To think that sugar (chocolate) addiction is real?

[JustCallMeSliths]

Not necessarily up there with alcohol and drugs etc (as in harmfullness) but do you think people can be addicted to sugar, specifically chocolate?

I've gone cold turkey on chocolate. I was eating at least 2 family sized bars a day. I tried cutting down but couldn't do it. It's been 3 days and I'm struggling so much. I don't think it is just the sugar withdrawal.

Yes, I'm whinging and need to just do it.

Fasting is incredibly unhealthy.

Why?
I beg to differ. I find it very healthy. I do my work outs fasted, follow the 16:8 fasting method and find it really good for reducing cravings and portion sizes. If you follow Low carb high fat the fasting comes naturally because I’m naturally not hungry until lunch.

Re the original question whether it is actually addictive or not I find chocolate (and ice cream and actually most starchy carbs) addictive therefore I severely limit their consumption (choc) and in the case of the other things eliminate them completely.
Actually I don’t care for sweets, fruit, soft drinks or juice. Just chocolate and ice cream.
I don’t think saying “I find X addictive” is absolving responsibility-actually I recognise the problem and act upon it. Any diet reliant on me having will power is doomed to failure. I prefer to never have to deploy will power as it is a miserable existence spending your life trying not to think about X so I don’t have these things in the house and I don’t eat them.

Absolutely real. It's my crack pipe. My achilles heel.
I've been off for 2 weeks. It's fucking miserable. Like all colour has been washed from my life.
Everyone says it's healthier, you'll feel so much better. WHEN???
I'm still getting tummy pains. Still waking in the night. Still bloated (just come on though).
Week 1 I wanted to roll on the ground crying. I was climbing the fucking walls.
It's definitely an addiction and you must have it to understand it.
I cannot have 1 cake, 1 piece of choc. It's all or nothing. 1 taste will have me back bingeing.

And by having that kind of approach you’re setting yourself up for failure. “It’s not my fault I threw myself head long in to that box of chocolates. It’s addictive after all”.

Utter nonsense. Acknowledging that something is addictive is not the same as giving in to it. Quite the opposite - it's recognising that it has a hold on you that it's important to break, and that will require a struggle. "Chocolate is addictive, so I shouldn't be surprised and give in at the first hurdle when I find it hard. I need to get over the withdrawal period and then it should get a bit easier". Much more motivating than "Don't be pathetic, it's just food. Get some willpower ffs, you fat lump!"

@MauritiusNextTime I'd be very interested to see actual, proper data to support your assertions.

Def is I gave up as much sugar as possible last year and felt much better for it
But met a new man and succumbed to the puddings etc on dates and actually feel terrible again so jointly giving up as he feels the same

@BIWI there are as many articles debunking the 'sugar addiction myth' as there are arguing for it.

If it was an addiction, there would be people eating spoonfuls of sugar straight from the bag or gorging on strawberries and pineapple as they too are high in sugar. Funnily enough it's only ever cakes, chocolates and biscuits. The more delicious and hard to resist food for everyone.

It'd be like an alcoholic who only drank champagne. I think you'll find true addicts aren't as fussy as these alleged sugar addicts.

You don't go cold turkey if you don't have a pudding.

But people do gorge on other carbs too.

But I was actually more interested in you supporting your assertion about fasting.

You don't go cold turkey if you don't have a pudding.

Mayritius, you may not. Alcohol does nothing for me, I struggle to even finish a glass. However, I don’t go on telling people they can’t be addicted to it as I am not.

Dr Robert Lustig has shown brain scans were sugar activated nucleus accumbens in the same way as drugs of abuse. He has demonstrated the gradual reduction in dopamine receptors as people consume increasing amount of sugar, similar to that of a drug addict.

I have experienced sugar addiction. It took me over 9 months of trying to reduce and eventually cut it out to get to the point of not craving it. I can now walk past a packet of biscuits and not touch it, or have chocolate in the house and not eat it. My family members still consume sugar. I only have to have one and will spiral back.

I enjoy fruit immensely though, particularly mangoes, bananas and oranges - the fruit with height sugar content. Should be more sensible with it really.

But people do gorge on other carbs too.

Yep, my experience, too.

'But people do gorge on other carbs too. '

'Sugar addiction' suggests people would be eating a bag of sugar a day, if not why not? if they're 'addicted' they'll wolf it down like alcoholics drink absolutely anything they can get their hands on.

Why is it always cakes and chocolate? is it because they taste nice by any chance?

There are many articles discussing fasting, some think it is healthy others think it isn't.

The issue is healthy eating. Don't eat a load of refined sugar or carbs and say you're addicted. Admit it is greed and address that.

Its already been posted on this thread why people find certain carbs 'addictive' (it's when foods have a ratio of 2g carbs to 1g fat, or there abouts) and it's been studied properly and cited in many books. I actually posted a link to both the study, and the citation. It's no great surprise that the human body is programmed to crave substances with that balance; human breastmilk has that ratio. It rarely otherwise occurs in nature, but is very common in fast foods, chocolate, generally most foods that are 'bad for us'.

The issue is healthy eating. Don't eat a load of refined sugar or carbs and say you're addicted. Admit it is greed and address that.

It is not greed. What an ignorant stance. People with insulin resistance predisposition metabolise carbs differently. It drives certain physiological responses in their bodies. One outcome of this chain of responses is inflated, out of proportion hunger. It is not because people are greedy, their cells are starving due to imperfectly functioning insulin, which makes the brain send strong hunger signals. I am trying to give a rudimentary explanation. Simple carbs like sugar provide quick and plentiful glucose, hence the penchant for carby sugary stuff.

If you aren’t aware of the physiology, please don’t propagate this very unhelpful gluttony agenda.

If it was an addiction, there would be people eating spoonfuls of sugar straight from the bag or gorging on strawberries and pineapple as they too are high in sugar. Funnily enough it's only ever cakes, chocolates and biscuits

I'll happily gorge on strawberries. Pricwy though - bag of haribo is a bigger hit and way cheaper. If i'm in a bad phase and have nothing else in, as i already said i would eat sugar from the packet. Icing sugar i could happily sit and eat, i dont 99.99% of the time because it feels sooo hardcore. My gran allowed me to eat sugar butties like she did during the war! soubds bad, but really its a combo of flour, sugar and fat just like a doughnut.

'One outcome of this chain of responses is inflated, out of proportion hunger.'

Oh for goodness sake so you don't eat. No one is forcing you. If you don't eat you really do not go through a physiological withdrawal like true addicts do

I have every sympathy for obese people but to blame it on an 'addiction' is nonsense.

Oh for goodness sake so you don't eat. No one is forcing you. If you don't eat you really do not go through a physiological withdrawal like true addicts do

You may not, but insulin-resistant people with carb-dependence do. I can vouch for that.

Mauritius is wilfully ignoring people now to suit their own narrative - i def go through horrendous withdrawals and have the same fearsome drive for sugar that my dad did for alcohol. Deny it all you want but ypu sound as stupid as someone saying to an alcoholic 'ur not adficted if you drink cider rather than vodka...for goodness sake, just DONT drink, no ones forcing you to!'

'i def go through horrendous withdrawals and have the same fearsome drive for sugar that my dad did for alcohol.'

'Horrendous withdrawal' if you don't eat a pudding, really?

Alcoholics have a physical dependency on alcohol. Call me stupid all you like if it makes you feel better. I do not deny there are eating disorders obviously. Many people have a very unhealthy relationship with food.

To call it addiction takes the responsibility away from the person who over eats. I am craving a massive bar of chocolate right this very minute, I won't eat one though because if I did that every night I'd be a stone heavier in a months time and obese within a year. I don't want type 2 diabetes and all the associated health problems associated with constant over eating so that is my incentive.

Sugar addiction' suggests people would be eating a bag of sugar a day, if not why not? if they're 'addicted' they'll wolf it down like alcoholics drink absolutely anything they can get their hands on.

Mauritius, you are again misunderstanding what sugar is. It’s a carbohydrate, same as bread (how many people also binge on toast?). The point you seem to be unable to address is the issue of how insulin affects our hunger and satiety hormones. The evidence is very clear that constantly fuelling yourself on carbohydrate has a dramatic impact on your health. And weight.

You literally cannot lose weight if you have constantly high insulin because one of the jobs of insulin is to stop fat cells being used for energy.

Your body should be able to use fat for energy, and the only way you can do this is to not eat (fast) for at least 3 hours by which time your insulin levels reduce and therefore you can start using fat for fuel. That is why snacking is so bad.

The body is designed to fast indeed it was / is in many places, part of the culture. Even one of our meals is showing you this ( break fast)

When you fast not only do you go into a ketogenic state, you also bring about a process called Autophagy which is when the body essentially cleans out all the dead cells and renews itself. The research on the benefits of Autophagy recently won a Nobel prize.

www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2016/press-release/

www.bluezones.com/2018/10/fasting-for-health-and-longevity-nobel-prize-winning-research-on-cell-aging/

Better explanation of autophagy

I have come to the conclusion it is an addiction for me.

I normally eat low carb, avoiding sugar. I feel great and I know my diet helps me feel balanced and healthy. Why is sugar/junk carbs my addiction then? Well, I can decide to eat some carbs, a slice of birthday cake, particularly nice looking roast potatoes MIL has made, pasta bake one of my children made and is proud of, you get the idea. Each time, I will make an active choice to eat it, I will decide that that's it then I revert to my normal eating style, it will be no problem because I hate how I feel on loads of carbs and love how I feel on hardly any. Yet almost every time, I end up on a multi-day carb bender. It has lasted from 3 days to 6 months. To me that feels exactly like an addiction. I cannot make myself stop at just one. Like an alcoholic.

When I'm on a carb-bender I behave in stupid ways to get more carbs. Not ludicrous like an alcoholic but definitely stupid decisions, I know I am not in control of myself, I know I am not behaving how I want to behave.

For years I beat myself up for not being able to follow advice on how to eat carbs healthily. Now that I accept it as an addiction it is easier to manage myself.

Alcoholics have a physical dependency on alcohol.

So do insulin-resistant people on the quick and ready supply of glucose (available via simple carbs). Please read up on it if you are so incredulous.

I also don't understand why Mauritius is imagining that sugar being addictive would result in people furtively spooning bags of sugar down their throats in the absence of other more appealing sweet things.

One of the points is that there is no shortage of sweet things. People who are hooked on chocolate, cake, biscuits etc no doubt have them in the house all the time, and everywhere sells them.

Also the reason these people aren't behaving like the stereotypes of addicts that Mauritius is describing is because, unlike drugs, a sugar addiction is socially acceptable (even encouraged by friends and colleagues) and does not cause problematic behaviour.

Even with alcohol, there are plenty of 'functioning alcoholics' who wouldn't just pour any old alcohol down their necks in desperation but who absolutely are dependent.

Dependent is a good way of phrasing this

People become dependent on carbohydrates for their energy.

Well, I can decide to eat some carbs, a slice of birthday cake, particularly nice looking roast potatoes MIL has made, pasta bake one of my children made and is proud of, you get the idea. Each time, I will make an active choice to eat it, I will decide that that's it then I revert to my normal eating style, it will be no problem because I hate how I feel on loads of carbs and love how I feel on hardly any. Yet almost every time, I end up on a multi-day carb bender. It has lasted from 3 days to 6 months. To me that feels exactly like an addiction. I cannot make myself stop at just one

Yes, that’s exactly my experience. Once I had some trashy carbs, say bread or a muffin, I have noticed I feel extra hungry for 2-3 days thereafter invariably craving more floury sugary food. Then I have to say no to myself all the time and it is tedious. It is easier just not to go there, than work extra hard to get back on track after ‘a little bit of dessert’.

When low carbing I don’t ever feel hungry, just a bit light-headed maybe if it’s been more than 7h since the last meal. It’s so much better.