Thoughts for Food and Food for Thought
I had a gut feeling about this.
Hearing that news made me sick to my stomach.
Eventually I got so scared, I shit my pants.
We have all heard people use these expressions.
In Dutch you might say “je hebt een brok in mijn keel” when your feelings choke you.
We say these things when we get strong physical reactions to our emotions.
When people don’t want to face their feelings, we say they “stuff them down” or “eat their feelings”. Germans call weight gain from worrying “Kümmerspeck” (worry-fat).
Around the world, language and expressions reflect what we all know: food, eating and the digestive system are closely connected to our personal psychology and our emotions!
Traditional healthcare like Ayurveda and Chinese medicine have always respected and worked with this knowledge.
Thankfully western medicine is starting to catch up to the past !
Medical fields such as neurogastroenterology, psychology-based eating disorder rehabs, the study of the relationship between the gut-microbiome and autism spectrum disorders and many more disciplines of biological and psychological medicine are exploring the connection between our brains and our “second brains”, aka our “emotional brains”.
When people struggle with weight problems, irritable bowel syndrome, indigestion, acid reflux, food allegies and so on, many of us are stuck in the old model of thinking that we have to change diet and nutrition to resolve these issues.
Although a healthy diet is certainly important, we also know that most of these people will run from one diet fad to another and never actually find permanent resolve! Dieting or diets filled with superfoods becomes a lifestyle or even an obsession. It becomes their guilt and their reward.
My name is Caspar Poyck C.Ht..
I grew up in The Netherlands, the son of yoga teachers, and I am now a Digestive Therapist in Ojai, California.
In my work I look at how a wide variety of unprocessed emotions such as anger, fear, anxiety, depression etc. affect eating behavior but also the actual functioning of the Autonomic Nervous System!
Unprocessed emotions are stressful and this stress certainly changes eating behavior but what is often overlooked, and that what has an even bigger affect on people’s processing of food, is the change in blood pressure, lymphatic response, inflammation, (auto) immune function, neurotransmitter levels, hormone levels and so on, caused by this stress. This is one of the important reasons why some people can eat anything they want while others gain weight, get stomach aches, get irritable bowel etc. from the same foods.
“HOW we eat may be more important than WHAT we eat”.
From now on I will be a contributing writer to Amsterdam Alternative and I will share stories and insights with you about the work I do with private clients, in workshops and on the retreats I lead around the world.
Here is my first tale:
A few years ago I had a client who had unexplained, sudden weight gain. She came to me for help. Like so many people are taught to expect, she figured I would just give her a strict diet to stick to. But I don’t work that way! Instead, I first explored her history and what had changed in her psychological and emotional state before her weight gain.
During our conversation I learned that when she was a little girl, her stepfather would pick her up from school a few times of week and take her to her ballet class.
Most often, they would have enough time to eat healthy food, but when they were rushing, they’d quickly just get some french fries.
Now, here I must tell you that one of the most powerful ways in which mammals’ brains learn, is by developing associations and resulting subconscious behaviors. In future writings I will talk more about WHY we evolved this way. I will explain why our limbic brain makes such strong associations AND how we can use this for our benefit! This is from a workshop series I call “Supercharged Brain-Hacking”. But for now, let’s go back to our story...
As a child, my client had leant to associate “feeling safe while stressed” with the taste of french fries! Now, years later, she had become a young mom. She had a new job. Her days were hectic and stressed! Rushing from work each day, her body would react to this busy, rushing around-stress by craving french fries! Of course it doesn’t take a genius to know that if you start eating more french fries, you might gain weight. If that same stress has led to raised cortisol levels in the body, you’re really increasing your likelyhood of weight gain.
My client’s stress had affected her eating behavior through childhood associations but also the proper functioning of her Autonomic Nervous System. A double whammy.
In order to help this client lose her unwanted weight, I gave her techniques to help her lower her stress so her body would function better. I also taught her the Supercharged Brain-Hacking techniques to retrain her brain to crave healthy foods.
From now on she handled her stress better, ate healthier foods and because her body was out of fight/flight mode it processed the foods much more efficiently. She soon lost the weight she didn’t want!
Next time I will teach you why and how this Supercharged Brain-Hacking works!
Until then:
LiveWell, LoveWell, EatWell, BeWell !
Stay Inquisitive.
Caspar F.C.M. Poyck C.Ht. is the creator of Digestive Therapy ©
•ACCET
•American Association of Drugless Practitioners
•Member AHA
•Consultant at drug and alcohol treatment centers
•Ambassador to The Foundation for Living Beauty (cancer survivors)
•Retreat leader in the United States, Europe and Costa Rica
www.WhatMakesYouEat.com