Sweet Temptations: The Polarizing Power of Food and Sugar Cravings
Can I actually be creating my own sugar cravings? How do I fix that?
Yes – you can be creating your own sugar cravings. Read on to find out how to fix it!
Everyone else is saying that food is calories and grams of fat. I’m saying that is only ONE way to look at food.
Everyone else is saying that food is fuel. I’m saying that food is more than simply fuel. It has energetic qualities that are beyond the science and mechanics of calories, fat grams, and nutrient values.
For example, leafy greens grow upward, so they have a ‘lifting’ energy, whereas root vegetables, like a potato or beet, grow deep into the ground, so they have a ‘grounding’ energy.
I’m saying the other way to look at food is something really cool, and the concept is called the ‘polarity of food’.
What does that mean?
The concept of polarity is pretty simple. It’s based on the principle that everything has 2 ‘polarities’ or extremes.
For example, hot and cold are extremes of the pole called ‘temperature.’
It’s the same way with every apparent opposite:
· Hard and soft
· Noisy and quiet
· Light and dark
· Good and bad
· Love and fear
When you find one thing, you’ll also find the potential for its opposite.
So to look at the world through the lens of polarity is to look at it in pairs: dark/light, night/day, male/female, etc.
So how does this concept apply to food and what does the polarity of food look like?
Where does the inherent energetic quality of different foods fall on the spectrum?
And how might this polarity in your food actually be CREATING your cravings?
Visualize on one hand the extreme of ‘Expansive Bliss’.
Foods that represent this energy are represented in alcohol, caffeine, sugar, dairy and to some extent fruit.
The energy of these foods make you feel light, relaxed and happy - blissful!
But when you eat too many ‘bliss’ foods you may start to feel spacey.
Then, visualize on the other extreme ‘Contracted Tension’ foods. These foods are contracting versus expansive. Examples of these foods are salt, eggs and red meat.
These are the kinds of foods that put ‘meat on your bones’. They make you feel grounded, focused, maybe even aggressive.
Here is a visual of the Polarity of Food!
So that’s all fine and good, but how do the two extremes of the polarity of food –the ‘Expansive Bliss’ and the ‘Contracted Tension’ – relate to sugar cravings?
If life is a system of opposites and your body is always trying to balance itself out, what do you think happens if you are having too many Contracted foods, like salt, meat, and eggs?
I’m so glad you asked
What do you think your body might start craving to balance itself out? It will crave the opposite of contracted foods –it will crave sweet, expansive bliss foods!
Do you find that if you have something salty like potato chips, you crave something sweet afterwards? That’s the challenge, if we have too many contractive foods we’ll crave the expansive.
If we have too many expansive foods, we’ll crave the contractive. So what many people don’t realize –and I didn’t realize this myself either –is that we’re often times CREATING our own cravings, unknowingly.
Cool right?
And I say “cool” because now you know! Knowledge is power and with that knowledge comes choice!
You can even look at activities in your life through the lens of the polarity of expansive and contractive.
There are things that happen in your life that are a little more contractive –they create more tension. And then there are things that are more expansive –they create more relaxation.
Examples of Contractive activities are: running, working too much, partying, staying up late, stress. When you have too many Contractive activities, you’re going to crave more Expansive foods, because you need relaxation.
If you don’t allow yourself to relax, then you’ll find yourself bingeing on wine, chocolate, bread, desserts… your body is begging for a break, like sleep, reading, prayer, meditation, walking, taking a bath.
If you’ve been driving in awful traffic or your kids have been a nightmare or you had a really stressful day at work - what are you going to crave? Sweets or a glass of wine – Expansive foods. That craving is your body trying to balance itself out again.
So if you want to “deconstruct” your cravings, don’t just look at the foods you’re eating, but also your lifestyle.
This is one reason why we have sugar cravings. Take a look at your food as well as your activities to see if this could be why you feel like sugar cravings run your life. They don’t need to. You don’t have to be stuck in autopilot and let sugar control your life. Knowledge is indeed power! Use the polarity of food to your advantage, concentrate on the foods that are in the “Balance Point”.
I’d love to help you deconstruct your sugar cravings! Grab a free spot for a short phone call right here. We can talk about lifestyle, food, and stress!
If you want to learn more about some of these tips, I am doing a series in our free FaceBook group Healthy and Happy Living.