Sweetness and food cravings, reprise

Interesting possible link between lack of emotional sweetness and sugar ‘issues’, such as diabetes from this website (bolds mine)– http://maureenminnehanjones.com/FeaturedArticle/tabid/208/ArticleId/1/Bringing-a-Missing-Piece-to-Why-Diabetes-and-Alzheimers-May-be-Linked.aspx:

According to Dr. Michael J. Lincoln, author of Messages of the Body, the psychological meaning of Type II Diabetes relates to love starvation. He wrote that diabetics “have a desperate longing to belong, yet they are intensely emotionally insulated. They experience much social isolation, with a self-sustaining self-nurturance pattern. They were continuously blamed in an “If it weren’t for you…!” pattern. They ended up believing that they don’t deserve any better so they withdraw into themselves and away from social/emotional involvement on any close or vulnerable level. They turn to self-maintain love substitutes such as carbohydrates, sugars and pasta and/or their body becomes insulin-resistant.”

For those who have Type II Diabetes, either their bodies don’t produce enough insulin or their cells ignore the insulin. Yet insulin is necessary for the body to use glucose for energy. By taking sugar from the blood into the cells, it fuels the whole body.

Regarding pancreas problems, Dr. Lincoln states that they stem from individuals “not believing they deserve love. Feeling guilt and a lack of value, life has lost its sweetness.” This lack of sweetness and a deep longing for “what might have been” may cause the pancreas to malfunction.

The word insulin comes from the Latin word insula meaning “island.” This refers to the “Islets of Langerhans,” which are the clusters of cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. These cells sit in groups that Langerhans likened to little islands in the pancreas.

Dr. Lincoln suggests that individuals with diabetes are “islands unto themselves”—that is, “from birth they learn to fend for themselves. Basically, they feel they have to rear themselves.” Therefore, they may not be able to find nurturance, relevance, or validation from outside sources. This process is likely to be traumatic, thus reinforcing a probable belief that “there’s no sweetness in life.”

Let’s examine this connection between the physical and emotional. Food that’s eaten breaks down into glucose or sugar and enters the bloodstream. Insulin helps glucose move from the blood into the body’s cells. Indeed, insulin and glucose work together so the cells can make energy from food. If individuals harbor the belief that they have to fend for themselves—they feel alone and have no help—then it sets up the mindset of “no help available” and may interfere with the insulin helping the glucose do its job.

The constant repetition of this internal message—“there is no help so I have to fend for myself, I am alone on my own”—may shape diabetics’ ability to regulate insulin and their external experiences.