Selective Eating for your Health: It’s a Journey – Part III – Addicted to Sugar?

Selective Eating for your Health: It’s a Journey – Part III – Addicted to Sugar?

During week one of my selective eating journey I ran into several challenges and doubts about my ability to stick to a diet. One is worth special mention: withdrawal from sugar addiction.

The diet I have chosen to follow is the slow-carb diet described in the book, “The 4-hour Body” by Timothy Ferriss. I am working on eliminating foods from my diet that are quickly converted to energy in my body, such as cereal, breads, pasta, and of course sugary items such as candies, soda and the like. I didn’t feel well and someone suggested that I might be suffering withdrawal symptoms from sugar addiction. So I researched it. Here is what I found.

Sugar Addiction Symptoms

From the website http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/addiction-to-sugar-555.html

• If ever you manage to go a day without having sweet nothings, you start obsessing about the same.
• Whenever you feel sad, you start eating foods with high sugar content.
• You become defensive when somebody suggests that you are having too much of sugar.
• You cannot go even a single day without having something sweet to eat.
• You cannot sit for too long without munching on ‘sweetables’.
• You eat high-sugar foods like candy, chocolates and cakes every day or even too many times a day.
• You often feel lethargic, moody or depressed.
• You start feeling uncomfortable around the same time every day and your answer to this is grabbing a high-sugar snack.

From the website http://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-sugar-addiction

Sugar fuels every cell in the brain and influences brain chemicals, too.  And overloading on sugary foods may alter the brain receptors that regulate how much we eat. In laboratory studies, rats that binged on sugar had brain changes that mimicked those of drug withdrawal. In humans, just seeing pictures of milkshakes triggered brain activity similar to what’s seen in drug addicts.

Sugar Withdrawal Symptoms

From the website http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Through-Sugar-Withdrawal

Sugar cravings are the simplest of the many different sugar withdrawal symptoms, which can include headaches, lethargy, emotional distress, anger and even nausea.

From the website http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/addiction-to-sugar-555.html

One of the clearest signs of sugar addiction is that you feel incredibly uncomfortable when you try to cut back your sugar intake. You may experience uncomfortable sensations like nausea, fatigue, headaches, irritability, anxiety, and moodiness – these are all withdrawal symptoms, which simply means that your body is craving a substance it is used to having.

Do’s and Don’ts

The advice on what to do to curb sugar addiction is quite varied, but it is clear that some withdrawal symptoms will need to be endured. But stabilizing blood sugar levels has many health benefits, including reducing risks of obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

Don’ts	Do’s	Reason
Don’t skip breakfast	Eat a protein laden breakfast within an hour of waking	Protein stabilizes blood sugar. By eating soon after waking, the body doesn’t go into starvation mode.
Don’t drink diet sodas	Drink plenty of water	Diet sodas cause the liver to spend time on eliminating bad stuff instead of burning fat.
Don’t go cold turkey	Eliminate sugar and highly processed foods gradually	Rapid withdrawal is likely to cause cravings that willpower can’t overcome.
Don’t eat snacks between meals	Eat a meal about every 4 hours	Eating regular meals is healthier than the many tempting snack foods that are laden with sugar or fats

Call to Action:

Some say we take better care of our cars than our bodies. Yet we can buy a new car, but we only have one body. Don’t you want to feel healthy and fit for as long as possible? A little investment in healthy eating habits can make a big difference in how you feel.

Taking it Farther

The website http://www.beyonddiet.com/Landing?rdrtrk=3288843

has an introductory video with lots of good advice, including the 5 foods to avoid eating: orange juice, sugar substitutes, breads (breads, muffins, cookies, cereal, and even pasta), hydrogenated butter substitutes, and processed soy products. Go to the website and hear what Isabel has to say about these “bad for you” foods and what to eat instead. If this advice appeals to you, her diet plan and her many easy recipes may be worth investing in.

Contact me:

If you have trouble following a diet and sticking with it, call Edith at 847.913.3900 for a free life coaching consultation.