“You Can Try Intermittent Fasting During the Corona Period”
We talked to Zaza Yurtsever, a Specialist Psychotherapist and Psychologist, who does important work in the fields of trauma and addiction therapy, psychotherapy, and health fasting, about our eating and drinking habits during the coronavirus period.
There are many people who are worried about gaining weight these days when we can't leave the house. People who want to eat often or a lot out of boredom started to practice “fat shaming” even to themselves and to eat even more with the stress of this. How can we get out of this cycle?
Yes, unfortunately, with the quarantine, the weight problem has come to the fore again, like many other problems. In such extraordinary situations, people's problems that have always existed come to light even more. For example, if there is an alcohol or drug problem, an increase in consumption of these substances in extraordinary situations, or a fear problem such as a panic attack, This fear comes to the fore. This also applies to weight. If the person is already struggling with such a problem, he will again fall into the grip of that problem in a process such as quarantine.
So now, how to get out of here? It is not easy because the best thing that will get you out of such a situation is physical activity, but of course it is almost impossible to do it right now. So, I recommend people to do intermittent fasting in this situation. Because in intermittent fasting, the body will switch from its storage to nutrition mode for at least 16 hours a day and prevent weight gain. However, even if you do intermittent fasting, you will inevitably gain weight in the process if you previously went to the gym 4-5 times a week. I recommend that those who gain weight despite intermittent fasting do not stress themselves too much about weight. In such a period, it is much more important than gaining weight to eat healthy, not to catch the virus and, unfortunately, to make an effort not to infect others even if you have it.
What would you recommend for people who already have problems such as “emotional eating disorder” and “binge eating” so that they do not endanger their health in such a situation?
The fact that people living with these problems are under extra stress makes eating disorders even more intractable. In both disorders, the main thing people consume is not food, but sugar. Emotional eaters or binge eaters consume pizza, pasta, or chocolate, not broccoli or spinach, when they have an eating attack. Because they are not addicted to food; He is addicted to sugar. In this case, the sugar consumed is of course dangerous, as it will both lead to excess weight and reduce the strength of the immune system. However, just as smokers cannot control themselves despite knowing the harms of smoking; Sugar addicts can't control it either. So it is pointless to tell these people what to do because they are all actually more knowledgeable than we are. The important thing here is not to act like a teacher who looks down on them in our attitude towards them; not to belittle, criticize and pressure.
Our Instagram feeds dessert, pies-muffins, bread, etc. filled with photographs. Do you think we may see food as a kind of friend for reasons such as not being able to see our loved ones and not knowing when this process will end, apart from boredom?
Food, especially sweets and pastries, are foods that make us happy because these foods release happiness hormones in our brain. If it wasn't, we wouldn't be consuming them or sleeping or having sex anyway. As you can see, nature is the actions that enable us to survive; food, sex and sleep want to get out of our control by combining them with the hormones of happiness. Therefore, it is quite natural that our need for these hormones will increase during the quarantine period.
What therapeutic methods do you suggest regarding the negative effects of traumas on eating and drinking practices?
I'm on YouTube’a hypnosis audio to get rid of a food addiction’I put water. People have benefited a lot from this hypnosis in the past and in this period. I definitely recommend him. Also last week, Dawson Church addressed the fear of infection.’I put in a famous ecomeditation. I also recommend it to Be People readers. If they do this meditation when they experience any fear, they can control their need for food or sweets. (You can access it from the bibliography section.)
What does spiritual therapy tell us in terms of nutrition? Are there any tendencies of Turkish clients that you can tell based on your observations on this subject, that we are not aware of and that might surprise us?
In this sense, I immediately thought of Mahatma Gandhi.’Here comes a saying from: “One should not live to eat, one should eat to live.” I think it is one of the most beautiful words ever said in a spiritual sense. And Stefano D.’I remember a quote from Anna: “In order to kill oneself, the only difference between a gun and food is the quickness of the chosen method.”
We're talking about a collective trauma experience. Even though we feel depressed while staying in separate houses, we try to motivate each other. In addition, we can feel like we are sick even though we are not sick. In your opinion, what kind of case will Psycorona (Corona Psychology) be referred to in the future?
Humanity has waged more than fourteen thousand wars in the last five thousand years, and more than three billion people have died in these wars. When we look at the situation before the corona period, we can see that we unfortunately learned nothing from all this. The difference of the current situation is that people can develop a sympathy over the internet, regardless of language, culture or religion. I don't know exactly whether there will be a special Corona psychology left after this situation, but it is certain that psychologists and psychotherapists will have a lot of work. We will see over time whether we can draw a positive conclusion from this experience. Unfortunately, I'm pretty pessimistic about it.
What do you think about fasting during this period? Do you think it would be useful?
In general, health fasting increases a person's immunity. However, we do not recommend it at this time, because Covid-19 is a very new virus and there is no scientific research on this subject. That's why we advise people that they can do intermittent fasting instead of health fasting if they wish. Experts from all over the world agree on this point.
Apart from exercising and meditating, quality sleep, what are the other side elements that will keep us healthy during this period?
Here again I want to talk about intermittent fasting. Because intermittent fasting means that your intestines will not be busy with digestion for at least 16 hours a day. Although it does not have to deal with digestion, it protects you against any virus from outside threats. can better protect.
What can we do now to prevent permanent changes in our eating and drinking practices due to trauma?
The most important issue here is that traumas trigger all kinds of addictions. Therefore, if attention is not paid; alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, etc. stimulant consumption increases. Since sugar causes addiction as much as these substances, people who are addicted to sugar also increase their sugar consumption. The risk that these increases will continue at the same intensity in the post-traumatic period is quite high because the body will become accustomed to the amount consumed during the period. Of course, the most appropriate method to prevent such a problem in advance would be not to associate with these substances, or at least not to increase the amount of consumption. Unfortunately, I want to underline that it is not that easy. Therefore, we must show a high discipline.
Does consuming certain foods or beverages reduce anxiety?
Anxiety is a mental problem and the ultimate solution is in the mind, of course, but yes, we can still control our anxiety level, at least partially. For example, we know that alkaline diet reduces fear and stress. An alkaline diet means that one stays away from sugar and animal foods. If you want a fully alkaline diet, you need to be vegan, or at least vegetarian.
The views expressed in this article are written to shed light on alternative studies and to encourage conversation about these studies. Even if the articles contain the advice of physicians to some extent, they are for informational purposes only. This text; cannot replace professional medical advice, diagnosis and treatment.
More for the curious:
Introduction to Ecomeditation: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-kASU-gjHi/
Zaza Patriotic Weight Loss Therapy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmsTH0hckvY
Dr. Zaza Yurtsever – Expert Psychologist and Psychotherapist
Specialist Psychologist and Psychotherapist Zaza Yurtsever graduated from the Psychology Department of Marburg University in Germany in 1990 and completed her master's degree in clinical psychology at the same university.
Yurtsever, who is an expert in trauma and addiction therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, hypnotherapy and NLP, founded the Vata Academy in Berlin in 2012 with the famous psychologist Johann Kluczny. Yurtsever, who works on psychotherapy, group therapies, couple therapy, health fasting and weight problems, has written on nutrition habits and weight. Eat Fear (2012), Egoistic Brain and Weight (2014), Buchinger Health Fast (2016), Eat Intermittently Stay Young He has four books named (2019).
