Anyone else feel they are addicted to sugar?

Shropshire1959

Nope.

losingforgood120

Well OP apparently you used the wrong word to describe your problem. To me it was a word and I understand where you are coming from. There was some good advise offered and you have lost the weight before so you can for sure do it again.

What I don't understand is that if you would have posted you were additiced to peanutbutter or pizza or dam near anything else you probably would not have caught all the flak. I see it all the time on other post and if it isn't about suger addiction the heat just doesn't seem to be as great.

I wish you good luck. :drinker:

When people say they are addicted to pizza I would assume they are speaking tongue-in-cheek, whereas the idea of sugar addiction is something some health writers and researchers are starting to consider as "real." I think the topic gets heated up because it makes people who eat sugar feel defensive. (Especially when they believe it's false). I know when I saw the documentary "Hungry for Change" and one of the people they interviewed stated if you feed your child sugar you might as well be giving them cocaine... as a parent, I got super defensive. People are sensitive about their decisions... if you are committed to being drug-free and then someone tells you sugar is a drug, it's going to bother you. So... human nature? It's just a controversial topic.

lemurcat12

Me:

My problem with this is you conflate compulsive eating and binging disorders--which obviously are a thing, but typically are not limited to specific kinds of food, like sugar--to standard tendency to gain weight. The idea that people want to eat cookies or gain weight because of a physical addiction to sugar, or that all fat people are essentially struggling with some version of uncontrollable eating or binging disorder is what seems obviously false to me. Psychological precision aside, there are links between these things and addiction, IMO, but the presence of these things is not needed to explain run of the mill weight gain or even most modern obesity.

You:

I'd be perfectly willing personally to use the word compulsion rather than addiction, but you know how us humans are with our care-free word ways. We don't always draw fine distinctions. And compulsion and addiction have enough in common that researchers are finding similarities between people who compulsively overeat and people who are addicted to drugs, too, so it's not even that major of a distinction.

Hmm, I think you are misunderstanding my post, since I agreed with that bit. From a precise psychological POV there probably is a meaningful distinction between a compulsion and addiction, but I'm not sure what it is and those things do seem similar to me. If someone wanted to compare alcoholism and binge eating or compulsive overeating, I would find it an interesting topic and probably agree that there are lots of similarities.

BUT, my understanding is that those things aren't focused on the physical properties of specific foods, although there may be trigger foods (which is one way in which I think it is somewhat different than drug-based addictions, including alcoholism). Now, clearly, you can have an addiction without that (gambling), but it is why I resist the idea that binge eating disorder is akin to an addiction to sugar (or bread, as suggested by one poster above).

More significantly for the current discussion perhaps, I don't think the average overweight or even obese person suffers from compulsive overeating or binge disorder. It's a lot easier to become overweight than all that in this age and society anyway. There are other explanations. But certainly some do have these issues. Personally, I'm a sober alcoholic and overweight, and to some extent I misused food as a replacement for alcohol for a while (basically until I realized I was doing it and then decided it was bad and should stop), but I've never binged and don't compulsively overeat and there's a really obvious distinction in my mind between how I react to all the supposedly addictive foods and how I react to alcohol. I'm fat more because I didn't mind so much being fat (weird from the perspective of my social group) and so there wasn't the incentive not to take advantage of the pleasures than because I persisted despite the horrible consequences as with an addiction (long after it was not actually even pleasurable). Hmm, maybe it's the idea that enjoying food=addiction that I find somewhat twisted here.

Now, I'm not saying that's definitive at all, in that plenty of people don't react to alcohol like I do and alcoholism has both physical and non-physical elements. (That's one of many reasons why I don't go around ranting about the evils of alcohol like some do about sugar, as if no one could safely drink it, also!) But so far none of the "evidence" that sugar is physically addicting, even to some, seems particularly compelling to me. But precisely what addiction is seems to me an interesting question and so do the links to eating behaviors.

I am always puzzled in these discussions what people mean by addiction and why it is something they are so anxious to claim. Maybe because my perception is that a lot of people struggling with more traditional addictions want to be able to claim they can control it long after they obviously can't. I think why I tend to object to the term as so often used on MFP is that it seems to be used too casually--to mean "I really, really like these foods and don't reach a point where I feel like I couldn't eat more." You don't need addiction for that--you need the fact they are tasty. And then you get to the fact that it's always the most tasty (at least to someone's palate) foods that are being discussed, not sugar from the bag (ugh) or even fruit.

Cook from scratch as often as you can. That way you control what goes in your food. I'm still learning, I was afraid of the kitchen for decades (my first culinary attempts were laughable creations that no one would want to eat!) but I'm finally determined to do it. Highly processed foods are disgusting anyway, often containing insects and insect excretions. Think on that next time you get a cookie craving.

Luckily I don't have a sugar issue, since I'm not sure how this would help me. I never was much for store-bought cookies. It's not like they are hard to make. For me, the fact I prefer homemade helps avoid temptation some (for the record, I'm also tempted by a nice roast lamb, and wouldn't say I was addicted to that), because it's a lot of work if I can only have a couple, so I tend not to bother (I'm sure I will for Christmas, of course, and that I'll make a pie on Thanksgiving, etc.). It's also why I plan in advance for my book club, since one of the other members is a fabulous baker and likes experimenting on us. Oh, well, moderation!

silentKayak

Yes. The feelings/sensations that come from having "just one" sugary snack are very similar to when I quit smoking 20 years ago. My last successful diet ended when I "fell off the wagon" with sugary stuff, just like an alcoholic giving up years of sobriety with binge drinking. In general, I prefer healthy food to non-healthy food, but a taste of sugar seems to send my brain haywire.

Some people can have "just one", but I may actually need to quit that highly sugared crap for real. I'm hoping that being in the habit of tracking every single day will help keep me accountable.

BIGBMF

You don't know enough for evidence based conclusion because you presume to know the evidence.

drug
drəg/
noun
1.
a medicine or other substance which has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body.

BIGBMF

Sugar is a drug. You build tolerance to it and have withdrawal from it. Wtf are you talking about not addicting.

Let me clarify why I responded to this and why it makes me mad. Your basically saying that because you don't have a crack problem crack is not addictive.

There is no evidence that your statement is true.

You've never heard of people using more and more sugar over time in tea or coffee?

BIGBMF

I'm not saying this applies to everyone or even a majority. I'm not saying that people don't need to be accountable. I'm saying that it's a very real problem any people have. As for me I used to drink 4 to 6 liters of soda every day, and it's still very hard not to.

eweadock

I've not read through all of the posts here, but I will say that I've seen easier success this year than I have in all of my previous years of attempted weight loss. I will attribute that to my doctor recommending I attempt to restrict my sugars to 20 g per day.

Because I have an addictive personality, I was able to stop smoking cigarettes by going cold turkey (25 years ago), but was unable to figure out how to manage my eating, because stopping cold turkey has dire consequences. Portion control, using the American Heart Association diet or Jenny Craig, or Weight Watchers all ultimately failed me. Apparently my body is the type that simply metabolizes sugars into fat, and my personality is the type that must simply turn off certain substances.

I'm not a sugar addict, but by eliminating unnecessary sugars from my diet, I've been able to lose about 2 lbs per week without feeling deprived. I have no desire to eat the ice cream that my family keeps in the fridge, nor do I have the desire to eat the cookies or candy that they persistently keep on the counter.

I do allow myself a glass of wine every day with dinner. This seems to work out well. So, I'm not an addict to sugar, but I behave as if sugar will be as bad for me as tobacco.

Helps?

caseyjarryn

A useful link for those who are interested, David Gillespie's guide to breaking sugar addiction: http://www.howmuchsugar.com/page-351428

Meerataila

Was all of that because they had a sugar 'addiction'? Or because they were overweight from eating too much. There are plenty of obese people who do not have a sweet tooth. How do you explain them?

Food addiction, sugar addiction, carb addiction, what you really want to quibble? It's like saying cigarette addiction vs chewing tobacco addiction, vs snuff addiction. If you're doing something harmful to yourself and you know it and you can't stop yourself (especially if you can't stop yourself after a triggering incident - just one cigarette/drink/cookie) it's fine by me if you want to call it addiction. I guess it's fine by me if you don't want to call it that, too.

Lemurcat makes a good point, though. Not everyone who is overweight eats like a binge drinker/compulsive overeater/carb/sugar/whatever addict. Some people just let it sneak up on them over a period of years or decades and don't ever really crave in the sense I mean when I say I crave certain foods. Sadly I've yet to crave carrots or broccoli. I defy you to find someone who got fat because they couldn't put the lettuce down.

lemurcat12

You've never heard of people using more and more sugar over time in tea or coffee?

Actually, I suspect that's pretty rare. Everyone I know who used sugar used more as a young person and gradually less as their tastes matured. Some didn't, but I can't think of anyone who used more.

I never liked sugar in hot drinks, but milk has sugar and I used to use that and stopped as I started actually enjoying the taste of coffee.

BIGBMF

I saw a mom selling her baby at the park for a Baby Ruth candy bar. It was sad.

My grandpa used to run a sugar gang, back in the day. They were pretty hard core guys baking cakes all day. They made a killing.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/wikileaks-fanjuls-among-sugar-barons-who-muscled-l/nL2wg/

Was he down with these guys. Sugar is one of our largest exports. While I wasn't even gonna go this way with the convo people definitely die over the buisness of sugar. Then again people are slaves for Apple and nike and a million other companies so whatever. I'm gonna go along and say your a republican and everyone needs to pick themselves up by their bootstraps in well every conceivable situation. We'll that is unless it affects you or any benefit you receive wether it be social security or Medicare. Because that's not socialism, you earned that. Didn't you?

Meerataila

You've never heard of people using more and more sugar over time in tea or coffee?

Actually, I suspect that's pretty rare. Everyone I know who used sugar used more as a young person and gradually less as their tastes matured. Some didn't, but I can't think of anyone who used more.

I never liked sugar in hot drinks, but milk has sugar and I used to use that and stopped as I started actually enjoying the taste of coffee.

Actually, my mom just noticed this has been happening to her with her nightly ice cream treats. She just wants more and more for the same 'fix' and she's not more than five or ten pounds overweight, much less a binge eater. She's different from me in two ways: 1. She can only eat so much before she gets sick, and it's way less than I can eat. Like 3000+ calories less! 2. She doesn't fixate or obsess over food.

You still make great points in your posts, though.