Food addiction-Sugar

AmykinsCatfood

See my issue right now is that my boyfriend keeps this stuff in the house and has not interest eating healthy so I cant keep it out but I will have to try the gum thing!

My boyfriend keeps his food in the cupboard above the fridge. He's tall so he can reach it fine, I'd need to get a chair to reach anything in there and it's just not worth the effort.

OMGSugarOHNOS

I think the whole "sugar addiction" thing is a bunch of baloney. They used to vilify fat, now it's sugar. People love having something to blame. The best advice I can give you is to just not have trigger foods in the house if you are prone to bingeing. But don't eliminate them completely or you'll go nuts. There's no reason to be super restrictive if you're staying under your calorie limit.

I can eat a whole box of sugary cereal and not feel full. Then search the house mindlessly for more sugar. I eat some fat, and I feel full, and stop. I myself am addicted to sugar.

No. You binge on fast absorbing sugars, your blood sugar spikes, your pancreas overcompensates, your blood sugar crashes due to the overcompensation, and your brain screams for sugar in an attempt to correct things.

That's not "addiction." That's called an "unbalanced diet," which leads to health problems.

But that's not what the food shamers want to hear.

the above post is the nail in the head. /endthread

QuietBloom

cravings for sweet things can mean you are not getting enough sleep or not sleeping deep enough.
do you get your 8+ hours everynight?

Who the hell sleeps that much? You wont get that time back. 8 hour sleep cycles were promoted to help factory shift work in the early 20th century.

Yeah. Most people need more sleep than that. I do best if I get 9 hours.

:noway:

That's over a third of your life...I get 5-6 a night. To each their own I guess :drinker:

]

You act like it's wasted time. :huh: Did you know that the body only produces human growth hormone while you are asleep?

Negritacosta

I was browsing to see if there was a diabetic section. I am also addictted to sweets with the added harm that I am a diabetic and I see myself getting worse and worrse. I hope someone posts our solutions.

QuietBloom

Processed sugar/fructose corn syrup/sweeteners are designed to be addictive so that we keep coming back for more i.e. helping people get rich. It may be my cynical view of capitalist society, but when it comes down to debates like this I always think about who profits.

Would the huge confectionary companies want it to be easy for you to give up their product? Of course not.

Did God/The Universe/Evolution/whatever force brought us all into existance have the same motive when fruit started appearing on the planet?

Just like MSG and sodium for the savory addicts, it's all about keepin 'em coming back for more...

yup that's it, the evil companies have us all hooked on sugar, so when they say "eat sugar" we all start binging...

Given your example then every single person would be constantly binging on sugar, and that is not the case...

gets on tin foil hat and heads to basement..

Again I'll say:

David Kessler, the former head of the FDA, was asked did the food industry knowingly create foods that were addictive, that would make you feel as though you were never satisfied and always wanted more?

This was his answer:
""Did they understand the neuroscience? No. But they learned experientially what worked.'

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/jun/11/why-our-food-is-making-us-fat (The Guardian...you know one of the most respected publications in the world?)

Gee, the food industry makes highly palatable foods. How EVIL of them. How EVIL of them to force them down our throats....wait.

Acg67

I love how all the IIFYM flamers ignored this post.

and yes, there are PLENTY of studies showing that sugar is addictive, comparable to drugs, and the typical response from this crowd is "the studies were done on rats. has nothing to do with humans", which is laughable.

(for funsies, go through and look at the studies posted by the iifym-ers in any thread, and many will be studies done on rats)

selective science ftw.

So rodent models, esp those that starve them to induce binging, means sugar must be addictive in humans?

nothing in science conclusively proves anything, but the results in rodent trials do warrant further human study, because the results were exactly in line with everything we hypothesize in this thread about human interaction with sugar. As such, they can't just be dismissed offhand as y'all are wont to do.

if there's nothing to be gleaned from rodent trials, acg, then why are they performed? perhaps as a precursor to human tests? perhaps because genetically and chemically we're really not so different from rats or any other mammal?

There is useful data to be gleaned form rodent trials, but posting a rodent trial and saying see sugar is addictive doesn't mean much in regards to humans. Think how many things have shown promise in rodent studies but failed to materialize in human trials

You gonna post all the rodent studies iifymers post, or you're just making things up as usual

dayone987

I love how all the IIFYM flamers ignored this post.

and yes, there are PLENTY of studies showing that sugar is addictive, comparable to drugs, and the typical response from this crowd is "the studies were done on rats. has nothing to do with humans", which is laughable.

(for funsies, go through and look at the studies posted by the iifym-ers in any thread, and many will be studies done on rats)

selective science ftw.

So rodent models, esp those that starve them to induce binging, means sugar must be addictive in humans?

nothing in science conclusively proves anything, but the results in rodent trials do warrant further human study, because the results were exactly in line with everything we hypothesize in this thread about human interaction with sugar. As such, they can't just be dismissed offhand as y'all are wont to do.

if there's nothing to be gleaned from rodent trials, acg, then why are they performed? perhaps as a precursor to human tests? perhaps because genetically and chemically we're really not so different from rats or any other mammal?

Maybe we're not so similiar ...?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/03/health/rare-gene-protects-against-type-2-diabetes-even-in-obese-people.html?_r=0

“The study is a tour de force, and the authors are the top people in the field,” said Dr. Samuel Klein, director of the center for human nutrition at Washington University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.

This is the first time in diabetes research that a mutation that destroys a gene has proved beneficial, noted Louis Philipson, director of the Kovler Diabetes Center at the University of Chicago. For drug development, he said, “that is very powerful.”

For scientists, the result was a surprise because the same mutation that protects people from diabetes, by destroying one copy of the gene, known as ZnT8, has the opposite effect in some strains of mice. Destroying that gene actually causes diabetes in the animals.

QuietBloom

I love how all the IIFYM flamers ignored this post.

and yes, there are PLENTY of studies showing that sugar is addictive, comparable to drugs, and the typical response from this crowd is "the studies were done on rats. has nothing to do with humans", which is laughable.

(for funsies, go through and look at the studies posted by the iifym-ers in any thread, and many will be studies done on rats)

selective science ftw.

So rodent models, esp those that starve them to induce binging, means sugar must be addictive in humans?

nothing in science conclusively proves anything, but the results in rodent trials do warrant further human study, because the results were exactly in line with everything we hypothesize in this thread about human interaction with sugar. As such, they can't just be dismissed offhand as y'all are wont to do.

if there's nothing to be gleaned from rodent trials, acg, then why are they performed? perhaps as a precursor to human tests? perhaps because genetically and chemically we're really not so different from rats or any other mammal?

Maybe we're not so similiar ...?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/03/health/rare-gene-protects-against-type-2-diabetes-even-in-obese-people.html?_r=0

“The study is a tour de force, and the authors are the top people in the field,” said Dr. Samuel Klein, director of the center for human nutrition at Washington University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.

This is the first time in diabetes research that a mutation that destroys a gene has proved beneficial, noted Louis Philipson, director of the Kovler Diabetes Center at the University of Chicago. For drug development, he said, “that is very powerful.”

For scientists, the result was a surprise because the same mutation that protects people from diabetes, by destroying one copy of the gene, known as ZnT8, has the opposite effect in some strains of mice. Destroying that gene actually causes diabetes in the animals.

Ask any pharmaceutical company that has transitioned a drug from mice to humans how similar we are. The answer is, 'not very'.

BrainyBurro

Processed sugar/fructose corn syrup/sweeteners are designed to be addictive so that we keep coming back for more i.e. helping people get rich. It may be my cynical view of capitalist society, but when it comes down to debates like this I always think about who profits.

Would the huge confectionary companies want it to be easy for you to give up their product? Of course not.

Did God/The Universe/Evolution/whatever force brought us all into existance have the same motive when fruit started appearing on the planet?

Just like MSG and sodium for the savory addicts, it's all about keepin 'em coming back for more...

yup that's it, the evil companies have us all hooked on sugar, so when they say "eat sugar" we all start binging...

Given your example then every single person would be constantly binging on sugar, and that is not the case...

gets on tin foil hat and heads to basement..

Again I'll say:

David Kessler, the former head of the FDA, was asked did the food industry knowingly create foods that were addictive, that would make you feel as though you were never satisfied and always wanted more?

This was his answer:
""Did they understand the neuroscience? No. But they learned experientially what worked.'

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/jun/11/why-our-food-is-making-us-fat (The Guardian...you know one of the most respected publications in the world?)

Gee, the food industry makes highly palatable foods. How EVIL of them. How EVIL of them to force them down our throats....wait.

yep. it's some sort of conspiracy clearly. :grumble:

Taylorxxlynne

I LOVE my sweets. But I eat them in moderation.

When I first started "dieting" I used to grab my ziplock bags and count out the right portions that showed on the box of just say Teddy Graham's which 24 grahams equal to 130 calories. It definitely makes it so where you don't overeat.

It helped me. Hopefully it helps someone else as well.

cathyg415

Good topic, saving for later!

eldamiano

No such thing as a food addiction. Pull yourself together.

dsb188

It doesn't matter is sugar is addictive or not. It still doesn't change the fact that people enjoy having it. I learned to have it in smaller quantities and I tend to enjoy it more that way. So for example I will have some chocolate here and there and I enjoy better than I did when I just ate recklessly. Also I try to eat it when I can actually sit there and savor the flavor verses me working or watching tv.

eddiesmith1

No such thing as a food addiction. Pull yourself together.

Actually anything that stimulates your dopamine sensors will be addictive to people who are susceptible to addiction. Unless you have been down the addiction path and have a clue, or are and addiction research Councillor you're just trolling pal. can it be controlled absolutely, and added sugars are worse because of the way they hit your bloodstream. natural sugars occuring in foods don't hit your bloodstream the same way a glass of coke does for instance (which is why coke is great for a fast treatment of too much insulin as opposed to here have an apple

Swiftlet66

Ex-junk food addict here. It took me well over two years to get over the addiction... with tons of setbacks too. It's so hard because that junk food has a mix of fat, sugar, salt, and various chemicals/substances (for yummy texture) all in one product--everything needed to make you keep coming back. Naturally, all of that should be separate in different foods (ie. fat in meats, sugar in fruits, salt as a separate mineral, and no chemicals). However, people have learned to put it all together to make it taste as good as possible so you keep eating it and eating it some more. You need to realize this and break from this cycle. The most changes for me came 6 months ago when I switched to a more whole foods paleo diet (less restrictive on the grains/dairy though) and stuck with it. I pair whole foods together now to get that taste but the difference now is that I actually get full and I stop eating when I'm no longer hungry. Now I bypass all processed junk foods. My acne (after 11 years) has finally cleared up, I feel more energy, life is good. My taste buds no longer crave the junk and even if I do have some at a special occasion, I don't go back for more. I've overcame the struggle, I'm sure others can too!

CrabCatcher

I have the same issue with refined sugars. What I did was cut them all out of 3 weeks to let my body kind of reset. I replaced the 'sweet fix' with apples, clementine oranges, pears, things with natural sugars. After a week I found that I did not crave sweets anymore. It is just a matter of flushing those sugars out of your body. The craving is actually from your blood sugar crashing so your body is looking for a quick fix (i.e a craving). I am not diabetic, but I use a glucose monitor every day and log the numbers. This tells me if my body is out of whack for sugars. I can tell you fruit does not have nearly the impact that refined sugars have (not even close). Fruit will give your body that quick carbs (glucose) it is craving though. If you measure your blood sugar you will see a pattern between your cravings and your low blood sugar. I hope this helps.

Remember, candy and all processed products like them are designed to make you crave more. Millions in R&D is spent to make you want to have more. So it is actually a normal reaction to those product. One that the candy manufacturers want you to have (what a bunch of *kitten*).

CrabCatcher

Quote: Gee, the food industry makes highly palatable foods. How EVIL of them. How EVIL of them to force them down our throats....wait.



You'd probably say the same thing to an alcoholic too huh? Same triggers apply. Not everyone is an alcoholic, just as not everyone is a sugar addict. So do not judge others just because YOU do not have a problem with it.

I AM a sugar addict and it has caused me problems for MANY years. If you do not have the problem you cannot respond to the problem. I was able to break the cycle, but just like an alcoholic it is a daily battle. Sugar is shoved in our faces all the time by family and friends. They are just trying to be nice, but to me/us it is like shoving a bottle in the face of an alcoholic.

CrabCatcher

No such thing as a food addiction. Pull yourself together.

You would be wrong.

YesICann

I would say that I'm a sugar/food addict in recovery. In my own personal experience, it's been a huge coping mechanism that I have struggled with my whole life. Thanks to MFP, I can see how much food/sugar I'm taking in daily. Now that I've cut way down on sugar, I don't actually crave it as much. I also use other techniques (journaling, calling a friend, going for a walk) which has truly helped me to figure out what emotion/issue I'm trying to escape from. Sometimes it's just pure boredom and I have made a list of things to do and it goes with me everywhere on my iPhone. I feel like I've got the tools and the techniques now and that puts the odds in my favor for ongoing success :happy: