Okay so I'm 22 nearly 23. Ever since I was about 15 I started getting addicted to sugar. Over the years it's gotten worse and worse. I'm not even comfortable typing how much I consume daily because I'm too embarrassed by it. Lets just say I'm amazed I haven't gotten diabetes yet or any other serious health issues. even through all the sugar though I've remained skinny (too skinny for my liking). It's just never affected my weight for reasons I can't understand. I've always been told sugar makes you fat. Perhaps someone could shed some light on this.
But I've had enough now! I'm not even sure I enjoy eating it, but I just can't help myself. The majority of my sugar comes from chocolate and the occasional fizzy drink. I've never touched an energy drink so I'm safe from them luckily. But I need to find away to break the habit. I really need some advice on what to do first.
I wasn't really sure where to go to ask for help but I thought perhaps asking people who might have similar issues was a good place to start. Have any of you beaten the sugar addiction. What changes did you notice when you gave it up. How did affect your lifestyle.
I'm really determined and desperate to break the habit but I just need that big push to do it. Any advice you guys have I would love to hear it.
Gaz
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Gaz97
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Diabetes takes a long time, and a young metabolism can withstand a lot of abuse. A scary thing is that insulin and glucose is damaging your body for years before you reach a diagnosis of pre diabetes.
A simple test you can do is check your waist. Two interesting measures are waist height ratio and waist hip ratio.
Good luck. You can do this! You seem to understand how serious it is, but you can conquer your addiction, and undo the harm.
Sugar is a demon isn’t it? Whilst experts are divided on whether or not it is technically ‘addictive’ it definitely interferes with our hunger and appetite hormones, and often leads to fat gain, if you have escaped this be thankful, but you are very wise to be concerned about your health
How you quit is up to you, but it may be that you need to go cold turkey. What works for many people is eating enough, and of the right foods, at mealtimes, including enough protein and fat. Fat has been demonised for the last 20 or so years but is an essential nutrient, and many within the Public Health sphere are now recognising this.
My suggestion is to look at your eating habits, and see if you can see any problem areas that are leading to the chocolate cravings. Then take time to change the bad habits for better ones.
Some useful reading here for you about why different foods, with the same calories, work in different ways in our bodies healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...
As you are not here to lose weight I’ve given you a visitor badge, but please have a good look around the forum and just ask if you have any further questions
The other day I posted on here disgusted with myself to admit that I had been binging on sugar. I understand what you mean, we feel too ashamed to tell exactly how much!! Like you I'm lucky I've not got diabetis but unlike you my weight has ballooned also due to medication. I have a very addictive personality. If I have one the lot go and I'll even go and buy more.
You'll get support on here I hope. If I dont buy it I cant eat it but then I'm going nuts looking in cupboards saying....there must be something!! I've even chucked biscuits in dustbin then rooted them out!! They say freeze some grapes and suck one. It is soooo hard but if you can go one day one hour one minute at a time and say...I wont have one just now each time it can help. The more you eat the more the body craves it!!! You've at least admitted you need help and that's really admirable!! I'm not buying but also dont go out when hungry or you'll reach for it on auto pilot. I've stood ages in shop looking at it all saying no walk away....then I just say oh I'll just have one say as a treat. That doesnt work. I hope you get some good replies on here. Well done and dont feel at a loss. You just have an addiction and addictions are hard to understand for people who have never had addictions... no matter what the substance !!
That is a really brilliant description of addiction. That little phrase ‘just one little one won’t hurt’ sums it all up. The mind’s hypnotic power and ability to seduce our bodies into doing what they shouldn’t do is phenomenal. Whether it is sugar, alcohol or drugs that little phrase ‘Go on, just a little one won’t make a difference! ‘ But it does!
Good luck! I think you have made a huge leap forward by recognising this and you can at least be aware when that little voice starts and tell it to ‘shut up’ !
Evening Gaz and welcome to the forum
As others have already said - it takes courage to share. Others have shared good links and their experience too.
I've had to cut out sugar from certain places in my life because it wasn't working for me trying to gradually reduce it.
I decided to cold turkey it with certain sugars. I was having 3 sugars in my tea (and drinking plenty of tea in the day). I stopped one day as a spring resolution. Strangely I got pressure from some people to keep having the sugar in my tea. I'll be honest - I found it hard. 1 year later I don't have any at all and don't miss it in tea or coffee. I think my taste buds have changed.
I was also having chocolates or sweet treats every day - I've had to get rid of some of them. I can't ever buy Toblerone as will just eat the whole thing in 1 day (a large one). It's working so far - though have had 1 sweet treat binge.
My aim now is to cut out honey - which I love and can eat by the spoonful if I'm not careful.
I do eat some sugar but it's starting to feel more like a treat. If I buy chocolate it has to be small or 1 Brownie - a larger packet or batch - I'd eat it all. I don't know how people take 1 square of chocolate and put it back..
You might take a different approach but whatever you do...
I’ve struggled with sugar for years. No since I was a young kid. I feel I can get high on sugar if that makes sense. I just start laughing like a lunatic and I seem crazy. I can only think of sugar sometimes. I can’t really break it. It’s so bad sometimes. I eat regular meals and then my calories go through the roof with my sugar intake. I am the biggest foodie I know and I’m sure of it. You ask me what I love about Christmas and I’ll spend the next 2 min listing all my favorite sweets and getting so excited. It’s a way of life almost and sometimes it may be 70% or more of what i eat in a day. You’re so not alone. Please tell me if u find treatment. Also you may want to get tested or talk to a doctor about BED because believe it or not that may be the root of your problem and if so BED treatment may be your solution. B.E.D like that sorry I’ve mistyped it above.
I definitely believe sugar can make people high. Back when I was teaching, a decade ago or so, the school where I worked closed the tuck shop. The resulting difference in the pupils’ attitude and effort in the classroom was astonishing. I don’t think any of us had really believed till then how much sugary treats affected their behaviour. Their concentration improved and the job of teaching was actually made easier, and their end of year results improved as well.
Morning Gaz, I’m much older than you. But about 10 years ago I was very similar situation. Not with sweets or chocolate but with sugars in my coffee. As I got older the amount of sugar I needed increased. It was like I wasn’t getting the fix.
At my worst I was having 7/8 cups of coffee a day and having 5 spoons in each. I felt lethargic, no energy. I was putting on tons of weight too. I tried other sweetners but I could always taste the after taste and went back to my sugar fix. I went to see my GP. He explained I was having approx 1,500 calories a day just sugar and all that sugar does if not used in the body is convert to fat. I was pre-diabetic. It was my choice. The only advice people gave me over the years was to go cold turkey. It was hard. Not going to say there’s a quick fix because there isn’t. It really comes down to how bad do you want it for yourself.
The addiction will pass in a few weeks. I don’t have sugar in the house at all. Been like that for 10 years now. My coffee definitely doesn’t taste as nice..it’s not the comfort drink that i’d always turn too like I used too. But that’s the consequence of eating healthier. Now I’ve lost over 5 stone. Making healthy choices...honestly your body will thank you for it. Good luck.
Hello Anniejam and thank you for sharing your story. Very well done on beating the Sugar Demon and on your weight loss 👍👏😊
I have found that by using full fat milk and/or cream I do enjoy coffee without sugar or sweetener, but it has taken several years.
I’m not sure if you are wishing to join us for help and support in your weight loss journey so I’ve assigned you a Visitor badge, but please let me know if you are wishing to join
Hello and welcome to the Weigh Loss Forum Anniejam
Apologies if you e already seen all this information but better to receive it twice than not at all 😊
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I was a total chocolate addict and would binge until I felt sick and then binge some more! I still fall off the wagon occasionally but not like I used to. What worked for me was doing Veganuary. I read articles on baby male calves being taken from their mothers and shot for veal and the horrific conditions dairy cows are kept under, being made perpetually pregnant, pumped full of hormones etc. Anyway, it put me off dairy and on the whole vegan chocolate is disgusting so I hardly ever eat chocolate. Also most chocolate is sourced through child slavery (see documentary, the Darker Side of Chocolate). That helped too! Eventually your palate changes...Good luck!
I had a friend when I was younger who also stayed thin even though they ate and drank quite a bit of sugar. It doesn't always put on fat like you say. Nor does it always lead to diabetes but, this is something that seems to concern you?
To break the habit, it often seems we need to substitute the item for something else. I wonder if there are other things that you could replace the sugar with like drinking soda water instead of sugary fizzy drinks. There are lots of sugar free alternatives these days which may be helpful too.
Some people find that taking up a new hobby or interest can also help such as taking up physical exercise, maybe that could help you too as it takes your mind off things.
I was severely addicted to sugar, it was pretty much the entirety of my diet at one point. I went cold turkey at first and got really ill, I had really bad headaches and couldn't get out of bed for days. And felt super tired and drained.
Even if you only start by cutting back it's important to be aware that your body will probably start screaming and shouting at you.
It's been a long road for me, from going from not touching a single drop of processed or added sugar (for 3 years), to getting addicted to it again, to now trying to find a happy middle ground where I don't see sugar as the 'demon'.
The main thing I remember after quitting sugar and getting over the initial shock was just generally feeling better and having better and more stable energy levels. Which would have helped improve my mood as well at the time. I noticed I almost never had any fur developing on my teeth as well
I think I'm getting to a place now where I can have chocolate and sugar without binging or overdoing it.
As soon as I have sugar or chocolate the cravings do start bad again but I'm starting to be able to control myself and say 'no you've had a nice treat, that's enough now".
I guess you just have to learn more about yourself and your cravings and just try and keep trying until you find the path that works.
I would suggest trying to switch out some of added sugar and processed sugar for healthier sugars like fruit, honey and date syrup and also would encourage you to try and develop a taste for dates.
Dates are your friend when trying to move away from too much processed sugar.
All the best
~MintTea~
Hi hope your ok and doing well. It good that your coming onto this site and asking for advice as I have found that this site has lots of help and support and I have learnt more on here than from my own drs. You need to keep a food and symptoms diary and also get all copies of your medical records. Buy some chromium tablets as they beat the sugar cravings. You can get them from any health store. You may have Candida albicans. Look it up and see if you have the symptoms. Candida craves sugar and the more Candida you have the more you crave sugar. I was like this for quite some time but it’s a lot better now. If you can cut out as many processed foods as possible and eat more natural foods and definitely check every ingredient in everything you eat as sugar is in everything plus, it’s more addictive than cocaine. Look for words such as sucrolose or dextrose as these types of sugar are not at all good for us. You can either go cold turkey and completely cut out all sugar completely or do it gradually but do what’s best for you. I went cold turkey and had withdrawal symptoms for a few days then I felt much better. You will feel a whole lot better when you have no sugar in your system. Wishing you all the very best. Take care and have a nice weekend. Cheers. J.
I found two books helpful: "Pure, White and Deadly", and "Fat Chance". Both written from a scientific and medical point of view about what sugar does to the body and why we get addicted to it, including factors like stress. Fat Chance is the more recent I think, but both were a good read.
I grew up being given bags of sweets as a treat - Saturday sweet shop visits for a quarter of this and a quarter of that...because my parents enjoyed sweets. Neither were overweight, esp dad, who remained pencil thin all his life. (He did develop dementia - I don't know whether that was linked.) But there is evidence to suggest that an early taste does hook you, and I have recently really cut back as my weight had begun to increase a bit. Also bad for the teeth, which is a good incentive to cut out sweet treats. Maybe have anything sweet straight after a meal, if you want to. The craving does go away, I've found, but need to watch those stressed times as they can be hard.
Interesting, from those books too, how political it is, and how the drive to avoid fat in foods in the 1970s - 80s (? I think) resulted in us consuming so much sugar and developing a taste for it, even if you don't eat tonnes of sweets and chocolate! And the stress of poverty leading to consumption of sugar...I just found those books made sense of a lot of our problems, as a society, with sugar.
I wish you well. These forums are a real help. I think the daily diet one might be a help, but maybe admin can comment. If you wanted to be accountable for what you eat as you try to reduce your sugar intake.
I did have a technique and it worked for me. This is what I did....
I ate lots of protein at mealtimes and snack times. I didn't restrict calories. If I got a craving for sugar (this is where your will power is needed) I ate a high protein snack like an egg or a spoon of peanut butter, hummus etc.
I made sure not to eat bread pasta rice and potatoes as a replacement for sugar (your body will want these to replace the sugar kick).
For me it really was that simple. Protein helps keep you full and once your sugar addiction is gone (I would give it a few months) you can have small amounts of chocolate etc... I can now eat a couple of slices of chocolate and not eat the whole bar (and not want the whole bar!)
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