Pred-cravings

[orsen-trapp]

Just seen this on the BBC site and wonder if the technique would work for the sorts of food cravings we all get on high-dose steroids? Anyone want to try it and report back?

bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-336...

[valwood]

I've just read the article, very interesting, but I now fancy a bar of chocolate.

[Hidden]

Hey Orsen, I'm not convinced. The only way to not give in to cravings, is to not give in to cravings. I have tried brushing my teeth with minty toothpaste, eating garlic and nibbling on frozen fruit in the past. But if I want chocolate...nobody better get in my way.

[PMRpro]

If I eat high quality dark chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids, I'm perfectly happy with one square - and I eat it really slowly, letting it melt on my tongue, savouring each small bite. That's enough to satisfy the desire.

My husband though eats Milka (no rubbish on our house) and will eat half a bar at a time, in large bites. If I sneak a bit of his because I have none left I know I will want another bit, and another, and another...

Then there's Hersheys - I don't even bother unwrapping that as it is so disgusting.

I'm sure eating expensive and very high quality plain chocolate is far preferable to imagining eating it - so no, not offering to be a guinea pig. And Raspberry_tea has it absolutely right - if you don't buy it in the first place it isn't a temptation.

There is, however, plenty of evidence that allowing the occasional temptation makes for a more successful diet - and is the basis of the 5:2 diet: you only diet for one day at a time, you can have that chocolate icecream tomorrow.

[Hidden]

Thanks for the share Orsen-trap, very interesting. I think it would be a full time job managing pred craving by imaginary eating!

The old Pavlov effect worked for me, eating brings on jaw pain and stomach pain which effectively limited my food intake, even when in the grip of severe pred induced food cravings!

I am not suggesting pain as a deterrent but I think the classical conditioning method may have some merits too.

[orsen-trapp]

I wasn't actually recommending this method, just mentioning it in case it worked for someone! Personally, if I'm given a nice box of chocolates I have one every other day or even one a week and eat it very very slowly! I agree that one square of seriously dark chocolate is more than enough. I will eat cheaper chocolate when active outdoors and needing a sugar boost (maybe that sentence should be in the past tense ).

[Hidden in reply to orsen-trapp]

I am amazed at your self control re chocolate. I have stopped buying it but do still bake and have cake every day!

[piglette]

Interestingly enough I met someone in the swimming pool who uses hypnotherapy for food cravings, which I suppose is what the BBC programme is trying to do in the trial, a form of self hypnotism. She told me she has just been on a course to learn about hypnotising people to believe they have had a gastric band fitted, which seemed interesting.

[Albasain]

Interesting! Many years ago my friend and I did an experiment using a Worcester apple each. Now a Worcester apple is a crisp fleshed tasty English apple but quite small in comparison with those found generally in supermarkets. The experiment consisted of imagining an apple seed growing into the bush, flowering and becoming the fruit with every bite you took remembering that the apple had done so just for ourselves. At the end neither of us had finished the apple we had but felt quite full as if we had eaten a full meal. Further experiments with different foods gave the same results.

We concluded that in general most people didn't think about the food they ate nor where it really came from and subsequently ate too much for their bodies needs which in turn lead to overweight problems which seems to be prevalent in the western world today and in particular with the high energy sugary foods so easily available.

Perhaps if we all adapted a similar response to the food we consume there may be a reduction in obesity and some of the "modern" diseases that are becoming quite common today.

[orsen-trapp in reply to Albasain]

As soon as I read 'Worcester apple' my mouth started watering! They are so delicious! Taking time to savour food rather than scoffing it is definitely a good idea. Eating in front of the telly is a disaster. We don't have one and eat together at the kitchen table - and we definitely notice and appreciate what we're eating ... none of us are overweight.

[piglette in reply to orsen-trapp]

The Japanese have a fork that vibrates if you take mouthfuls of food in less than ten second intervals. It is supposed to make you eat more slowly.

[PMRpro in reply to orsen-trapp]

Mindfulness - it's the word of the season isn't it?

[orsen-trapp in reply to PMRpro]

Yep - current disguise for new age stuff being peddled as science!

[michichgo]

I hated the prednisone hunger effect that would literally make me double over in pain.

One evening, having finished dinner, I went back into the kitchen to prepare dinner: numero dos.

I've read of folks that could control themselves on the dread-pred. I was not so lucky.

[PMRpro in reply to michichgo]

Sounds more like dementia to me...