Trying to loose weight and control my sugar addiction...
Replies
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Benton, David. "The plausibility of sugar addiction and its role in obesity and eating disorders." Clinical Nutrition 29.3 (2010): 288-303.
Ziauddeen, Hisham, I. Sadaf Farooqi, and Paul C. Fletcher. "Obesity and the brain: how convincing is the addiction model?." Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13.4 (2012): 279-286.
Wilson, G. Terence. "Eating disorders, obesity and addiction." European Eating Disorders Review 18.5 (2010): 341-351.
Its exceptionally telling that most pro-sugar-is-addictive research is coming out of a very small number of labs (I think that'd be 3 right now) and that the authors have professional relationships with one another.0 -
robertw486 wrote: »thorsmom01 wrote: »I dare you to walk up to a methadone clinic at 6 am in the morning and tell the people standing in line that you are addicted to sugar . see what stories they can tell you about addiction. They have a physical dependence on an opioid. Without it, they will become very ill. They will experience symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, shakes, cramping and so on. That is a physical dependence. They are addicted to an opioid. The withdraw they go through is much different then wanting to eat sugary snacks.
Quite a few studies suggest that people under methadone treatments often have a high incidence of much greater than normal sugar consumption. A number of programs that I'm aware of involve dietitians early in the drug treatment process since the tendency is to go to sugar and sweets over healthy food, which is a greater concern when many addicts are underweight when they start treatments.
I've met people that recovered from drug addictions on their own, yet can't stop smoking or get themselves to eat correctly. Just food for thought, as I know people that would laugh at the suggestion that heroin can't be beat without professional intervention, but they still struggle in other habits.writerchick83 wrote: »I am motivated to eat healthier and have less calories. I am even walking my dog after work. My biggest problem is I'm addicted to sugar. I always drink a soda with my meals and as a child I always ate dinner to get dessert. I do that now. I wish there was an easy way to curb my sugar cravings. Is there spill out there, like they have for smokers?
Sugar addiction can be tough to beat. Even harder when some refuse to acknowledge the truth about sugar's effects on the brain. Rejecting sugar addiction is old hat; luckily there's been exciting research done that indicates that mammalian brains do become sugar-addicted. Thanks to technology advances that allow for techniques like brain imaging, we can now observe and analyze how sugar really affects the brain (similar to other illicit drugs). And as with any reward center in the brain, acclimation and resulting abnormal behaviors do occur w/r/t sugar. A reward process being natural does not prevent it from moving into the realm of addiction, as we are just now learning. Highly processed, sugar-laden foods do in fact change the brain and produce behaviors much in the same way as seen with traditional drugs. I just saw a presentation given at UoC about refined sugar affecting the fetal brain to such an extent that the person deals with the consequences for life. Refined, highly potent sugar does affect the brain's "addiction center" just as any other "drug". There's loads of research available, much more will be published over the next several years. Here's just a little bit of information from real experts:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2235907/
http://news.mit.edu/2015/decoding-sugar-addiction-0129
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3139704/#S9title
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/01/07/sugar-health-research
http://abc13.com/health/study-sugar-is-as-addictive-as-cocaine/533979/
http://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/experts-is-sugar-addictive-drug
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11733709
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3109725/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090727102024.htm
https://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/02/q2/0620-hoebel.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1313591?dopt=Abstract?access_num=1313591
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2714381/#__sec1title
I've yet to see a good argument against sugar addiction (that wasn't made by industry). So yes, OP, you are very likely addicted to sugar in some way, no matter what anyone here tells you. And it's hard, because hidden sugars under a variety of ingredient names are in just about everything. And overconsumption is killing us and destroying our bodies. What some folks don't understand is that there is a HUGE difference between the sugar that is found in nature and part of our natural diet (i.e. fruit sugar bound to fiber and nutrients) and the "steroid sugar" we've purified and made potent and coupled with other junk (e.g. donuts). Our brains can handle the sugar in an apple, they cannot handle the beefed up stuff in a donut.
By the way, drinking diet soda can make your cravings worse, so be careful with the synthetic sweeteners. They do NOT fully activate neural reward pathways the same way that sugar does, so your brain will still seek its " fix".
Bookmarked for later reading. There does seem to be more and more evidence connecting dots and removing the gray area. Regardless of whether the medical community eventually considers sugar (or anything else food related) addictive in a physiological sense, it's already been accepted that food addiction is real in some people. And often those people struggle with specific foods.
I just read an article from as far back as the 1980s about sugar and heroin addiction. Even then they figured out that sugar has similar effects on the brain; it actually reduced and, in some cases, eliminated withdrawal symptoms in heroin addicts. Sugar cravings are a pretty well-known thing among addicts, too.
I believe that I posted an article or two about the relationship between sugar and opiode addiction; studies show that sugar has very similar effects on opoide pathways and actually affects reward centers in much the same way as cocaine or heroin. Reviews and meta-analyses seem to confirm.
Refined white sugar has certainly been shown to be an addictive substance and does in fact work in the brain in ways similar to highly addictive narcotics. It also produces undesirable, sometimes compulsive behaviors (ever seen a sugar addict binge?) in patients with known negative consequences. All indicators of an addiction.
This one specifically talks about sugar and its release of opoides and dopamine:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3109725/#S2title0 -
What worked for me was forming new habits with food and drink, try alternatives you wouldn't normally try, preparing your own food and drink allows you to control what is in your food, over time your taste adapts to a healthier diet and high sugar foods and drink will seem too sweet. I recommend daily logging your food and drink to help form healthier eating habits, a little sugar daily is fine watch the macros.0
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You can do this! I loved my sweets too but after 2 rounds with gestational diabetes I had to make some changes in sugar consumption and learned a lot along the way.
The goal is to keep your blood sugar steady throughout the day and it's easier to do that without spiking it with high sugar food and drink. I've found I want to eat more after I have something sweet, so it's easier to skip sweets if I remind myself of that.
Soda: cold turkey is the only way to go, diet soda does you no favors, but drinking ice water helps...if that's too big a jump, first try iced tea, first lightly sweetened and then unsweetened, or add lemons, limes, or a splash of 100% fruit juice. But try to work your way to water.
Sweets: what helped me transition was making things myself. There are lots of recipes0 -
...for lower sugar baked goods. Diabetes cookbooks are great. But don't pick ones with artificial sweeteners, look for recipes that add more fiber and use fruits for sweetening. An example would be blueberry muffins sweetened with orange juice or bread or cookies that use applesauce. You still get the sweet taste buy less of it and with more foods that fill you up. So when you get that craving and need a sweet, a homemade whole grain oatmeal cookie isn't a huge sin.
Chocolate: wean yourself off of candy by letting yourself have cocoa when you crave it. If you make it from scratch you can control so much of what goes into it, gradually adding less sugar or experimenting with higher protein milks. Cocoa is also great to have when you have a chocolate craving - throwing a spoonful in a baking recipe or some yogurt beats grabbing for a candy bar.
The main thing is to keep sugar from spiking. If you do have something sweet or starchy, make sure you have protein and fat to go with it. And try to reduce portion size and keep up with MFP.
Good luck - you can do it!0 -
Like heroin, sugar is not a food. It is a refined chemical that works as an addictive drug. Sugar has the absolute worst nutrient density of ZERO. It is all calories and no nutrients, making it useless as food. No one should ever consume sugar. Find all sugar products in your kitchen, throw them out and begin enjoying the natural taste of nutritious food. Within a week your sugar cravings will be history.0
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Like heroin, sugar is not a food. It is a refined chemical that works as an addictive drug. Sugar has the absolute worst nutrient density of ZERO. It is all calories and no nutrients, making it useless as food. No one should ever consume sugar. Find all sugar products in your kitchen, throw them out and begin enjoying the natural taste of nutritious food. Within a week your sugar cravings will be history.
Except that sugar is a food and carbs are a macronutrient ...0 -
Just using the word ADDICTION can elicit some pretty strong responses in here ( on both sides) I would not compare a need for SUGAR to METH or CRACK or HEROIN ..I don't think the immediate health risk or the withdrawal would be nearly as dramatic from sugar as from "drugs" However I do believe that the body does become accustomed to a high sugar/carb intake over a long period of time which can lead to a boat load of health problems down the road including but not limited to type 2 diabetes. I also believe that there definitely is a type of withdrawal, most common side effect being severe headaches.
That being said, can you begin substituting those empty sugar calories, cokes, candy bars, etc with more healthy alternatives such as "fruit" and fruit juice, it is still sugar, and too much is still not good, but at least you are getting some nutrients along with that sugar and you really should have some fruit in your diet anyway. The Idea is to transition slowly, 1st substitute, then cut back, kind of like a smoker using a nicotine patch to wean them off cigs. ( I know the nicotine patch isn't a perfect comparison but only one i could think of)0 -
Like unlike heroin, sugar is not a food. It is a refined chemical that works as an addictive drug. Sugar is a carb has the absolute worst nutrient density of ZERO. It is all around 16 calories per teaspoon and no nutrients, making it useless as food. No one should ever consume added sugar if it puts you over your calorie allowance. Find all sugar products in your kitchen, throw them out and begin enjoying the natural taste of nutritious food many of which contain sugar in the form of fructose or glucose. Within a week your sugar cravings will be history.
FIFYbrianpperkins wrote: »Like heroin, sugar is not a food. It is a refined chemical that works as an addictive drug. Sugar has the absolute worst nutrient density of ZERO. It is all calories and no nutrients, making it useless as food. No one should ever consume sugar. Find all sugar products in your kitchen, throw them out and begin enjoying the natural taste of nutritious food. Within a week your sugar cravings will be history.
Except that sugar is a food and carbs are a macronutrient ...
that was quicker
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The 2015 Dietary Guideline Advisory Committee just released new recommendations to limit added sugars to 10 percent of daily calories. Right now, Americans are eating more sugar than ever before — on average, about 160 pounds a year.
James DiNicolantonio is a cardiovascular research scientist at St. Luke’s Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Mo. He recently published a comprehensive review of dozens of studies in which he contends that sugar is more dangerous than salt when it comes to risk for heart disease. He says that refined sugar is similar to cocaine — a white crystal extracted from sugar cane rather than coca leaves — and that studies show it can be even more addictive than the recreational drug.0 -
The 2015 Dietary Guideline Advisory Committee just released new recommendations to limit added sugars to 10 percent of daily calories. Right now, Americans are eating more sugar than ever before — on average, about 160 pounds a year.
James DiNicolantonio is a cardiovascular research scientist at St. Luke’s Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Mo. He recently published a comprehensive review of dozens of studies in which he contends that sugar is more dangerous than salt when it comes to risk for heart disease. He says that refined sugar is similar to cocaine — a white crystal extracted from sugar cane rather than coca leaves — and that studies show it can be even more addictive than the recreational drug.
Interestingly that means that added sugars for me should be limited to 230-240 calories - so that would be 14-15 teaspoons of added sugar daily
Please can you link to this scientist's published research which on the surface appears to be dramatically at odds with the majority of current research thinking which seems to be moving towards behavioural addiction within foods rather than an equating it to an actual physically addictive substance like recreational drugs.. the distinction is important in terms of support and addressing the issue0 -
sheermomentum wrote: »The problem with calling your fondness for sweets an "addiction" is that it mentally excuses you from having responsibility for and control over it. If you want to eat fewer sweets, I would actually suggest that you begin by not using that particular term, especially when you are talking to yourself. Think of it instead as a few simple habits that you have that just want to change. You want (for instance) to start having water or tea or even diet soda with lunch instead of soda with sugar. You want to have only one small sweet snack after dinner, or maybe you want to have dessert only once or twice a week. Maybe you want to cut out dessert and soda altogether, but I don't personally see why that is necessary, since you like dessert. In any case, think about the specific, small, manageable acts that you want to do, and not about a large, general state of "addiction," which is just a mental trick that you are playing on yourself anyway, to excuse the habits you want to break.
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Here is the "how" in change. Redirect your focus from the bad habit to the formation of a good habit.0 -
I agree that this a lot of sugar but it is the 2015 Dietary Guidelines. I try to keep my calories from sugar much less.
It was from a NPR article: http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/01/07/sugar-health-research.
I have recently been reading research regarding the effect sugar has on our brain at the biochemical level. It explains why people feel as if they are going through actually withdraw when they decrease or take sugar out of their diets. From what I understand sugar affects the brain similar to cocaine.
This is an interesting article:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David_Benton/publication/40894500_The_plausibility_of_sugar_addiction_and_its_role_in_obesity_and_eating_disorders/links/0deec5277d288f0f0f000000.pdf
According to Dietary Guidelines, average Americans eat 160 lbs of sugar/ year or 246,000 calories of sugar a year and that breaks down to 675 calories a day...assuming one pound of sugar = 1,540 calories. Please check, math is not my strongest suit.
Having a chemical addiction to sugar, similar to caffeine, opiods and alcohol might explain why intelligent people struggle with obesity. People who have other areas in their life under control but not their eating might have an addiction as well as poor eating habits and exercise habits.
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Hey @bisky
I think you might be interested in this thread http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10226257/food-addiction-a-different-perspective/p1
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my husband is an addiction recovery counselor and works with addiction every day. He believes in empowering those who have substance abuse problems, instead of labeling them to take away their power. So, instead of saying, "I am addicted," which takes away a person's choice, he teaches people to say, "I am dependent on ____ for ____." For example, "I am dependent on alcohol to stop feeling emotional pain." Then, the goal of therapy is to put something less harmful in the place of the substance. "I am dependent on spending time with my daughter/working out/cooking nutritious food/rock climbing/talking it out" to stop feeling emotional pain. He says that sugar addictions and other food addictions absolutely do exist, as they are a method of medicating deeper problems for many people. "I am dependent on sugar to stop feeling stressed." If you are unable to control stress levels without sugar/food, their is an unhealthy relationship there that could be improved. Sugars may not have the immediate health effects as say alcohol or opiates, but a long term dependency on sugar and food as a coverup for larger emotional issues results in very real physical consequences, including a high instance of cancer, diabtetes, and heart disease, as well as chronic inflammation.0
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The 2015 Dietary Guideline Advisory Committee just released new recommendations to limit added sugars to 10 percent of daily calories. Right now, Americans are eating more sugar than ever before — on average, about 160 pounds a year.
James DiNicolantonio is a cardiovascular research scientist at St. Luke’s Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Mo. He recently published a comprehensive review of dozens of studies in which he contends that sugar is more dangerous than salt when it comes to risk for heart disease. He says that refined sugar is similar to cocaine — a white crystal extracted from sugar cane rather than coca leaves — and that studies show it can be even more addictive than the recreational drug.
I can only find that statement in his opinion pieces, not in anything resembling a study ... the difference between the NYT and a scientific journal.0 -
my husband is an addiction recovery counselor and works with addiction every day. He believes in empowering those who have substance abuse problems, instead of labeling them to take away their power. So, instead of saying, "I am addicted," which takes away a person's choice, he teaches people to say, "I am dependent on ____ for ____." For example, "I am dependent on alcohol to stop feeling emotional pain." Then, the goal of therapy is to put something less harmful in the place of the substance. "I am dependent on spending time with my daughter/working out/cooking nutritious food/rock climbing/talking it out" to stop feeling emotional pain. He says that sugar addictions and other food addictions absolutely do exist, as they are a method of medicating deeper problems for many people. "I am dependent on sugar to stop feeling stressed." If you are unable to control stress levels without sugar/food, their is an unhealthy relationship there that could be improved. Sugars may not have the immediate health effects as say alcohol or opiates, but a long term dependency on sugar and food as a coverup for larger emotional issues results in very real physical consequences, including a high instance of cancer, diabtetes, and heart disease, as well as chronic inflammation.
agree, agree and agree
but behavioural addiction is still <> physical addiction0 -
Wetcoaster wrote: »Rejecting sugar addiction is old hat; luckily there's been exciting research done that indicates that mammalian brains do become sugar-addicted. And as with any reward center in the brain, acclimation and resulting abnormal behaviors do occur w/r/t sugar. A reward process being natural does not prevent it from moving into the realm of addiction, as we are just now learning. Highly processed, sugar-laden foods do in fact change the brain and produce behaviors much in the same way as seen with traditional drugs. I just saw a presentation given at UoC about refined sugar affecting the fetal brain to such an extent that the person deals with the consequences for life. Refined, highly potent sugar does affect the brain's "addiction center" just as any other "drug". There's loads of research available, much more will be published over the next several years. Here's just a little bit of information from real experts:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2235907/
http://news.mit.edu/2015/decoding-sugar-addiction-0129
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3139704/#S9title
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/01/07/sugar-health-research
http://abc13.com/health/study-sugar-is-as-addictive-as-cocaine/533979/
http://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/experts-is-sugar-addictive-drug
I've yet to see a good argument against sugar addiction (that wasn't made by industry). So yes, OP, you are very likely addicted to sugar in some way, no matter what anyone here tells you. And it's hard, because hidden sugars under a variety of ingredient names are in just about everything. And overconsumption is killing us and destroying our bodies.
By the way, drinking diet soda can make your cravings worse, so be careful with the synthetic sweeteners. They do NOT fully activate neural reward pathways the same way that sugar does, so your brain will still seek its " fix".
I disagree
It's okay to be misinformed. Traditional viewpoints take a while to die, even when the research is solid.
please post studies showing human trials and not rats...0 -
robertw486 wrote: »thorsmom01 wrote: »I dare you to walk up to a methadone clinic at 6 am in the morning and tell the people standing in line that you are addicted to sugar . see what stories they can tell you about addiction. They have a physical dependence on an opioid. Without it, they will become very ill. They will experience symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, shakes, cramping and so on. That is a physical dependence. They are addicted to an opioid. The withdraw they go through is much different then wanting to eat sugary snacks.
Quite a few studies suggest that people under methadone treatments often have a high incidence of much greater than normal sugar consumption. A number of programs that I'm aware of involve dietitians early in the drug treatment process since the tendency is to go to sugar and sweets over healthy food, which is a greater concern when many addicts are underweight when they start treatments.
I've met people that recovered from drug addictions on their own, yet can't stop smoking or get themselves to eat correctly. Just food for thought, as I know people that would laugh at the suggestion that heroin can't be beat without professional intervention, but they still struggle in other habits.writerchick83 wrote: »I am motivated to eat healthier and have less calories. I am even walking my dog after work. My biggest problem is I'm addicted to sugar. I always drink a soda with my meals and as a child I always ate dinner to get dessert. I do that now. I wish there was an easy way to curb my sugar cravings. Is there spill out there, like they have for smokers?
Sugar addiction can be tough to beat. Even harder when some refuse to acknowledge the truth about sugar's effects on the brain. Rejecting sugar addiction is old hat; luckily there's been exciting research done that indicates that mammalian brains do become sugar-addicted. Thanks to technology advances that allow for techniques like brain imaging, we can now observe and analyze how sugar really affects the brain (similar to other illicit drugs). And as with any reward center in the brain, acclimation and resulting abnormal behaviors do occur w/r/t sugar. A reward process being natural does not prevent it from moving into the realm of addiction, as we are just now learning. Highly processed, sugar-laden foods do in fact change the brain and produce behaviors much in the same way as seen with traditional drugs. I just saw a presentation given at UoC about refined sugar affecting the fetal brain to such an extent that the person deals with the consequences for life. Refined, highly potent sugar does affect the brain's "addiction center" just as any other "drug". There's loads of research available, much more will be published over the next several years. Here's just a little bit of information from real experts:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2235907/
http://news.mit.edu/2015/decoding-sugar-addiction-0129
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3139704/#S9title
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/01/07/sugar-health-research
http://abc13.com/health/study-sugar-is-as-addictive-as-cocaine/533979/
http://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/experts-is-sugar-addictive-drug
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11733709
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3109725/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090727102024.htm
https://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/02/q2/0620-hoebel.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1313591?dopt=Abstract?access_num=1313591
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2714381/#__sec1title
I've yet to see a good argument against sugar addiction (that wasn't made by industry). So yes, OP, you are very likely addicted to sugar in some way, no matter what anyone here tells you. And it's hard, because hidden sugars under a variety of ingredient names are in just about everything. And overconsumption is killing us and destroying our bodies. What some folks don't understand is that there is a HUGE difference between the sugar that is found in nature and part of our natural diet (i.e. fruit sugar bound to fiber and nutrients) and the "steroid sugar" we've purified and made potent and coupled with other junk (e.g. donuts). Our brains can handle the sugar in an apple, they cannot handle the beefed up stuff in a donut.
By the way, drinking diet soda can make your cravings worse, so be careful with the synthetic sweeteners. They do NOT fully activate neural reward pathways the same way that sugar does, so your brain will still seek its " fix".
Bookmarked for later reading. There does seem to be more and more evidence connecting dots and removing the gray area. Regardless of whether the medical community eventually considers sugar (or anything else food related) addictive in a physiological sense, it's already been accepted that food addiction is real in some people. And often those people struggle with specific foods.
i have yet to see study directly linking food and addiction in humans. and the top if this thread is no food addiction….0 -
robertw486 wrote: »thorsmom01 wrote: »I dare you to walk up to a methadone clinic at 6 am in the morning and tell the people standing in line that you are addicted to sugar . see what stories they can tell you about addiction. They have a physical dependence on an opioid. Without it, they will become very ill. They will experience symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, shakes, cramping and so on. That is a physical dependence. They are addicted to an opioid. The withdraw they go through is much different then wanting to eat sugary snacks.
Quite a few studies suggest that people under methadone treatments often have a high incidence of much greater than normal sugar consumption. A number of programs that I'm aware of involve dietitians early in the drug treatment process since the tendency is to go to sugar and sweets over healthy food, which is a greater concern when many addicts are underweight when they start treatments.
I've met people that recovered from drug addictions on their own, yet can't stop smoking or get themselves to eat correctly. Just food for thought, as I know people that would laugh at the suggestion that heroin can't be beat without professional intervention, but they still struggle in other habits.writerchick83 wrote: »I am motivated to eat healthier and have less calories. I am even walking my dog after work. My biggest problem is I'm addicted to sugar. I always drink a soda with my meals and as a child I always ate dinner to get dessert. I do that now. I wish there was an easy way to curb my sugar cravings. Is there spill out there, like they have for smokers?
Sugar addiction can be tough to beat. Even harder when some refuse to acknowledge the truth about sugar's effects on the brain. Rejecting sugar addiction is old hat; luckily there's been exciting research done that indicates that mammalian brains do become sugar-addicted. Thanks to technology advances that allow for techniques like brain imaging, we can now observe and analyze how sugar really affects the brain (similar to other illicit drugs). And as with any reward center in the brain, acclimation and resulting abnormal behaviors do occur w/r/t sugar. A reward process being natural does not prevent it from moving into the realm of addiction, as we are just now learning. Highly processed, sugar-laden foods do in fact change the brain and produce behaviors much in the same way as seen with traditional drugs. I just saw a presentation given at UoC about refined sugar affecting the fetal brain to such an extent that the person deals with the consequences for life. Refined, highly potent sugar does affect the brain's "addiction center" just as any other "drug". There's loads of research available, much more will be published over the next several years. Here's just a little bit of information from real experts:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2235907/
http://news.mit.edu/2015/decoding-sugar-addiction-0129
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3139704/#S9title
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/01/07/sugar-health-research
http://abc13.com/health/study-sugar-is-as-addictive-as-cocaine/533979/
http://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/experts-is-sugar-addictive-drug
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11733709
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3109725/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090727102024.htm
https://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/02/q2/0620-hoebel.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1313591?dopt=Abstract?access_num=1313591
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2714381/#__sec1title
I've yet to see a good argument against sugar addiction (that wasn't made by industry). So yes, OP, you are very likely addicted to sugar in some way, no matter what anyone here tells you. And it's hard, because hidden sugars under a variety of ingredient names are in just about everything. And overconsumption is killing us and destroying our bodies. What some folks don't understand is that there is a HUGE difference between the sugar that is found in nature and part of our natural diet (i.e. fruit sugar bound to fiber and nutrients) and the "steroid sugar" we've purified and made potent and coupled with other junk (e.g. donuts). Our brains can handle the sugar in an apple, they cannot handle the beefed up stuff in a donut.
By the way, drinking diet soda can make your cravings worse, so be careful with the synthetic sweeteners. They do NOT fully activate neural reward pathways the same way that sugar does, so your brain will still seek its " fix".
Bookmarked for later reading. There does seem to be more and more evidence connecting dots and removing the gray area. Regardless of whether the medical community eventually considers sugar (or anything else food related) addictive in a physiological sense, it's already been accepted that food addiction is real in some people. And often those people struggle with specific foods.
I just read an article from as far back as the 1980s about sugar and heroin addiction. Even then they figured out that sugar has similar effects on the brain; it actually reduced and, in some cases, eliminated withdrawal symptoms in heroin addicts. Sugar cravings are a pretty well-known thing among addicts, too.
I believe that I posted an article or two about the relationship between sugar and opiode addiction; studies show that sugar has very similar effects on opoide pathways and actually affects reward centers in much the same way as cocaine or heroin. Reviews and meta-analyses seem to confirm.
Refined white sugar has certainly been shown to be an addictive substance and does in fact work in the brain in ways similar to highly addictive narcotics. It also produces undesirable, sometimes compulsive behaviors (ever seen a sugar addict binge?) in patients with known negative consequences. All indicators of an addiction.
This one specifically talks about sugar and its release of opoides and dopamine:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3109725/#S2title
and you get the same "dopamine" reaction from petting puppies, so does that mean that petting puppies is now as addictive as heroin?0 -
The 2015 Dietary Guideline Advisory Committee just released new recommendations to limit added sugars to 10 percent of daily calories. Right now, Americans are eating more sugar than ever before — on average, about 160 pounds a year.
James DiNicolantonio is a cardiovascular research scientist at St. Luke’s Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Mo. He recently published a comprehensive review of dozens of studies in which he contends that sugar is more dangerous than salt when it comes to risk for heart disease. He says that refined sugar is similar to cocaine — a white crystal extracted from sugar cane rather than coca leaves — and that studies show it can be even more addictive than the recreational drug.
no, sugar is not as addictive as cocaine, that is a ridiculous assertion.0 -
Food has emotional, social and spiritual meanings that can be different for everyone. At the end of the day, our bodies do not care about that...just what it breaks food down into and that is basically chemicals. Drugs, alcohol, sugar, cocoa and caffeine are chemicals that our bodies have receptors for and can become addicted to.
This is an article from MIT regarding sugar addiction some of you might find interesting:
http://news.mit.edu/2015/decoding-sugar-addiction-0129
Unfortunately I am old enough to remember the research on cigarettes and smoking when it came out in the 60's. At my elementary school we had a demonstration on healthy cadaver lungs and lungs from smokers but yet people denied the research and Tobacco companies fought like hell to prevent the link of smoking to cancer to be publicized. Don't forget the movie, The Insider, a true story of Tobacco companies increasing the nicotine content in cigarets to increase addiction. The news and research (yes, mainly on animals) of sugar and addictions remind be of the tobacco debate.
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Like heroin, sugar is not a food. It is a refined chemical that works as an addictive drug. Sugar has the absolute worst nutrient density of ZERO. It is all calories and no nutrients, making it useless as food. No one should ever consume sugar. Find all sugar products in your kitchen, throw them out and begin enjoying the natural taste of nutritious food. Within a week your sugar cravings will be history.
Sugar is a natural occurring carbohydrate, a macronutrient. It is readily utilized by the body for fuel and is great for providing energy as well as quick restoration of glycogen stores following muscle exhaustion.
There is no well founded research demonstrating addiction to sugar in humans.
You obviously don't understand what a nutrient is (you seem to think only micronutrients are nutrients). Micronutrients are not found in any macronutrient (fat, protein or carbohydrates). They are simply found in the same foods.
Everyone should consume sugar and it is impossible to completely remove all sugar from one's diet. It is a natural occurring macronutrient in a whole host of foods, including fruits and vegetables.
50 bonus points for comparing sugar to heroin and then stating that sugar cravings will be gone in a week.
#youcantbeserious
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The 2015 Dietary Guideline Advisory Committee just released new recommendations to limit added sugars to 10 percent of daily calories. Right now, Americans are eating more sugar than ever before — on average, about 160 pounds a year.
James DiNicolantonio is a cardiovascular research scientist at St. Luke’s Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Mo. He recently published a comprehensive review of dozens of studies in which he contends that sugar is more dangerous than salt when it comes to risk for heart disease. He says that refined sugar is similar to cocaine — a white crystal extracted from sugar cane rather than coca leaves — and that studies show it can be even more addictive than the recreational drug.
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCenter/HealthyDietGoals/Frequently-Asked-Questions-About-Sugar_UCM_306725_Article.jsp
These guys here say the average sugar consumption is less than half you're saying, coming out to 84 grams per day at the highest.
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Benton, David. "The plausibility of sugar addiction and its role in obesity and eating disorders." Clinical Nutrition 29.3 (2010): 288-303.
Ziauddeen, Hisham, I. Sadaf Farooqi, and Paul C. Fletcher. "Obesity and the brain: how convincing is the addiction model?." Nature Reviews Neuroscience 13.4 (2012): 279-286.
Wilson, G. Terence. "Eating disorders, obesity and addiction." European Eating Disorders Review 18.5 (2010): 341-351.
Its exceptionally telling that most pro-sugar-is-addictive research is coming out of a very small number of labs (I think that'd be 3 right now) and that the authors have professional relationships with one another.
You can almost count everyone saying that on one hand.0 -
The 2015 Dietary Guideline Advisory Committee just released new recommendations to limit added sugars to 10 percent of daily calories. Right now, Americans are eating more sugar than ever before — on average, about 160 pounds a year.
James DiNicolantonio is a cardiovascular research scientist at St. Luke’s Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Mo. He recently published a comprehensive review of dozens of studies in which he contends that sugar is more dangerous than salt when it comes to risk for heart disease. He says that refined sugar is similar to cocaine — a white crystal extracted from sugar cane rather than coca leaves — and that studies show it can be even more addictive than the recreational drug.
no, sugar is not as addictive as cocaine, that is a ridiculous assertion.
You haven't seen girls on the corner trying to make a quick twenty so they can get their next twinkie fix?0 -
Thanks to technology advances that allow for techniques like brain imaging, we can now observe and analyze how sugar really affects the brain (similar to other illicit drugs).
No, similar to fat, as well as other tasty foods. That means we are genetically programmed to like eating, especially food with calories -- you know, something you'd expect given that we need to eat to live and evolved in an environment when food was often scarce.
Calling that addiction is what's wrong. It's normal.
Drugs use that same pathway and that is an addiction, because we end up putting something bad for us ahead of the things we need to survive. That's why part of addiction tends to be that the substance (booze, heroin, whatever) becomes the center of your life, you largely stop caring about other things and prioritizing the drug, at the expense of family relationship, so on -- basically, addicts are selfish. Almost no one who is worried about their lack of control with food is like this (at least not because they love cookies so -- they'd still never choose cookies over a loved one or job responsibilities). IMO, this makes the two things vastly different.
The other problem with the analogy, of course, is that people need sugar (your body will basically make it), which is not like a drug. Withdrawal here simply means you are starving (which is a bad thing, unlike getting off a drug). And almost NO ONE will eat sugar out of the jar (ugh) or be addicted to all foods with sugar (like carrots, apples). Instead, even within the sweet treat category they tend to be very specific in what's difficult for them to control themselves with (usually related to preference and habit), and IME more often than not (unless they are really into soda, which I think is most clearly just a habit), it's the combination of sugar and fat they enjoy. I make some delicious chocolate chip cookies -- one cookie has less sugar than an apple (which is normal) and many more calories from butter than sugar. Anyway, given this specificity it's the equivalent of saying that you are addicted to pinot noir but not cabernet. Which is not how it works.0 -
Like heroin, sugar is not a food. It is a refined chemical that works as an addictive drug. Sugar has the absolute worst nutrient density of ZERO. It is all calories and no nutrients, making it useless as food. No one should ever consume sugar. Find all sugar products in your kitchen, throw them out and begin enjoying the natural taste of nutritious food. Within a week your sugar cravings will be history.
Sugar is what your body breaks all carbs down to, and will make if you don't supply it with carbs.
It is in numerous extremely nutrient dense foods (fruits, veg, dairy, sweet potatoes, etc.) and is not in itself bad for you, including when it is added to other food (like maybe a rhubarb sauce or oatmeal, if one is into that) to make it tastier. Not to mention it's an excellent source of energy (one reason we probably love sweet foods like fruit, which would have been wonderful sources of food for our ancestors). Overconsumption is bad, as with anything. But saying it's not a food is completely wrong and ignores how our bodies work and that not so long ago getting enough energy (calories) was a major concern.0 -
my husband is an addiction recovery counselor and works with addiction every day. He believes in empowering those who have substance abuse problems, instead of labeling them to take away their power. So, instead of saying, "I am addicted," which takes away a person's choice, he teaches people to say, "I am dependent on ____ for ____." For example, "I am dependent on alcohol to stop feeling emotional pain." Then, the goal of therapy is to put something less harmful in the place of the substance. "I am dependent on spending time with my daughter/working out/cooking nutritious food/rock climbing/talking it out" to stop feeling emotional pain. He says that sugar addictions and other food addictions absolutely do exist, as they are a method of medicating deeper problems for many people. "I am dependent on sugar to stop feeling stressed." If you are unable to control stress levels without sugar/food, their is an unhealthy relationship there that could be improved. Sugars may not have the immediate health effects as say alcohol or opiates, but a long term dependency on sugar and food as a coverup for larger emotional issues results in very real physical consequences, including a high instance of cancer, diabtetes, and heart disease, as well as chronic inflammation.
I think this is a really sensible approach. I'd also stress that typically what we are talking about here isn't "sugar" but specific foods that are enjoyed, and especially the behaviorial pattern of eating at certain times (either habitually or when upset). I have struggled with those things too. But it's not that sugar has some special effect or power over me -- it's the habits and the misuse of food over time. That should be an empowering message, I think, as it means it's possible to continue to include these foods in one's diet in moderation, without feeling out of control. Perhaps after a break and some work.0 -
Food has emotional, social and spiritual meanings that can be different for everyone. At the end of the day, our bodies do not care about that...just what it breaks food down into and that is basically chemicals. Drugs, alcohol, sugar, cocoa and caffeine are chemicals that our bodies have receptors for and can become addicted to.
This is an article from MIT regarding sugar addiction some of you might find interesting:
http://news.mit.edu/2015/decoding-sugar-addiction-0129
Unfortunately I am old enough to remember the research on cigarettes and smoking when it came out in the 60's. At my elementary school we had a demonstration on healthy cadaver lungs and lungs from smokers but yet people denied the research and Tobacco companies fought like hell to prevent the link of smoking to cancer to be publicized. Don't forget the movie, The Insider, a true story of Tobacco companies increasing the nicotine content in cigarets to increase addiction. The news and research (yes, mainly on animals) of sugar and addictions remind be of the tobacco debate.
this thread has nothing to do with cigarettes and trying to compare sugar to cigarettes is, again, an absurd comparison point.
the link that you posted is a mice study and study designs for mice and addiction have been shown to have severe flaws.
Show me a human trial showing that sugar is addictive and maybe I will change my thinking.0
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