Is sugar addiction real?

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

Yes ! As bad an addiction as crack cocaine! Speaking from experience :sad:

My experience is Sugar not crack cocaine lol, just clarifying

:huh:

MicheleWE

YES! I used to describe myself just like OP. I never had one cookie, it always ended up being way more. Homemade cookies were banned from my home because I couldn't control mysel. Eating sweets would set off a whole chain reaction, sugar overload then the search for salty foods to counteract it (sounds silly now, but that is how I thought of it at the time). I experienced the sugar high many times but one that stands out was eating so much until I was "drunk" on it, literally laughing until I got sick. Definately not proud of it! I thought I was hopeless. I had to cut it out completely for a while, but that was not the only thing. I also cut the foods that "act" like sugar in the body-white flour, white rice, white pasta, etc. I never had a problem with potatoes causing me to lose control. But any simple carb I cut out for a while. I started grinding oatmeal to make pancakes and protein bars with and stuck to stevia to sweeten my coffee. I increased my protein dramatically (over 100g per day). I did not cut fruit, although I don't eat a ton of it a day anyways. I started all this in January and for months I was afraid to even try any sugar. I am still carefull but now I can have it without any binging issues and have found that some things I just can't simply tolerate well. I can have ice cream or frozen yogurt and be just fine (those were never triggers), but just a little bit of chocolate candy goes a very long ways. I still steer clear of my trigger foods in my home-baked goods-because I really don't want to go back to that behavior and don't feel the need to test it out. I feel so much better since getting off the sugar.

ldrosophila

sure any substances used to an excess that controls your thoughts and emotions can be an addiction. I find that I'm an all or nothing person I have to abstain from my addictions or I lose control.

iulia_maddie

In for answers on the diagnostic criteria for "sugar addiction" and proof that doesn't involve rats

I don't understand what this comment means?

Might be a side effect of going through withdrawal. Did you just stop using sugar?

hmg90

From the amount of people talking about intense chocolate cravings, I would say yes.
I've cut sugar out, and I don't crave it anymore. I can see candies and really want it, but I can control myself. I cut it out completely when I started living healthier, and the craving went down. So obviously, like any other addiction, it can be killed.
I almost wish it was the same with carbs - that the craving went down once you cut it out, but alas, this is not the case. I want pasta and pizza as much as ever. There are good reasons for this though - your body needs carbs more than it needs sugar.

BeachIron

Yes ! As bad an addiction as crack cocaine! Speaking from experience :sad:

Please tell me more about the last time your children went hungry because you spent all your money on cupcake frosting.

^ This. It's about time people stop using terms like "addicted" because they have self control issues.

Contrarian

Yes ! As bad an addiction as crack cocaine! Speaking from experience :sad:

My experience is Sugar not crack cocaine lol, just clarifying

If you have never been addicted to crack, you aren't exactly speaking from experience. Please develop an actual crack addiction and report back with your findings. Thank you. :flowerforyou:

pwittek10

very much so!!!
Once you take that first bite, it is super hard not to eat more.
I try not to give in to the bite it is so much easier.

PlayerHatinDogooder

Yes ! As bad an addiction as crack cocaine! Speaking from experience :sad:

My experience is Sugar not crack cocaine lol, just clarifying

If you have never been addicted to crack, you aren't exactly speaking from experience. Please develop an actual crack addiction and report back with your findings. Thank you. :flowerforyou:

Looks like Acg just got that test subject he was looking for.

TheRealParisLove

The short answer is: Yes.

From wikipedia:

A 1987 study showed sugar acted as an analgesic drug whose effects could be blocked by a morphine blocker.[2] In her 1998 book, author Kathleen DesMaisons outlined the concept of sugar addiction as a measurable physiological state caused by activation of opioid receptors in the brain and hypothesized that dependence on sugar followed the same track outlined in the DSM IV for other drugs of abuse.

You quoted wikipedia that quotes a 26 year old study that was quoted in a book that's 15 years old. Seems legit.

I tend to trust established science rather than speculation or unproven hypothesis. If you look it up on Wikipedia yourself you'll see that the article references more recent journal publications in the cites sources section(2008).

I feel like if a person does something that is self destructive and (s)he feels that it is compulsive and that they have little control over their ability to abstain from such behaviors, then it can reasonably be treated as an addiction. Obviously, sugar fits all of those criteria for some people.

ZoeLifts

Yes ! As bad an addiction as crack cocaine! Speaking from experience :sad:

Please tell me more about the last time your children went hungry because you spent all your money on cupcake frosting.

Yes, I am curious about this as well.

twinketta

Any addiction is real as is any phobia is real.

It is all about changing the way you feel about your addiction or phobia.

So, it is about taking control.

Short version but that is basically how it works

highervibes

I don't know people who spent their kid's food money on cigarettes either... so I guess they're not addictive either.

Jersey_Devil

No, sugar addiction is not real. It's not a mental disease. smh

TheRealParisLove

Yes ! As bad an addiction as crack cocaine! Speaking from experience :sad:

Please tell me more about the last time your children went hungry because you spent all your money on cupcake frosting.

^ This. It's about time people stop using terms like "addicted" because they have self control issues.

Addiction is defined by the lack of self control. There is a range of difficulty in overcoming addiction, some find it more difficult than others. Ask anyone who has tried to quit smoking or caffeine.

ryry_

No, but sometimes I start a paragraph without indentation, and I find myself so committed to the paragraph that no matter how long it gets I can't use any form of spacing or graphic highlighting.

Does anyone else get that?

Rosplosion

I think people take the word "addiction" WAY too personally. How does one person's sugar "addiction" take away from your smack addiction? Like homosexual marriage vs heterosexual marriage - how does one make the other less valid? That said, I don't think sugar can be compared to smack. I just think there is no freaking reason to get all up in arms about it. There are real issues out there. Is alcoholism really a disease? I don't know. It's just a NAME. WHO CARES.

I have dealt with a variety of addictive substances. I crave sugar more than any drug I've ever tried. Including cigarettes and caffeine. I know that emotional eating exists - I mean, seriously, why are there so many overweight people? But addiction might be too strong a word to describe the urge to compulsively indulge in sweets.

Showcase_Brodown

You can be addicted to just about anything, I suppose. Coffee, crack, sex, money... sugar, and there is probably something chemical behind all of those. So yeah, it's real.

But is it real in the sense that you legitimately can't control yourself, or you are looking for an excuse?

I know that when I have a cookie I want to devour the rest of them, and that's why I don't keep them at my house. I keep added sugars to a minimum and have desserts on special occasions. They taste even better (sometimes even too rich) when I do have them.

Cliffslosinit

No, but I have a sweet-tooth.

Gizziemoto

If you do not eat sugar what do you eat? Artifical sweeteners?

sozisraw

You could get a humour on these forums!

KPMP1992

Yes, I am another one addicted to sugar (and I want to break the addiction)!

BeachIron

Yes ! As bad an addiction as crack cocaine! Speaking from experience :sad:

Please tell me more about the last time your children went hungry because you spent all your money on cupcake frosting.

^ This. It's about time people stop using terms like "addicted" because they have self control issues.

Addiction is defined by the lack of self control. There is a range of difficulty in overcoming addiction, some find it more difficult than others. Ask anyone who has tried to quit smoking or caffeine.

A lack of self control is one aspect of it. I'm pretty familiar with real addictions, and while I understand that caffeine technically fits, I'd also find it amusing if someone was seriously trying to equate it with drug or alcohol addiction. Go ahead, make excuses, whine about how you can't. I've seen people overcome far more difficult things.

Isakizza

Addiction? IDK

BUT... I had a really hard time controlling it. I did get sick when I stopped eating sugar; headaches, moodiness etc.
I still eat it in small amounts now. It's much easier to control now that I got most of it out of my diet.

Since sugar was my weakness, it's something I'm going to have to always keep in check.


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twinketta

To the OP may be it could be finding another way to deal with stress/anxiety.

A lot of things we turn to in life are habit or routine and we have to stay out of our comfort zones, especially if they involve foods or things that we know are going to undo any good work we have done.

Change the habit/routine when you feel the urge for a biscuit/sugar etc (this is an extreme example) do 5 jumping jacks ( you can replace this with something different)

It may sound silly but it is a simple case of breaking a habit/routine

highervibes

I was able to stop smoking, therefor smoking isn't addictive. Very logical right?. Did it ever occur to anyone that it may feel different to be SOMEONE ELSE?

calibriintx

I have no idea. I just wanted to say, do what you want to do, but cutting out sugar entirely probably isn't the way to go. I'd agree that you need to figure out a different way to deal with your stress. Go talk to a doctor, or start keeping a journal or something.

I was never an emotional eater - I'm an emotional starver. I get stressed and feel like I'm going to be ill, and I don't eat. Until I do, and then I eat EVERYTHING, especially sugar. Anyway, I got into the habit of binging on sugar, so I felt like I had to cut it out entirely. I'd want cookies, and have a healthy meal instead, followed by a healthy snack, and then more healthy snacks, and then even more healthy snacks, trying to forget the damned cookie. And then I'd still eat the cookie and go over.

Now I just eat what I want. A few days ago I woke up and wanted icecream for breakfast. Rather than spend the day trying to forget about the icecream, only to wind up eating it at the end of the day and going over, I just decided to have icecream for breakfast. It was a good choice. I didn't overindulge, I didn't feel deprived, and I didn't feel guilty. I planned a healthy day with a variety of foods, and the icecream fit into my goals. Eat what you want within reason. If there's something specific that you can't yet trust yourself to moderate, cut that out. For me it was Haagen Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter icecream. If it was in the house, I would have downed the entire pint in a sitting, so I stopped buying it. It's been 5 months since I've been eating in moderation and I recently bought a couple pints of that icecream. They were in the freezer for a week before I opened one, and I had one serving. A few days later, I had another. DH ended up eating the rest over a period of time.

Get out of the habit of stuffing your face with sugar and it won't take long before you should be able to eat it without going nuts.

MinimalistShoeAddict

In for answers on the diagnostic criteria for "sugar addiction" and proof that doesn't involve rats

Beat me to it. Pretty much ^ this.

Same with me..

sozisraw

Yes ! As bad an addiction as crack cocaine! Speaking from experience :sad:

Please tell me more about the last time your children went hungry because you spent all your money on cupcake frosting.

^ This. It's about time people stop using terms like "addicted" because they have self control issues.

Addiction is defined by the lack of self control. There is a range of difficulty in overcoming addiction, some find it more difficult than others. Ask anyone who has tried to quit smoking or caffeine.

A lack of self control is one aspect of it. I'm pretty familiar with real addictions, and while I understand that caffeine technically fits, I'd also find it amusing if someone was seriously trying to equate it with drug or alcohol addiction. Go ahead, make excuses, whine about how you can't. I've seen people overcome far more difficult things

Try getting a humour! Your the one being serious!

SanteMulberry

Yes it is.

My mother is addicted to sugar. She's learned to keep it out of the house. I've seen her go on crazy eating binges when I was younger... whole tins of Oreo's, brownies, Full cartons of ice cream...

She still has fruit, and more "natural" sugars. But she knows she can't just stop at one cookie. I apparently don't take after her, I can have 2 cookies and say ok, I'm done.

Yes, I think it is dependent on a number of factors. One factor is leptin-resistance. Most obese women are leptin-resistant and that is part of the picture of food addiction. Many obesity researchers feel that sugar consumption is at the heart of food addiction. What are the foods people binge on?---candy, cookies, ice cream, etc. I think the sugar-habit gets one used to the feeling of being "high" on sugar and then, when that person is not, he/she craves getting "high" again. It is very similar to alcohol addiction (in fact, sugar is processed in the body in ways that are very similar to the ways that alcohol and sugar alcohols--mannitol, zylitol, maltitol, etc. are.) What is interesting is that I have run into several recovering alcoholics over the years and often they will complain that they have replaced their alcohol habit with a sugar habit (and gained a lot of weight because of it). OR, they will say that they can't even eat or drink anything sweet, as it makes them crave alcohol--I knew one man who would not drink fruit juice or soda pop because of that. Interesting.

Here is a link to the proceedings from a conference on "food addiction" from several years ago. http://www.foodaddictionsummit.org/index.htm

One of the presenters (Richard J. Johnson, M.D. Head of the Renal Division at the medical center at the University of Colorado) said that he and his team of researchers were able to create "metabolic syndrome" in a majority of normal weight men during a two week study, by giving them supplemental sweet drinks. They did give them a fairly large dose but normally, "metabolic syndrome" takes decades to produce and what was striking even to the researchers was that it only took TWO WEEKS in this case. Fortunately, the subjects of the study returned to normal after the testing period was over.