Sweet Cravings - thinking holistically
We are all complex and multidimensional. We experience life on many levels—physical, mental, emotional, and energetic—and they are all connected.
When addressing a health concern, looking at these different levels is useful to get the whole picture. The words whole and health come from the same root 🙂
What does this look like? Let’s use sugar cravings as an example and examine how we might think about them using a multidimensional health perspective.
Physical: People may crave sweets due to unstable blood sugars, constantly rising and falling from irregular eating patterns and frequent sweet treats.
Mental: When there is insufficient time to rest our minds, they will become fatigued. Sugar is seen as a quick form of energy, but it ends up being more depleting.
Emotional: Cravings for sweets are often seen as accessible comfort, a way to soothe oneself and bring some sweetness to life that feels lacking otherwise.
Energetic: Foods have energetic qualities, and these qualities interact with our own biology. Concentrated sweets have what is known as an expansive quality. This is why they can lend the feeling (albeit temporary) of elevating the mood. However, this extremely expansive quality is unbalanced, and it is why we often crave the opposite and equally extreme contrasting qualities of very salty foods. (The proverbial salty and sweet combination).
So, what might addressing sugar cravings from a multi-dimensional perspective look like?
eating more whole foods and eliminating concentrated sweets to balance the blood sugar - it is more likely you will sustain these changes if you consider some of the other aspects
finding ways to incorporate genuine moments of mental rest into one’s day
examining other ways to bring joy and sweetness into one’s life.
learning a little bit about the energetic qualities of food and ensuring that there is balance in one’s meals.
At Sankofa Healing Arts & Functional Medicine, we get to know you as a person and support you in addressing your health across multiple dimensions.
To your health
Dr. Nicole 🌿
Dr. Nicole Winbush provides health consultations to North Carolina, Georgia, Minnesota, and California residents. If you would like to schedule a call to discuss a multi-dimensional approach to your health, you can do so here.
*a potential consideration for each dimension rather than a comprehensive list is provided for each
