Soooooo, I gave up processed foods a while back as my sugar demon (Dave as I've named him), is a particularly ferocious son of a bitch.
I'm a little on the extreme side because in order to slay Dave, I have quit alcohol, processed sugar, processed carbs (and a bunch of other stuff that isn't related to sugar, like grains, bread, rice etc) in order to get him off my back.
Sugar creates cravings. So when you eat something for breakfast, your blood sugar goes up, your body releases insulin, 3-4 hours later (or 2-3 hours) you use up your blood sugar and then you get hit with a craving, or if you're like me, you get hit with a reactive hypoglycemic episode in a grocery store.
So to keep the cravings at bay (often disguised as just general hunger), you eat some more food, sometimes healthy, sometimes just another donut, and around and you go.
If you quit the sugar cold turkey, within about 3-4 days your cravings are slayed. At the beginning of my elimination diet, I cut out everything including all fruit except for berries every other evening after dinner, because fruit would instantly trigger a sugar craving!
Now I'm a good while into it, I can eat fruit on occasion (which isn't a big deal as I'm not a massive fruit fan) or a larabar (which gives me gas more than it makes me crave) but it took a little experimentation to see what triggered me the quickest. A banana, for example, sends me straight into a bag of haribo for some reason.
Anyway, aside from the fact that my entire way of eating sounds utterly miserable to most, I can attest to the fact that I am happier than I've EVER been. I didn't realise HOW MUCH sugar had an impact on my moods, on my sense of self, on my self control. Without sugar, my moods are totally level, I am far more patient, I love love love how I wake up feeling every single day. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I haven't had a single 'bad day' in the last 2-3 months. I've also, as a side effect, lost a shit ton of weight even though I didn't need to.
If it's something you want to undertake , I would highly recommend doing so, if only so other people feel the amazing effects that I've had. Do some googling, there are many different ways or 'diets' out there - I basically adopt a relatively strict ketogenic diet and also don't eat dairy, grains, gluten, soy etc etc. I'm not evangelical about it and my kids/husband eat a pretty SAD but I'm going to gradually move the kids over to less processed crap if only for the mental clarity and ability to sleep properly and concentrate!
Anyway, TL:DR - I slayed Dave stone dead. He's a goner!