Addicted to sugar

Fruitylicious03 wrote: »

Sounds like my mother trying to convince me that fruit is bad for me because it's all sugar.

Ignorance is bliss they say.

I love fruit and I eat fruit, but I don't eat tons of it. With fruit you still get all the nutrients and fiber. Refined sugar has none of that.

"ccb1128 wrote: »

I meant to respond to your extremist/alarmist comment..
I admit I am an extremist when it comes to nutrition and what I choose to eat. I'm a firm believer in all things natural, organic. I like to know where it's from and what's in it. It's the only body I'm going to get, so I make sure what I know exactly what I'm consuming. I don't trust manufactured food created by "food scientists". But it also makes my dietary choices extremely easy. There's no debate.. I know I'll be eating a meat, some veggies and a piece of fruit.. easy, done.

I'm with you one hundred precent in your comments ccb1128 and I don't for one second think ccb1128 was referring to the humble apple as being "manufactured food created by food scientists."

I also believe we should eat as close to nature as possible.

Too much refined sugar (and I am certainly not talking about fruit here) is NOT healthy for anyone and for me if I start eating lollies, I can't stop. It is like a little devil inside me making me eat more. Call me weak or lacking in will power but it doesn't seem to happen when I eat an apple.

I, personally, will continue to remove as much added refined sugar from my diet as possible and all these sugar is good for you arguments seem ridiculous to me. I listen to my body and when I eat a lot of sweet things I feel absolutely awful and wonder why I ate so much. Simple - sugar is addictive to me so don't eat it. Stick to the humble apple (as long as it is not GM ).

LeenaGee wrote: »

"ccb1128 wrote: »

I meant to respond to your extremist/alarmist comment..
I admit I am an extremist when it comes to nutrition and what I choose to eat. I'm a firm believer in all things natural, organic. I like to know where it's from and what's in it. It's the only body I'm going to get, so I make sure what I know exactly what I'm consuming. I don't trust manufactured food created by "food scientists". But it also makes my dietary choices extremely easy. There's no debate.. I know I'll be eating a meat, some veggies and a piece of fruit.. easy, done.

I'm with you one hundred precent in your comments ccb1128 and I don't for one second think ccb1128 was referring to the humble apple as being "manufactured food created by food scientists."

I also believe we should eat as close to nature as possible.

Too much refined sugar (and I am certainly not talking about fruit here) is NOT healthy for anyone and for me if I start eating lollies, I can't stop. It is like a little devil inside me making me eat more. Call me weak or lacking in will power but it doesn't seem to happen when I eat an apple.

I, personally, will continue to remove as much added refined sugar from my diet as possible and all these sugar is good for you arguments seem ridiculous to me. I listen to my body and when I eat a lot of sweet things I feel absolutely awful and wonder why I ate so much. Simple - sugar is addictive to me so don't eat it. Stick to the humble apple (as long as it is not GM ).

Which apples are you eating, that you think are not genetically modified by selective pollination by humans?

I used to rage at sugar threads...from the opposite side. Then it was acknowledged that the behaviours with highly palatable foods did give rise to compulsive habits that at times were disordered. And then I finally got it. I knew (before MFP), in spite of digging into that sugar bag that I was not dealing with an addiction on the same level/degree that drugs entailed...I just didn't know why I continued to do it. Not all of it was emotional either. Addressing a better balance of nutrition went a long way to calming the drive.

I think it's important though to really understand if you feel this way...that you aren't dealing with the same physiological responses as those who have been addicted to drugs because I imagine that that belief would lead to despondency. It would look insurmountable. I had the thought that if someone who uses drugs was able to overcome what they'd been through then surely it meant I could with this too - albeit with a different kind of intervention. My understanding of the physiological impact of drugs is that "when they are in the moment of using that drug it's like asking an epileptic to stop fitting...they simply can't" (from a mother of a drug addict). I couldn't say the same about what I was doing. I did not need medical intervention to survive/withstand the withdrawal.

One of my strategies was to dump the sugar down the sink. Or walk straight out to the bin with 10/12 donuts and dump them. I survived. A waste but I learnt. And I didn't dump dive but was worried I might.

I think it's fair to say that the behavioural responses/habits aren't necessarily easy to overcome or uncover? So I'm not under-valueing the commitment required to overcome the compulsion. Sometimes the compulsion just requires a little mental shift. Sometime therapeutic intervention. Sometimes just acknowledgement of why you do it is enough. Sometimes it means creating a better environment to support what you feel you need to do, And...you aren't going to do it perfectly.

I just want people starting, who believe they are addicted, to understand that the mountain may not be as steep as you've been led to think. Focus more on the realisation that this is not out of your control and then enjoy the process of changing it. Be liberated by it.

LeenaGee wrote: »

"ccb1128 wrote: »

I meant to respond to your extremist/alarmist comment..
I admit I am an extremist when it comes to nutrition and what I choose to eat. I'm a firm believer in all things natural, organic. I like to know where it's from and what's in it. It's the only body I'm going to get, so I make sure what I know exactly what I'm consuming. I don't trust manufactured food created by "food scientists". But it also makes my dietary choices extremely easy. There's no debate.. I know I'll be eating a meat, some veggies and a piece of fruit.. easy, done.

I'm with you one hundred precent in your comments ccb1128 and I don't for one second think ccb1128 was referring to the humble apple as being "manufactured food created by food scientists."

I also believe we should eat as close to nature as possible.

Too much refined sugar (and I am certainly not talking about fruit here) is NOT healthy for anyone and for me if I start eating lollies, I can't stop. It is like a little devil inside me making me eat more. Call me weak or lacking in will power but it doesn't seem to happen when I eat an apple.

I, personally, will continue to remove as much added refined sugar from my diet as possible and all these sugar is good for you arguments seem ridiculous to me. I listen to my body and when I eat a lot of sweet things I feel absolutely awful and wonder why I ate so much. Simple - sugar is addictive to me so don't eat it. Stick to the humble apple (as long as it is not GM ).

If you are responding to my "apple crisp" comment, you seem to have missed the second word, as well as the reference to various ingredients. I think sugar is sugar (though apples have lots of other great things, and so I eat them more often than some other sugar containing items, including the crisp), but I also think it's absurd and alarmist to call my homemade crisp, for one example, the product of food scientists, as if it were some scary thing inconsistent with health. Or even to suggest that it's somehow unnatural.

Also, it's silly to create some dichotomy between people who eat sugar and those who care about health.

I think everybody on this thread agrees that too much refined sugar is unhealthy. I think the real issue here is that people are demonizing food. This creates irrational fear and ED's . Carbs are evil, sugar is addictive, fat makes you fat etc. All the food groups when consumed in moderation, within your required calorie allowance are good for the body. Its overeating that causes problems.

Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous look up this group they work with people who are addicted to sugar

psulemon wrote: »

abcmommyx3 wrote: »

Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous look up this group they work with people who are addicted to sugar

It's a group dedicated to people who are addicted to food. While I have just browsed a few areas of their website, I haven't seen a single reference to sugar.

It's there on the FA Facts Page:

"Food addicts have an allergy to flour, sugar and quantities that sets up an uncontrollable craving. The problem can be arrested a day at a time by the action of our weighing and measuring our food and abstaining completely from all flour and sugar. FA defines abstinence as weighed and measured meals with nothing in between, no flour, no sugar and the avoidance of any individual binge foods."

Very alarmist, anti-scientific stuff I would expect from a 12 Step program that follows the AA model.

psulemon wrote: »

Wheelhouse15 wrote: »

psulemon wrote: »

abcmommyx3 wrote: »

Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous look up this group they work with people who are addicted to sugar

It's a group dedicated to people who are addicted to food. While I have just browsed a few areas of their website, I haven't seen a single reference to sugar.

It's there on the FA Facts Page:

"Food addicts have an allergy to flour, sugar and quantities that sets up an uncontrollable craving. The problem can be arrested a day at a time by the action of our weighing and measuring our food and abstaining completely from all flour and sugar. FA defines abstinence as weighed and measured meals with nothing in between, no flour, no sugar and the avoidance of any individual binge foods."

Very alarmist, anti-scientific stuff I would expect from a 12 Step program that follows the AA model.

Yea, very alarmist because one cannot function without some level of sugar.

Not only that but they claim it to be an "allergy" that type of language is complete pseudo-scientific and has not basis in fact. It makes people believe that they have a disease and are helpless unless they avoid forever. This is the same for all 12 Steps which are based on religious rather than sceintific principles.