Sugar Addiction Doesn't Exist

(Ellen) #31

That’s true, my boy Gorbash could be an absolute git at times but could never stay mad at him, even when he chewed up all 3 of Mum’s xmas presents!

(Running from stupidity) #32

I’m liking this rat a LOT.

(Ellen) #33

Loved him; Mum not so much.

(Running from stupidity) #34

Any dirty rat that is a foot-soldier in the war on Christmas is a comrade of mine!

(Doug) #35

:clap: Very interesting topic. I go days or weeks without alcohol, but shudder at the thought of really giving it up or having a doctor tell me I had to. Cigarettes - never felt any compulsion/addiction, but I can see how addictive they are for many people. I dearly love lighting up a cigarette, though pretty quickly smoking makes me feel crappy, and weeks and months go by without doing it.

Sugar - in the last month before my doctor said I was full-fledged Type 2 diabetic, I bought two pies at a grocery store one day, peach and cherry, and ate them both that evening. And yet I would have never said I was really a ‘sugar addict.’ I’ve always just loved excess.

(Bunny) #36

Lol… just looking at the beginning of that paragraph “five reasons your addicted to sugar” I would also add:

Sugar would not be so bad if it were not missing its natural vital micro-nutrients, minerals and now rare trace elements, but all there is to eat is the super-bleached refined cane sugar mixed with beet sugar on a global scale…

You don’t want to over-fuel your mitochondria and chromosomes with it either because you are made of sugar (ribonucleic acid), yes it is an ‘ACID’ and would that not be for lack of a better analogy; ‘cannibalism’ or eating the flesh of your own species?..

What does acid do? It dissolves things!

Footnotes:

[1] “… Each cell contains hundreds to thousands of mitochondria, which are located in the fluid that surrounds the nucleus (the cytoplasm). Although most DNA is packaged in chromosomes within the nucleus, mitochondria also have a small amount of their own DNA. This genetic material is known as mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA. …” …More

[2] “…One of the primary differences between DNA and RNA is that RNA has a specific sugar that DNA does not. RNA has the sugar ribose in it. By contrast, DNA has the sugar deoxyribose. This is why RNA is called Ribonucleic Acid. What sugar is found in RNA and DNA: •Ribose (5-carbon sugar) •Deoxyribose (5-carbon sugar) What Is Ribose? Ribose is referred to as a pentose monosaccharide, a simple sugar. It’s a carbohydrate, and it is composed of five carbon atoms. Unlike other monosaccharides, such as glucose, ribose isn’t oxidized when energy for cellular metabolism is required. Instead, ribose plays a critical role in the formation of molecules which transfer energy between parts of a cell. Ribose performs a variety of functions in addition to enabling the transference of energy. One of the ribose’s key functions is that it acts as the base for the genetic tool that makes proteins out of genes. It also serves as part of the backbone of chromosomes. …” …More

[3] “… The most common monosaccharides provided by foods are glucose, fructose and galactose (BREAD; GRAINS). Sweet foods such as honey and cane sugar are rich in monosaccharides, but a wide variety of other foods, such as dairy products, beans and fruit, also contain these simple sugars. …” …More

[4] “… Monosaccharides do not require intestinal digestion prior to absorption. Salivary a-amylase and pancreatic a-amylase are similar enzymes. Members of the amylase family of enzymes are found in many tissues and organs of the body, however the highest concentrations are in the salivary glands and pancreas. Disaccharides cannot be absorbed (intact) by the intestine. Intestinal glucose and galactose absorption is Na±dependent, yet insulin-independent. Intestinal fructose absorption is normally slower than glucose and galactose absorption. Most intestinal glucose absorption is associated with aerobic energy expenditure. A b-glucosidase and a b-galactosidase are present in the brush border of the small intestine, which hydrolyze glucose and galactose residues from glucocerebrosides and galactocerebrosides. …” …More

#37

Pretty website but SAD Information.

Before keto I stumbled into a similar yeah, blah, oh, whatever style of eating she prescribes. It doesn’t even have a name. How about the “All Is Blah Diet”. 20 years of it. No thanks.

Science? There are thousands of papers about the evils of modern wheat and sugar… To not walk away. Run.

I hate being so frank and blunt but billions of people are suffering due to garbage food advice…

(Mike Trick) #38

Agree, sugar addiction is only in our heads. Our brain feels incredible when we eat something sweet and he gives to the taste buds that we want more and more. That is why people think that this is an addiction, but in the fact, it is not. You know being addicted is not so cool. One of my friends was drug-addicted and it was a really hard period. We tried to help him but the only help that really influenced him was the specialists from here lifeline.org.uk. To be honest they were our last hope and they did an incredible job. So believe me I know what means addiction and sugar is not that case.

#39

So you’re ignoring the fact that sugar causes the same dopamine response that illicit drug use does? That’s not opinion it’s medical fact.

What do you know? You just said your friend was the one that was drug addicted. What were you addicted to? I’ve been on both sides of this and sugar is ABSOLUTELY just as addictive as any other drug that flood you with dopamine. The drug isn’t what you’re addicted to, it’s the response. You clearly have never dealt with addiction first hand. That’s great you helped your friend but doesn’t qualify you to understand what it’s like either.

(Bob M) #40

My wife thought it would be fun to go to get ice cream in the middle of the day, to celebrate our kids going back to school. So, we did that.

I was unnaturally FAMISHED not long after eating that ice cream. I mean, incredibly hungry to the point where I overate at dinner.

And I remember being like this all the time before I went low carb - always wanting more to eat, constantly hungry.

Even now, going on 7 years later, I still overeat if I eat anything sweet.

#41

I don’t think I am addicted to sugar but I still can eat a ton of carby sweets, it seems.
There are special items. I am very firm in my recent belief that the best Cadbury chocolates are very serious drugs to me. I had wonderful control and it blew it like no carbs before… Being completely full means nothing, I still could eat a ton of it.

But it’s extra special. Sugary items are very different from each other, to me, at least. One has a cute, satiating 10g portion. Some other has extremely strong “eat me all” compulsions and 150g feels like nothing (well a very tasty nothing), it just makes my appetite bigger. I noticed the same with fruits.

Sugar addiction is surely a thing, we see it often. I doubt I have it, I merely experience the anti-satiating effect of carbs. It doesn’t need to be simple sugar. And it’s not even simple hunger, I experience raised appetite too, impatient eating urges, “where my automatic control went?”… Carbs mess with me.

And I love sweets but carby sweets and extreme low-carb sweets act very differently. Even if we only consider net carbs as carbs and sweeteners are used. I may want to eat a bit more of the tasty sweet thing but it’s nothing like the carby insanity that sweets can do the best (though I had wild parties with bread too. I rarely have problems with sweets as I don’t buy sugary ones but I bake bread. But nothing happens until I stay away from carbs including vegetables, I am safe then).

As we know, even low-carb sweets mess with many people. And some people feel not much towards any sweets. And probably zillion interesting cases exist.

#42

Same here, I can put away a whole pizza (a real one) fries, onion rings, and be fine and go along as normal even if I’m stuffed. But if I ate a bunch of (real) Ice Cream??? LOOK OUT! I noticed a while ago that the starchy stuff didn’t really cause much pushback with me and that it was the sugary stuff, but even then once the flood gates are opened it’s not that I then crave just more sugary stuff, I just crave EVERYTHING. It’s runaway ghrelin at that point.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #43

Actually, it’s not. The fructose part of the sugar (a molecule of sucrose consists of a molecule of glucose bonded to a molecule of fructose) has an effect on the nucleus accumbens (the reward centre of the brain) similar to the effect of alcohol and other addictive drugs. Again, like ethanol, fructose is metabolised in the liver, with the same long-term effects (fatty liver, steatohepatitis, cirrhosis). It only lacks the short-term toxicity of ethanol.

About 20% of the population appears to be vulnerable to a given substance or form of behaviour. It is generally a different 20% in each case, though there is clearly some overlap, because a lot of people have multiple addictions. This explains is why a lot of people can drink or eat sugar or gamble or whatever without getting addicted, whereas addicts need extensive help to get free of the substance or type of behaviour that has addicted them. Fortunately or unfortunately, we don’t all get addicted to the same things.

Many addicts, interestingly, feel that they exhibited signs of being addicts, even before being exposed to the substance or behaviour that addicted them. But even someone with such an addictive personality doesn’t get addicted to everything out there. I personally know addicts who smoked and yet never got addicted to tobacco, but I also know addicts who claim that kicking nicotine was harder than kicking heroin (which is supposedly the most addictive of the street drugs).

(S G) #44

Absolutely!!! My husband can eat anything in moderation, my children and I, not at all. I tried “moderation” many many times, It doesn’t work for me, so I treat myself as a sugar addict, where abstinence is the only solution, and it works great!

(Bob M) #45

I tend to agree. As with everything, I think it’s complex. If I eat a potato with butter and sour cream, I don’t get the same effect as with ice cream, but maybe that’s the higher sat fat content with the “loaded” potato? Or is is the sugar?

(Bob M) #46

The way I moderate things is by not eating them. :wink:

And I often wonder if the people who believe things like sugar isn’t addictive do so because they don’t experience the same effect we do? There are some people out there who can eat a small bowl of tortilla chips or ice cream and be happy. I don’t happen to be one of those people. So, if I want something like ice cream, say for a birthday, we’ll buy a small cake and split it and eat it all at one sitting. Unfortunately, with covid, the place we get ice cream cakes has only one size, and it’s too big. Easily enough for 8 - 10 people. Leftovers beckon to me…

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #47

The difference between an addict and a normal person is that the addict may well understand that the addiction is destroying his or her life, but is powerless to stop. A normal person simply doesn’t get that bad.

I have known alcoholics whose idea of “moderate drinking” was limiting themselves to only one case of beer or only one 1.5-litre bottle of wine. I have also known non-alcoholics who said things like, “Oh, I don’t enjoy having that second drink, because it makes me dizzy.”

It’s not really a matter of willpower in either case.

#48

I never thought I was addicted to sugar until I tried to stop eating it. The more sugar I ate, the more sugar I ate. I finally figured it out and now I understand. Happy to be here!

(Jane Srygley) #49

I’m an addictions counselor and a sugar addict. My clients are recovering from opiate addiction. I used to say that I had personal experience with addiction but refused to say what my drug of choice was because I thought they’d laugh and think I was ridiculous. Now I tell them because most of them are sugar addicts too and know it’s a legitimate addiction.

I’m 58 years old. I’ve tried many times to eat sugar moderately. Doesn’t work for me. I’m addicted. I chose to abstain one day at a time.

#50

Pretty much the same with me, I’ve never been big on “a” piece and then putting it away. I put things away… into my face!