SAD is the acronym for the Standard American Diet.  Amongst those in the know that the typical diet of Americans is indeed tragic we find it to be a most fitting label.  So many conditions clearly point to a dietary cause.  Including but not limited to leaky gut, celiac disease, crohn’s disease, the rise of diabetes in younger children, enuresis, high blood pressure due to too much salt, to name a few.
Here I would like to discuss the two main contributors to our dietary woes. Sugar and overindulgence.
Sugar is the biggest cover-up since the carcinogenic effects of smoking by the big tobacco companies. Actually, it is an even bigger cover-up since more companies are involved and children as well as adults are targeted. A quick Google search will demonstrate this, but if you would like a more comprehensive read, the book The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, And Long-term Health by Thomas Campbell PhD and T. Colin Campbell M.D. is a good one.
Let us take a look at diabetes:
1. It is on the rise in children.
2. It is associated with obesity.
3. It is a condition in which the body does not produce enough insulin for the amount of sugar it is being asked to process.
Given that someone who is obese is putting pressure on their digestive system to process more food than they need and can keep up with, it stands to reason that overindulgence is responsible for this sugar related disease in many cases.
There are a number of reasons a person may overeat. Understanding why a particular person overeats is important in successfully planning how to change this life-threatening habit. Some reasons include: upbringing, emotional eating, addictive eating, starvation.
You are probably wondering how can a person be starving and overindulge to the point of obesity simultaneously?!?
There is a theory that when a pregnant woman has a craving, say for ice cream, it is a sign of a lack of a specific nutrient, in this case calcium. Similarly, those who subscribe to a SAD diet are nutrient deficient. As a result, the person will have cravings or feelings of hunger, not because their stomach is empty but because their body is telling them it needs nutrition to give it strength rather than junk to give it more work.
Do you give SAD rewards such as M&M’s or jelly beans?

Best,