Is there really such a thing as sugar addiction and how do you kick it

[generousoffer]

I have absolutely no willpower whatsoever. I really want to lose weight (2 stone overweight) but I just can't translate it into eating less.

My diet is relatively healthy except I eat a lot of biscuits. I'm not even hungry most of the time. If I try not to eat them I become nervy, restless and panicky. Then have a frantic desire to eat them until I crack.

The only feeling I can compare it to was when I gave up smoking. The itchy twitch.

Can you really be physically addicted or do I indeed just have no willpower (or both)

I know I just need to grow up and tell myself not to eat them but what is the best way. Complete cold turkey? Rationing?

Any other tips?

Not only is sugar addiction real, but so is wheat addiction. Gluten in wheat gets broken down into morphine like peptides which bind to your opiate receptors resulting in mild euphoria and the urge to eat more.

Have a read of Wheat Belly, I guarantee that the biscuits won't be so appealing anymore.

Actually, thinking about it, wheat is probably more the problem. I'm not massively drawn to chocolate but biscuits, cakes and anything from the bread aisle. Bagels, malt loaf, muffins, crumpets, the lot!

Cut it out! Treat it as an addiction and just don't have it in the house. Do this for 2 weeks and see how you feel. If you really want to lose weight you will do it, and QueenStromba makes an excellent point about wheat (also in biscuits/cake/all things shit). So while you're about it cut that out too. Not as hard as it sounds. You can have rye bread instead, and have porridge sweetened with banana for breakfast. The weight will fall off you if you do this - promise

Wheat and sugar addiction - read potatoes not prazac she explains it nicely.

Try dukan? Or Pig to Twig? because it will be easy with total abstention of the addictive foods (carbs).

And yes I agree re: wheat belly I haven't been able to eat any wheat since I read it! I just can't bear to eat it.

Not sure I agree about rushing to have rye bread or porridge with bananas, because thats a very carb heavy breakfast and I think someone with an sugar/carb/wheat addiction should go cold turkey and then gradually add back some of the safer carbs. You can see what your personal tolerance is, mine is quite low. I still don't really eat bananas, very high in sugar makes me crave higher sugar foods.

yeah u can kick it

i had a caffine addiction (coke, redbull ect but not coffee weird) so i stopped buying it it is hard i got shakes, headaches and major cravings for about a week now when i have a glass it tastes foul!
altho im now on tea lol but loads better than coke/redbull hth

I stopped eating refined sugar a few years back and I got the most awful headaches for a week, then they went and I felt fabulous, I kept it up religiously for months and months and vowed never to pass the evil white stuff into my mouth ever again I have no willpower sadly

I'm a sweetie addict too, although I don't eat vast quantities (couldn't eat a whole bar of choc for example ) but I would find it very hard to cut out completely. I get my sugar fix in the morning - porridge made with jumbo oats, half a dozen prunes (in juice not syrup), water and a bit of milk. That's sweet, rich and satisfying. Tinned fish and cottage cheese for lunch, stir fry veg with chicken or prawns for supper. No bread, pasta, potatoes or booze. No cravings (most of the time) and if I must, I have a two finger kitkat. I'm 54kg down from 57kg after Xmas and I'm aiming for 51kg. Previously I lived on bread, which I love, pasta, which I love and rice dishes. All gone, as has the bloating and IBS.

Good luck. You can do it.

go cold turkey. its what the first two weeks of the atkins diet is all about. Its an addiction, and feeding it little bits isnt going to help with your will power. find a time in your life when there isnt much else traumatic happening. get rid of all sugar in your house. make sure you are in charge of the cooking and shopping, and ban all other family memebers from having any sort of sugar in the house to eat to. and just go for it. Same as when treating any other addiction, have something else for yourself to do . anything iwll work. but its really all down to your own will power at the end of the day.

i know nothing about addiction but I have definitely felt better for cutting out sugar and refined carbs over the last few months. my aim was to better control blood sugar (I was getting rushes and crashes), so I gave up caffeine at the same time. First week or so was hell but I find I'm not really interested any more

I could have written your post generousoffer and reading it and the replies have made me want to go cold turkey.

Does anyone know whether I can do this whilst breastfeeding?

Right - off to read wheat belly now!

Does anyone want to go cold turkey with me?

I'd advise against cold turkey myself.

As has been mentioned - Potatoes not Prozac explains it well. Especially since you yourself mention it feels like giving up smoking - I reckon you may have swapped your addiction to sugar. I certainly did. Instead of kicking it cold turkey at first (although you do eventually) first of all you build habits such as eating a protein breakfast, eating three protein rich meals a day and no snacks, and eating a potato last thing to help you convert all the amino wotsits into serotonin. Then having addressed your chemical imbalance, you kick the sugar and do the set aside a week thing.

I'm following the 7 steps in that book and it is WORKING.

I'm one who could never hack a low carb diet because it made me feel ill doing the cold turkey bit. After only a few weeks with this way I feel confident about life without sugar in the near future.

Good luck.

Oh that is very good advice wildstrawberryplace. I am going to get both books and read up on it. So no cold turkey yet for me.