How to beat sugar addiction?
Replies
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The "Trick" that helped me is frozen fruit for dessert.queenliz99 wrote: »Clementines are sweet.
So replacing sugar with sugar
OP You know why that works...because the "sugar" you are "addicted" to is mixed with fat and carbs to create cheap, highly calorific, highly palatable foods...may as well say you are addicted to fats
Really all you need to do is judge the calorie content and replace with something lower calorie ..it's the calories you need to monitor not the sugar ..,an easy way to do it is to avoid highly palatable highly calorific foods which are the hardest to moderate for a while4 -
extra_medium wrote: »You're not addicted to it, you just like how it tastes. Just like everyone.
Is eating a reasonable amount of sugar and staying within your calorie goals off the table at this point? Unless there is some medical reason you shouldn't worry about getting "off sugar."extra_medium wrote: »You're not addicted to it, you just like how it tastes. Just like everyone.
Is eating a reasonable amount of sugar and staying within your calorie goals off the table at this point? Unless there is some medical reason you shouldn't worry about getting "off sugar."
Thankyou for all the replies. I'm sorry I can't reply to each comment personally as typing this quickly on my phone. I wanted to add.... I feel like sugar is an addiction. I start the day with candy or chocolate and then eat tons of it throughout the rest of the day. My blood sugar is usually around 3.5-4. I know this is normal. I've been to my doctor for query an insulinoma but my doctor seems to think my blood sugar is just low baseline as I'm asymptomatic. I only started checking my blood glucose out of curiosity. One time for example it was 2.9mmol. I don't know what that is in dl. But in the UK in hospitals at least a BM of less than 4mmol is classed as hypoglycaemia. When my bm was 2.9 I ate a banana and drank some tea with milk and three sugars. Half an hour later it rose to 3.8.
It's a chicken and egg situation, I don't know if I eat sugar because my blood glucose is low or if my high sugar intake is causing rebound hypoglycaemia from the huge insulin spikes when I eat so much crap.
I've no idea how to wean off it
My mother has diabetes so I should know this. Actually, I don't
But I think those numbers for hypoglycaemia are for diabetics, and don't apply to healthy individuals. You're not supposed to "treat" low blood sugar like diabetics do. Have fruit and sugared tea if you want it. Just try to eat normally. Don't stress with blood sugar (checking it out for curiosity, that's fine, though).
You are not going to "wean off" sugar, because sugar is part of normal human food. You can benefit from reducing added sugar (because that's "empty" calories - no particular nutritional value besides the calories) if you need to lose weight. But cutting it completely out will mean that you'll have to cook ALL your food yourself from scratch, and NEVER be able to eat a readymeal or at a restaurant, and sugar is neither a poison nor an allergen, so it seems like major overkill.
You say you feel like sugar is an addiction. You eat a lot of candy and chocolate. Well, it tastes good, I guess most people like the taste. But do you have an addiction? Or is it just a bad habit? Do you forgo meals and eat candy instead, to an extent that your health is at risk? What happens when you don't have any candy? How do you react to the idea of replacing some of the candy with real food? If your reaction is like this (and it only escalates after this), I think you can call yourself addicted and some therapy would be in order; if not, you just have to work on your habits, get in a better meal structure, adjust your environment.1 -
The "Trick" that helped me is frozen fruit for dessert.queenliz99 wrote: »Clementines are sweet.
So replacing sugar with sugar
OP You know why that works...because the "sugar" you are "addicted" to is mixed with fat and carbs to create cheap, highly calorific, highly palatable foods...may as well say you are addicted to fats
Really all you need to do is judge the calorie content and replace with something lower calorie ..it's the calories you need to monitor not the sugar ..,an easy way to do it is to avoid highly palatable highly calorific foods which are the hardest to moderate for a while
Don't know it till you try it - I kicked heroin by subbing in opiate abuse. Werkz 4 me0 -
Go ultra low carb for 10 days, all carbs are converted to glucose, except fiber of course.1
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That's like telling a smoker to smoke a carton of cigarettes at one sitting to quit. High failure rate.BreezeDoveal wrote: »Addiction is about mental associations.
A lot of drug users relapse when they're near the place they started or frequently did drugs. Alcoholics find bars very tempting.
So I think the thing to do is find a place you don't like and eat as much sugary foods there as possible. You'll associate it with that, and since you don't like that place, you won't go there to fulful your cravings.
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Lol, lots of drug users do drugs at home. Yes even one's with kids. So I guess they should never go home?BreezeDoveal wrote: »BreezeDoveal wrote: »Addiction is about mental associations.
A lot of drug users relapse when they're near the place they started or frequently did drugs. Alcoholics find bars very tempting.
So I think the thing to do is find a place you don't like and eat as much sugary foods there as possible. You'll associate it with that, and since you don't like that place, you won't go there to fulful your cravings.
Uh no. You clearly have no knowledge of actual addictions.
So drug users avoid relapse by hanging out where they did drugs?
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition 1 -
Lol, my opinion would be getting a job bagging refined sugar. When you're around something ALL the time, you tend not to want it or have disdain for it. Couldn't hurt.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition 0 -
queenliz99 wrote: »Clementines are sweet.
And delicious.0 -
Waitressing cured me of eating out in restaurants. Eating sugar right out of sack would do it for me too!0
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I'm having the same struggle, but I've started eating frozen fruit helps alot. X0
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Maybe ask your doctor boyfriend about your addiction to sugar. Ask him if it's in the dsm and see what methods he knows of to cure your addiction?
If all else fails, have you heard of yoga? @kshama2001 claims her brother was cured of his heroin addiction just by doing yoga! So maybe give it a shot.0 -
Hey,
Again sorry can't reply to each post but thankyou everyone for the replies xxx
I often dieting don't eat meals so I can eat sweets. For example one day I had whole meal toast with organic honey, a snickers bar, half a bit chocolate bar which was like 600 calories together and then for dinner I had soup so I could eat the rest of my calories in ice cream. I've quit smoking and found that easy but quitting sweets is super hard!
I will try frozen fruit though thankyou
Also for anyone that is struggling I watched a vid just now on healthy ice cream.....frozen bananas honey and buttermilk...not tried it but it sounds lush!0 -
Do yourself a favour enter your recipe for "healthy ice cream" into the recipe builder and compare the calories to real ice cream
I will bet they are similar7 -
I often dieting don't eat meals so I can eat sweets.
If you want to stop overeating sweets/feeling out of control around them, I'd start by stopping this. Plan out your day with balanced healthy meals. Leave a little room for something sweet, but make sure most of the day is more satiating kinds of foods. Getting in filling and satisfying foods make it a lot easier not to overdo. If I just ate sweets all day, I'd definitely overdo, since I'd be consistently hungry/unsatisfied. Main time when I used to overdo sweets is when I was stuck at work (where there are lots of sweets and chips and microwave popcorn, not much else) and would skip dinner and know I'd be stuck there until late and then just go overboard since I was hungry and kind of down.
Fruit is a great idea if you are craving that sweet taste between meals (or have some with meals), but I really think this is the answer from what you've said.2 -
the only thing that helped me break the cycle of eating sugars, having insulin spikes, feeling of hunger, which I stilled by eating sugar, which led to insulin spikes etc, etc, was to go on a ketogenic diet.
instead of only checking for glucose, establish insulin levels as well.
in my case, moderation, so often touted by people who are not in the situation I was in, doesn't help. and a lot of people forget that so called "good carbs" (haha) are processed the same as the "bad carbs" and cause the same insulin spikes.
"fruit" doesn't solve the issue for me.2 -
Calories in Kirkland Signature (Costco) Vanilla Ice Cream
Nutrition Facts
Kirkland Signature (Costco) - Vanilla Ice Cream
Servings:
1
Calories 280 Sodium 90 mg
Total Fat 19 g Potassium 0 mg
Saturated 11 g Total Carbs 23 g
Polyunsaturated 0 g Dietary Fiber 0 g
Monounsaturated 0 g Sugars 21 g
Trans 0 g Protein 5 g
Cholesterol 125 mg
Vitamin A 10% Calcium 15%
Vitamin C 0% Iron 0%
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
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Banana Frozen Yogurt
From the EatingWell Kitchen
Frozen bananas need to be whirled with just a bit of yogurt to transform into a sweet frozen delight.
3 large bananas
1/2 cup sugar, preferably instant-dissolving1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt, or buttermilk
The Greek Gods Greek Yogurt Plain2 For $7.00Thru 08/21
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Preparation
Active
10 m
Ready In
2 h
Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Peel and slice bananas into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Spread the rounds on the baking sheet, cover with more wax paper and freeze until solid, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Combine the frozen bananas, sugar and cinnamon in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Combine yogurt (or buttermilk) and lemon juice; with the machine running, gradually pour the mixture through the feed tube. Process until smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides of the workbowl once or twice. (The frozen yogurt should be firm enough to be served directly from the food processor, but if it is a little soft, let it harden in the freezer for about 30 minutes.)
Nutrition information
Per serving: 207 calories; 0 g fat(0 g sat); 3 g fiber; 51 g carbohydrates; 3 g protein; 25 mcg folate; 1 mg cholesterol; 40 g sugars; 0 g added sugars; 69 IU vitamin A; 11 mg vitamin C; 70 mg calcium; 0 mg iron; 25 mg sodium; 449 mg potassium
Carbohydrate Servings: 3 1/2
Exchanges: 1 1/2 fruit, 2 other carbohydrate1 -
Lol, well it would make sense if the drug isn't available there or too costly to buy. That's logical.BreezeDoveal wrote: »
Lol, lots of drug users do drugs at home. Yes even one's with kids. So I guess they should never go home?BreezeDoveal wrote: »BreezeDoveal wrote: »Addiction is about mental associations.
A lot of drug users relapse when they're near the place they started or frequently did drugs. Alcoholics find bars very tempting.
So I think the thing to do is find a place you don't like and eat as much sugary foods there as possible. You'll associate it with that, and since you don't like that place, you won't go there to fulful your cravings.
Uh no. You clearly have no knowledge of actual addictions.
So drug users avoid relapse by hanging out where they did drugs?
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Yes. There is actually research and treatment suggestions that moving, perhaps to entirely different cities, might help drug users avoid relapse.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
1 -
BreezeDoveal wrote: »
Lol, lots of drug users do drugs at home. Yes even one's with kids. So I guess they should never go home?BreezeDoveal wrote: »BreezeDoveal wrote: »Addiction is about mental associations.
A lot of drug users relapse when they're near the place they started or frequently did drugs. Alcoholics find bars very tempting.
So I think the thing to do is find a place you don't like and eat as much sugary foods there as possible. You'll associate it with that, and since you don't like that place, you won't go there to fulful your cravings.
Uh no. You clearly have no knowledge of actual addictions.
So drug users avoid relapse by hanging out where they did drugs?
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Yes. There is actually research and treatment suggestions that moving, perhaps to entirely different cities, might help drug users avoid relapse.
Pro tip. It doesn't.
They'll just hit up another dealer, or have a grand new selection of fresh pharmacies to hop to and from.1 -
i struggle with this cause love chocolate and sweets guilty pleasure. i managed cut back by having something like this on cheat day and also cut back on it in hot drinks too
but everyone has something they crave it may just be different 0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »I often dieting don't eat meals so I can eat sweets.
If you want to stop overeating sweets/feeling out of control around them, I'd start by stopping this. Plan out your day with balanced healthy meals. Leave a little room for something sweet, but make sure most of the day is more satiating kinds of foods. Getting in filling and satisfying foods make it a lot easier not to overdo. If I just ate sweets all day, I'd definitely overdo, since I'd be consistently hungry/unsatisfied. Main time when I used to overdo sweets is when I was stuck at work (where there are lots of sweets and chips and microwave popcorn, not much else) and would skip dinner and know I'd be stuck there until late and then just go overboard since I was hungry and kind of down.
Fruit is a great idea if you are craving that sweet taste between meals (or have some with meals), but I really think this is the answer from what you've said.
I was going to suggest this as well. If you are full from eating a balanced meal, it is less likely that you are going to eat all the chocolate.
You can make some amazing low calorie meals that can fill you up. I usually adapt recipes by doubling the amount of vegetables, and then freeze into serving sizes. That way I have no excuses. The freezer has a pile of grab-and-go meals that I know the exact calories for each.1
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