how to cure an addiction to bread

let some bread go really mouldy, then force yourself to eat the whole loaf... dry...

$10 says you never want to see another crumb

personally i would be ok with that but i have a 5 year old daughter that we need to have nice healthy bread for. nice thought though

yeah i have to have bread in the house for my son, i just have to try and avoid it myself

How much sugar do you eat? I'm wondering, because people are known to have sugar addictions, and once your body processes the carb in bread, it's the same fuel. Have you thought about trying the South Beach diet? It has you right off sugar and carbs for 2 weeks to 'break the addiction' and then slowly introducing healthy carbs back into your diet. My sister had great results with it. Good luck!

I used to love bread, and I couldn't imagine living without it. That all changed when I became more aware of the negative effects it was having on my body. I would eat an entire loaf in a day, constantly craving it every couple of hours, a never ending cycle.

The fact I had ballooned up to my heaviest weight was an alarm bell for me. I slowly started cutting out the item's associated with bread. Jam's, cheesewhiz, processed meats, butter, peanut butter, and started reducing the size of my serving's. It took about 3-4 months. I'm not 100 percent bread free yet, but I slowly reaching that point.

I do make my own pita bread and pizza, but am looking at ways to reduce how many times I have it in a month.

I think if you do something gradual it isn't as hard as going cold turkey when changing your diet. The healthier you eat, the lest cravings you appear to get. It has worked for me anyways.

Hope that your able to jump off the carb train and get gluten free, just try baby steps.

Good luck

one thing that helped me considerably was to start making it myself. not only was i learning a good skill, but I could give them away to friends, keeping just a little for myself.

I almost never bake in the summertime, so immediately my bread consumption goes way down after March or April.

Also, I can bulk up the breads with all kinds of fibery goodness like oats, wheat germ, flax, sunflower seeds or whatever it is I feel like having that day!

It's also a bit of a workout to knead bread by hand, which I did for the first 4 years I baked my own. Last year I got a mixer, so I only knead a little by hand at the finish.

You can also make several batches and freeze the unbaked or parbaked loaves.

All of this helped me put into perspective the gift of bread: it can be a lot of work and I don't want to gobble down that work disrespectfully.

hth,
k

I like the idea of just making lettuce wraps, anything you put in a sandwich can be put in lettuce, but if you aren't ready to give up bread light bread. I don't know where your from Nickles and Aunt Millies both make bread that only have 35 calories per slice.

How much sugar do you eat? I'm wondering, because people are known to have sugar addictions, and once your body processes the carb in bread, it's the same fuel. Have you thought about trying the South Beach diet? It has you right off sugar and carbs for 2 weeks to 'break the addiction' and then slowly introducing healthy carbs back into your diet. My sister had great results with it. Good luck!

I agree with this. I think Atkins, south beach, or Dukan could help.

it may sound weird but i believe i have an addiction to bread.

At times, I've had cravings for raw pasta. How weird is that? I stopped a little before beginning to log here, but if I resumed I would hate to calculate all the calories.

If you crave weird things (or ice cold things), get checked for iron deficiency.

As far as the bread addiction, you're going to have to "budget" bread into your diet. It's not reasonable to never eat it for the rest of your life. You have to decide in advance how much and how often. Then whenever you eat it, you know you're not going to be able to eat it later. It limits binging.

Since you obviously enjoy GOOD bread, you might consider this strategy:
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/2010/02/09/back-to-basics-tips-and-techniques-to-create-a-great-loaf-in-5-minutes-a-day

You mix up a batch of yeast dough and keep it in the fridge. Every day you pinch off a ball, let it raise, and bake it. The smaller the ball you cut off, the more loaves you get from one batch.

You can also do sourdough and keep adding in more flour and water each time, so you have a perpetual source of daily loaves. That's not for people who don't want bread every day, of course.

I have a similar problem but it's starchy foods in general. Bread, rice Pasta. It doesn't seem to matter to my waistline that it is the highest quality bread, rice or pasta.
Basically I went cold turkey on grains (and potatoes) and my carbohydrate cravings diminished greatly by day 3. Hang in there! Now that I am off of it, I actually feel so much better, and I think I may actually have a wheat intolerance. Now that it has been nearly 5 weeks I generally will have one meal a week (saturday night) where I allow myself to have grains. But the more time goes on the less I want them.

I don't keep bread in the house because I too like it too much. It may as well be a loaf of donuts. My boyfriend always buys bread for himself, but I don't touch it because it is his. (He would gladly share if I want it, but I do not allow myself to have any.)

I don't believe keeping some around and "only enjoying some as a treat" will work right away for you if you're having an issue with "bread moderation." I say that because it definitely doesn't work for me! If you have to keep it in the house for your daughter, I would either A) think of it as completely off limits. You are not allowed to eat that bread. It is not yours... or Keep it in the freezer and toast it for her when you use it for her sandwiches, whatever.