How to battle sugar addiction
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I have noticed that when I cut way back on sugar (candy, cakes, Ice Cream) after a week or so I dont really miss them. When I go through periods where I eat a lot of those things- I find I want more. So if that is not an addiction then I dont know what is. But what do I know?? You are going to get the "sugar is not bad" 100s of times in this thread. Some people can eat it in moderation others cannot. My advice to break your your non-existant "Addiction" is to not have it around the house. There really is no other way. If you know you over-eat something and cannot moderate - then you only choice it to not go near it. This is true of booze or cigarettes or gambling or drugs -- things that become addictions. So while people can argue positives and evils of sugar (and they will) - I would tell you to avoid. Its not like you are going to hurt yourself in any way by giving up foods with large amounts of sugar.
Exactly the same here.2 -
hkincaid87 wrote: »Those saying that its not an addiction are wrong. Its been shown in studies that sugar lights up our pleasure receptors in our brain the same way cocaine and other illicit drugs do. It causes a rush of serotonin and dopamine that makes us feel good. I can absolutely be an addiction.
I don't agree it's an addiction, but a lot of this comes down to what you think an addiction is.
For OP's purposes it doesn't matter -- if you think it does, how? -- and getting into a debate about whether it is or isn't distracts from advice that will help her.2 -
There is no battle because it's not an addiction.
And there's no reason to completely cut it out (unless you have a health issue like diabetes). How about eating LESS of it to start. I mean you're not eating teaspoons of sugar from a bin are you? It's likely foods that have it laced with added sugar. So eat less of them. If it's gummy bears, instead of a full serving, eat half and stop.
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this ...
you can't battle something that does not exist5 -
tweety0429 wrote: »This is what i did instead of using sugar in my tea i am using natural wild honey.
and instead of candy i am eating dates, prunes or other fruits and my sweet craving would stop
you, realize all those things that you are using instead of sugar, have sugar in them, right?6 -
hkincaid87 wrote: »Those saying that its not an addiction are wrong. Its been shown in studies that sugar lights up our pleasure receptors in our brain the same way cocaine and other illicit drugs do. It causes a rush of serotonin and dopamine that makes us feel good. I can absolutely be an addiction.
sorry dopamine center reaction does not equal addiction.
You get the same reaction in your brain from petting puppies, does that mean you are addicted to puppies???
no one in this thread can point to a study that has been done on humans that shows an actual physical addiction to sugar, not one.11 -
feecrystalham30 wrote: »Curious if anyone has any suggestions on battling sugar addiction? I have tried several times i can do it for a few days but then I fall off the wagon and have a full out binge.
A friend of mine gave up sugar altogether two years ago but she joined a group to keep her accountable and learn more about healthy eating I think its called Overeaters Anonymous? She claims to be addicted and says she has an addictive personality so this was the best route for her. She has lost about 80 lbs, looks amazing, is the healthiest ever in her life and is a true inspiration to others! All for giving up sugar! Keep reading! The best thing is your awareness of too much sugar! Good Luck!3 -
Habit or Addiction, that's the question only you can answer -nobody else can. It's hard to tell which one is which. Habit is part of the addiction. With addictive substances or behaviors, the intensity of the reward and the cost of not having the reward move the user from habit to addiction.
Not everybody who drinks every day is an alcoholic. Some people use drugs and walk away with ease; others will fight for their lives. Could you be addicted to sugar? Yes, it is possible.
I can eat just one slice of cake but it takes all the willpower I can come up with not to eat the third or the fourth one. I don't have that problem with other foods that contain sugar. I don't feel like I can't stop drinking milk or have to eat a jar of jam all at once. I don't eat spoons full of sugar, and I am almost certain you don't either.
I believe my reward system is out of whack. The good girl gets the chocolate, the bad girl doesn't. I have to learn to reward myself differently, or I won't succeed in the long run.
Moderation is the key to my new lifestyle, and it works for me -but it doesn't work with sweets. I have a very unhealthy relationship with candy. I can eat 2000 calories of chocolate, ice cream or cake with ease and still want more.
Please, don't forget this is just a forum here; full with members who all mean well, but we are no experts, just ordinary people like me, who sometimes think they know it all.
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I have noticed that when I cut way back on sugar (candy, cakes, Ice Cream) after a week or so I dont really miss them. When I go through periods where I eat a lot of those things- I find I want more. So if that is not an addiction then I dont know what is.
This is true for me too, and I'd say it's a habit.
In particular, what I found after experimenting with cutting out added sugar and with cutting out snacking is that if I got out of the habit of snacking (which was most of the opportunity I had to eat sugary things, and which would tend to make me overeat even if I snacked but stuck to non sugary things) that I stopped thinking about food at times besides the times normally ate.
This is why I said it's important to focus on specifics. For a lot of us REDUCING sweets (if you eat a lot) or putting structure on them (only after dinner, only if I've had a day that hits my nutrient goals and I have the calories) can be helpful. For me, what matters is not grazing, not eating unplanned snacks, and generally eating larger balanced meals and not snacking. For others eating nutritious snacks and not getting overly hungry may help more.
Point is these are the kinds of things that are helpful, not whining about how others don't agree with you that it's an addiction.My advice to break your your non-existant "Addiction" is to not have it around the house. There really is no other way.
This wouldn't have helped me one bit, since it assumes I had it in the house and overate in the house. I actually never kept sweet stuff in the house until I was losing weight (and now it doesn't tempt me at all to have something like ice cream in the refrigerator). I overate sweet stuff due to work or being offered something home-baked or impulse purchases.If you know you over-eat something and cannot moderate - then you only choice it to not go near it. This is true of booze or cigarettes or gambling or drugs -- things that become addictions. So while people can argue positives and evils of sugar (and they will) - I would tell you to avoid. Its not like you are going to hurt yourself in any way by giving up foods with large amounts of sugar.
But you aren't really saying avoid. Lots of foods have sugar (fruit, for example) and aren't a problem for most who have control issues with some sugary things (I used to have big issues moderating home-baked pastries, which have sugar and fat -- cutting out everything with sugar would have been pointless, and same with everything with fat, and same with things with sugar and fat that I wasn't tempted by or had no issues moderating -- I've never struggled with chocolate, for example). If she has trigger foods, identifying them and figuring out how to deal with them is a more specific process than "act as if sugar is alcohol and you are in AA."
This doesn't even follow from your statement that you want sugar more if you eat a lot of sugary things vs. cutting way back on them. Cutting way back on them perhaps even is what a lot of us would call moderating them. But of course you want to slam the rest of us rather than recognizing that.2 -
kcmsmith0405 wrote: »Eat more protein. I was eating way to much sugar until I upped my protein to 30% - now I find that I can still eat sugar but I can stop and/or pass it up a lot easier. I also discovered that I don't go rooting through the cupboards for sweets anymore which was a common practice for me before. It was an eye opener for me that I could stop the cravings without totally cutting or going low carb.
I also switched to a sugar/stevia blend for my morning coffee (all the taste, less sugar!) and cut out soda all together.
Now that is an idea on eating more protein...I am trying the low carb diet it helps since you eat a protein and a fruit with it. Thanks for the tips!1 -
I too have tried to cut out added sugars and had the "withdraw", felt like crap, fell off the wagon, etc.
What have I learned? If I want something sweet, I eat it, log it and move on. Eating what you enjoy and making it fit into your goals is a heck of a lot easier than trying to avoid "bad" foods. Don't make it harder on yourself than you have to by cutting out the things you enjoy. Just budget your calories and allow yourself to have no restrictions (barring any medical issues).
I know this sounds crazy in the world of dieting "woo", but it is the only thing that has allowed me to stay on track, still lose and not feel deprived of anything in the process.5 -
hkincaid87 wrote: »Those saying that its not an addiction are wrong. Its been shown in studies that sugar lights up our pleasure receptors in our brain the same way cocaine and other illicit drugs do. It causes a rush of serotonin and dopamine that makes us feel good. I can absolutely be an addiction.
sorry dopamine center reaction does not equal addiction.
You get the same reaction in your brain from petting puppies, does that mean you are addicted to puppies???
no one in this thread can point to a study that has been done on humans that shows an actual physical addiction to sugar, not one.
The day I see a "sugar addict" steal a bag of sugar from a grocery store and dive into it with a spoon to get their "fix", maybe I'll believe that sugar is an actual addiction.
I've seen alcoholics drink mouthwash for the alcohol. I've seen dopers commit burglaries, robberies and steal from their own families to support their habits. I've seen heroin addicts going through withdrawal - in case you've never seen it, to compare sugar to that is not only laughable, it's ridiculous.
Hyper-palatable foods (many of which contain sugar) are an impulse control issue with some people. They taste good, so people crave them and some have trouble moderating them. I've seen several people in this thread say the best thing to do is not keep them in the house to avoid the temptation. I agree - if you have trouble moderating a particular food item or items, keep them out of the house/out of reach. But a true "addict" would do anything to obtain them even if they weren't there. If you find yourself breaking the window of a local grocery store at 2:00 am to get a donut because you're experiencing withdrawals, then maybe you have an "addiction" problem.
If you can't control yourself around cake or donuts (which are as much fat as they are sugar, btw), then stay away from them - it's probably a good idea. But don't think for a second that you're actually "addicted", because that's not a thing.13 -
Hi OP! So you managed to push a "hot button" here on the forums right off the bat - Congratulations
I really do think the first thing you need to do is STOP thinking of it as an addiction. An addiction is something you have no control over, which totally takes away all your power. You can control it, if you really want to.
Sugar is such a vague term, it's in all sorts of things - straight up sweet stuff like gummy bears and twizzlers, fatty desserts like chocolate, ice cream, cakes, and cookies, fruits and veggies, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, as an additive in some foods that don't even taste sweet. What many of them have in common is they are yummy, and we like to eat yummy things. We also get in the habit of eating the things we like, whether we are hungry or not. Your best bet is to figure out if there are specific foods that trigger you to overeat. Then look at how and when you are eating them. Do you sit in front of the TV and eat an entire bag of M&Ms? Have you ever tried buying the single serving bags, taking one and putting the rest back? Do you stand in the kitchen eating ice cream out of the pint? Have you tried insisting you always eat measured servings out of a bowl?
I find if I take a full package of ANYTHING to the couch (Ice cream, potato chips, a big bowl of cut-up fruit, a bag of jerky, a box of cookies) I will mindlessly eat the whole thing. I put post-its on the fridge and several cabinets reminding myself to take one portion of whatever I wanted, put it in a bowl, put the package away and then go eat it, or don't have it at all. That usually works. And if there is something specific, like say cookies, that you simply can't do that with, then don't buy them.
Focus on filling yourself up with a variety of nutritious foods, including plenty of protein, fat, and fiber, so you are giving your body what it needs, and allow yourself some treats that you have control over. You don't have to give up foods you enjoy, but you do have to find what works for you. Good luck :drinker:6 -
when I am craving that sweet element instead of gummy bears/cookies etc. I make a trail mix with both cranberries and lots of seeds and nuts and have a portion of that. Still sweet, still has sugar, just the quantity reduced. I also started really playing with spices to mix in with something sweet. So for salad, I started adding slivered grapes and slivers of jalapeno, that combination hits all the right taste buds and I don't really need something afterwards that
is sweet to cleanse my palate. Or even lemonade, I like it sweet meaning 3+ teaspoons of sugar to make it palatable, but if I just add cumin powder to it I can stick with a lot less sugar and still have a satisfying and refreshing drink once in a while (becomes jaljeera). Also finally just cooking/baking in general with a lot less sugar and salt. And really experimenting with different cuisines and playing around with combinations to make it fit what you are looking for0 -
yeast are some of the microbes which we need in our digestive tracts, when these are out of balance the yeasts can prompt us to feed them sugar, research is showing this.0
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I always thought that I was a person who couldn't practice moderation with processed sweets and baked goods. I yo-yo'd for years due to self-imposed food restrictions. It wasn't until I made myself practice moderation that I found success. I made (allowed) myself eat sweets every single day. I planned for them in my meal plan. Every single day. Some days I didn't stop at just what I planned and I went way over my calorie budget for the day and I had to analyze what happened (PMS, I was still hungry, I just simply wanted more and had a really hard time controlling myself, stress, etc). Those days (sometimes weeks) are few and far between now. It takes practice and lots of time, but it can be done. I wish you the best OP. I know sometimes it feels like you're literally going crazy and really have no control, but you aren't crazy and you do have control and you can do this!5
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The day I see a "sugar addict" steal a bag of sugar from a grocery store and dive into it with a spoon to get their "fix", maybe I'll believe that sugar is an actual addiction.
I've seen alcoholics drink mouthwash for the alcohol. I've seen dopers commit burglaries, robberies and steal from their own families to support their habits. I've seen heroin addicts going through withdrawal - in case you've never seen it, to compare sugar to that is not only laughable, it's ridiculous.
But we acknowledge that people can be addicted to cigarettes and then just not buy more, go through a period of livable but unpleasant withdrawal, miss the *kitten* out of the cigarettes, but still not rob stores for them or pick up butts out of the gutter and smoke them, right? I mean, I've known smokers who had to stop going to their favorite hang-outs for a while or try to make new friends because they knew they'd give in and smoke if everyone around them was, who had unpleasant physical symptoms, but didn't do anything extreme when quitting.6 -
OP, regardless of what you call it, some people have cravings for sweets and other refined carbs, and it can be a big obstacle to weight loss. You might look into low-glycemic eating plans as a way of reducing those. A couple of the more popular ones are the DASH and South Beach diets.
Best of luck to you. 0 -
nevadavis1 wrote: »The day I see a "sugar addict" steal a bag of sugar from a grocery store and dive into it with a spoon to get their "fix", maybe I'll believe that sugar is an actual addiction.
I've seen alcoholics drink mouthwash for the alcohol. I've seen dopers commit burglaries, robberies and steal from their own families to support their habits. I've seen heroin addicts going through withdrawal - in case you've never seen it, to compare sugar to that is not only laughable, it's ridiculous.
But we acknowledge that people can be addicted to cigarettes and then just not buy more, go through a period of livable but unpleasant withdrawal, miss the *kitten* out of the cigarettes, but still not rob stores for them or pick up butts out of the gutter and smoke them, right? I mean, I've known smokers who had to stop going to their favorite hang-outs for a while or try to make new friends because they knew they'd give in and smoke if everyone around them was, who had unpleasant physical symptoms, but didn't do anything extreme when quitting.
difference is that nicotine has been proven to be addictive in humans, sugar has not.8 -
Watch "The Sugar Film" on Amazon. It's a documentary in the same vein as "super size me". It may help with what your looking for.1
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Also, here's an article with research on sugar from what some believe to be an expert doctor. https://www.rt.com/news/319954-sugar-dangerous-children-study/0
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Don't bring it into the house. If it isn't there, you can't eat it. And after a few weeks, you won't even miss it.
It's the only way that worked for me. Moderation proved to be too difficult for me to maintain. Having a little sugar just set off a massive craving for more sugar. That certainly was not helpful.2 -
prattiger65 wrote: »I have noticed that when I cut way back on sugar (candy, cakes, Ice Cream) after a week or so I dont really miss them. When I go through periods where I eat a lot of those things- I find I want more. So if that is not an addiction then I dont know what is. But what do I know?? You are going to get the "sugar is not bad" 100s of times in this thread. Some people can eat it in moderation others cannot. My advice to break your your non-existant "Addiction" is to not have it around the house. There really is no other way. If you know you over-eat something and cannot moderate - then you only choice it to not go near it. This is true of booze or cigarettes or gambling or drugs -- things that become addictions. So while people can argue positives and evils of sugar (and they will) - I would tell you to avoid. Its not like you are going to hurt yourself in any way by giving up foods with large amounts of sugar.
The bolded is nonsense. And further, comparing something that you absolutely have to have to exist (sugar) to alcohol, cigarettes and gambling is disingenuous at best.
You don't need to eat sugar to exist. Eliminating it will not hurt you at all.3 -
Addictive behavior, is it hard wired into us, or something we choose?
People choose to smoke, drink, use illegal drugs, gambling, or whatever the addiction may be, it certainly is not a necessity of life, none the less, truly addictive to some, while others can try something once, or never, and not feel any need to ever try it again.
You can not live without eating. It seems to me that, at least technically, we are all addicted to food. If you do not eat, you can put your health seriously at risk and will die if you don't eat at all. It could be psychological addiction to certain types of foods, ie sweet, salty, but does that make it less real? So much is really unknown, even by so called experts. We know ourselves best. What will trigger our reactions and how we can, or can not, handle it.
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We really need more information to offer the best advice for dealing with the specifics.
And I get why OP may think that this thread is impossible to wade through, but come back, OP, and give more details about your specific issues with sugary foods. Probably many of us have dealt with similar things.1 -
TheRambler wrote: »Watch "The Sugar Film" on Amazon. It's a documentary in the same vein as "super size me". It may help with what your looking for.
In that case, that just proves that it's absolute nonsense.TheRambler wrote: »Also, here's an article with research on sugar from what some believe to be an expert doctor. https://www.rt.com/news/319954-sugar-dangerous-children-study/
Lustig is a quack that doesn't understand basic science. I literally am not sure how he got his degree.9 -
TheRambler wrote: »Also, here's an article with research on sugar from what some believe to be an expert doctor. https://www.rt.com/news/319954-sugar-dangerous-children-study/
and then there was Lustig who has been discredited numerous times by his peers...3 -
3rdof7sisters wrote: »Addictive behavior, is it hard wired into us, or something we choose?
People choose to smoke, drink, use illegal drugs, gambling, or whatever the addiction may be, it certainly is not a necessity of life, none the less, truly addictive to some, while others can try something once, or never, and not feel any need to ever try it again.
You can not live without eating. It seems to me that, at least technically, we are all addicted to food. If you do not eat, you can put your health seriously at risk and will die if you don't eat at all. It could be psychological addiction to certain types of foods, ie sweet, salty, but does that make it less real? So much is really unknown, even by so called experts. We know ourselves best. What will trigger our reactions and how we can, or can not, handle it.
if you don't breath you will die too, are we also addicted to breathing..
doing something to sustain bodily function and life does not equal addiction ...4 -
3rdof7sisters wrote: »Addictive behavior, is it hard wired into us, or something we choose?
People choose to smoke, drink, use illegal drugs, gambling, or whatever the addiction may be, it certainly is not a necessity of life, none the less, truly addictive to some, while others can try something once, or never, and not feel any need to ever try it again.
You can not live without eating. It seems to me that, at least technically, we are all addicted to food. If you do not eat, you can put your health seriously at risk and will die if you don't eat at all. It could be psychological addiction to certain types of foods, ie sweet, salty, but does that make it less real? So much is really unknown, even by so called experts. We know ourselves best. What will trigger our reactions and how we can, or can not, handle it.
if you don't breath you will die too, are we also addicted to breathing..
doing something to sustain bodily function and life does not equal addiction ...
It isn't exactly a bodily function, nor is it involuntary, as breathing is. I also happen to believe that it is not an addiction (craving and overindulging in sugary foods). I have lived long enough to know that I can speak for no one else besides myself. There is no possible way to know for a fact that people that believe that they are addicted to sugar, or anything for that matter, aren't. There are experts who disagree on both sides of the issue. All I am saying is that I believe there are people who are convinced that they are addicted to sugar. What makes you so sure that they are not? Where is your expertise on this? How can you possibly know for a fact?
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Lustig. Lol, yeah he's kinda of an extremist. When labeling sugar as a "toxic" or "poisonous" to the system, and then having people believe it means he's a good salesman. His book sales are off the charts.TheRambler wrote: »Also, here's an article with research on sugar from what some believe to be an expert doctor. https://www.rt.com/news/319954-sugar-dangerous-children-study/
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