Addicted to sugar
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theloodevil wrote: »I know I need to get off of my addiction to sugar. I just don't know if I am powerful enough to do it cold turkey. Does anyone have any advice?
I have tried sugar free gum when I would normally want it. I think I would need gum 24/7. Has anyone ever talked to a doctor about this?
I have 200 pounds to lose I know I have to get rid of this horrible habit.
If you look into it.....things with artificial sweetners are actually worse for you and they make you crave sugar more. They are delicious though. I think most of the problem with losing weight is that things aren't geared taht way. Restaurants give you giant portions of crap, your friends always want to go get something that is fatty, and then we think we are missing out on something by not being able to eat what our friends are.
It's a vicious cycle!0 -
I am a sugar addict. I have to agree with what one of the other MFPers here said. Drinking 9 glasses of water and brushing my teeth after every meal has made a tremendous difference in helping me with my cravings. You do acclimatise to the amount of water you drink - so its only a week or two where you will need to use the bathroom a lot.
I also use a pedometer which encourages me to move more to get my steps up (I`m doing 10 000 a day) instead of sitting in front of the PC or TV in my free time eating sweets.
I take one tsp of sugar in my tea and coffee instead of two or three. Switching to decaf coffee and tea also made a HUGE difference. If I`m have major cravings I have a 100gm sweet yoghurt(I like low fat chocolate chip), apple slices with lots of cinnamon (balances sugar level), or two pieces of dark chocolate. I pick one of those not all three!
I allow myself one 30 gm packet of sweets and one 50 gm chocolate in the evening if I stay in my deficit and because I know I can have those I am less likely to binge.
I lost 4 kgs in 40 days!0 -
I used to be addicted to sugar too. I wouldn't suggest cutting out all sugar entirely, but I would cut out refined sugars found in sweets, desserts, sodas, ketchup, dried fruit, and sugary cereals. Also watch out for flavoured yogurt; one day I happened to check the nutrition facts on activia vanilla yogurt and was super surprized that it had more sugar per cup than ice-cream! And don't add sugar to anything such as oatmeal or tea.
What worked for me personally was cutting out the types of foods listed above while still enjoying fresh fruit and sauces with sugar in them (teriyaki, honey garlic, etc.) Set mini-challenges for yourself like "I bet I can go one day without refined sugar" or "I will not eat any candy or sweets for one week."
Out of sight, out of mind! Go grocery shopping on a full stomach to prevent yourself from buying sugary foods you don't need and avoid the treat aisles altogether if you can. I have four mars bars sitting in a cupboard right now that I am saving to make brownies for an upcoming bake sale and I honestly haven't thought about them all day except for while writing this post. I couple months ago I would have just eaten them all at once, but once you cut back on sugar after a while it just doesn't taste as good anymore.
And yes, you can become addicted to sugar! National Geographic has a great article on this topic here: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/sugar/cohen-text
Good luck and remember, ""People do not lack strength; they lack will." You are stronger than you think, you are stronger than sugar, and you can do it!0 -
I always thought I could never give up sugar,
I found having alternatives like fruit was just as bad, (Nothing wrong with fruit of course), I just found it just as addictive, kept fooling myself that I was ok because it was a healthy food.
I had to look at sugar like an alcoholic looks at drink, one is one too many, and hardest part for me personally was giving up my sweet chilli sauce, I had that on and in everything, but when looking at it it was like pure sugar.
I'll be honest even though I did the cold turkey, and don't miss anything else much since going sugar free 3 years ago, I still crave my sweet chilli sauce, Nothing quite tastes the same without it.
Most I can suggest is, (knows a lot of MFP'ers going to jump in with ohh it bad for ya), but have stuff with sweeteners in, gives you that sweet taste without the calories, but watch out for products with NO ADDED SUGAR, they can be as bad as normal every day sugary products.
Always check the per 100g section or 100ml section of the nutritional information on products, never look at the per portion, then you can work out how much sugar is in a full product, then if you still decide to binge there is no fooling yourself.
So for example:
box of 4 bbq turkey burgers,
box weight 450g
per 100g:
212 cal
15 protein
40 carbs
15g sugars.
Now check the 4 burgers equal size, if so, 450/4 = 112.5g each
so 15g sugar divided by 100 gives you total per gram. 0.15g of sugar.
then 0.15g times by 112.5 = 16.875g of sugar per burger so round it up to 17g.
so you know then if you have 2 burgers or entire box, it's 17g of sugar times by amount of burgers you eaten.
same goes for calories.
I find looking at portion sizes is misleading to us, leads us into thinking we can have more than we should, always look at how much is in entire product, makes us less likely to binge then as we can't fool our selves we not having that much.
Hope that helps.0 -
^^^^^^^Fruitylicious03 wrote: »Just don't eat it. As simple as it sounds... it is. Don't buy it. And don't have it in the house. That's it.
(*) THIS (*)
Everybody is addicted to sugar. Without it, we all would die. Sugar keeps our bodies functioning. The problem is not so much sugar but processed foods with added refined sugar. Naturally occurring sugars, such as those found in fruit, come from sources that benefit your diet.- SOLUTION: If man makes it, don't eat it.
You're not helpless. Just make this happen, and good luck!
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in for another addiction thread...0
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It does not, but refined sugar products as opposed to fruits is how most people overload on sugar and empty calories. This is news to you?herrspoons wrote: »The problem is not so much sugar but processed foods with added refined sugar. Naturally occurring sugars, such as those found in fruit, come from sources that benefit your diet.
Evidence pls. Also explain how exactly your body differentiates between glucose that comes from fruit and glucose that comes from a candy bar.
The OP's "addiction" is not about too much fruit.
Let's not hijack this thread to debate the obvious.
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Overeating from calorie dense foods, which seems to be easier to do with processed foods for a lot of people.....Don't know why this is so hard for people to differentiate.....maybe people just want to be right.herrspoons wrote: »The problem is not so much sugar but processed foods with added refined sugar. Naturally occurring sugars, such as those found in fruit, come from sources that benefit your diet.
Evidence pls. Also explain how exactly your body differentiates between glucose that comes from fruit and glucose that comes from a candy bar.
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Sugar is sugar, except the other stuff attached to it and where people get into trouble.....eating that other stuff, like apples and snickers.herrspoons wrote: »neanderthin wrote: »Overeating from calorie dense foods, which seems to be easier to do with processed foods for a lot of people.....Don't know why this is so hard for people to differentiate.....maybe people just want to be right.
Right. So no actual difference then?
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All true, but nobody is on MFP, because they eat too much fruit. I just want to help the OP address her true challenge.herrspoons wrote: »It does not, but refined sugar products as opposed to fruits is how most people overload on sugar and empty calories.
The OP's "addiction" is not about too much fruit.
Let's not hijack this thread to debate the obvious.
Eating too much fruit will pack on the pounds as much as eating too much candy. Sure, it's harder to do, as candy has about 5 times as much sugar in it, but it's still sugar.
I agree with you about the 'addiction', or rather lack of, though.
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I know the secret to weight loss....Just discovered it! And its amazing! I eat whatever I want and still lose weight... The secret is....
Moderation0 -
We all help each other by sharing our experiences and knowledge. The key is objectivity and an open mind. I learned much in life from those who were successful and produced results.herrspoons wrote: »
All true, but nobody is on MFP, because they eat too much fruit. I just want to help the OP address her true challenge.herrspoons wrote: »It does not, but refined sugar products as opposed to fruits is how most people overload on sugar and empty calories.
The OP's "addiction" is not about too much fruit.
Let's not hijack this thread to debate the obvious.
Eating too much fruit will pack on the pounds as much as eating too much candy. Sure, it's harder to do, as candy has about 5 times as much sugar in it, but it's still sugar.
I agree with you about the 'addiction', or rather lack of, though.
People are on MFP because they eat too much period.
Unless the OP addresses her problem, which is overeating, not sugar addiction, then telling her to replace one source of sugar and fat (candy) with another source of... umm... sugar and fat (nuts and fruit) isn't going to make much difference. It might slow her weight gain, but it won't stop it.
So you're not helping her at all.
Time to ride your own bus, chief.
I do as they do, and guess what? I too got results.
That trumps any debate points. And there are many paths to a mountain peak.
Each person must find his or her own way.
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You don't need to give it up, just buy it in moderation and eat it in moderation. For example, if I buy 2 large galaxy bars I'll probably finish them off in less than a week. So instead I buy smaller individually wrapped chocolates that I can eat without binging.0
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herrspoons wrote: »It does not, but refined sugar products as opposed to fruits is how most people overload on sugar and empty calories.
The OP's "addiction" is not about too much fruit.
Let's not hijack this thread to debate the obvious.
Eating too much fruit will pack on the pounds as much as eating too much candy. Sure, it's harder to do, as candy has about 5 times as much sugar in it, but it's still sugar.
I agree with you about the 'addiction', or rather lack of, though.
I'd point out that eating cookies is far more likely to lead to gaining weight in the absence of some strategy (hmm, can't think of one) that would cause you to limit calories. To the extent that people have trouble not overeating cookies or some other trigger food (and fruit rarely seems to be a trigger food) or are prone to mindlessly overeating some high calorie item, limiting or even cutting out certain foods might be a reasonable strategy, IMO. Of course, what this also suggests is that it's not at all the sugar which is the issue, but the other ingredients in the cookie which contribute to its calories (I did an analysis of my own chocolate chip cookie recipe, for laughs, and the sugar is a rather minor portion of the calories, especially compared to the butter). Moreover, the reason people think it's hard to stop eating cookies and are okay with eating an apple and stopping are (1) an absence of stop signal cues in some cases (i.e., if you have a bunch of cookies available and just eat them, similar to the bread on the table thing or anything out of a bag); and (2) the taste sensation of sugar plus fat tends to be really tempting to many people, for obvious reasons.
I wish we could stop pretending like any of this has a thing to do with some "addiction" to sugar itself, but I'm not hopeful. Sugar is the fat of the '10s.
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Right, I can't think of a single person who has ever bought and eaten a crate of apples non-stop. I have never seen a single plea in these forums about anybody's carrot addition.lemurcat12 wrote: »herrspoons wrote: »It does not, but refined sugar products as opposed to fruits is how most people overload on sugar and empty calories.
The OP's "addiction" is not about too much fruit.
Let's not hijack this thread to debate the obvious.
Eating too much fruit will pack on the pounds as much as eating too much candy. Sure, it's harder to do, as candy has about 5 times as much sugar in it, but it's still sugar.
I agree with you about the 'addiction', or rather lack of, though.
I'd point out that eating cookies is far more likely to lead to gaining weight in the absence of some strategy (hmm, can't think of one) that would cause you to limit calories. To the extent that people have trouble not overeating cookies or some other trigger food (and fruit rarely seems to be a trigger food) or are prone to mindlessly overeating some high calorie item, limiting or even cutting out certain foods might be a reasonable strategy, IMO. Of course, what this also suggests is that it's not at all the sugar which is the issue, but the other ingredients in the cookie which contribute to its calories (I did an analysis of my own chocolate chip cookie recipe, for laughs, and the sugar is a rather minor portion of the calories, especially compared to the butter). Moreover, the reason people think it's hard to stop eating cookies and are okay with eating an apple and stopping are (1) an absence of stop signal cues in some cases (i.e., if you have a bunch of cookies available and just eat them, similar to the bread on the table thing or anything out of a bag); and (2) the taste sensation of sugar plus fat tends to be really tempting to many people, for obvious reasons.
I wish we could stop pretending like any of this has a thing to do with some "addiction" to sugar itself, but I'm not hopeful. Sugar is the fat of the '10s.
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Ok, speaking from experience I have had some success getting over sugar cravings with Stevia.
So instead of the teaspoon of sugar I would use have in my tea x5 times a day I've replaced with stevia, it's insanely sweet and almost turns me off having anything else sweet with my cuppa. Since I'm eating/drinking less sugar I crave it less too.
I still have the odd chocolate digestive or dessert but I find a small amount plenty and don't really crave it now.0 -
Also wanted to add that there was a documentary in the UK where 2 male twins tried different diets... One of the key findings was there seems to be no natural off switch when food contains an equal amount of sugar and fat.
If one were to eat all fat, or all sugar, separately less calories would be consumed than eating foods with sugar and fat combined. It's something I'm more careful with now to avoid over eating.0 -
theloodevil wrote: »I know I need to get off of my addiction to sugar. I just don't know if I am powerful enough to do it cold turkey. Does anyone have any advice?
I have tried sugar free gum when I would normally want it. I think I would need gum 24/7. Has anyone ever talked to a doctor about this?
I have 200 pounds to lose I know I have to get rid of this horrible habit.
theloodevil I am off sugar now for one month but it was three months ago when I decided to start. I too did not believe I would make it for a while. Actually I started taking coconut oil three months ago and getting on it heavy was not easy for the first month. I had been cutting back on sugar starting three months ago.
After I was finally coping well with taking a tablespoon 4x daily (but had to taper up to that) a month ago I decided to cut anything with added sugar. Two weeks ago I cut out the fruits.
Now I do not physically crave sugar.
I decided I was going to die a horrible death if I did not get off of sugar so I took it as fact and stopped eating sugar. Now almonds taste so sweet with their 6 grams of sugar.
In my case first it was a mental action (going to die) then I had to follow through and so far I have because I feel so much better. Best of luck.
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From your own cited study:Sugar is not addictive.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-29126872
Excuse making, however, is.
"The researchers also said the current classification of mental disorders, which does not permit a formal diagnosis of eating addiction, could be redrawn."
DUH!
How about trying to help a situation instead of just heaping shame?
Anyway, I hope you feel better having belittled somebody else's challenge.
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