Are You Addicted To Sugar?
Read about my personal story and ask yourself one specific question to discover if sugar is a problem for you...Are You Addicted To Sugar?
I’ve recently decided to keep an eye on my sugar consumption.
When I first started recovering from bulimia, I had to pay attention at what I ate, as some foods could trigger a relapse very easily. But on top of giving up my bulimic patterns, it was obvious that I had to resolve a huge sugar addiction.
As you could guess, “comfort” foods – or binge foods – contain LOTS of sugar. And as sugar enters your bloodstream very quickly, it’s very likely that binge eaters or bulimics are strongly addicted to sugar.
That doesn’t mean you’re not addicted to sugar if you don’t have any food issue! Many ‘normal eaters’ are actually also addicted to sugar without realising it.
How do you know if you are addicted to sugar?
You can recognise a sugar addiction by checking if you need or crave something sweet – fruits & dark chocolate included – after meals or in the afternoon, even if you are not particularly hungry.
Even tough I am not consuming refined sugars or processed foods anymore, I am obviously eating natural sugars (most of us are). Natural sugars can actually have the same addictive effect if you tend to indulge a bit too much.
And guess what?
This was totally my case when I first stop binging!
As I regained confidence with food, I had a tendency to overindulge in all sorts of natural sweetness: fresh & dried fruits, some kind of breads, or ‘healthy’ raw homemade treats full of dates, honey or bananas.
Finally, I recently noticed an increase in my need to reach for carbs or healthy treats after lunch or dinner. At first, I was panicking “is my bulimia coming back?“, “how come I can’t control my cravings?“…
It took me a few days before realising that it wasn’t my bulimia which was coming back, but my sugar addiction.
So I stopped eating healthy desserts and adding fresh & dried fruits to everything. After a few days, I finally started to feel much better. My digestion is now better and I don’t have these horrible daily sweet cravings anymore.
Adding more protein and healthy fats into your diet can actually help getting rid of your sugar cravings. This helped me A LOT!
If you think you might have a sugar addiction and would like to get rid of it to regain freedom over food and live a healthier, happier life, check out my in-depth Make Peace With Food online program here.
Now I’d love to hear from you!
Have you ever felt like you were addicted to sugar? How did you managed to get rid of that?
Or maybe you are still struggling and would love to share your insights, tips or experience? Let’s all share our thoughts and support each other.
xox
Make Peace With Food
A powerful program to heal your relationship with food and stop binge eating once and for all.
I am trying to give sugar the flick as well and every now and then I do find I over induldge in natural sugars too! I did buy a packet of dates at work and then wonder who ate them all – only to discover I did! Good post. I love Sarah Wilson and Jess too – amazing women.
Yes! It’s crazy how quickly you can be addicted. It takes only 7 days to your body to get used to the endorphins and crave more and more and more… 😉
Good job Pauline 🙂 so….with what do you replace sugar cravings ? with another food (e.g. almond milk, a fresh apple, a fresh carrot …. ?! ) or do you clearly replace it with non-food treat (e.g. 5 min. mediation…..) ?
Because I am convinced that If I just eliminate the sugar treats after my meal, it’s like depriving myself from something….
And, 2. Q : can one overdose on daily protein intake (especially if not a sportive) ? I think that on the long term it could be a problem of acidification or so..
I don’t mean that I eat to much proteins hehehe!!! this is for my bro, that is interested in nutrition but eats like huge quantities of quark, séré, albumine, meat, ect.
Well you can replace it with anything that’s healthier and that works for you. On my side I replaced it with 90% dark chocolate because I LOVE chocolate and the 90% only contains about 10% sugar, so it’s ok. But remember that it will happen step by step, not overnight – as per al addictions 😉
Re protein addiction… never heard about that but I’ll have to chat with him and see what he eats on a daily basis to be able to see.
The goal is to find balance and feel great. Some types of protein are also very acidic but we can’t survive on a all alkaline diet either. Once again, it’s all about balance, education and self-experimentations 😉