Sweet like chocolate

26^th February 2013

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery -

What a difference a day makes!  Or even less than a day, yesterday morning I felt on top of the world, totally chilled out, and even sat chatting with my a few members for longer than usual at the end of the meeting because I didn’t feel the need to rush anywhere.  By 3ish I’d got a vile headache, waves of nausea and felt like crying, apparently a migraine, so my bestie instructed me to take a tablet and go to bed, I did at about 4.30 and I’ve just got up when the alarm went at 5am!   I haven’t slept solid but every time I woke up I went straight back to sleep, thankfully my head pain has gone now and if you are a migraine sufferer I feel for you because that was awful.  I gain live with my back pains but not head pain, especially when it starts making you feel sick and awful in general.

Anyway on the bright side, it meant I was easily within my ProPoints allowance yesterday as I’d only had breakfast and lunch!  So that should balance the weekend out a little ;-) and I still managed to get 4pp on my pedometer before then.

So yesterday we were talking after the meeting about ‘how hard it is!”  The sugar addition, chocolate thing we were talking about on this particular occasion and as I listened to this member talk I realised she expected herself to fail and also believed deep down that being a sugar addict was just who she was, and that she wouldn’t ever be any different.

Now sugar is a powerful thing and it does have a way of getting into your system and giving you those highs and then following it with those lows that make you crave more however there’s something even stronger at work in this situation I believe.  And that is a brain thing, her mind is possibly the most powerful tool she has and she’s got it convinced she’s a sugar addict who just can’t help it and her subconscious keeps that stored and uses it at any given chance.

Can you be addicted to sugar?  I’d say yes and I’d be able to find you research to back me up, sugar is a highly refined substance that does not appear alone in nature. It looks a lot like cocaine, and sugar acts a lot like heroin when it hits the brain. Although the idea that sugar was addictive was controversial among scientists for years, they began to take note when a paper titled Sugar and Fat Bingeing Have Notable Differences in Addictive-Like Behavior was published in the Journal of Nutrition in 2009.  One researcher Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D. has wrote numerous books included  Potatoes Not Prozac, Little Sugar Addicts: End the Mood Swings, Meltdowns, Tantrums, and Low Self-Esteem in Your Child Today, and Your Last Diet!: The Sugar Addict’s Weight-Loss Plan.  Then there’s this really interesting video by Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, he explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fibre (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin.  If you have a spare 90 minutes its an interesting watch. http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=16717

So what can you do about it?  Firstly become a ‘hidden sugar’ detective (see end of blog for all 69!), you’d be amazed where sugar is hiding, learn to know your stuff, it has lots of different names, choose filling and healthy foods to help balance out your blood sugars.

Going cold turkey is hard but worth it, sugar apparently is too addictive to wean yourself off slowly if you have a real problem (I’m not talking the odd bar of chocolate hear, I’m talking binging on bars of the stuff at a time).  Plan ahead, clear out the cupboards and take a few days for the withdrawal symptoms to pass, find other ways to comfort yourself, fresh air walks, reading, hot bath.  Apparently it can take 3-7days to overcome the physical addiction, but overcoming the emotional attachments to sweet comfort foods could take longer.  The best way to help yourself over that time is to eat small, regular filling and healthy foods, drink plenty of water, don’t get hungry, if you slip up don’t stress it, forgive yourself, have a little protein to stabilise the blood sugars and maybe go for a walk or do something to take your mind of it.

Like I said not everyone is addicted to sugar and it’s effects, having a dessert each day doesn’t mean you are, its if you feel like your consumption is out of control or if you feel like you can’t stop and that you need it or that it improves your mood short term then you feel guilt and misery afterwards!

Food should be enjoyable, not punishable!  Your mind/subconscious mind is the strongest support system you can get so convince it you can do anything you want to, your strong enough to make wise food choices, to resist temptation.  Maybe not always but the majority of the time and to help your mind ensure you don’t find yourself in a situation that’s going to tempt you more than you feel able to cope with, don’t have the sweet stuff in the house!  You wouldn’t stand a junkie in a crack cocaine house so why would you consider standing in a sweet shop or living in one!

Have a great day, eat gorgeous, be gorgeous and remember you’re sweet enough already. xx

Here's a more complete sugar list with 69 sugar names.

List of Sugar Names

Agave nectar Barbados Sugar Barley malt Beet sugar Blackstrap molasses Brown sugar Buttered syrup Cane crystals Cane juice crystals Cane sugar Caramel Carob syrup Castor sugar Confectioner’s sugar Corn syrup Corn sweetener Corn syrup solids Crystalline fructose Date sugar Demerara Sugar Dextrin Dextran Dextrose Diastatic malt Diatase D-mannose Evaporated cane juice Ethyl maltol Florida Chrystals Free Flowing Fructose Fruit juice Fruit juice concentrate Galactose Glucose

Glucose solids Golden sugar Golden syrup Granulated sugar Grape sugar Grape juice concentrate HFCS High-fructose corn Syrup Honey Icing sugar Invert sugar Lactose Malt syrup Maltodextrin Maltose Mannitol Maple syrup Molasses Muscovado sugar Organic raw sugar Panocha Powdered sugar Raw sugar Refiner’s syrup Rice Syrup Sorbitol Sorghum syrup Sucrose Sugar Syrup Syrup Table sugar Treacle Turbinado sugar Yellow sugar

The sugar industry is constantly coming up with new sugar names. So be on guard for new hidden sugars with insulin spiking ingredients.