IC and Food Cravings: And 3 Things To Do About Them

In the IC bladder pain syndrome as in many chronic diseases such as fibromyalgia, vulvodynia, IBS, GERD, or chronic prostatitis, there is often times the occurrence of cravings particularly around food  Sometimes these cravings are normal and should be satisfied  But if we understand the energy model we will understand when some cravings should not be satisfied

I’m using the word “craving” here in a very specific way and different than addiction  In addiction I’m speaking about a continual need for something you really don’t want in the first place  The alcoholic needs to drink to satisfy a psychophysiologic need whereas a person who craves a beer on a hot sunny day can take or leave the beer at other times  In general any kind of addiction is just an attempt to stimulate agni

At times a craving may mask a real need  For example, a person who has an physiologic craving for chocolate is not actually seeking the chocolate but the sweet taste that comes along with the chocolate that may or may not be a physiologic craving  So let’s look at this issue of cravings

Normal cravings

Cravings can be due to psychological or physiological factors  If the sweet taste is craved it may mean that the person is craving love  However, if there is an imbalance of the hot quality someone may be craving the sweet taste to reduce the hot quality because the sweet taste carries the cold quality  In IC one may be looking for ice water in order to cool down the hot quality  While this may be considered a normal craving it has not so good physiologic consequences as such a habit would impair agni  Or one may be thinking about a cold shower to cool down  In this setting such a habit would aggravate Vata and would not be a good idea

So normal cravings that you respond to may adversely affect your physiology  Normal physiologic food cravings are typically healthy and don’t adversely impact the body

Vata, the energy pattern of movement has a normal cravings for the warm drinks and hot foods that carry the spicy, mushy oily properties  If it’s cold out during the winter, Vata becomes aggravated in the gut and you would naturally seek warmth and a cup of hot chocolate or cider

Pitta, the energy pattern of transformation expresses the hot quality amongst others and when it’s hot out a person will nnormally craves cold foods, drinks, and cool air

When Kapha, the energy pattern of stability becomes aggravated in the gut, the cool quality will prompt the person to normally seek  hot, spicy food

So you can see that you will naturally seek out how to bring about balance in the body if you are sensing aggravation in yourself  And these are normal cravings  In actuality they are not real cravings as much as the body just looking to balance itself

Abnormal Cravings

Once there is dissemination of these bodily qualities and tissues are affected, wrong cravings show up

For example, someone with too much of the hot quality begins craving the hot qualities in foods such as hot chiles, cayenne pepper, and horseradish dependent on what’s available and the personal preferences for the hot taste  These are abnormal cravings and should not be satisfied

When someone is overweight, they already have too much of the sweet taste whose qualities are heavy, slow/dull, liquid, oily, cool, dense, static, cloudy   When they crave cookies, candy, and chocolate, they are adding more to the already imbalance of qualities   This then becomes again an abnormal craving

If someone is a skinny mini and has a strong Vata imbalance, seeking out cold salads, rough, dry, and crunchy salty chips, there is an abnormal craving being satisfied

3 Things to Help With Abnormal Food Cravings

1 Determine if the craving is normal or abnormal; if abnormal try not to cave into the craving  Of course, this is easier said than done but just by observing the mind obsessing about a particular food can be a ginormous step in the right direction  Then let it go if you succumb to the craving  Just making the observation is enough

2 Improve your agni  There are multiple ways to do this  Using ginger pickle, observing appropriate food choices according to your energy makeup, avoiding incompatible food combinations are all fundamental first steps to enhancing digestive fire Use of ghee or clarified butter which has the qualities of digestive fire or agni will help burn away toxic load in the peripheral tissues

3 Fasting of any kind is beneficial  Chose one day a week and fast for that day  If Vata or Pitta dominant, do juice fasting  If Kapha, do water fast for 24h  Fasting will be difficult for Kapha but it is a major player is managing cravings long term for this energy pattern  There are many other different forms of fasting that can be explored but this one day a week is a good start

So have fun with your cravings and see them for what they are

To health as a Skill        Love DrBill

 

 

 

 

This is based on whether the food sought is on the food list  For example, if you’re looking for tomato soup and you have IC you can bet that it’s a craving if you’re Pitta Vata body makeup