Bread. Soft and chewy, firm and crusty, savory, sweet, tangy, versatile, love. Bread is the love of my life on most days. Filling, bloated, energy-high, energy-crash, gut bacteria, slowed metabolism, still love.

We love bread and bready things. It’s comfort, it’s tasty, it’s harmful to many or to most. Maybe on average we eat too much bread in a day compared to 50 or 60 years ago and before. Food in general is much more available to us at any given minute in the day and we eat it even when we’re not hungry.

Bread is a staple, but maybe we should view it and use it as if it were a luxury instead. Why? Bread messes with your blood sugar, your intestinal flora, your brain, your metabolism, and you emotions. When we’re addicted to bread, we get anxious when we cannot have it. Bread leads to belly fat and other fat storage and eventually to weight gain and brain fog to mention just two; but the list goes on.

I’m addicted to bread. My grandfather used to be amused when I would have a piece of bread without butter or any other toppings; I still do that. Comfort for me is bread with a glass of milk; though, I’ve switched to almond milk 90% of the time.

Why am I writing to you about bread? Because, as a health coach many have told me that it’s good to know that I’m not perfect as they thought I was; they were happy to know that I too am human and real. I live a healthy life but it doesn’t mean that I am without fault. The key for me and for everyone is recognizing faults and working on fixing or at least improving them.

I like to think that there is a happy medium when it comes to bread; maybe there is, I will test it and post my findings, opinions and experiences. I love pasta, crackers and tortilla chips too, but for some reason I don’t feel as emotionally anxious when I limit and/or eliminate those items as I do with bread.

Upon doing research about bread addiction I have found the following points that I’m going to try to work on and share my experience with you. A few factors leading to bread or carbohydrate addiction are deficiency in certain minerals including serotonin and dopamine in the body – what to do? Add probiotics; another leading factor is lack of amino acids and zinc in the body – what to do? Add exactly that, amino acids and zinc. Supplements will help get you there but proper nutrition through food is even more important.

Foods that help keep your blood balanced are:

Lean proteins – fish, poultry, beef and cheese

Healthy fats – nuts, butter, olive oil, seeds

Fruit & Veggies – 2-3 pieces of fruit per day and lots of assorted vegetables 5-11 servings per day

Try to get into a habit of eating something every 2 hours, choose from the list above, and drink plenty of water each day too. Set yourself up for success by shopping and stocking up so that you have these healthy items available at any given moment every day. It you’re off at work and find it difficult to find healthy snacks, pack them up early in the week so you can grab and go. Use snack sized Ziploc or covered containers for perfect portions. Wash your fruit in advance and cut up snackin’ veggies and divide them up for each day of the week as well.

Healthy belly, healthy brain is what we want to achieve, let’s work on it together!