Why Does a Low Serotonin Level Cause Food Cravings & Weight Gain?
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There are people who have low serotonin levels that find that eating sweets, especially high GI refined carbohydrates like cakes, doughnuts and pies, triggers intense cravings for more sweets. These people have an intolerance to high GI refined carbohydrates combined with sugar. This means that your body doesn’t process high GI refined carbohydrate sweets as well as someone who has no problem with refined carbohydrates. (You may also find the same reaction from eating high GI refined carbohydrates that don’t include sugar, like white bread and wholemeal bread.)
When they eat high GI refined carbohydrates, their bodies release a larger amount of insulin than people with normal levels of serotonin do. This in turn clears the blood glucose out of the blood stream very quickly, which produces a state of hypoglycemia or low blood sugar, which in turn triggers food cravings, especially for high GI refined carbohydrates and sweets. People who are sugar intolerant (particularly alcoholics or children of alcoholics) have naturally low serotonin levels in the brain. If a person has an adequate serotonin level in the brain, this means they can easily control impulses to eat sweets, starches and alcohol (they don’t usually have to deal with food cravings and where sweets are concerned they can "take it or leave it"). So What Is Serotonin?
Serotonin is called a neurotransmitter or messenger of the brain. When the brain sends a message via a neurotransmitter there has to be a corresponding neuroreceptor to receive the message. The neurotransmitter is like a radio-wave and the neuroreceptor is like a radio station. The frequencies have to match up to be picked up by the radio station. It is the same in the brain. The "radio station" neuroreceptor for serotonin will only accept messages transmitted by the serotonin neurotransmitter. Serotonin is the "feel good" neurotransmitter of the brain. Serotonin is responsible for us feeling happy, relaxed, calm, motivated, and at peace with our lives and our role in the world. People suffering from depression invariably have low serotonin levels and are often prescribed SSRIs (Serotonin Selective Reuptake Inhibitors). The problem with this is that these medications have a lot of side-effects including are heart palpitations, digestive upsets such as nausea and diarrhea, hormonal imbalances, insomnia, nightmares, increased appetite and weight gain, sweating, sexual dysfunction including loss of libido, erectile dysfunction and decreased orgasm, headaches, dizziness, lethargy, and fatigue. It is always better to find natural ways of reversing low serotonin levels and luckily there are a number of things that you can do to raise your levels in a safe and natural way, without side-effects.
Low serotonin levels cause intense refined carbohydrate cravings that are very difficult to ignore. In particular, these food cravings trigger impulse eating that is difficult to control with willpower alone. Exercising willpower and determination becomes difficult because your emotions make you feel "What’s the use, even if I lose weight I’ll only gain it back anyway. I’ll always be fat." You give up because you feel you are fighting a losing battle. Basically, low serotonin levels attack your ability to "just say no". It is quite common for obesity to trigger low serotonin levels, which in turn triggers a vicious cycle of food cravings and weight gain. (People suffering from Fibromyalgia and Myofascial Pain also commonly have low serotonin levels. Refer to the "What Health Conditions Cause Weight Gain? e-book for more information.) For a short time after eating high GI refined carbohydrate sweets, you increase serotonin levels, your mood elevates, you feel good and your self-esteem and confidence increases. When you have low serotonin levels and you feel depressed it is very easy to be lured and tempted into chasing this “feel good” mood and your ability to "just say no" gives way to finding excuses to justify giving in to the cravings.
That is why eating highly processed, high GI carbohydrates triggers food cravings and food obsessions in the long run. It is much better to eat a constant supply of low GI carbohydrates and protein at each meal and snack in order to keep your serotonin level elevated naturally. When your serotonin level in the brain is at an ideal level, you feel relaxed and at peace with the world and yourself. When you have low serotonin levels, you are no longer relaxed and have very little willpower to say no to the increased level of high GI refined carbohydrate cravings and impulsive eating patterns. What health conditions are linked to having low serotonin levels?The list of health conditions that are caused or exacerbated by having low serotonin levels are quite extensive, and more and more research is being done all the time to learn how this important neurotransmitter is affecting all areas of our lives. Just some conditions linked to low serotonin levels are:
How Do Lifestyle Choices Trigger Low Serotonin Levels? There are some factors that trigger low serotonin levels that we have no control over like hereditary factors and the fact that women have naturally lower levels of serotonin than men (and interestingly, women dieters have problems with low serotonin levels, but not men dieters! And of course, more women also have eating disorders than men.) Also, it is thought that children of alcoholics invariably have low serotonin levels naturally. If we couple a natural tendency to have low serotonin levels with various lifestyle choices that also trigger low serotonin levels, we have a prescription for disaster! Because low serotonin levels are known to trigger food cravings and obsessive behaviours regarding eating, we assume that this is the only scenario, but in actual fact, our poor diets and unhealthy eating patterns, especially dieting, plays a critical role in causing low serotonin levels and triggering a vicious cycle of weight gain and yo-yo dieting. Eating highly processed foods upsets the delicate balance of insulin and glucagon and over time, insulin resistance will develop. When this happens, high levels of insulin and blood glucose will also interfere with the body's ability to produce serotonin. (Another good reason to eliminate high GI carbohydrates from your diet and eat more low GI carbohydrates.) How Does Stress Trigger Low Serotonin Levels? Stress also plays an important part in triggering low serotonin levels. Our modern society is becoming more stressful all the time, and the effects of our increasing levels of stress is being felt in many different areas of our lives, and is expressing itself in increased feelings of anger, aggression and depression. And when you have low serotonin levels, it is harder to cope with these everyday stressors.
When excessive stress goes on for too long, our body's begin to exhibit signs of burn-out and chronic fatigue, low energy and depression. The longer this goes on, the more acute the chronic fatigue becomes, with elevated levels of lethargy and tiredness that no amount of sleep will cure. At this point, we will often see signs of depressed immune system function and low serotonin levels. Increasing serotonin levels definitely help us to cope with the negative effects of living in our stressful modern society. Another interesting thing that is being researched is the relationship between smoking and low serotonin levels. Although the act of smoking does increase serotonin levels in the short term, the long term effect of smoking is that it triggers low serotonin levels. It is thought that increasing serotonin levels (especially when done naturally, not with SSRIs) has a positive effect on decreasing cigarette cravings and helping to improve mood and feelings of happiness so that it is easier to cope with withdrawal symptoms and cravings. Of course, following the natural measures outlined in the "Diet Free ... At Last!" Program will also have a dramatic effect in reversing your low serotonin levels, which in turn will help to cope with withdrawal symptoms and cravings.
... And what is Leptin Resistance? Leptin Resistance is something that not many people have heard about, even though it has been in the research papers since about 1994. At that time, researchers thought that this was the answer to obesity. They thought this because studies had been done with rats where if they gave leptin to obese rats, the rats started to lose weight. That made them think that that if they put leptin in a tablet and gave it to overweight people, they would lose weight, but unfortunately this has not been the case. As usual, human biology is too complicated for such a simplistic solution! When leptin works properly, when we gain weight, our own fat tissues release the hormone leptin which suppresses our appetite and speeds up our metabolism to burn off the fat so that we return to our original weight. Can you believe it? Our fat actually regulates itself and returns us to our optimal weight or set-point! Leptin also helps us to feel full and satisfied after eating and reduces sugar and food cravings. Basically, it tells us when to eat and when to stop. This is why you will often see healthy slim people who eat amazing amounts of food, but they burn it all off. We enviously attribute this to their incredible fast metabolisms. And this is perfectly correct. They do have fast metabolisms. But the interesting thing is that this is the natural order of things. This is how our bodies were created and all human beings have this capability … until we unbalance our body’s natural weight-regulation system. Yes, that’s right … if our bodies were working as nature intended, then if you gained a few pounds, your body’s natural weight-regulation system would burn them off automatically. Simply put, leptin is the hormone that regulates our appetites and our metabolism. It also regulates how much fat we are going to store and how much fat we are going to burn. It is the hormone that regulates our body’s set-point, that is, the weight that our body naturally wants to settle at. Quite obviously, this is an incredibly important hormone! When leptin is working properly in a healthy body, it perpetuates a delicate balance of speeding up and slowing down metabolism, storing and burning fat and suppressing and triggering appetite in order to keep your weight balanced. When this mechanism is tampered with, it doesn’t work properly and you develop leptin resistance. Once this happens, that delicate balance is destroyed and we are caught in an endless loop of slow metabolism, fat-storage, increased food cravings, hunger and increased appetite and of course the end result of this is endless weight gain. On top of that, the body will develop various annoying symptoms, including low serotonin levels. Low Serotonin Levels can trigger many different symptoms including painful symptoms like fibromyalgia, muscle aches and pain, burning sensations, sleep disorders and even hot flashes! There is a very strong correlation between leptin resistance and low serotonin levels. Leptin is a hormone and you will often find that people with low serotonin levels have many different hormonal imbalances including leptin resistance, impaired thyroid, exhausted adrenal glands and insulin resistance. All these different hormones are inter-connected and rely on a healthy hormonal system to work efficiently and often when one is imbalanced, others will be imbalanced as well, triggering a vicious cycle that seems never-ending. This is why weight gain is a symptom of each of the above-mentioned hormonal imbalances, as well as one of the symptoms of low serotonin levels. Leptin Resistance is the key-pin hormone that starts the vicious cycle ... and then perpetuates it. So to recap... The list of things that cause low serotonin levels is rather long including (but not limited to) dieting, stress, alcoholism and drug addiction, leaky gut syndrome, Candida, food intolerances, (for more information on Candida and food intolerances, refer to the "What Health Conditions Cause Weight Gain" e-book), diabetes and insulin resistance, high blood sugar and insulin levels, eating too much high GI carbohydrates and junk food, eating disorders, low fat diet and eating too little essential fatty acids, and adrenal exhaustion. All these lifestyle choices trigger low serotonin levels, which in turn triggers depression. And of course, the more depressed we feel, the harder it is to stay motivated to eat in a healthy nutritious way. As a matter of fact, more often then not, people will use food as a "comfort" to make them feel better in the hopes of alleviating their depression in some small way. Usually the depression and low serotonin levels will trigger carbohydrate cravings in the hope that eating more carbohydrates will raise the serotonin levels. Unfortunately, this usually backfires because highly processed carbohydrate junk food will actually cause low serotonin levels in the long run. So, Now the Good News! Yes, There is An Easy Way to Reverse Low Serotonin Levels... The "Diet Free ... At Last!" Weight Loss Program explains the best way to reverse low serotonin levels naturally with nutrition, exercise, meditation and supplementation. (As a matter of fact, increasing serotonin levels naturally is the first of 7 Strategies of the "Diet Free ... At Last!" Program!)
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As
a thank you for ordering the "Diet Free ... At Last!" Weight Loss Program, I
have also included a second e-book, "Discover
The 33 Secrets to AntiAging & Weight Loss!", absolutely FREE!
... 
Studies
show that Stress causes Weight Gain!...
Following
the suggested 14-Day "Food-Craving Buster" Menu plans helps to eliminate food
cravings and makes it much easier to follow the "Diet Free … At Last!" Weight
Loss Program. The menu planner can help to take out the guess work where eating
healthy balanced meals is concerned and can give you many ideas for delicious
healthy meals your family will love. 
