Sugar addiction....

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Replies

  • shining_light
    shining_light Posts: 384 Member
    For myself personally, the "everything in moderation" approach doesn't work with some things. At this point I really do need to completely cut them out. I don't have the best willpower, admittedly. I can will myself to work out, but I can't will myself to keep one bowl of granola from turning into 4. It happens. If I allow myself something in moderation, I tend to keep having it "in moderation" until the box is empty. I realize this. It's not the deprivation that leads to the binge, it's the mentality that "just one won't hurt". It really IS comparable to a drug addiction in that way, because I find myself craving that feeling, that mental/emotional boost that the sugar gives me, I think. All cereal products are off-limits for me. I do suspect some sort of gluten intolerance or something, though, because I know people often do crave foods, for whatever reason, that they are intolerant/allergic to.

    So, yeah. Cutting back on all processed everything is good. If it comes from a box(dry pasta included), I know I really shouldn't eat it because I probably won't want to stop eating it.
  • scottaworley
    scottaworley Posts: 871 Member
    There's no such thing. Just get your diet figured out and fit in moderate amounts of foods you enjoy.

    Not "addiction" per se, but sugar dependence has certainly been proven. http://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/02/q2/0620-hoebel.htm

    Not proven, suggested in rats. Rats metabolize sugars differently than humans. Yadayada this has been discussed before.
  • BeachIron
    BeachIron Posts: 6,490 Member
    When did you finally realize you had a problem?

    When it started affecting your work, when you sold your TV for a sugar cube, or when you gave a bj for a sugar packet?

    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:


    :laugh:

    I really shouldn't laugh at it, because there was that one time I really wanted a Klondike Bar..

    Pssss! You. Yea, you.

    I got Klondikes.

    In my freezer.

    What kind ya like?

    Whoa...where'd my clothes just go?!?

    Caramel pretzel...name your price.

    Wait! Right here, don't move.

    Damn flavors I don't have . . .

    *runs off to grocery in a mad dash*
  • AshatanViz
    AshatanViz Posts: 34 Member
    A lot of people are being flippant about this post, but sugar CAN be addictive. There are several studies to back that up. I have personally added to that pool of research when I did a study with rats using cocaine or cookie dough to study reward processing. Sugar can be as rewarding as cocaine if you eat it often enough, and in large quantities.

    I recommend taking the sugar out of your house, away from your work space, anywhere you usually see it. I find that turning on catchy music and singing/dancing around for a little while will distract me long enough to forget about how much I feel like bingeing on cookies. The less you eat, the less you'll crave. Good luck!
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
    When did you finally realize you had a problem?

    When it started affecting your work, when you sold your TV for a sugar cube, or when you gave a bj for a sugar packet?

    lmao! ^This.

    And OP, if you really have an "addiction", then you should be checking yourself into rehab or getting professional psychological help.

    I often wonder if the people who keep throwing that word around have ever known people who suffer from an actual addiction, because if they did, they'd realize just how serious an addiction (physical and mental) is and would be seeking help for their issues....not trying to go do some fad detox diet whatever. Seriously sad how we belittle actual issues by using the phrase or word to describe little and simple problems...like learning to moderate what we eat, in this case.
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    I need help overcoming my sugar addiction. I would love tips from anyone who has been through this and broke the addiction.

    It probably isn't really an addiction so much as a habit. I have a pretty major sweet tooth and generally crave something sweet after lunch and dinner. I also have a hard time not eating certain things if they're in my house and with other things, if I have that first taste I want more and more.

    So, I don't keep those things in my house at all (and if I HAVE TO have them there, I avoid that first taste). For the little sweet craving, I learned to substitute. After lunch pretty much every day, I have six squares of Green & Black's 85% cocoa dark chocolate with some peanut butter (optional). It's the ONLY dark chocolate I can stand. It isn't as bitter as others, but still not a lot of sugar. And it's so rich that that little bit is more than enough.

    I end every evening with a fruit smoothie:

    1 cup blueberries
    1/2 cup each of raspberries and blackberries
    1 banana
    1 Tablespoon Peanut Butter & Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams
    Ice

    Blend and top with LIGHT whipped cream. 16 grams of fiber and a ton of vitamins. And so yummy.

    Great ideas....thank you :)

    Really, it's the taste I crave more than the substance, so those things help so much. Good luck!
  • odusgolp
    odusgolp Posts: 10,477 Member
    This makes my blatant alcoholism sound like a breeze...
  • pastryari
    pastryari Posts: 8,646 Member
    A lot of people are being flippant about this post, but sugar CAN be addictive. There are several studies to back that up. I have personally added to that pool of research when I did a study with rats using cocaine or cookie dough to study reward processing. Sugar can be as rewarding as cocaine if you eat it often enough, and in large quantities.

    I recommend taking the sugar out of your house, away from your work space, anywhere you usually see it. I find that turning on catchy music and singing/dancing around for a little while will distract me long enough to forget about how much I feel like bingeing on cookies. The less you eat, the less you'll crave. Good luck!

    TIL that humans are rats.
  • scottaworley
    scottaworley Posts: 871 Member
    A lot of people are being flippant about this post, but sugar CAN be addictive. There are several studies to back that up. I have personally added to that pool of research when I did a study with rats using cocaine or cookie dough to study reward processing. Sugar can be as rewarding as cocaine if you eat it often enough, and in large quantities.

    I recommend taking the sugar out of your house, away from your work space, anywhere you usually see it. I find that turning on catchy music and singing/dancing around for a little while will distract me long enough to forget about how much I feel like bingeing on cookies. The less you eat, the less you'll crave. Good luck!

    Flippancy aside, there have been studies in humans that show that sugar is not addictive. Suggesting someone abstain completely from sugar is encouraging disordered eating.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    I really wish that they would slap a sin tax on Dairy Queen.

    I have to pass one every morning when I drive to the liquor store to pick up my fifth of Jack for breakfast.

    and don't forget my carton of cigarettes fool!
  • BeachIron
    BeachIron Posts: 6,490 Member
    A lot of people are being flippant about this post, but sugar CAN be addictive. There are several studies to back that up. I have personally added to that pool of research when I did a study with rats using cocaine or cookie dough to study reward processing. Sugar can be as rewarding as cocaine if you eat it often enough, and in large quantities.

    I recommend taking the sugar out of your house, away from your work space, anywhere you usually see it. I find that turning on catchy music and singing/dancing around for a little while will distract me long enough to forget about how much I feel like bingeing on cookies. The less you eat, the less you'll crave. Good luck!

    Post of study?
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    It isn't an addiction until you have snorted a line of sugar off of the Kool Aid Man's *kitten*.

    bahahahahahahahahaha
  • yelliezx
    yelliezx Posts: 633 Member
    When did you finally realize you had a problem?

    When it started affecting your work, when you sold your TV for a sugar cube, or when you gave a bj for a sugar packet?

    LOOOOL!!!!!!
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    A lot of people are being flippant about this post, but sugar CAN be addictive. There are several studies to back that up. I have personally added to that pool of research when I did a study with rats using cocaine or cookie dough to study reward processing. Sugar can be as rewarding as cocaine if you eat it often enough, and in large quantities.

    I recommend taking the sugar out of your house, away from your work space, anywhere you usually see it. I find that turning on catchy music and singing/dancing around for a little while will distract me long enough to forget about how much I feel like bingeing on cookies. The less you eat, the less you'll crave. Good luck!

    I just sing the theme song to the Jefferson's and it immediately takes to my safe place where there is no sugar....

    So you eat no carbs, fruit, etc..?????????????
  • AprilMae1975
    AprilMae1975 Posts: 726
    Guess I should have titled this post "Need ideas for cutting down on my love of sweet treats"
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    You stop eating it. You say no. And you don't vilify it. It's not the sugar's fault. Sugary foods aren't bad, and they aren't the devil.

    I had to stop eating sugar for about a month before the cravings stopped. I cut WAY down on bread and tried my best to eliminate all processed foods. I had a piece of fruit after every meal to retrain my brain and cravings that after dinner I didn't want ice cream, I wanted a peach. When I do want something sweet, I eat a piece of fruit. When I want something salty, I have some almonds or cashews.

    Yesterday I had a small slice of cake, and I have no cravings for more. It was enough for me.

    Ultimately, you stop eating sugar the same way that you stop being overweight. You have self control and say 'no'.

    Um, how did you stop eating sugar but ate fruit?

    Have you ever heard someone ask 'Oh god. I'm so addicted to fruit! How do I stop eating it?!' No, because it's the processed sugar that tends to have addictive qualities. They're two different kinds of sugar, so no need to be the 'but its all sugar' guy.

    sugar is sugar...doesn't matter if it comes from a candy bar or a strawberry...
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    Guess I should have titled this post "Need ideas for cutting down on my love of sweet treats"
    A sense of humor is a must around here. lol
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
    A lot of people are being flippant about this post, but sugar CAN be addictive. There are several studies to back that up. I have personally added to that pool of research when I did a study with rats using cocaine or cookie dough to study reward processing. Sugar can be as rewarding as cocaine if you eat it often enough, and in large quantities.

    I recommend taking the sugar out of your house, away from your work space, anywhere you usually see it. I find that turning on catchy music and singing/dancing around for a little while will distract me long enough to forget about how much I feel like bingeing on cookies. The less you eat, the less you'll crave. Good luck!

    What was the feeding protocol and was it ad lib food intake?
  • JoyeII
    JoyeII Posts: 240 Member
    Yes, I read the article.

    I know it's behavioral. But eating sugar stimulates those feel good receptors in the brain. And SOME people can become "addicted" to it that brain response.

    Just because it's not happening to you, doesn't mean it's not happening for others.

    I have to regulate my carbohydrate intake very carefully. If I eat too many carbs, or too many of the WRONG carbs, my body reacts.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    Guess I should have titled this post "Need ideas for cutting down on my love of sweet treats"

    as long as you are under your calorie goal, who cares? I personally do not eat a lot of sweet treats but that is just me...
  • maillemaker
    maillemaker Posts: 1,253 Member
    what kind of "addictive " qualities of you referring to?


    There's a chemical that companies put in processed sugar to keep us hooked. Science.

    What these jabs are really pointing out is that there is no physiological addiction going on. Obviously if fruit has sugar and twinkies have sugar but you only jones about twinkies, it's not a physiological addiction to sugar going on here.

    It's not about the chemical being consumed, it's about the pleasure being derived from the eating.

    Find me a piece of fruit that's as good to eat as a bowl of ice cream and I guarantee you'll see the same kind of behavioral addictions to it that you see to ice cream.

    It may be the same sugar in them but the ice cream tastes ****ing awesome whereas the fruit is just "good" at best.
    And OP, if you really have an "addiction", then you should be checking yourself into rehab or getting professional psychological help.

    I often wonder if the people who keep throwing that word around have ever known people who suffer from an actual addiction, because if they did, they'd realize just how serious an addiction (physical and mental) is and would be seeking help for their issues....not trying to go do some fad detox diet whatever. Seriously sad how we belittle actual issues by using the phrase or word to describe little and simple problems...like learning to moderate what we eat, in this case.

    Behavioral addictions are real. They are now in the DSM-V, including binge eating. It doesn't really help matters to say that one suffering isn't quite the same as another.
    For myself personally, the "everything in moderation" approach doesn't work with some things. At this point I really do need to completely cut them out. I don't have the best willpower, admittedly. I can will myself to work out, but I can't will myself to keep one bowl of granola from turning into 4. It happens. If I allow myself something in moderation, I tend to keep having it "in moderation" until the box is empty. I realize this. It's not the deprivation that leads to the binge, it's the mentality that "just one won't hurt". It really IS comparable to a drug addiction in that way, because I find myself craving that feeling, that mental/emotional boost that the sugar gives me, I think.

    Yup, classic behavioral addiction. You know it's bad for you, but you can't help yourself. For me, my attitude was not that "just one won't hurt", it was that once I had permitted myself to eat a spoonful or two of ice cream, what the hell, in for a penny in for a pound. If you're gonna sin, baby SIN! :) If you're gonna pay for indulgence, might as well indulge! :)

    There are just a lot of people here who don't believe that you can be behaviorally addicted to something, or that in order to be addicted you have to be resorting to prostitution. There are plenty of internet, pornography, gambling, and other behavioral addicts who know the truth.
  • scottaworley
    scottaworley Posts: 871 Member
    Yes, I read the article.

    I know it's behavioral. But eating sugar stimulates those feel good receptors in the brain. And SOME people can become "addicted" to it that brain response.

    Just because it's not happening to you, doesn't mean it's not happening for others.

    I have to regulate my carbohydrate intake very carefully. If I eat too many carbs, or too many of the WRONG carbs, my body reacts.

    Do you have a medical diagnosis?
  • AprilMae1975
    AprilMae1975 Posts: 726
    Guess I should have titled this post "Need ideas for cutting down on my love of sweet treats"
    A sense of humor is a must around here. lol

    Agreed :) I knew it would be bad at some point after i posted it lol.
  • AprilMae1975
    AprilMae1975 Posts: 726
    Guess I should have titled this post "Need ideas for cutting down on my love of sweet treats"

    as long as you are under your calorie goal, who cares? I personally do not eat a lot of sweet treats but that is just me...

    Let's just say I would eat only sweets if I could get away with it. I don't think 1400 calories of sweets per day would be good lol. My love for these things is that strong!!
  • carofenice1
    carofenice1 Posts: 22
    I have type 2 diabetes and just reducing it didnt seem to help. I have cut out all added sugar, processed foods and cut right back on carbs. I had to cut it out completely for quite a while and allow my body to get used to a new diet. It does work but you have really bite the bullet and de-tox from it . Good luck
  • maillemaker
    maillemaker Posts: 1,253 Member
    "When analyzing the addiction to food for example, a published study in 2009 from The Scripps Research Institute have shown for the first time that the same molecular mechanisms that drive people into drug addiction are behind the compulsion to overeat, pushing people into obesity. In this study, scientists focused on a particular receptor in the brain known to play an important role in vulnerability to drug addiction—the dopamine D2 receptor. The D2 receptor responds to dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is released in the brain by pleasurable experiences like food or sex or drugs like cocaine.[13]"

    - Johnson, Paul M; Kenny, Paul J (2010). "Dopamine D2 receptors in addiction-like reward dysfunction and compulsive eating in obese rats". Nature Neuroscience 13 (5): 635–41. doi:10.1038/nn.2519. PMC 2947358. PMID 20348917. Lay summary – ScienceDaily (March 29, 2010).
  • maillemaker
    maillemaker Posts: 1,253 Member
    sugar is sugar...doesn't matter if it comes from a candy bar or a strawberry...

    And yet for many people candy bars are far more tempting to eat than strawberries. Why?
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
    sugar is sugar...doesn't matter if it comes from a candy bar or a strawberry...

    And yet for many people candy bars are far more tempting to eat than strawberries. Why?

    Convenience
  • MailiLim
    MailiLim Posts: 1
    Eat dates. Middle-eastern people eat these as a dessert. They're extremely sweet, but much better for you than candy or soda and definitely help wean you off the refined sugars that can cause addiction. It's a good transition food if you're looking to cut down on sweets altogether, which does promotes feelings of overall well-being.
  • JoyeII
    JoyeII Posts: 240 Member
    I do. A few actually :) Prediabetes, insulin resistance, and PCOS.

    My doctor is open minded about allowing me to "treat" myself by regulating my diet. He said he'd give me 6 months and if there was no improvement from doing it "my way," then he would like me to try "his way." His way is with pills.

    I'm 3 months in, down 33 lbs, fasting glucose is now normal and A1C showed a marked improvement in my most recent labwork.

    He's been impressed thus far with my progress.

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