What Is Sugar Addiction?
Sugar Addiction is one of many addictions on the market. People can get addicted to anything starting with activities, feelings and finishing with products and substances.
General Addiction
The addiction is the unconscious state of mind which makes you helpless against the particular substance. It’s the state of mind with no resistance to a specific activity. It’s not necessarily a thing you are addicted to. It may also be an action like thieving, lying, rock climbing and many more.
Some of the addictions are great for the human kind. Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs and many more were passionate to what they were doing, hence they persevered. However, the passion changes over time. On the other hand, addiction doesn’t change, it just gets stronger, and their addiction was curiosity. They all wanted to create something what hasn’t been done before.
The other addictions are completely opposite. For example, addiction to money means that the person will do anything to get more money, be it legally or illegally, morally or immorally. There is a difference between having money and being addicted to money.
Sugar Addiction
I have never thought that there was such a thing as a Sugar Addiction. I know alcohol, drugs and tobacco addictions. These are very popular on TV, news and radio. I also know a few people who are addicted to one or the other and the effect is devastating. I used to question myself: “why can’t they just stop it? Can’t they just quit it?”. This is what I thought till I managed to become a sugar junkie myself.
Living a life as a sugar junkie is self-destroying. It’s not as harmful as alcohol is for the loved ones, because you can’t hurt them like you can when you are drunk. However, it’s very devastating whilst you are on this path. Every day, every moment, every second someone is talking to you. It makes eating sweets a challenge. It’s no more a pleasure of having some, it’s a pleasure of having as much as you can.
And it’s God damn real!
What Is Sugar?
The sugar is:
- Generic name for sweet dissolvable crystals
- Extracted from sugar canes and sugar beets
- Being made in commercial quantities
- White and brown color
- Hard and thick or liquid
- Used in most of the dishes
- Used in all sweets in one form or another – hence the sweets’ name
- Abused by most of the people
- Dangerous to people’s health when abused
- Hard to get rid off
Perception of Sugar
The sugar is this white or brown powder we put on the table everyday. We pour it into the tea or coffee, use it in baking the cakes. Since it is legally and publicly available in the shops and everyone uses it, you might think that it’s good for your health. Or at least, that it does not cause any serious problems. For example, I do not expect to harm myself when buying a loaf of bread in the shop. The secret is that sugar is used in most of the products which are being sold in the supermarket. If you do not believe me, just check the ingredients list next time you are buying something – you will get surprised. That’s why it’s so hard to get rid off.
Loads of people are thinking that sweets are bad, because they are made out of sugar. That’s perfectly true – they are the worst. Then why do we give sweets to our children all the time? This questions my mind all the time – are we really that stupid? It’s being abused by everyone on this planet starting at the age of zero. Though, there are a few people who are living a healthy life, but this is the minority.
Scientists are studying how bad the sugar actually is to our health. The main three topics they talk about are obesity, diabetes and tooth decay. They could not prove 100% that the sugar is addictive, at least they haven’t published this yet. Companies behind the sugar production are not helping this too. But have you tried not eating sugar for a day? a week? a month? You will not believe how hard it is the very first week.
What Is Cocaine?
The cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant drug and it’s made out of coca leaves. People used to use these leaves for a pleasure or as a local anesthetic back in the day. It was also one of the ingredients in the early Coca-Cola drink, as they say, plus the name suggests the same. There were no problems using it, but that was in the early 1900. Fast forward 100 years and we know that cocaine is very addictive. It’s sometimes used for medical purposes, but under very heavy supervision. Other than this you can get it illegally on the streets for about £30-40 a gram.
How Is Sugar Comparable To Cocaine?
The main thing is that both can and will cause an addiction. I can answer for the sugar and the science can answer for the cocaine. I’m also not a one off, who managed to get addicted to sugar. Till you get any kind of addiction, it’s very hard to understand what that thing is. It’s a horrible thing, trust everyone, who has been there. And it’s darn hard to get rid of it. Honestly, you can’t. You can stop using it, but you cannot fix the problem.
The comparison of cocaine and sugar might seem a little harsh thing to do at the start, but the only difference between the two is that the latter is cheaper. Both gives you the effect of being high, both you need to consume, both are white and both you get addicted to. It may take longer to get addicted to sugar than cocaine, but the end result is the same. Alcohol takes long time to get addicted to, but people are talking about it as a serious problem now. And that is only because drunk people beat the crap out of others or kill someone. If you drank at home without causing any problems to the others, no one would give a crap about you. That’s why sugar is a drug in disguise.
Is Sugar Our Millennium Drug?
The sugar addiction is a term coined quite recently. Everyone knows that sugar causes obesity due to high levels of carbohydrates and easy consumption. You can find some articles in the newspapers questioning if you can become a sugar addict. However, only a few people are talking about it as a drug.
- Growing Human Kindness
- Healthy Simple Life
- Carrots ‘n’ Cake
Drugs Dosage
The small doses of sugar may not cause you any side effects, but we cannot eat it in small doses in our society. It’s like drinking a pint of beer once a week will not make you an alcoholic, but start pouring beer, whisky and vodka into every product you eat and drink every day and it becomes a problem. In a case of sugar, that’s completely true with everything we eat and drink. Of course, you do not have to believe me – here are a few examples.
Product Examples
That’s everything in 100 gram of product. We do not consume 100 gram all the time, we consume much more. We drink half a liter, a liter of fizzy drinks a day. We eat KitKat, Mars, Snickers, Cadbury and Pringles almost every day. We buy frapuccinos in Starbucks and Costa. Have you ever tried adding all the sugar you eat during the day up? How many grams of sugar do you consume every day? Let me know in the comments.
Author Experiment
Here is my example, so you would feel more comfortable sharing your numbers. I could eat chocolate bar of 100 grams easy in one go. I could also eat 300 gram pack of digestive biscuits in the same day. Add some nuts and crisps on top and we get staggering amounts of sugar. Luckily, I didn’t drink any fizzy drinks. Just to put this into perspective – 100 gram of chocolate most of the time contains 55-60 grams and can contain as high as 80-85 grams of sugar. 100 gram of digestive biscuits is about 30 grams of sugar.
My daily intake of sugar was approximately 200 grams. The recommended daily intake based on NHS is 30 gram. That means I was injecting about 6.5 times more sugar into my digestive system than it is recommended. If I was drinking frappucinos and fizzy drinks, that would be 300 grams easily. I also didn’t count any sugar which was already present in milk, bread, pasta and many other food products.
Government Interference
The people are being treated from diabetes already. The government has started working on regulations to limit the amount of sugar used in the products. But there are reasons why companies are still using sugar. Here are some of them:
- Sugar is cheaper than other materials required
- It is addictive, which means people will buy more of it
- We love it, so businesses are solving our problems by providing the solution, which is sugar
How To Get Over Sugar Addiction?
Investigation
First of all, you have to find out if you have a sugar addiction. Start with a challenge – 7 days without sugar. It means that starting from now you do not eat or drink any sugar for another 7 days forward. You have to discard the food products mentioned below from your life for the following 7 days:
- Sweets
- Biscuits
- Pastry
- Fizzy Drinks
- Juice
- Frappuccinos, except black coffee with no sugar
- Sugar
- Honey
- Anything else what tastes sweet
The most important part during this week is to track yourself. How do you feel? Do you miss something? Do you really want something because it’s a habit, or because it’s an addiction? While habits are easier to change, they also do not cause very huge consequences when you stop doing them. However, when it’s an addiction, it will drive you crazy. Depending on your patience level, try continuing this experiment for the whole week. That’s a great start to find out more about yourself. Let me know how many of you managed to finish the experiment and how you felt during this week in the comment section below.
Results
Fast forward 1 week. Did you manage to finish it without gathering any sins? If it was dead simple – congratulations – you are healthy. I’m truly happy for you. If you keep looking after yourself, there won’t be any problems, not at this side at least. NEXT!
What about the people who didn’t manage to stay away from the sugar coated sins – how long did you last without eating any sugar? How many hours? days? Being completely honest with you, the first time I heard about such a challenge, I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was just a random nonsense. No Pastry?! No juice?! Sweets – I get it, but why fizzy drinks?!
Types of Sugarholics
There are two types of sugarholics. If it’s a habit – like the one where you toss a candy into your mouth every time you pass the kitchen or lounge – it will require some changes and hustle, but that’s fixable. Medium level of difficulty. Move candy jars out of your constant pathway and more than likely you will stop thinking about them after a while.
However, sugar junkies – yep, it’s ME – cannot easily pass the path without ever thinking about the sweets. Move the jar out of their path and they will find it. They will put it back where it was, but just before that they will half empty it. Broken biscuits do not count, after all.
Another thing to look at is how you eat sugar. Do you eat sugar aggressively? Is it just one biscuit every evening with a cup of tea? Is it 10 biscuits every now and then? Just because you ate 10 biscuits in a day, doesn’t necessarily mean you are a sugar addict. How frequently do you do such an aggressive eating? Let’s have a discussion – comments are very welcome.
Breaking The Chains of Sugar Addiction
Why do you think I chose a 1 week challenge instead of 2 weeks? Or instead of 1 month? Because 7 days are manageable. Anyone can do this. It’s a week, after all. Month is a long time, but a week – it doesn’t really matter. It’s not too short and it’s not too long. Usually it’s about 2-4 days into the week, which are the hardest, but again, it’s only if you have a sugar addiction.
Acceptance
How do you break the chains of addiction? I’m nowhere near the doctor qualification, hence I cannot tell you what happens to your brain when you have an addiction. I don’t know how they treat it in the hospital. What I know is that if you DO NOT WANT IT, really, VERY VERY MUCH, it ain’t gonna happen – the chains are too strong. I know people who are saying – I can stop whenever I want, but I don’t want to. Good, I like people neglecting the obvious. They lie to us, thinking that they can lie to themselves. The problem is that they start believing in this. I certainly did! What a shameful lie!
Author Example
If you still have some will power left in you – here is what I did. But before I tell you about this, here is what I did even before this.
Everyday I would say to myself, that’s it, I will not eat a lot of sugar today. And while I didn’t eat any whilst at work, I did have a great biscuit party in the evening. I have always told myself that it’s alright, everyone does this. My eating habits were 5-10 biscuit at a time. The chocolate bar was for two times max. I have always told myself that I can stop whenever I want – this bar is the last one. After that I would buy another one in the shop, and the same story repeated again, day in and day out. I would gain some weight, I would go to the gym and I would reward myself with another biscuit because of that. Is it logical? I burn 300kcal, but I consume 1000kcal.
It was spiraling out of control and one day I said to myself – that’s it. No more sugar – not tomorrow, not on Monday, but now. I am a sugar addict, I have sugar addiction and I have to stop. No biscuits, no sweets – nothing. Can you imagine how hard it was at the start?
Power of Will
Here is what I did. I started comparing every sweet, chocolate bar and biscuit to a dose of heroin. Every bite was an injection for me. Every time I thought one biscuit won’t do me any harm – I pushed my mind and asked myself – do you think one injection of heroin won’t do you any harm? What’s gonna happen after this? You will say that the day is already ruined and you can keep eating and then it will happen again and again and again… Why one? What will it change? A dose of heroin today, then tomorrow, then the day after.
I know this is very extreme, but sugar is a drug in disguise. It’s a heroin and cocaine of today’s world. As all the other drugs were legal at a time, sugar is legal right now! Ask yourself – have you ever had any chocolate in your life? You will be surprised by the answer – because it’s more than likely NO. What you have tried is 20% of chocolate power, 20% of chocolate butter, 10% of other preservatives and 50% of sugar. And that’s a good quality chocolate. I had some with 80% of sugar in them. This is what we eat – we eat sugar and we think it’s chocolate!
Stop using it, stop abusing it. I’m a sugar junkie and I will never be a normal human being again. I stopped using sugar, but I will never be the same. There is no way of fixing what’s broken. There is no cure. One drop, one injection, one touch – and I’m back to square one.
Help
If you can’t do anything about it yourself, go to your doctor and ask for help. Understand and accept that you are who you are and don’t be scared to change.
If you need any help, please, do ask and I will help you as much as I can. Spread the word, share this post, let the world know what we are up against. Follow me on Twitter and Facebook for more information. Live healthy and happy life. Live long and enjoy the happiness through the healthy life you have achieved.
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