Some random thoughts about my food issues and the Introduction to 'Potatoes not Prozac'

As of January 6, 2010, I have just started reading Kathleen DesMaisons' book called "Potatoes not Prozac."

Potatoes not Prozac by Kathleen DesMaisons (2nd edition, copyright 2008)

I bought my copy from Amazon. I  have included the link above.

As I read the book, I can imagine that it will inspire memories and connections between what she writes and what I have experienced. I think best when I write out my thoughts, so I will include some of those thoughts in this blog. Follow along if you so choose.

The thrust of her book is to beat out sugar addiction. In fact, the front cover of the book says, "A Natural Seven-Step Program to (1) Balance your sugar sensitivity and come alive! and (2) Lose weight, heal depression, and and stop cravings."

Given that I am soon to have my bilateral breast reconstruction surgery (I am a breast cancer survivor and thriver) that will utilize my tummy fat to form my breasts, I would like to start focusing on losing weight in the rest of my body in a life-style change kind of a way. I plan to see if this book will prove to be helpful.

Memory #1: My parents would often state, "No dessert until you  finish your dinner." I think many parents have found themselves making the same statement. This makes me question the fact that the whole value system is built around if you will eat this boring stuff, you can have something sugary as a reward. It occurs to me, for the first time ever, that parents actually teach us to place great value with eating something that contains sugar.

The currency is the sugary dessert.

The parent basically is stating, "I will pay you to eat this boring dinner with something sugary and wonderful." Therefore, we children are taught that a sugary dessert is worth great riches. Interesting!

I had never thought about it that way before. Hmmmmmm! It makes you think, doesn't it?!!


Interesting Tidbit #1: It intrigues me when the author states,
"Sugar addiction is caused by a chemical imbalance, not a character defect."

That is indeed comforting, if it is true, that the fact that I have a love affair with sugar is not due to me not being as good or as disciplined of a person as I can be. Instead, it could be attributed to that perhaps I am harboring a long-standing chemical imbalance in my body. This will be very interesting to learn more about how to monitor and possibly fix this.


Questions to Explore: On page 5, the author talks a lot about that children who are born "sugar sensitive" behave the way they do due to that factor more than any other factor. This makes me wonder:

1. How do you figure out if you were born sensitive to sugar?
2. When I decided in late elementary school that people only liked you if you were happy and laughing and smiling; and thus, I put on a shield that I perfected by the ninth grade, could any of that behavior been influenced by being sugar sensitive, if that is what I am?
3. For the author states on page 5, "What you thought was your personality is not who you are at all. It was a result of your sugar-sensitive biochemistry, your imbalance, and your old way of eating." How can I figure out whether this statement applies to me? 
4. The author claims, on page 6, that "You do not have to master your blood sugar and your serotonin and your beta-endorphin, you just 'do the food'." So how do I 'do the food' as she states?

I will be reading and digesting this book, pun partially intended, with great interest.