The Sugar Addiction
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AimeeZingLife
Posts: 47 Member
It's an ongoing process to make my diet completely all natural in it's purest form. I'm always reading about things that weren't made for our primitive bodies, mainly because I want to have more energy and to feel better. I work whacked out hours. My first alarm clock is set for 4:30am, because I get my call to which hospital I'll be working between 4:30-5am. Then I get up at 5:30am and get home usually by 8:15pm. 5:30 is not a natural time for my body to awake. I depend on coffee to get me through the day. If I don't eat the right foods at lunch time my sugar will spike and drop giving me the worst after meal comas. It's the worst feeling when you can't take a nap, so I've learned to eat foods that have a no more than a moderate glycemic index. I'm not going to lie though.....I lovvvvveeeeee sugar. I have a sweet tooth. I went into the 2012 with my goal being to cut sugar and caffeine from my diet. No more Red Bull or flavored syrup in my Starbuck's coffee. No more grabbing of a candy bar at the checkout line. My addiction for sugar did go away; however, my need for caffeine did not. Without the coffee I was dragging everyday at work. Two months into the new year I was offered coffee one afternoon at work and I decided to indulge on that offer. I felt sooo awesome that I decided I wasn't turning back on coffee. I don't drink alcohol, do drugs, or smoke because I think caffeine is substance abuse at it's best:o) One day I will get allergy tested for foods to make sure I'm not allergic to any foods that may cause fatigue. In the meantime I'm working on developing my dream business helping people to live happy lives, until then my full time job will be working erratic hours as a nurse. This year I read a book called “Sugar Busters.” Very insightful and interesting on how sugar effects us all. Some of what I have learned follows. I'm always blogging about stuff to help better our heath and lives, so if you like this please add me on MFP.
Refined sugar didn't exist until sometime around 500AD, so from then until now we consume on average 149.2 pounds of sugar a year. Our pancreas originally was probably not called to secrete as much insulin in a lifetime as it does now in one day. We cannot survive without insulin; however, we could survive better without too much insulin. When we digest sugar it stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin to assist the transport of sugar into our cells for energy. Sugar is the basic building block to all carbohydrates. Refined sugars and processed grains are almost immediately absorbed very concentrated releasing large quantities of sugar. A diet of refined sugars (cookies, candies, cakes, pies, pastries) produce an elevation in insulin levels throughout a 24 hour period. The additional insulin is then available to promote fat deposition. When we eat foods on a lower average insulin levels fat synthesis, storage, and weight gain occurs at lower level. So the more refined sugars we eat the faster our bodies recognize it and automatically stores it as fat. Sugar has been linked to diabetes, heart disease, elevated triglycerides, increased bad cholesterol, depression, migraines, poor eyesight, and autoimmune disorders such as arthritis and muliple sclerosis, gout, and osteoperosis.
The best addiction breaker suggestion I've seen is to completely stop eating sugar for a week. Everytime you eat sugar it refuels cravings, then you can gradually introduce it back into your diet into small amounts. Foods to avoid with a high glycemic index are potatoes, white rice, corn (including popcorn, cornbread, and cornmeal), carrots, beets, and white bread. Another tip is to completely clean out your kitchen of sugar and identify foods that have hidden sugar. Here is a list of hiders I found:
Agave nectar
Agave syrup
Barley malt
Beet sugar
Brown rice syrup
Brown sugar
Buttered syrup
Cane sugar
Cane juice
Cane juice crystals
Carob syrup
Confectioner’s sugar
Corn syrup
High fructose corn syrup
Corn sugar
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup solids
Crystalized fructose
Date sugar
Dextran
Dextrose
Diatase
Diastatic malt
Evaporated cane juice
Fructose
Fruit juice
Fruit juice concentrate
Glucose
Glucose solids
Golden sugar
Golden syrup
Grape sugar
Grape juice concentrate
Honey
Invert sugar
Lactose
Malt
Maltodextrain
Maltose
Maple syrup
Molasses
Raw sugar
Refiner's syrup
Sorghum syrup
Sucanat
Sucrose
Sugar
Turbinado sugar
Yellow sugar
http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=1663
For me I know that I should never shop while I am hungry. Those cookies and coffee look sooo good when I'm hungry. In recent reports I have also read that coffee increases our resistance to insulin, which isn't bad unless you are eating a lot of calories with it. A cup or two a day is good, but over that it can cause an increase in weight. Best of luck to you in overcoming your sugar addictions. I eat a competely balanced diet, and consume all the calories I need, but if you have figured out how to go without caffeine please do inbox me and fill me in.
Refined sugar didn't exist until sometime around 500AD, so from then until now we consume on average 149.2 pounds of sugar a year. Our pancreas originally was probably not called to secrete as much insulin in a lifetime as it does now in one day. We cannot survive without insulin; however, we could survive better without too much insulin. When we digest sugar it stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin to assist the transport of sugar into our cells for energy. Sugar is the basic building block to all carbohydrates. Refined sugars and processed grains are almost immediately absorbed very concentrated releasing large quantities of sugar. A diet of refined sugars (cookies, candies, cakes, pies, pastries) produce an elevation in insulin levels throughout a 24 hour period. The additional insulin is then available to promote fat deposition. When we eat foods on a lower average insulin levels fat synthesis, storage, and weight gain occurs at lower level. So the more refined sugars we eat the faster our bodies recognize it and automatically stores it as fat. Sugar has been linked to diabetes, heart disease, elevated triglycerides, increased bad cholesterol, depression, migraines, poor eyesight, and autoimmune disorders such as arthritis and muliple sclerosis, gout, and osteoperosis.
The best addiction breaker suggestion I've seen is to completely stop eating sugar for a week. Everytime you eat sugar it refuels cravings, then you can gradually introduce it back into your diet into small amounts. Foods to avoid with a high glycemic index are potatoes, white rice, corn (including popcorn, cornbread, and cornmeal), carrots, beets, and white bread. Another tip is to completely clean out your kitchen of sugar and identify foods that have hidden sugar. Here is a list of hiders I found:
Agave nectar
Agave syrup
Barley malt
Beet sugar
Brown rice syrup
Brown sugar
Buttered syrup
Cane sugar
Cane juice
Cane juice crystals
Carob syrup
Confectioner’s sugar
Corn syrup
High fructose corn syrup
Corn sugar
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup solids
Crystalized fructose
Date sugar
Dextran
Dextrose
Diatase
Diastatic malt
Evaporated cane juice
Fructose
Fruit juice
Fruit juice concentrate
Glucose
Glucose solids
Golden sugar
Golden syrup
Grape sugar
Grape juice concentrate
Honey
Invert sugar
Lactose
Malt
Maltodextrain
Maltose
Maple syrup
Molasses
Raw sugar
Refiner's syrup
Sorghum syrup
Sucanat
Sucrose
Sugar
Turbinado sugar
Yellow sugar
http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=1663
For me I know that I should never shop while I am hungry. Those cookies and coffee look sooo good when I'm hungry. In recent reports I have also read that coffee increases our resistance to insulin, which isn't bad unless you are eating a lot of calories with it. A cup or two a day is good, but over that it can cause an increase in weight. Best of luck to you in overcoming your sugar addictions. I eat a competely balanced diet, and consume all the calories I need, but if you have figured out how to go without caffeine please do inbox me and fill me in.
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Replies
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I am so glad to know I'm not the only person that frequents SparkPeople.
They actually have a program to help you Break that sugar addiction as well.0 -
Sugar has a weird effect on me. I stay away from it as much as I can but if it's in foods such as yogurt or a hidden ingredient in the occasional slice of bread I eat, so be it.0
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WOW... I feel a little intimidated by all this info, though I'm SUPER GRATEFUL you provided it!
I have a sugar issue too, my big habit to kick is soda. I used to drink 2 or so a day! I'm down to about 2 a week somtimes less. I haven't been able to kick the caffeine habit though. Good for you!!! How long did it take you to get the sugar habit kicked? 0 -
It's an ongoing process to make my diet completely all natural in it's purest form. I'm always reading about things that weren't made for our primitive bodies, mainly because I want to have more energy and to feel better. I work whacked out hours. My first alarm clock is set for 4:30am, because I get my call to which hospital I'll be working between 4:30-5am. Then I get up at 5:30am and get home usually by 8:15pm. 5:30 is not a natural time for my body to awake. I depend on coffee to get me through the day. If I don't eat the right foods at lunch time my sugar will spike and drop giving me the worst after meal comas. It's the worst feeling when you can't take a nap, so I've learned to eat foods that have a no more than a moderate glycemic index. I'm not going to lie though.....I lovvvvveeeeee sugar. I have a sweet tooth. I went into the 2012 with my goal being to cut sugar and caffeine from my diet. No more Red Bull or flavored syrup in my Starbuck's coffee. No more grabbing of a candy bar at the checkout line. My addiction for sugar did go away; however, my need for caffeine did not. Without the coffee I was dragging everyday at work. Two months into the new year I was offered coffee one afternoon at work and I decided to indulge on that offer. I felt sooo awesome that I decided I wasn't turning back on coffee. I don't drink alcohol, do drugs, or smoke because I think caffeine is substance abuse at it's best:o) One day I will get allergy tested for foods to make sure I'm not allergic to any foods that may cause fatigue. In the meantime I'm working on developing my dream business helping people to live happy lives, until then my full time job will be working erratic hours as a nurse. This year I read a book called “Sugar Busters.” Very insightful and interesting on how sugar effects us all. Some of what I have learned follows. I'm always blogging about stuff to help better our heath and lives, so if you like this please add me on MFP.
Refined sugar didn't exist until sometime around 500AD, so from then until now we consume on average 149.2 pounds of sugar a year. Our pancreas originally was probably not called to secrete as much insulin in a lifetime as it does now in one day. We cannot survive without insulin; however, we could survive better without too much insulin. When we digest sugar it stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin to assist the transport of sugar into our cells for energy. Sugar is the basic building block to all carbohydrates. Refined sugars and processed grains are almost immediately absorbed very concentrated releasing large quantities of sugar. A diet of refined sugars (cookies, candies, cakes, pies, pastries) produce an elevation in insulin levels throughout a 24 hour period. The additional insulin is then available to promote fat deposition. When we eat foods on a lower average insulin levels fat synthesis, storage, and weight gain occurs at lower level. So the more refined sugars we eat the faster our bodies recognize it and automatically stores it as fat. Sugar has been linked to diabetes, heart disease, elevated triglycerides, increased bad cholesterol, depression, migraines, poor eyesight, and autoimmune disorders such as arthritis and muliple sclerosis, gout, and osteoperosis.
The best addiction breaker suggestion I've seen is to completely stop eating sugar for a week. Everytime you eat sugar it refuels cravings, then you can gradually introduce it back into your diet into small amounts. Foods to avoid with a high glycemic index are potatoes, white rice, corn (including popcorn, cornbread, and cornmeal), carrots, beets, and white bread. Another tip is to completely clean out your kitchen of sugar and identify foods that have hidden sugar. Here is a list of hiders I found:
Agave nectar
Agave syrup
Barley malt
Beet sugar
Brown rice syrup
Brown sugar
Buttered syrup
Cane sugar
Cane juice
Cane juice crystals
Carob syrup
Confectioner’s sugar
Corn syrup
High fructose corn syrup
Corn sugar
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup solids
Crystalized fructose
Date sugar
Dextran
Dextrose
Diatase
Diastatic malt
Evaporated cane juice
Fructose
Fruit juice
Fruit juice concentrate
Glucose
Glucose solids
Golden sugar
Golden syrup
Grape sugar
Grape juice concentrate
Honey
Invert sugar
Lactose
Malt
Maltodextrain
Maltose
Maple syrup
Molasses
Raw sugar
Refiner's syrup
Sorghum syrup
Sucanat
Sucrose
Sugar
Turbinado sugar
Yellow sugar
http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=1663
For me I know that I should never shop while I am hungry. Those cookies and coffee look sooo good when I'm hungry. In recent reports I have also read that coffee increases our resistance to insulin, which isn't bad unless you are eating a lot of calories with it. A cup or two a day is good, but over that it can cause an increase in weight. Best of luck to you in overcoming your sugar addictions. I eat a competely balanced diet, and consume all the calories I need, but if you have figured out how to go without caffeine please do inbox me and fill me in.
TL'DR
I eat sugar! It works for me!0 -
Leave my sugar alone.
Powdered sugar: the new blow?
HOLLY AT SUGAR FACTORY
BY J. JUSTIN WILSON
Posted: Mar. 8, 2012 | 2:03 a.m.
As a nation, we've long had a fixation with "good" and "bad" foods. Butter was bad, eggs were bad, acai was good, fat was bad, carbs were bad. Salt has been called a "silent killer." Now, according to public health activists, Pixy Stix are basically flavored cocaine.
What have they been smoking?
Writing in the British journal Nature, three researchers with the University of California, San Francisco now claim that sugar is "toxic" like alcohol or tobacco. Therefore, we need a strict government regime to impose sugar control -- including age restrictions on soda, "sugar-free" zones around schools and candy taxation.
The researchers caution that they're not accusing natural sugar found in fruit of being bad -- they're just claiming eating everything from apple cobbler to cotton candy is like smoking cigarettes.
Curiously, new research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that Americans are eating 3.5 percent fewer calories today than they were in 2000 and have cut their sugar intake by six teaspoons per day. That's a voluntary change -- which blows apart the notion of sugar's "addictiveness."
Fundamentally, the sugar-is-booze argument reflects the further cheapening of dietary information.
The graveyard of food recommendations is littered with bogus claims that once seemed reasonable. Remember when eggs were cholesterol bombs? Now they're a nutrient-packed health food. Remember when butter was marginalized? People ate more margarine, which has trans fats.
We're always looking for that one "superfood" or one simple rule to build our diets around. There actually is one simple rule, but it's not about a specific food or ingredient. It's about balancing calories.
If the number of calories you consume from food and drink exceed the number of calories you burn off, you will gain weight. Want to lose weight? Burn off more than you take in.
Recent research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that the obesity "epidemic" seems to have leveled off the past few years. It's not necessarily easy to lose weight, but people can do it.
On the other hand, we have people who compare candy to vodka. It's great for getting your name in the news. But it does the public no good.
Consider also the case of salt. For years, the conventional wisdom has been that we're eating too much salt and that it contributes to the risk of heart disease. Recently, though, the hyperbole has reached a new level.
"Salt is the single most dangerous ingredient in the food supply," warns the often hysterical Center for Science in the Public Interest. Meanwhile, CDC chief Thomas Frieden claims that "if you just eat the food that's in front of you, you will end up with high blood pressure."
Looking at recent research, though, should make us wonder if our blood pressure isn't affected more by these doomsday prophecies than salt.
A review of 167 studies published last fall in the American Journal of Hypertension found that sodium reduction was associated with significant increases in both cholesterol and blood triglycerides (fat) -- both risk factors for cardiovascular disease. And a study in the same journal released in the summer used data from 6,500 patients and found that even a 50 percent salt reduction was not associated with a significant decrease in the risk of dying or cardiovascular disease.
The American Dietetic Association rejects the idea of good and bad foods, noting that "the total diet or overall pattern of food eaten is the most important focus of a healthful eating style." That's what responsible professional advocates should focus on -- eating in moderation.0 -
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I eat sugar! It works for me!
^^^ This!0 -
I have inflammatory arthritis and an autoimmune disease of my spine. I have also been sugar free for the past month. My pain level is about a third of what it was before I quit the sugar. I was sugar-free for 5 months a couple of years ago and the same thing happened. I messed up and started back on it and the pain came back. This time I learned my lesson and will stay off of it. I also lose weight a lot easier without the sugar. My energy level is greatly improved. I sleep better. And I don't have the mood swings, edginess, or carb cravings I had before.
I'm not saying everyone should give it up, but for me it makes a world of difference in my quality of life.
I also watched my mom slowly die over the past 3 years from organ failure from Diabetes. It wasn't fun to watch her go thru that. I won't do that to my kids.0 -
I've never believed in cleanses/fasting. Yet here I am on day four of a five day "reset" cleanse that's leading me into a low/moderate glycemic way of eating. I've been eating smoothies and bars from a company this week that are made with dehydrated foods along with raw vegetables. I've been getting calories, nutrients, fiber and protein but flushing my body of stuff it doesn't need and ridding my body of the intense sugar cravings that have plagued me as long as I can remember. I'm ready to introduce food on Saturday. After reading so much on eating this way and hearing from physicians how beneficial it is to the body, I had to give it a try. I've had some inflammation issues, digestion issues as well as some skin issues the past few years. Not to mention this last eight or so pounds I want to get off. Even when I've been on a healthy eating kick, I've never been able to resist the sweets that DH and the kids keep in the pantry. I figured this five days will help jump start me into eating the right way. There are nine more days of proper eating to follow that will teach me how to eat for life. I'm ready for it.0
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