Food addiction-Sugar

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Inspiring_Sara
Inspiring_Sara Posts: 54 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I believe that I have a food addiction the only thing I crave mostly is sweets but I find myself mindlessly eating... I wont even realize that I am. Its like once I start I cant stop.

I want to hear from fellow/former food addicts
Any advice?
What helped you?
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Replies

  • angie007az
    angie007az Posts: 406 Member
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    I'm not addicted to sweets, just salty items. I switched to baked chips. I also measure all nuts and snacks to 1/4 cup servings.
  • Inspiring_Sara
    Inspiring_Sara Posts: 54 Member
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    Yeah My issue is too that I am allergic to all nuts...treenuts and peanuts. Also shellfish.
  • drcain
    drcain Posts: 59 Member
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    I am more of a grazer and would prefer to eat all day long. I just started with chewing on gum throughout the day...nothing tastes as good after having the mint taste in your mouth :)
  • jmarcin78
    jmarcin78 Posts: 34
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    I do not keep anything sugary or salty a la junk food in my house. I cannot. I will eat it. One serving bags? Nope, I will eat every single on of those bags. The only thing that works for me is to NOT keep them in the house. I know this may not be the best strategy for everyone, but it works for me. I have absolutely no self control when it comes to stuff junk food. So it is best to just cut off the supply completely.
  • Inspiring_Sara
    Inspiring_Sara Posts: 54 Member
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    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!
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
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    I believe that I have a food addiction the only thing I crave mostly is sweets but I find myself mindlessly eating... I wont even realize that I am. Its like once I start I cant stop.

    I want to hear from fellow/former food addicts
    Any advice?
    What helped you?

    I learned to stop making excuses ie "sugar addiction" and buckled down and stuck to a diet
  • mamahannick
    mamahannick Posts: 322 Member
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    Both hard mint candies and gum are good distractions. They give you a little something sweet with minimal calories and occupy your mouth from mindless eating.
  • TX_Rhon
    TX_Rhon Posts: 1,549 Member
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    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!

    Is he is twisting your arm and making you eat it? I hate to sound all 80's cliché but Just Say No!

    I have 2 teenagers. I cannot blame my bad choices on the fact I keep food in my house for them.
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
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    Keep fruit in the house to feed your sweet tooth...?
  • DamePiglet
    DamePiglet Posts: 3,730 Member
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    This girl thinks she has an addiction, too.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG1bB-nztOk&list=RDGG1bB-nztOk

    It's really quite sad.
  • MapleFlavouredMaiden
    MapleFlavouredMaiden Posts: 595 Member
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    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.
  • quietair
    quietair Posts: 65 Member
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    I was addicted to soda. Four or five cans a day addicted. So, I switched to tea first, full sugar. Then I started paring the sugar content down and drinking it until it tasted sweet to me again. Once I got to 1/2 cup sugar in a gallon of tea, I was good. I think that ended up like 50 calories per pint Mason jar. I didn't use sweeteners because I wanted to try to learn how to like less sweet things rather than use sweeteners to keep up a level of sweetness that wasn't healthy for me anyway, you know?

    I don't know how you'd accomplish this with food, but when I get a chocolate craving, I go to the local cake store, buy 1 or 2 cake pops, eat them, and immediately go next door to walk around the museum for an hour or so. To oversimplify, what works for me is to sate the craving with something small and flavorful, then immediately shift my focus to something else and get a little exercise while doing it. Hope that helps in some way!

    (Edit: I should also mention I'm not doing this everyday, maybe once a week, and I don't even like soda anymore. I'd say its ok to keep the stuff around the house, just not in quantities that will wreck your progress, you know?)
  • quietair
    quietair Posts: 65 Member
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    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.

    Good advice, especially about having easy access to trigger foods. Let me tell you about the entire large pizza I ate after one week of eating healthy...lol
  • TheWorstHorse
    TheWorstHorse Posts: 185
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    I love sweet stuff, I ate it without thinking and when I went without it, I seemed to crave it. I still have sweets once in a while, but I know when I am eating it and where it fits in. Here's what I did that worked.

    Cravings are tough but only for a couple of weeks, but they are mostly mental habit and they come and go, so with a little time, it gets a lot easier. How to get through the first couple of weeks? First, ask your boyfriend to store his sweet stuff in a private place so you have to ask for it if you want it. Second, log everything you eat. Third, if you have one particular sweet habit (mine was having a cookie along with the coffee I bought most mornings) drop it right now.

    The combination of having to ask for it, logging everything so you see it, and dropping one habit to prove to yourself that you can will help you build better eating habits and free you from the demon sugar. ;)
  • YearsWorthOfFAT
    YearsWorthOfFAT Posts: 210
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    I plan out meals (i don't do it too strictly, though. If i planned a pb sandwhich but end up wanting ham instead, i'll just get ham)
    So i won't have the problem of being hungry.
    Just try to realize you should stop if you're walking to the kitchen cabinet again. It's hard to say no though.
  • kammyrios
    kammyrios Posts: 47 Member
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    I do not keep anything sugary or salty a la junk food in my house. I cannot. I will eat it. One serving bags? Nope, I will eat every single on of those bags. The only thing that works for me is to NOT keep them in the house. I know this may not be the best strategy for everyone, but it works for me. I have absolutely no self control when it comes to stuff junk food. So it is best to just cut off the supply completely.

    ^^^This^^^ sorry pushed the button too soon. I went for a week one time eating NOTHING BUT SWEETS! Nothing else.... I could do that again..... :(
  • TX_Rhon
    TX_Rhon Posts: 1,549 Member
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    This girl thinks she has an addiction, too.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG1bB-nztOk&list=RDGG1bB-nztOk

    It's really quite sad.

    Dear Lord! I was at work!!!! But wow.........poor thing. She does have an ad****ion!
  • czardastx
    czardastx Posts: 127 Member
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    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!

    I ask my wife to hide her sweets. She's welcome to them, all of them she wants. But I don't want to have the added temptation of having them on the counter or in the cupboard where I can see them. Occasionally I'll ask her to share. But in all reality I know where she hides them, but I can resist if it's out of sight, out of mind. Maybe try something like that with your boyfriend?
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
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    I do not keep anything sugary or salty a la junk food in my house. I cannot. I will eat it. One serving bags? Nope, I will eat every single on of those bags. The only thing that works for me is to NOT keep them in the house. I know this may not be the best strategy for everyone, but it works for me. I have absolutely no self control when it comes to stuff junk food. So it is best to just cut off the supply completely.

    Why not try to teach yourself some self-control? That's what it's going to take in the long run. You can't make everything out of sight, out of mind.
  • quietair
    quietair Posts: 65 Member
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    Maybe "addiction" is a buzzword in this respect and the sugar cravings aren't truly addiction, but the food reward cycle is tough to break, and I'd argue it resembles an addiction. I might respectfully argue that someone new to this would benefit from not having the temptation around and someone more seasoned would have more self-control or coping mechanisms available to deny satisfying those urges. That seems to be what has worked for me so far, and I have less and less cravings and can deal with them more easily than I could 45-ish days ago. Your mileage may vary, of course.

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