The Hunger Fix by Pam Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP

The Hunger Fix

By Pam Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP

Okay, I can’t give this book points for writing style.  It’s a little dramatized for my taste and Peeke also uses some ridiculously cute branding like calling an epiphany an epiphaME.  (Really?  I guess it’s still about having an epiphany, just a more annoying one.)  However, some of the information offered is very valuable and something I had not previously heard elsewhere.

Peeke’s contention is that “Food addiction is real… in your struggles with food, you may be tussling with an addiction that science has finally proved is every bit as powerful and painful as one to cocaine, heroin, alcohol, or nicotine.”

Some of the most valuable information comes in the beginning of the book, regarding how certain foods, like sugar and refined carbohydrates, affect our brain chemistry and gene expression.

“Chronic exposure to processed foods – science–fair projects packed with sky-high salt, unhealthy fat, and refined sugars – have tapped into our most basic instincts, turning our neurochemistry, our brain tissue, even our very gene expression against us.”

The simple way that junk food actually changes our brain chemistry is dramatic and enlightening, “these neurologically toxic False Fixes can quickly exhaust and wipe out half the population of your brain’s dopamine receptors, which in turn only increase your appetite for more and more of your favorite False Fix.”

There is good news though, that you can turn this change around.  “The Dopamine System Can Rebuild Itself – Your brain is capable of a broad range of reward responses.  Our job is to help you fine-tune your brain and find that optimal and satisfying level of pleasure, derived from your own natural reward system.”

One simple statement was very revealing about how junk food affects our bodies.  “The New York Times reported on a series of primate experiments that are being done to determine the root causes of obesity.  Interestingly, these studies have found that primates given access to high-fat chow don’t actually begin to gain excessive weight until they start drinking a fruit punch with high fructose corn syrup – in an amount that’s about equivalent to a human drinking one can of soda per day.  Then they start to consume about twice as any calories as a normal-weight monkey.”

Something she didn’t address but that I found interesting was how much protein to eat.  I found I was eating a great deal of protein from various sources with her eating plan and wondered if this was dangerous for my kidneys so I did a little research and found this very informative article from Livestrong.com – How Much Protein is Right for You? By Mike Roussell where he notes, “The U.S. Department of Agriculture, meanwhile, has a recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight.”  (Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/556322-how-much-protein-is-right-for-you/#ixzz2H1afOvuB) 

Low and behold, that was exactly what I was eating now.  I would say it has cut down my cravings for refined carbohydrates tremendously.

Peeke does make some statements in this book that I take issue with.  Her contention that “If you’re a moderately active woman, the general daily range is from 1,200 to 1,600 calories, based on age and activity level” would not work for me. 

Another statement Peeke made was about one woman having bariatric surgery.  “Monique realizes that while this surgery did save her life, GI surgery is not brain surgery – she knows that she, like anyone striving to shed unwanted body fat, had to engage her mind to combat her typical compulsive and addictive eating habits.”  To me, that says that changing her eating habits and doing the mental work, not the surgery, is what changed her health, not the surgery itself.

Peeke offers a wide variety of tools for change.  She leads you through finding your focus through your epiphany and figuring out what your healthy hunger in life is.  Meditation, exercise, healthy satisfying foods and strengthening your ability to resist unhealthy fixes from junk food are all key aspects of the plan.  The food plan has some similarities in nature to Atkins, South Beach and Protein Power.  You eat whole foods with healthy protein and limiting refined carbohydrates, particularly later in the day.

The steps are fairly simple but taken together, are a strong plan for change.  For example, the simple four steps for a pantry makeover include “Toss out all False Fixes.”  “Scan for Sugars”– get rid of foods containing high fructose corn syrup, and anything with a sugar in the first three ingredients.  “Count your ingredients” and get rid of things with three or more ingredients you can’t pronounce or more than 10 ingredients total.  (I think some common sense is useful here, if your granola has more than ten ingredients because there are a variety of seeds included, it’s probably okay, as long as sugar isn’t one of the top three ingredients.)  Finally, “Minimize canned foods.”

There are some annoying things about the tone and style of this book and some things I just plain don’t agree with, but wading through them is well worth the useful information that I did find.  If you are looking for new information to help you improve your dietary choices, I would recommend this book.