How You Can Keep Your Sweet Tooth From Getting You High
By: Bean Jones
Do you hate having a sweet tooth? If you're thinking of doing something drastic, like giving up everything sweet...don't do it. That's not the way to go.
A pattern of fasting and overloading on sugary foods may foster dependence, according to a study published in Obesity Research. "People with a genetic predisposition for addiction can become overly dependent on sugar, particularly if they periodically stop eating and then binge," explains Dr. Bart Hoebel, the Princeton University psychologist who led the study.
Lab experiments on rats showed the cycle of sugar deprivation and indulgence sensitized both the dopamine (which regulates appetite) and opioid (which triggers cravings) receptors in the rodents' brains.
Consequently, your body's insulin production also gets messed up. You see, when you go on a sugar binge, your blood sugar levels rise. This, in turn, spikes your insulin levels, which then drive blood sugar levels down--at which point your cravings are set off.
Once you're hooked into the cycle, giving up sweets will soon cause you to suffer from withdrawal symptoms that resemble those of drug addiction, such as anxiety and tremors.
But, don't fret. You can still kick the sweet habit. Dr. Caroline Apovian, a weight management specialist, offers these tips:
1. Don't let yourself get too hungry. Keep yourself satisfied with low-calorie, high-volume foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
2. Don't overdo it. It's not necessary to remove natural sugars such as lactose or fructose from your diet. You can snack on fruit in between meals. It's refined sugar that you have to be wary of.
3. Don't hoard sweat treats. Don't stash processed sweets in your house. Sometimes that is the only way to avoid temptation. Always have fruit on hand so that when you get hungry, you can snack on something naturally sweet.
So, cross out "I won't eat sweets anymore" from your list of health resolutions--or you'll end up gorging on even more sugary goodies. As you'll find out in Simpleology 103, too much of anything is a bad thing.
Comments
I agree with you that "too much of anything is a bad thing". I like to say "everything in moderation, including moderation."
However, I did give up sugar completely as a new year resolution this year and I did not have the addictive symptoms that you talk about. I know that those symptoms are possible, but I was lucky enough to not have the headaches, tremors, etc. Pretty much the only thing I deal with (still!) are the cravings but they are psychological-not physical.
I like your advice to keep healthy snacks on hand like fruit and not to keep super sweet treats around.
Anyway, thought you also might like to look at my experience thus far going without sugar. It's been quite a learning experience!
myyearwithout.blogspot.com
Sugar can be nasty stuff. I am fond of the phrase from Steven Tyler of Aerosmith - "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing!"
I am addicted to sugar and yes I consider it to be a drug. The advice here is good. Also a high fiber diet (oatmeal, etc) helps cut down cravings too. Processed flour is bad and a close relative of refined sugar. Spaghetti and bread can kick off cravings for the sweeter things.
A few years ago I weighed almost 300 lbs and ate about 1 lb of candy with 6 cups of strong black coffee every day. I dragged around because I was always "crashed" from one thing or the other. I quit sugar and coffee cold turkey and you bet I had symptoms! But I also lost 40 lbs really quick and then 20 more :).
I did not eat refined sugar for about 8 months and I did lose a taste for it to a certain extent. I am off the wagon to a certain extent but I really did feel better when I was sugar free.
One thing that I noticed when I was making an effort to be sugar free was how few commercially prepared foods are sugar free.
Take care,
Chris
I think extremism is why everyone fails.
Everyone wants to point their finger at ice cream, and chocolate pie. Those aren't the problem.
The problem is packaged foods and pop containing tons of corn syrup. If you cut those out, your risk of type II diabetes will decrease to the levels they were before packaged foods became popular.
Eat real food - and if you eat your veggies, go ahead and have some ice cream.
Carole
a.k.a.'Mother'
I have stopped eating sugar one year ago. I was never a "sweet" person, but since I have been twelve years old I knew that other people can do things that I can not do - e. g. eat a piece of cake or a bag of trail mix and climb that mountain anyway. I was always the one that would get shaky knees.
I suggest that you do not do it abruptly. Last summer, I decided I would never eat more sugar in one serving than 20 g. This was already helpful, so as a next step cut out everything that was sweetened. Now, I do eat some food made from white flour, like French bread, and fruit that is not naturally high in glucose. No restriction on fresh fruit with fructose or other carbohydrates.
According to my plan, the next step would be to cut this remaining occasional peace of bread the orange, but as all of my symptoms have disappeared, I do not think that I want to complicate my life further. I have always cooked our family meals, so we have no problems with packaged foodstuff. My cravings for coffee and alcohol have also almost vanished - it's as if those "poisons" are mutually dependent.
Claudia
Although that may be true, recently I've been going on a "dessert fast," and I think it's worked pretty well for me. I think it's easier to break a junk food addiction by going cold turkey, and maybe I'll ease my way back into it. So far I've been able to go without desserts for over two weeks, without any binges, so it's working for me so far. It takes a lot of determination and self restraint, though, and if you don't have that, it's probably easier just to cut out some desserts, rather than all.
Sugar is a drug. There is absolutely no doubt about it. And you can be addicted to sugar and have withdrawal effects when you stop. But why would you continue to ingest something that is causing you no end of problems? I could not control the sugar I ate, it was playing havoc with my moods, I was depressed, in short I was a mess.
Several years ago I found Radiant Recovery which has enabled me to be off sugar for a whole year now (and counting). I used to inhale sugary foods when I went into a bakery. Now doughnuts etc may just as well be rocks for all I care about them. My body is healing and I don't miss sugar at all.
There is a way out of sugar addiction. You can heal your body. There are thousands of people out there who say the same thing.
After smoking for 36 years I finally gave up my addiction to cigarettes. It took two years to completely break the habit. It is a mindset. As Henry Ford observed, "if you believe you can or you believe you can't you are right."
Most people are told and believe, probably because it makes them feel it isn't their fault that having one cigarette will immediately put them back to where they were when they started.
This isn't true. I think of ice skating champions. They all fall but they immediately get up and keep on skating.
If you ingest sugar, so what? Just stop again and in a relatively short period of time it will be difficult to remember when you last had it.
By the way it has been more than 15 years since I had my last cigarette. You can do the same thing. Just get up and keep skating.
This is the best piece of advice I have ever read. Right now, while writing this comment, I am eating biscuits. I am addicted to sweets. But I am trying to reduce the intake of sweets.
I echo the recommendation for Radiant Recovery (a community based on the books by Kathleen DesMaisons: Potatoes not Prozac, The Sugar Addict's Complete Recovery Program, and Your Last Diet Ever and Little Sugar Addicts for kids).
She advocates a gradual process of shifting your eating so cravings for sugar and white flour decrease and you stabilize your brain chemistry.
Isabel
Yep,,,, All is mind control. Set new program and be the new person. I've set to work with Mark to produce Enough health food for the world!!! "Worldkitchen" We will setup in 40 countrys and funding from Mark campaign and us all members
Good people is better than great? Wow!!!!
Sugar is in almost everything. If you buy a head of lettuce, or some spinach, maybe not. I am a woman who struggle with weight issues, depression, alcohol abuse and all the media that send info to the public which is good food/bad food. I KNOW THAT GIVING UP PROCESSED SUGAR, DONUTS, AND FOODS WITHOUT FOOD VALUE will definately help me feel better, Fresh fruits and veggies daily have given me better health leading to great health. I HAVE a ways to go with weight, sometimes i overindulge in fruits, fresh pineapple, raisins, etc.. and yes i may be consuming too many calories,however, it is healthy calories, and my body is gratefull. I no longer drink alcohol, and for the most part diet sodas,,i still crave carbonated drinks, i know i am healthier, and feel better. Donuts, junk food,fast food, has no hold on me, i do not miss it. I am still learning, about exercise, diet, energy and how to keep my body happy. I WONDER WHY SO MANY PEOPLE SELL, AND MAKE A WAY OF L IFE IN MAKING AVAILABLE SO MANY POISONS THEY CALL FOOD?
Excellent advice. Extremes are never a good idea and making a promise to yourself to completely ban some habit or craving often makes it more desirable. Do your upmost to improve but if you are not successful, having a bad conscience about it makes it worse and ultimatly may lead to comfort eating of more sugar!
I read "Sugar Blues" some years ago, and couldn't eat sugar for two months after.
That book gives so many details on the havoc created on the system by refined sugar it's hard to consider putting some into your body. The pictures of the author at the back of the book (before and after sugar addiction) are telling!
When I have been completely off sugar, my period cycles became regular, which they never had been before, my mood improved and I became calm and centered.
Now I consume some unrefined cane sugar (just evaporated cane juice) from South America (in small doses), and it does seem to affect me as much as the refined stuff.
God designed us to have correct blood sugar levels automatically UNLESS you are already diabetic from over taxing your pancreas. "The Medical Textbook Scientific Foundations of Biochemistry in Clinical Practice" makes it clear: "Just 1% of your pancreas is capable of treating all that sugar (carbohydrates), the remaining 99% is SUPPOSE to treat fats and proteins so you can digest them. But a high carbohydrate diet overloads this 1%, making it do the majority of the work, placing a heavy burden on it". Basic Medical Biochemistry - "Nature doesn't rely on us to have to control blood sugars. Our body does this automatically from stored glycogen and stored fat reserves". "Carbohydrates Must Be Eaten for Fat to be Stored. Less Insulin=Less Fat, Insulin, a response to carbohydrates, makes you fat". 'Medical Textbook Scientific Foundations of Biochemistry in Clinical Practice' and 'Textbook of Medical Physiology'. 'Harper's Illustrated Biochemistry' makes it clear, "Glycerol 3-phosphate MUST BE SUPPLIED FROM [DIETARY] GLUCOSE [FROM CARBOHYDRATES] VIA GLYCOLYSIS [BREAKDOWN OF SUGAR]" This says that carbohydartes MUST be eaten to supply the critical substance REQUIRED for fat storage, a substance called glycerol 3-phosphate. What this means is that glycerol 3-phosphate only comes from carbohydrate consumption and excess body fat can't be stored without it. Carbohydrates=Insulin Production=Fat Storage=Heart Attack. Resting blood sugars in a normal person should only be 1 teaspoon (70-90mg/dl), we Americans eat 70-80 TEASPOONS per day. The reason you crave carbohydrates is because you are not supplying the body with what it needs, so it keeps asking for more, the problem you keep giving it the wrong stuff!. To help reduce sugar cravings, you need to take PARENT Essential Fatty Acids. Are bodies need protein and natural fats (not lab produced fats-hydrogenated). The food producers are killing you with all the added/hidden sugar and synthetic fats. Also, your body doesn't distinguish carbohydrates, it recognizes all carbohydrates as sugar. 'Stryer's Biochemistry' makes it quite clear, "Fat does NOT burn in the flame of carbohydrates" On the contrary, carbohydrates stop fat burning cold, carbohydrates do not increase your metabolism, however, proteins and natural fats speed it up. 'Textbook of Medical Physiology'. There is so much more myths about carbohydrates, I don't have time or space, please don't take the word of the so-called experts, do your own research. To your health, Denny
We all need to become educated on what sugar does to our bodies. We need to be teaching our children the damaging effects of sugar and high fructose corn syrup. And finally, we need to learn how to continually replenish our bodies with valuable nutrients. Minerals are so vital and we are a nation of mineral deficiency. Minerals are found in plants--fruits and vegetables and how many of us are eating like that. I have found 21st century food now--super food that gives me amazing nutrition and the sugar cravings are gone... I encourage people to look up Isagenix and get started on putting the best nutrition into your body. Living in this world today, we really are counting on high quality food to keep us healthy.
Well, well as for me, it is difficult for me to ignore my sweet tooth usually two or three days before my menstrual cycle. My body seems to crave chocolates whereas other types of sweets do not hit the spot. I will usually eat more sweets at that time than any other. Surprisingly at other times, sweets really do not bother me. Every now and then, I would like something sweet after a real good meal but not often. Being a middle age women consciousness of her health and well being... thus far my doctor has given me a good report (TGFJ) but if I could only find common ground during that special time each month. Hey, listen up thanks for tip it was on point :)
You're right.The worst lie we are being told is to stay away from fat.Its not the fat in our foods that are killing us,it's the carbs,ie:flour,sugar,complex carbs,cereals,grains.Our ancestors ate proteins and roots,grasses,tubers,fruits, for 990,000thous. years,only in the last 10,000 years when we started farming did we start eating complex carbs.Hence the start of arthritis,heart diseases,cancers,hypertension,etc,many doctors now believe that these diseases start from diabetes,rather than diabetes stemming from obesity,and other maladies.Refined sugars being the worst,and most popular in our society.For the last year I have changed my diet to proteins,vegs,fruits,I eat atleast 6 eggs weekly,recently I have learned that eating eggs whole(boiled,fried)rather than scrambled,which introduces oxygen,forming oxidation,leading to much higher cholesterol intake,cake mixes and such are the worst. I eat meats,fish,poulty,cheeses,bacon,eggs,all the things we have been told not to eat.Many times for breakfast I make a shake with fruit(berries,fresh,frozen)water,whey protein,some times eggs w/vegs. and saus. or bacon.For lunch a protein,vegs,salad.Sometimes coldcut sand.Dinner,protein,vegs,salad.Most days probably atleast 6 serv.of vegs, cooked,usually snack on a carrot,apple,orange,mixed nuts w/dried fruits,jerky,cheeses,I use a good canola mayo, for tuna,and chicken salads,instead of breads,many times I will use romaine lettuce as a wrapper.Any grain,wholewheat,refined,oats,rice,potatoes,are starches,I limit them.Also I eat usually 6 times daily,which better regulates blood sugar levels.I maintain my weight around 175lbs,as it was in high school.I do exercise,I walk on average,15+ miles weekly.I feel better than I have in years,I have energy to spare,my levels are all normal to low.Many people react differently to many things,I am a firm believer in taking responsibility for ourselves,from healthcare to finances,when we allow others to control our lives for us we just follow along.This is the first generation where the parents will outlive there children.We are sitting around eating ho-ho's waiting for our stimulus checks to come in.Erel
When you eat a cereal how do you feel about the sugar and milk at the bottom of the bowl? Sugar sensitive people tend to LOVE it and non sensitives find it distasteful.
I have been aware of my problems with sugar (and its close relative alcohol) since reading Sugar Blues over 30 years ago too. In fact I've been "off" sugar more than I've been "on" it for the past 15 years. I've read most of the books written on this subject but I echo what Selena and Isabel say about Radiant Recovery and the research done by Kathleen DesMaisons.
Most people I know have a dependence on sugar as opposed to a true addiction. But if you've ever suffered from depression, obesity or drug addiction then I would urge you to check out her site or her books to see if it could be of help to you. It's an amazing story of blood sugar, beta-endorphin and serotonin and how some of us eat sugar to feel good and end up feeling bad.
And what to do about it.
Eric
To Erel Blinn:
It's good to limit your carbs but not too much--only to ensure you stay within your daily recommended calorie allowance and the wrong kinds of carbs.
Carbohydrates are an important source of energy that your body needs to function so you should never limit them completely. With no carbohydrates your body will not have the energy function as it should.
Remove completely only the kinds of "high GI" carbs found in heavily processed foods and sugars.
Most western governments produce a food chart/triangle which show the percentage of different food types you should include in your diet. This is a product of many years of top scientific research so it's worth paying attention to before faddy diets (like Atkins).
Simpleology 103 also has great advice on this topic, I found.
For those who may have diabetes or are insulin resistant and need a good foundation on how to develop a meal plan, I have found a good tutorial for those who have no info. The link provided is a flash based tutorial to educate onself of what diabetes is and how to plan a meal to meet your dietary needs.
Hopes this helps. It also may be beneficial to those who are "pre-dispositioned" to addictions. If you are able to maintain good eating habits and exercise routine then it greatly reduces the risk of diabetes and other diseases. which maintains your eligibility of insurance.