Carb craving: how to break free from sugar addiction!
What is the difference between a healthy, free person and one addicted to sugar and junk food? You may have never asked yourself this question, but sugar addiction is a real addiction, on par with addictions to nicotine, alcohol, and drugs. People who do not have weight problems eat when they are hungry, they know perfectly well which foods benefit them, and they only eat those: when they are full, they stop eating, and that’s it.
And they do it without the slightest effort.
They think not only about food because their lives are full. And that is life! Have you ever paid attention to it? When you get fat or sick, you are inclined to think only about the whys and hows.
Food addiction: why is it that “one pulls the other”?
“I know very well that I shouldn’t eat it, that this food is bad for me, and yet I can’t help myself.” Once you start, you can’t stop. This only happens when food has physical control over you and your willpower. But how does this vicious cycle of junk food abuse work?
Refined foods cause a temporary peak of pleasure followed by a crash, which leads, exactly as it happens with drugs, to “abuse”.
This is why “food addicts” are certainly no different from alcoholics or drug addicts. And like in substance addiction, when you begin to regain control over food, a huge, momentous change begins.
It is a change worth implementing: indeed, disordered eating habits interfere with normal daily activities, work, school, and family. And despite the will to change and quit, those with addictions cannot resist. Not even in the face of great physical or emotional harm. So, it is clear that it is your “biology”, or better, biochemistry, that controls your behavior. You are genetically programmed to seek pleasure and its beneficial effects. The natural hunger brake your body has is leptin, a hormone produced by fat cells, but sugars tamper right with this brake. This is why you often find yourself hungry even after eating a large meal: an excess of insulin occurs, resulting in leptin resistance. The signals sent by these hormones are blocked, and as a result, the brain is convinced that you are hungry.
This is how sugary foods and junk foods tamper with your brain chemistry. When fructose is absorbed from the gut it goes directly to the liver, thus triggering lipogenesis, a process that turns sugar directly into fat. A fatty liver is an inflamed liver.
Which, in turn, causes even greater insulin resistance. And insulin resistance is the cause of aging, as well as strokes, heart attacks, cancer, and dementia. Is this enough?
Sugar is a real toxin, and must be treated as such. It activates the brain’s pleasure center and induces the production of dopamine, the substance that “makes you feel good”.
Eating refined and junk foods turns on the brain in the same way heroin does. And when you say “I get fat just by looking at a piece of cake”, you have a point! The brain induces insulin production even at the thought of something sweet. Incredible, and true. That is why it is necessary to disengage from this bad habit and break the chain.
The empty calories of liquid sugars
So, what can you do? Banning liquid sugars can be a helpful start! What are liquid sugars? Simple, all those sugary drinks that you give even to your children as a regular habit, so not only Coca-Cola, but also, more mundanely, fruit juice, tea, colored water, and energy drinks! Liquid sugar is absorbed very quickly and injects fructose into the liver, inevitably triggering a dangerous domino effect. Stopping drinking these beverages, and thus eliminating “empty” liquid calories devoid of any nutritional value, will dramatically improve your health and the health of your loved ones. By the way, I know you won’t like this, but it’s the stark reality: by choosing the light variant of the drinks you find on the market, you don’t have the benefits you’re hoping for, quite the contrary! It is now widely proven that artificial sweeteners are much more powerful than ordinary sugar, and they trick the metabolism into thinking that sugar is coming.
And what does the body do? It starts producing insulin. And you’re back to square one, actually worse! Unfortunately, it is not by reducing sugar that you solve the problem: it is appropriate to behave exactly as you would with a drug addict.
Think about it: would you ever ask them to decrease the dose or reduce their consumption to detoxify?
The only solution is to break this vicious cycle. It is not easy, yet not impossible either! And willpower alone is unfortunately not enough to defeat sugar addiction. Motivation, correct information, and determination are needed; determination to get better, today, tomorrow, and always.
Sure, you are programmed to like sugar and fat. But your genes can be put on a diet and be modified: reprogrammed to be healthier.
How? Start by carefully choosing what you eat, and with a simple “mindfulness” exercise. Take notes and make yourself aware of what your eating habits are: fill out your food diary for a week, without overthinking it, without patterns or the intention of “healthy eating”.
Write down everything you eat. It is necessary to make yourself aware of how you eat. After 7 days dedicate 10 minutes to review it.
This task is simple but very effective.
Highlight all sources of simple and complex sugar: fruits, grains, dairy, and sweets. It will become clear to you at this point, after monitoring your habits, whether your daily sugar intake is appropriate for your lifestyle.
Now that you know what your automatic food intake is, you can make some changes, and choose new habits that are more functional to a healthy lifestyle. The right time to get healthier is now.
***This article is part of a series of articles written during my studies within the training path to become a Lifestyle & Biohacking Coach, specializing in Nutrition and Health.*** With passion and enthusiasm, Monica
