time to revisit another old idea

The idea i'm referring to is the "cravings = deficiency" one, specifically as it refers to stress triggering starch/sugar/alcohol cravings, and how they can all be treated with extra B vitamins.

Anecdotally, i've found this to be true.  Years ago, before i discovered "paleo," i had heard that popping a "stress vitamin" when i was wound tight could be effective, and sure enough it panned out. Yesterday I got an after-meal urge for something sweet, and gave myself a half-teaspoon of inositol for it;  that worked too.

Inositol is a curious substance;  it so resembles powdered sugar that you want to make sure you order it from a reputable supplier or ... who knows.  As i wrote before, it was originally identified as vitamin B8, but was downgraded to non-vite status when it was discovered that the human body can manufacture it from phytate or glucose.

I tried to discover more about it after i tried it and decided it was worth continuing.  Unlike vitamin A, there doesn't seem to be a lot of research about who can effectively convert it and who can't.  I'd be willing to bet, though, that such research would be really valuable for helping people with persistent sweet-cravings.  As we get older, we get less able to absorb and convert things -- it's reasonable to assume that inositol could be one of them.

One thing i DID find in my search was a hypothyroid blogger who considered inositol to be a must-continue supplement.  I will be continuing it, too, whenever convenient (at home and during car-travel) because i seem to feel a boost, and see no significant down-side.

If, despite kicking your sugar-habit, you find that you get the occasional urge for something sweet (especially when stressed), perhaps you should pick up a B-complex vitamin that contains inositol, or a package of the straight B8.  If you think its powdered-sugar resemblance might behave like a trigger, a capsule would probably be safer than the bulk style.  Wooo makes inositol-containing fat-bombs, and one of these days i need to experiment with doing that myself.  I suspect that coconut-butter/inositol bombs MIGHT be habit-forming, though!