods that have food additives that amplify appetite . These are foods like chips , potato chips , corn chips , other highly processed foods that have been purposefully engineered to increase your appetite and have been found to cause distortions of appetite hormones , reducing the hormones that suppress appetite , amplifying hormones that increase appetite , and so these foods are designed to stimulate appetite . So we don't eat those things . Instead , we only eat as much as possible whole unprocessed foods . For instance , an avocado unprocessed , eggs unprocessed , a piece of beef unprocessed . We have to accept some processing . You're not going to make your own extra virgin olive oil . You're not going to grow your own coffee beans , right . So there is some processing , but we try to keep it to a minimum . So we avoid the ultra-processed foods that have been engineered specifically engineered to increase your appetite .

Speaker 1 8:20

And then , lastly , we take steps to rebuild a broken gastrointestinal microbiome , and one of the first things we do is restore a microbe that virtually everybody has lost in the US because we've been overexposed to antibiotics and perhaps other factors to have killed Lactobacillus

Microbiome Restoration with L. Reuteri

Speaker 1 8:40

reuteri . This is a microbe that does many wonderful things for humans and we've lost it . But when restored , one of its effects is that it sends a signal via the vagus nerve to the brain , to the hypothalamus , to release the hormone oxytocin . Now , oxytocin has many interesting effects on humans , including benefits on reproductive health , muscle health , including benefits on reproductive health , muscle health , the immune system . But it also suppresses appetite , but specifically for something called hedonic eating , that is , snacking behavior or eating simply for the pleasure of it , like those ultra-processed foods . In other words , there's eating for survival and to suit your physiologic needs . Then there's eating that you really don't need to do . Well , that's what oxytocin addresses it tends to turn off that inappropriate snacking or hedonic behavior . Now Put all this together not limiting fats and oils , avoiding gliding derived opioid peptides , limiting net carbs , thereby avoiding hyper and hypoglycemic episodes , including the elimination of the amylopectin A of wheat and grains , and then avoiding ultra processed foods and restoring lactobacillus roteri to generate oxytocin .

Speaker 1 9:55

Put it all together and you have been given massive , virtually complete control over appetite and impulse . You can walk right past that table full of donuts or whatever all the junk food , and not even think about it , not be tempted , and you may have noticed . Should you go back to those things , you probably get sick . A lot of us get sick when we do that . You say , ah , a few , you probably get sick . A lot of us get sick . When we do that . You say , ah , a few pretzels won't hurt or a few bites of this birthday cake won't hurt . Many of us it does hurt and you get sick .

Speaker 1 10:26

Could be diarrhea , could be emotional effects like panic anxiety . It could be a recurrence of some condition that you got rid of . It's not uncommon , for instance , if you got rid of , say , an autoimmune process , for it to come back full force . One of the greatest examples I remember was years ago . I had a patient in his 50s who I saw for coronary disease . So I showed him how to put a stop to

Going Off-Program: Consequences and Support

Speaker 1 10:50

coronary disease all the things you know about if you follow my programs a diet to eliminate the expression of small LDL particles , vitamin D , omega-3 fatty acids , magnesium , iodine , and then efforts to reconstruct a microbiome . Well , he did it . But he was planning a trip to Germany and he says to me well , I'll be damned , I'm going to have some pumpernickel , right .

Speaker 1 11:12

Well , doing the program here , it took about two years . In addition to correcting all the factors that led to his coronary disease , his rheumatoid arthritis , for which he took three drugs , an anti-inflammatory , prednisone and a biologic , very expensive . He was able to stop all three and have no more joint pain or swelling . So he went from barely able to grasp anything and contemplating disability to full restoration of flexibility , no joint pain , no joint swelling . He goes to Germany , has some pumpernickel . It all comes back with a vengeance .

Speaker 1 11:51

It took him another six months of resuming the program to get back to where he was free of pain . So it took six months of pain or resumption of all those drugs to get back to undo the effects of re-exposure . So that's another reason why it becomes easier and easier to stay in this program , because when you go off the program , many people not everybody , many people get sick . So there you have it , you have the means to completely control your impulse your appetite and not be embarrassed by your inability to control your behavior . Now , if you learn something , I invite you to engage in all my resources the books , as I mentioned in the beginning , such as the Wheat Belly series , supergut , most recently , of course , my thousands of posts on my WilliamDavisMDcom blog . And if you want some support or guidance , I invite you to join the conversations I have all the time with great frequency on my innercircledrdavisinfinitehealthcom .