Sugar addiction debate

ninerbuff

Go.

mccindy72

It will be interesting, to see if this makes it. I've just responded in another thread to a person who says he's addicted to sugar, and that he actually eats it out of the sugar bowl (although he prefers brown or maple sugar, he says).
My advice was this: to seek therapy. Eating sugar is a cover. It's not possible to be actually addicted to sugar, or food. There was an entire thread, with great links to tons of articles about studies that were done with human trials, proving that sugar is not addictive in humans. (there are tons of trials done proving it is addictive in rats, but it never carries over to humans.)
When humans practice addictive behavior, it's almost always a cover for something else. Especially when it comes to overeating food. There's a very good reason for the term 'comfort food'. Our society has built an entire system around eating as not only a social activity, but also as a reward system. When we are feeling low, we feed each other and ourselves. So people with strong emotional issues often turn to food for comfort. There is an emotional reward system that can trigger in the brain, with a dopamine response. The person will continue to turn to food to feel better, rather than face the emotional stressor and feel worse. Weight is gained, and the person feels worse about that too. Now there are multiple stressors, so eating continues.
Unless the person gets therapy or finds some way to face the issues that the emotional eating is masking, the overeating will continue.
Why sugar? Because it tastes good. And it's not just sugar. That's the common misconception. The majority of foods that people think they are consuming because they contain sugar also contain fat. Cookies, cake, donuts, etc. They all contain fat as well. Might as well claim you're addicted to fat.
Those 'addicts' are probably also overeating chips, pizza, burgers, and chicken wings as well.

justrollme

"Seek therapy" would be good advice, although not necessarily helpful in the sense that if a person is reaching out in this environment for help, then on some level, they already know that they need it.

Maybe they are already in therapy. Maybe they were in the past. Maybe they want it, but can't afford it. Maybe they are too embarrassed to even seek therapy. That was the case for my best friend, who did eat sugar out of the bag, and added it to most of what she ate and drank, both savory and sweet. She also sometimes binged on certain sweets. It took a very long time, obesity and a host of other health problems before she did something about it, but all along she knew she needed therapy.

She tried to self-treat, mostly because she lost her job and had no money. Her husband was still employed and they have a child, and she just would not reason that she could best help her family by helping herself. She did look into her insurance, and the coverage was there, but she could not afford a $30 co-pay for weekly visits. So, she did what a lot of people do, she googled a lot, looked at sites like this one and she began to pull herself together. Eventually, she got help.

When a lot of people post on MFP something like "help, I'm addicted to sugar," they are not necessarily asking anyone for an armchair analysis or for a class session on definitions of the word "addiction" and lectures about why that word doesn't apply. What a lot of them are asking for is tips on how to cope, or even just simple reassurance. That can be helpful. It could also be helpful to suggest therapy with an acknowledgment that it might not be "easy" to seek it, but it's worth it.

ninerbuff

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