Sugar Addiction
- Withdrawal Symptoms
| For many years my own addiction
to sugar and fat made weight loss almost
impossible for me. I want to share a few things I've
learned about sugar addiction, and addictions in general,
because there are some common misconceptions.
One thing many people don't know is that the vast
majority of people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol
(and sugar) are able to kick their habits all by themselves. |
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Yes, there are withdrawal symptoms.
And it often isn't easy.
But that doesn't mean you can't give up your habit. In
fact, compared to many addictions, giving up sugar and other
refined carbs is easy. It's staying "clean" afterwards
that's hard.
Like many people, I got to experience withdrawal symptoms
when I decided to stop drinking coffee. I knew there would
be a headache (and there was), so I scheduled my headache
for the weekend.
I didn't get much done around the house that weekend, but
by Monday morning my headache was gone. Caffeine is addictive,
but that doesn't mean I can't stop drinking coffee - it
just means I'll pay a small price if I do.
Other drugs, such as tobacco, have far longer and more
disturbing withdrawal symptoms. Sugar addiction's withdrawal
symptoms, by comparison, are quite mild. The symptoms of
sugar withdrawal can include headaches, fatigue, depression,
drowsiness, skin eruptions, and mucus or throat discomfort.
Some of these symptoms, especially the mood swings, fatigue
and drowsiness, can occur on a daily basis as the blood
sugar rises and falls on a high-sugar diet. Whether or not
you're successful in kicking an addictive habit depends
on how you handle three different stages in the process.
To make it easy to see what I'll be talking
about, I've drawn out the three stages here.
The black line on the left represents the
status quo - before you've given up your habit. The red
square represents the withdrawal symptoms that are a natural
consequence of removing an addictive substance, like sugar,
from your body. With sugar addiction, the withdrawal symptoms
may be weakness, slight nausea, headache, and other fairly
mild but possibly uncomfortable symptoms.
My caffeine withdrawal headache lasted 2 days,
sugar withdrawal symptoms may last for a week or two. Some
people may experience little or no discomfort at all.The
blue line on the right represents life after withdrawal.
That's our goal, because it leads towards health.
The first step towards giving up a habit that
involves an addictive substance is acknowledgment. It is
very important to acknowledge that there are perfectly good
reasons why you would like to make no changes - you enjoy
the bagel in the morning, you like the taste of sugar, it
helps you feel better in the afternoon, you enjoy sharing
your baked goods with your friends and family, etc.
We all have reasons for eating the way we
do now. Acknowledge those reasons - it's an important part
of the process.There are also very good reasons for giving
up the sugar and white flour habit - it makes you fat, it
leads to heart disease and diabetes, etc. Look at both sides
of the issue, educate yourself as much as possible about
nutrition, and then make a specific choice to give up sugar
and other refined carbs, or not....
Click here for more information
on sugar and carb addiction.
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