Why You Keep Craving Porn: The Surprising Role of Sugar, Gluten, and Brain Health
- Jake Kastleman
- 3 days ago
- 27 min read
There’s a belief that quietly shapes the way most men approach recovery from porn addiction, and if you don’t challenge it, it will keep you stuck far longer than necessary.
It sounds something like this: “If I could just be more disciplined… I’d finally quit.”
I believed that for years, and if you’re here, there’s a good chance you’ve believed it too. You’ve tried to push harder, resist more, control yourself better—only to find that the same cycle continues to repeat. You get some traction, maybe even a streak, and then something shifts internally… and before you fully understand what happened, you’re right back where you started.
And that creates confusion.
It creates frustration.
And over time, it often creates shame.
But what if the problem isn’t just discipline?
What if you’re trying to win a mental and behavioral battle… in a brain and body that are working against you?
Because this is where most conversations around porn addiction recovery fall short. We focus almost entirely on behavior, mindset, and willpower, while overlooking something that is influencing your cravings every single day—your biology. And more specifically, how your diet is shaping your brain, your emotions, and your susceptibility to addiction.
Porn Addiction Is Not Just a Willpower Problem
When men struggle with porn addiction, the default explanation is almost always psychological or moral in nature. We think in terms of lust, self-control, and discipline, assuming that if we could just “get it together,” we would finally stop watching porn and move forward with our lives.
But what I’ve seen—both in my own experience and in working with men—is that this explanation is incomplete in a way that keeps you stuck, because it places the entire burden on your willpower while ignoring the internal conditions that determine how effective that willpower can actually be.
Because addiction is very often not a failure of character.
It is a symptom of internal dysregulation.
When your nervous system is overwhelmed, when your body is inflamed, when your brain is undernourished, depleted, and unstable, your capacity to make clear, grounded, value-based decisions begins to diminish. That doesn’t mean you’re weak. It means your system is under strain.
And in that state, your brain begins to look for relief.
Not long-term solutions. Not aligned decisions. Just relief.
If porn has become associated with that relief—even for a moment—your brain will continue to return to it, not because it is deeply fulfilling, but because it is familiar and effective in the short term.
So instead of continuing to ask, “Why can’t I control myself?”—which often leads to shame and frustration—I want you to begin asking a different question:
“What is happening inside my body that is making this harder?”
That shift alone opens the door to a completely different level of recovery.
Your Brain on Porn… and Your Diet
We’ve all heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.”
But very few men have been taught to take that idea seriously when it comes to their brains.
Because the truth is, your brain is not just influenced by your diet—it is literally built and fueled by it.
The human brain is composed of roughly 60% fat, making it the fattiest organ in the body, and the remaining structure depends on proteins, carbohydrates, and hydration to function properly. This means that the quality of the nutrients you consume directly impacts your mood, your clarity, your emotional regulation, your decision-making, and your ability to overcome porn addiction.
When your brain is properly nourished, your thoughts are clearer, your emotions are more stable, and your capacity to handle stress increases.
But when your diet is built around processed foods, sugar, poor-quality fats, and nutrient deficiencies, your brain begins to struggle—and when your brain struggles, your recovery becomes significantly harder.
This is why diet and mental health are inseparable.
This is why brain health and addiction are deeply connected.
And this is why so many men feel like they are constantly fighting an uphill battle.
They are trying to overcome porn addiction with a brain that is not fully supported to do so.
The Craving Loop: Why You Keep Coming Back to Porn
Let’s make this practical. Cravings are not random. They are signals.
When your body is dysregulated, whether from unstable blood sugar, inflammation, poor sleep, or emotional overwhelm—your brain receives a message:
“Something is off. Fix this.”
And your brain immediately begins scanning for solutions.
Not the best solution. Not the healthiest solution. The fastest solution.
If porn has been a learned way to regulate stress, escape discomfort, or create temporary relief, your brain will naturally suggest it in those moments.
So what looks like a “porn craving” is often something much deeper.
It is your body asking for balance… and your brain offering the only tool it has been trained to use.
This is why so many men say, “I don’t even want it, but I still do it.”
Because in that moment, it’s not about desire.
It’s about regulation.
Sugar, Processed Carbs, and the Amplification of Porn Cravings
One of the most powerful—and most overlooked—drivers of this cycle is the way sugar and processed carbohydrates affect your brain.
When you consume high amounts of sugar or refined carbs, your blood sugar rises quickly, creating a temporary spike in energy, focus, and dopamine activity.
And for a brief moment, everything feels fine.
But that spike is followed by a crash.
And that crash affects far more than just your energy.
It impacts your emotional stability, your mental clarity, and your ability to regulate impulses.
You may feel more anxious, more irritable, more foggy, and more overwhelmed—and in that state, your brain begins searching for something that will restore balance.
This is where cravings intensify.
Not because your desire for porn suddenly increased, but because your system entered a state of deficit.
And when your brain is in deficit, it seeks dopamine.
It seeks relief.
It seeks escape.
And if porn has been your go-to method for that, it will feel far more compelling in those moments.
This is why stabilizing your blood sugar is one of the most practical and powerful ways to reduce porn cravings naturally.
Gluten, Processed Grains, and Brain Fog
Now let’s talk about another piece of the puzzle—gluten and highly processed grains.
This is not about fear or extremes. It’s about awareness and quality.
Many modern wheat products are heavily processed, rapidly digested, and capable of creating blood sugar fluctuations that lead to brain fog, fatigue, and reduced cognitive performance.
And when your brain is foggy and fatigued, your ability to think clearly and regulate your behavior decreases.
Your prefrontal cortex—the part of your brain responsible for decision-making, impulse control, and long-term thinking—does not function as effectively.
And when that happens, short-term, emotion-driven decisions begin to take over.
This is where relapse patterns often emerge.
Not because you lack discipline, but because your system is under-supported.
Better options—like whole grains, fermented sourdough, and less processed sources—can support more stable energy, better digestion, and improved mental clarity.
Dopamine, Omega-3s, and Rebuilding the Brain
If we are serious about overcoming porn addiction, we need to talk about dopamine and how the brain’s reward system functions.
Dopamine is not just about pleasure—it is about motivation, learning, and behavior reinforcement.
And when your brain is overstimulated and undernourished at the same time, dopamine signaling becomes dysregulated.
This leads to stronger cravings, lower baseline motivation, and a greater reliance on high-stimulation behaviors like porn.
This is where nutrients—especially omega-3 fatty acids like DHA and EPA—become incredibly important.
These nutrients support:
Prefrontal cortex function
Dopamine regulation
Impulse control
Neuroplasticity
Reduced inflammation
In other words, they help rebuild the very systems that addiction disrupts.
And when those systems begin to recover, your ability to make clear, aligned decisions improves dramatically.
The Gut-Brain Connection and Emotional Stability
There is another layer to this that most men never consider—the gut-brain connection.
Your gut is not just responsible for digestion. It is deeply connected to your brain through the nervous system and plays a significant role in producing neurotransmitters that regulate mood and behavior.
When your gut health is compromised, your mental and emotional stability often suffers.
You may feel more anxious, more reactive, more fatigued, and more vulnerable to cravings.
But when your gut is supported—through fiber-rich foods, whole nutrition, and proper hydration—your internal state becomes more stable.
Your emotions become more manageable.
Your cravings become less intense.
And your capacity to stay grounded increases.
This is why nutrition for mental health is not optional in recovery.
It is foundational.
Recovery Is About Building Capacity, Not Just Fighting Urges
At some point, you have to shift your approach.
Because if your entire strategy is built around resisting urges, you will eventually burn out.
Recovery is not about constantly fighting yourself.
It is about building a system that supports you. It is about increasing your capacity to handle life without needing escape. And that requires a different mindset.
Instead of asking, “How do I stop watching porn?”
You begin asking:
“How do I build a brain and body that don’t rely on it?”
That shift changes everything. Because it moves you from survival… to transformation.
Final Thoughts: Build a Body That Supports Your Recovery
You still need discipline. You still need awareness. You still need to grow.
But when your biology is aligned, everything becomes more accessible.
You have more energy to do the work. More clarity to see what’s really happening. More stability to handle discomfort without escaping.
So if you’ve been stuck, frustrated, and constantly fighting yourself…
Don’t just look at your behavior.
Look at your body.
Because your recovery lives inside your biology.
And when you begin to support that—consistently, intentionally, and with purpose—you don’t just reduce cravings.
You become someone who no longer needs them.
Onward and upward.
Visit No More Desire Tools for Recovery for recovery tools and training, including my free eBook, Workshop, The RAIL Method ™ and more to help you break free from porn.
If you’re tired of trying to quit porn on your own, the No More Desire Academy gives you a structured path to recovery through coaching, brotherhood, practical tools, and step-by-step training. Join before May 1st to lock in the $130/month Founding Member rate. Learn more here.
If you want deeper, more personalized support, I also offer 1-on-1 porn addiction recovery coaching. We’ll work directly on your patterns, emotional triggers, recovery plan, and long-term growth. Apply here to explore coaching with Jake Kastleman.
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Full Transcription for Episode 142: Why You Keep Craving Porn: The Surprising Role of Sugar, Gluten, and Brain Health
Jake Kastleman (00:00.106)
Welcome to No More Desire, where we build the mindset and lifestyle for lasting recovery from porn. My name is Jake Castleman, and I'm excited to dive in with you. Let's get started, my friend.
Jake Kastleman (00:23.598)
Desire for sex is a strong one, and it needs to be, considering our human species depends on it. Craving is challenging to face, my friend, and as men we inherently experience sexual desire. It's just part of being human. But do you ever feel overwhelmed by this desire, like it takes on a mind of its own? Do you ever wish you could reduce its influence or calm your sex drive so that you could remain at the wheel?
for you my friend. You can. You've probably been told by somebody at some point that you simply have a strong sex drive and that's a really common explanation for what you go through. But it falls short of modern science and the complex functions of the brain and body that can't be summed up by that sentence. Do you want to remain in this comfortable but torturous thought bubble or
Would you like to change things? Today, I'm going to tell you how you can shift your internal environment and biology through something as simple and unexpected as your diet. You are what you eat. We've all heard this. But have you ever been told your brain is what you eat? In this episode, I'll reveal how your brain is built by your diet and how all of this directly impacts
your susceptibility to porn addiction and your capacity to overcome it. And stick around till the end because I'll give you a simple formula you can follow to feed your brain what it needs to support recovery in small, sustainable ways every day. Before we dive in, a reminder to follow and rate this podcast so that others looking for help can find it. And make sure to hit that notification button so that you can keep finding it.
Alright, let's get started.
Jake Kastleman (02:29.55)
Before we dive in, quick heads up, if you're tired of trying to quit porn on your own and ending it back in the same cycle over and over, the No More Desire Academy is now open. Most men don't stay stuck because they lack willpower, my friend. They stay stuck because they don't have an effective system yet that they're following. The Academy has been in development for years as I've worked with men throughout the world. It is my new structured recovery program for men who want more than just information or accountability.
Inside, I help men build lasting freedom using weekly coaching, a private brotherhood, practical tools, and step-by-step training. These help you get to the root of cravings, relapse, and the deeper patterns that are keeping you stuck. This is for men who are ready to stop fighting alone and start building recovery alongside other men in a structured recovery path. When you join
before May 1st, you will lock in the founding member rate of $130 per month for life. After that, the price goes up to 150. Head to nomordesire.com slash academy to learn more. All right, back to the episode. It's fantastic to be here with you today, man. I'm excited for today's episode. For the first 25 years of my life, my mind never functioned like I wanted. In some ways,
I felt like I was underwater. I couldn't think as clearly or as deeply as I felt like I should be able to. I often had a difficult time understanding instructions, keeping up, connecting ideas. Spiritual and meditative practices felt flat or overwhelming for me, or I didn't even feel like I could approach them. All of this was discouraging for me. While I did pretty well in school, it took me a long time to complete assignments, a lot longer than it seemed to take for the other kids.
I was frequently anxious, I was depressed and felt highly sensitive pretty much all of the time. My focus and motivation were a constant roller coaster up and down and up and down and up and down. And at my core, I was ambitious, I was purpose-driven and I had a great passion for helping others. And that was a big part of what caused me to feel shame and like I wasn't good enough because I had this
Jake Kastleman (04:52.088)
deep desire to do great things, but felt stifled in my capacity to do them. I felt like I could do so much more and maybe you're somebody who can relate to that. I wanted to be more, but because I felt so overwhelmed and incapable, I simply could not match up to my own expectations of myself. So what did I do? When I was a kid, I went to addictions.
It started out with video games at a very young age, four years old. It started out with food at that same age, right? Things that we might not think of as addictions, but which definitely developed into major escapes for me to try to make myself feel better, even though I didn't know that's what I was doing at the time. It escalated into pornography and masturbation when I was 13. And then it escalated into drugs and alcohol and more serious kinds of addictions.
up into my late teens and early twenties. All of this, I engaged in all these addictions, not because of a desire for pleasure, though yes, there is the pleasurable component, but it was really because I felt overwhelmed most of the time. It was the only way I felt I could regulate the mental chaos that I experienced. I didn't realize this until years later, when I was finally on my recovery journey.
Again, this was just the way that I was. It was just the way that I felt. I didn't know any differently. In fact, during my teenage years, I had horrendous acne. I mean, if you talk about like people who complain about a pimple or a breakout, I remember people would say breakouts and they have like three pimples. I had like acne clusters, like on my chin and on my cheeks and on my forehead. I had so much acne.
There was probably like over a hundred pimples at any given time, easily. And it was incredibly painful. I had so much. I had to go get surgeries later in my early twenties to actually get rid of all the scarring on my face. And you can still see a little bit of it at this point on my face, but it's so much better. I'm so, so grateful.
Jake Kastleman (07:13.486)
every day for that, man. It's amazing. So point is, I terrible acne. I was often told that stress drove acne, right? We've all heard this stress drives acne. That's what causes it. During an appointment where I was trying to get my acne solved, I was asked by a professional, how are your stress levels? My response was, I don't really ever...
feel stressed really. I said that because I was stressed out of my mind all of the time. But that constant humming anxiety was just my base level. I had no way of knowing any differently. I didn't know that people could actually feel happy or even what that meant. I didn't know what happiness was. I was just always in a state of fear and shame. I struggled with so much perfectionism.
And I still struggle with perfectionism now. It's just much more tempered, it's much more relaxed, and I'm far happier, but still working to make progress on that in my life. This is how a lot of guys that I work with feel. They carry a heavy burden with them everywhere that they go. And through the No More Desire program, they take an intensive approach to overhaul their mindset, their lifestyle, so that they can step out of this constant humming pressure and this anxiety.
which includes cravings. One of the ways that we do this within the program is through diet. And we talked about this in last week's episode. The month of April right now is still centered on that. So we're gonna talk about, we're gonna get deep into some really amazing things with the brain and how diet impacts the brain. I was doing a fair amount of research for this episode. I've learned so much.
doing this actually so much that I did not know about the brain and about how diet influences the brain. And I also came to find out some things for myself very helpfully about healthy fats that I will share at the end of the episode that is really profound for recovery. So to start off, we're going to talk about the composition of the brain specifically. As I said at the beginning, we often think
Jake Kastleman (09:38.978)
that our brain is this isolated organ that operates based on genetics and psychology. We don't combine it with the body and how what goes on in the body directly impacts brain function. And I apologize if I sound a little shaky right now, by the way, I'm like super cold right now for some reason. I don't know why, maybe because I ate cold food. I don't know. I'm like.
My body's like shaking. It's the strangest thing. So let's talk about how what goes on in the body directly impacts brain function. Here's what I mean specifically. We have many organs in our body, right? A ton. I looked up this number one day. was like, I think it was well over 200. I'm actually gonna look this up right now. How many organs are in the human body? Bet you guys didn't know this one.
Jake Kastleman (10:39.014)
I'm totally wrong. 78 organs. That's still a lot, because I thought it was like 15. Maybe I'm dumb, apparently. But there's a lot, a lot more than that. So one of these organs is the brain. The brain is a highly active organ requiring constant fuel. Just as our stomach, intestines, liver, and other organs are directly impacted by what we eat, so is our brain.
That is a really profound shift from how so many of us are taught to see the brain. The quality of the nutrients I consume every day determines how effectively my brain operates today and over time. Neurons or brain cells, get this, neurons or brain cells, operate and communicate more or less effectively depending on what I eat.
Wow, do you see that guys? And how profound that is for my mental and emotional health and for my recovery. To be more specific, we're gonna break it down, break down how the brain works according to macronutrients that we consume. We all know what these are. We've been taught them many, times, proteins, carbs, fats, macronutrients, proteins, carbs, fats. So first off, we're gonna start with fats. The human brain is composed of
of approximately 60 % fat. We have a fat brain. This is the fattiest organ in the human body. Okay, we're all fatheads. This high fat content largely consists of essential fatty acids like omega-3 and omega-6. These fats are crucial for structural integrity. Structural integrity, so the structure of my brain.
That's gonna influence how I function as a human being from one moment to the next. The fats form the sheaths around nerves and support brain function. These fats are essential for forming cell walls, reducing brain inflammation. That's a buzzword and a big deal when it comes to mental and physical health and maintaining cognitive wellbeing. So I just said a lot of...
Jake Kastleman (13:06.228)
Several sciencey things there, but essentially the quality and health of the fats I consume in my diet make up the structure of my brain. So if I'm consuming fats that are harmful to my body, right, trans fats or an imbalance of fats in my diet, I am also harming my brain. This impacts my mood.
my memory, my cognitive function, in other words, my happiness, the quality of my relationships and the quality of my recovery. When the brain isn't getting what it needs or being poisoned by food that does not serve me, I will be more prone toward cravings. Why? Because the body is dysregulated. The body is in need of something to help it feel better and the brain may interpret this imbalance in body and
brain, body and nervous system, in an unlimited number of ways. So my brain is gonna take signals of what's going on and happening. It's gonna take in the signal there's distress in the body and it's going to interpret that. And if I have a habit of porn and masturbation as the things that help me feel better, I have a history of that.
Things that help me feel better, even if for a moment, then the brain may tell me, this is what I need right now. I need sex. And all last month, we talked about dopamine overhaul. We talked abundantly about, there's an episode I was very happy to see trended very well, was, sex is not a need. So many of us think it's a need, many of us men are taught that it's a need.
But when you look at the way that the nervous system functions and biology functions, we feel emotional or neurological dysregulation that can easily be interpreted by the nervous system as a need for sex. Why? Sex makes me feel better. Now that doesn't work well because it's an escape. It's a way to forcefully regulate instead of actually dealing with my problems. So the painful emotions
Jake Kastleman (15:22.126)
And the dysregulation is still there and it's fully present and it comes back with interest after the outlet that I went to, because I'm weakening myself. I'm actually teaching my body it cannot handle the stress. I'm escaping. So the pain remains and it mounts. It builds debt, builds debt, which is a really amazing thing, emotional debt with interest.
So the brain is 60 % fat, right? What is the other 40 % then? It is a combination of protein, carbohydrates, and salts. This is significant. Why? Because I replenish carbs and proteins on a daily basis, just like fat. The types of proteins and carbohydrates consumed throughout life directly influence how well
my brain operates, affecting cognitive performance, memory, mood, and structural longevity. By the way, all of these things that I'm talking about within the neuroscience, these are things that I've researched online, pulling from many different sources. Okay, some of them PubMed researched studies. So if I am consuming processed carbs, very little vegetables, no beans, not seeds,
very little quality proteins as well, then my recovery will suffer. Because my cognitive performance memory, mood and structural wellness of my brain directly impacts how steady and secure I feel. If I am in chaos, my brain will seek out the most efficient way to bring balance. Even if just for a moment, because that is the natural brain
the natural man, the ego, whatever you want to call it, that's what it's interested in. When it is not tempered or led by what I would say spirit or self with a capital S, when it is not led by my conscious regulation, my conscious choices, my voluntary will,
Jake Kastleman (17:41.838)
then it will just seek out whatever is easiest, right? And that I can be actually train my body and brain out of that to build new habits. It doesn't always have to remain that way. That inclination may always be there in my body, but that can actually become far quieter. And the inclination to choose things that serve me in the long run can become more prominent. So even if that balance that is trying to,
find yields long-term pain, right? It's still gonna seek out what is gonna bring the short-term solution because it is just seeking out a solution right now. Unless I offer it a better one. In addition to protein, carbs and fats, proper hydration, it's worth saying, is essential for brain efficiency. As the brain is composed of, did not know this, nearly 80 % water.
Goodness sakes. So if I'm drinking water, if I'm not drinking water, I'm not staying hydrated, that's going to have a profound impact on the function of my mood and my brain, my cognitive development, my recovery. Gotta stay hydrated. So if you make shifts to your diet, what might you actually experience? I wanna talk about that for a while. Give you a vision of this. When we begin feeding our brain and body what they truly need,
Many of us begin to feel more emotionally steady. This is what many men in my program have experienced when they begin doing this and they learn about how this works. They notice they are less irritable, less anxious, less foggy, less overwhelmed by life because they follow daily practices to get there to improve their diet. For their recovery, for their brain health, this gut brain connection, it's
easier to implement recovery tools, mindfulness practices, and spiritual practices when I feel good in my biology. That is why it's one of the four pillars that I teach. Biological pillars is very crucial. We feel motivated to get to the gym, to show up as a husband and father, to stay sober, because our body is in balance. We may not feel perfect, but we often feel more capable.
Jake Kastleman (20:08.32)
more like we are actually a leader of ourselves rather than being dragged around by every craving, emotion, and stressful moment.
Before we get back to the show, I want to take a few minutes to share a story of one of my clients. Because if you're someone who's been battling with porn addiction yourself and feeling stuck, I think that you'll relate to this. My client, Gabe, came to me discouraged about the impact that his porn use was having on his life. It got in the way of his productivity at work, made him feel more distant from his wife and kids, and caused him to experience brain fog, lack of motivation, and a lack of confidence. All things that I relate to deeply and personally. Gabe was a good man.
He valued his family, served his community, he had a good job and he had ambition. He could even get a decent streak of sobriety sometimes, but nothing long lasting. Gabe's problem was not discipline. It was a lack of knowledge and skill. He didn't understand how to regulate his emotions and train his nervous system properly so the cravings, anger and other painful emotions could be moved through effectively. By the time he finished my program, Gabe had five months of sobriety without a single relapse.
His perspective on life had changed dramatically, and for the first time, he felt fully connected and in harmony with his principles and who he was. I'll share a few of his words directly. I would leave every session with Jake feeling like my eyes had been opened to a new level of understanding that changed my self-talk, my relationship with my spouse, and my ability to connect with my children. The program felt incrementally tailored to my needs and had the exact building blocks I needed to live a sober lifestyle.
mindset. I've kept in touch with Gabe since then. His success has continued and he is now seven months sober. Gabe's story is one of many. Men who've joined my intensive coaching program and experienced sobriety. If you want to join these men, dig deep and finally be sober for good. Head to nomordesire.com slash program to learn more. Back to the show.
Jake Kastleman (22:15.054)
When your inner world feels chaotic, porn feels like relief. When your body is inflamed, undernourished, dehydrated, overstimulated, unstable, your brain will naturally search for something fast that promises comfort, escape, regulation. This is one of the hidden gifts of improving your diet. Cravings often become more understandable to you, more manageable, not because they vanish, but because you no longer
are living in such a chronically dysregulated state. You may find that your urges do not hit with the same force. You recover from difficult emotions faster. You think more clearly in triggering moments. You have more space between the feeling and the behavior. And in that space, you can stay sober.
Diet can also improve hope. Because when a man starts feeling better in his body, he often starts believing change is possible. He realizes maybe I'm not broken, maybe my system has been under supported. Maybe part of what I've called weakness has actually been physiological distress. And that realization can be incredibly freeing.
Because it means recovery is not just about trying harder. It's not about being more moral necessarily. It is about becoming wiser in how I'm caring for my body, my brain and my internal environment so that I can support recovery. Recovery is not about resisting what is bad. It is about building a brain and body that makes sobriety feel possible. This is different than willpower, different than simply trying harder. It's about increasing my capacity to stay sober.
setting myself up for success. So I promised you I would give you a simple formula for all of this. Here it is. It's what is called the MIND diet, M-I-N-D. And it is based on the Mediterranean diet. The MIND diet has some simple guidelines. I'm gonna give you five components to the MIND diet to eat for mental and emotional health, which is going to fuel your recovery from anything
Jake Kastleman (24:32.75)
but from porn in this case, to regulate the body and the nervous system and the brain. There are five components. So component one to the mind diet, eating fatty fish and nuts. Guys, this is huge. I was studying this for the last couple of days. It blew my mind how profound this is. Omega threes are powerful for brain health and recovery, powerful.
Specifically DHA and EPA. This is the thing that I came to learn most of all. These are types of omega-3s found in fish and seaweed in marine life. Really hard to get them other places, by the way. That shocked me because I thought that nuts and seeds were a great source of DHA and EPA.
They are a great source of omega-3s, but not DHA and EPA omega-3s. DHA and EPA, which I will not tell you what those stand for, it's too complex. But these compounds improve cell membrane health. I'm gonna throw a bunch of stuff at you here. Cell membrane health, prefrontal cortex support, that's crucial for recovery. If you don't know about that, that enables me to make clear decisions. To make value-driven decisions, I need my prefrontal cortex
at an excellent level of activity so that I don't make emotion-based decisions. DHAs and EPAs improve dopamine and reward regulation, absolutely crucial for recovery. They lower neuroinflammation, so important. They regulate mood, increase neuroplasticity, and they help decrease impulsivity. Each of these things is directly correlated with recovery. It's amazing.
Amazing how this is not known more in this world, how it is not talked about more. It's being talked about more more often, but not enough in my opinion. If you want a, by the way, when it comes to DHA and EPA, if you want a simple way of getting these into your diet every day, I was researching this for hours. My wife and I have done a ton of research, her especially, I will say on this.
Jake Kastleman (26:51.874)
There's a great supplement out there by Sports Research called Omega-3 Fish Oil. I'm not sponsored by them or anything like that. It's just an extremely high quality supplement with the right dose, great sourcing, no additives that are unhealthy for the body. You can find it on Amazon, but the very best place to get this Sports Research Omega-3 Fish Oil is at Costco.
Such a good deal. is so much cheaper at Costco. If you can get it there, I highly recommend that. For myself, you I don't want to have to go cook fish or eat seaweed or do all this stuff and make it so complex. I just want an easy way. If you have the money, get the supplement and just take one a day. It makes it so easy. My brain is more efficient that way. Just like check the box, get it done. Serves me well in many ways. Other ways it doesn't. It's the bane of my existence. But
This, if you are like that, as many of the guys that I work with are, that's a great way to get it. Second component, vegetables and leafy greens, which contain antioxidants and fiber, crucial for brain health. If you want to find out more about why fiber specifically is crucial for brain health, I highly recommend listening to episode 140. I talk about that at great length and go into all the science behind why fiber is so crucial for your brain health and your recovery. Component number three,
Beans and legumes. Beans and legumes digest slowly, which helps prevent energy crashes, brain fog, irritability, urge, vulnerability. This week in the Academy, we were talking about brain fog, blood sugar regulation, and how crucial these are for our mental and emotional wellbeing and how this impacts whether, you know, how I experience cravings.
So beans and legumes are gonna help with this. They provide amino acids as well that supports brain function and helps you keep you fuller and more stable. They are also rich in B vitamins, which help with energy metabolism and healthy nervous system function. The B vitamins are also heavily involved in developing neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin and GABA. That's a big deal. They do many more things as well, but those are a few.
Jake Kastleman (29:13.218)
Component number four, bringing whole grains into your diet. Great B vitamins and minerals in these things guys. Now the quality, I will say this is crucial. The quality of whole grains, there's so many messages out there about eating whole grains, whole grains, this and that all freaking day. my gosh, shut up. There's so many people saying whole grains because they make so much money off of how much wheat they sell, okay? The quality.
of the grains you eat is a really big deal. It's not just about eating whole wheat. The more whole, the better, but things like quinoa, millet, buckwheat, farro, camout, they're all amazing. You can have fermented sourdough bread, a heavy fermentation process is best to break down the starches and gluten, sprouted grain breads, just eating the processed store-bought wheat bread, even whole wheat bread,
is not great for digestion. It's not great for energy. It still leads to these ebbs and flows of blood sugar, which for people, especially like myself, who are very sensitive to that, it's not good when it comes to recovery. So it's a really hard thing. I get it. Bread is, it's everywhere. It's promoted everywhere. And it's, and our culture has built this, our society has built this way of consuming it and processing and creating it.
It is just not healthy for our bodies really. It's not the worst thing ever, but it's not good. plenty of ways to get grains into your diet and other ways that are really gonna help you out. Component number five, healthy oils. Extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, flax seed oil, walnut oil. Never tried that one before, but it's a thing. They help build healthier brain cell membranes, decrease inflammation, improve blood vessel health.
which helps brain function. And of course, some contain omega-3s, though this is ALA omega-3 rather than DHA or EPA, which are the real heroes when it comes to brain health. Still, ALA omega-3 is part of a healthy body which supports overall health, which does in turn support sobriety. It's just not nowhere near as direct. You want to get DHA and EPA. These are crucial and they come through marine life most directly. So,
Jake Kastleman (31:35.79)
ALA can convert, by the way, it's important to say, to DHA and EPA, but the conversion process in the body is very, very low. It's a very small percentage for most people. From what I understand, it can vary between individuals, but it's very, very low. So those are the five components. If you're listening to this and something is clicking for you, if you've realized that maybe you've been trying to fight this battle from a depleted or overwhelmed or under supported place within your biology, I want you to hear this. You're not crazy for struggling.
but you also don't have to keep living this way. All this can shift for you. Recovery is not about trying harder. It's about changing the environment inside of you, your brain, your body, your emotional world, so that freedom actually becomes possible. That's exactly what I do with men inside the No More Desire Academy. Right now, we're going deep into gut brain health this month. Love it. It's awesome. We're having so many cool discussions. Guys are making changes. It's the best. But more importantly,
We're building the kind of mindset and lifestyle that allows you to lead yourself instead of being controlled by urges. So if you're ready to stop surviving and actually start rebuilding your life and get sober, come join us. Right now, up until May 1st, we have the lifetime price of $130 per month going on. Starting on the 1st, it goes up to 150 because that is when the founding members price will end. So you can learn more about that.
and all about the Academy at nomordesire.com slash Academy, my friend. Hope you've enjoyed this episode. God bless and much love. Thanks for listening to No More Desire. It's a genuine blessing for me to do the work that I do and I wouldn't be able to do it without you, my listeners. So thank you. If you've enjoyed today's episode, do me a favor. Follow this podcast, hit the notification bell and shoot me a rating.
The more people who do this, the more men this podcast will reach. So take a few minutes of your time and hit those buttons. If you want to take your sobriety to the next level, check out my free workshop, The Eight Keys to Lose Your Desire for Porn, or my free ebook, The 10 Tools to Conquer Cravings. These are specialized pieces of content that will give you practical exercises and applied solutions to overcome porn addiction. And you can find them at nomordesire.com.
Jake Kastleman (33:59.18)
As a listener of the No More Desire podcast, you are part of a worldwide movement of men who are breaking free of porn to live more impactful, meaningful, and selfless lives. So keep learning, keep growing, and keep building that recovery mindset and lifestyle. God bless.
Jake Kastleman (34:29.934)
Everything expressed on the No More Desire podcast are the opinions of the host and participants and is for informational and educational purposes only. This podcast should not be considered mental health therapy or as a substitute thereof. It is strongly recommended that you seek out the clinical guidance of a qualified mental health professional. If you're experiencing thoughts of suicide, self-harm, or a desire to harm others,
Please dial 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
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