So many health development books I've read said that sugar addiction is 90% psychological or that willpower is all you need and contained other statements that do not work in practice, e.g. weight loss is all about eating less and moving more, which is not that accurate.
As a nutritionist who studies and works with how your body reacts to different foods and how foods affect our health, I want to share the physiological side of regular sugar consumption and explain why relying solely on willpower may not always be effective and what we can do about it.
Firstly, let's discuss some lesser-known facts about the not-so-glamorous properties of sugar. I'm pleased to see that in certain parts of the world, there is a growing awareness of why sugar may not be the best companion for our health. However, I still encounter many individuals who believe that sugar is "natural and healthy," or who say that they don't believe that sugar is bad for them and are open about it.
Some of the people I love and admire and follow on Instagram posted reels rolling their eyes as a reaction video to the recommendation to quit sugar. They filmed how they had chocolate candies before workouts and said that sugar shouldn't be seen as an enemy.
And to that, I want to quote one of the dietician's interviews I watched about 2 years ago in Russian, and I just wanted to applaud! He said that "no other ingredient, no other compound in grocery shops has caused so many death and health complications as sugar. It should be banned and the production of it should be stopped entirely. No person benefits from sugar."
1. Sugar is not essential
There are essential fatty acids from dietary fats and amino acids from protein. Sugar is not considered "essential", there are even no essential carbohydrates.
Sugar is not essential for energy levels. Even without consuming refined sugar, the body has mechanisms to synthesize glucose and can rely on alternative sources. As an extreme and very vivid example, your body can make fuel itself purely from fats and proteins.
Sugar and refined carbs do nothing for you whatsoever. Sugar has no vitamins or minerals that we cannot survive without.
It also is not essential to make foods tasty. More on that, please tune in to my podcast episode on how to make your healthy diet delicious.
2. Sugar is not natural
It was not designed by the ecosystem to be consumed by humans. It is created by humans through industrial processes such as extraction, purification, and crystallization.
The refinement process involves extracting the juice from sugarcane or sugar beets (GMO), removing impurities, and then evaporating the liquid to form crystals. This process results in the production of a highly concentrated compound with the chemical name “sucrose” or as we call it sugar. Sugar can undergo a bleaching process to achieve its white colour. The bleaching of sugar is typically done through the use of chemicals. And the brown sugar is often contaminated with cyanide and arsenic which comes from the transportation process when the sugar is shipped to keep the rats away. They put the bags of foods with rats poison between the bags of sugar, and sugar and sugar can absorb it because it does absorb moisture very well.
It is not part of a healthy diet, and it is not natural. As Allen Car has put it “It is as unnatural as drinking petrol or injecting heroin into your veins”. Sugar is not normal.
It is generally accepted that our species, Homo sapiens, emerged around 300,000 years ago, but our evolutionary lineage stretches back millions of years, while the introduction of sugar was made available for a wide population only 200 years ago. Therefore, the human body is not adapted to sugar, nor to the amount of sugar and refined carbs people are consuming these days.
3. It is given a power which it does not possess
Such as being a treat or a reward. Such responses then form neurological pathways in our brain and each time a person has sugar it triggers a dopamine hit, which lasts about 90 seconds or so and then the cortisol kicks in.
We have been conditioned from our early childhood that sugar equals comfort, and it is easy to get, it is so easily available at a low cost and almost effortlessly. When it’s a birthday, we eat a cake, when we behaved well, we get candy, when it’s Christmas, we eat sugary treats, when we had a bad day, we buy sugary foods to feel better.
Life has conditioned us to rely on sugar whenever we need a boost and we are so flooded with added sugar everywhere we go, many people never knew what it is like to live a sugar-free life. And how great they can feel!
There are hidden sugars too, which are compounds that have a different name on the ingredients list but essentially achieve the same result and bring the same risk to the body.
Why? It is a cheap preservative, you can hide low-quality ingredients. You can make anything sellable and eatable when you add sugar - sauces, yoghurts, snacks, otherwise, you will need high-quality ingredients, e.g. good ripe tomatoes to make a good tomato sauce.
But sugar is not a fix for emotional discomfort. In fact, as I will show you later, sugar is the main sponsor of mood swings, anxiety, and depression, and will totally extend the period of time you are having a bad mood! It will entertain you for about 15 minutes and then you’ll have to face your problem or an uncomfortable feeling again.
4. Sugar isn’t just rotten teeth, obesity and diabetes
I got a whole long list over here!
We get:
Vitamin deficiencies
Lethargy, fatigue
Hormonal issue
Peripheral neuropathy
Gout, joint pain, gallbladder problems
Structural changes in the lens of the eye can accelerate the development of cataracts.
High blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks, strokes and atherosclerosis through the process of glycation.
Anxiety, nervous tension
Negative impact on mental health: such as depression, anxiety, and mood swings
Insomnia
Damage to the brain cells
Lowered immunity
Damage to mitochondria and hence increased risk of cancer due to oxidative stress (sugar is the source of fuel for cancer cells)
Chronic inflammation
Candida, SIBO
Insulin resistance and gestational diabetes
If anyone has ADHD, that gets so much worse with sugar consumption.
Let me know if I forgot anything. ;)
5. Sugar carvings and addiction are not "all in your head"
There are specific mechanisms in the body that get triggered on the physical level that feed the craving and may lead to sugar addiction.
It is hard to apply willpower to battle something that is going on physiologically. It is like rolling a large heavy rock uphill or swimming upstream. Your body is working against you.
That’s why it is so difficult to limit sugar, to control its intake. The bodily processes will make you crave more. That is why many people who are either limiting their sugar intake or are coming off it gradually, say 2-3 weeks, are having such a hard time because they are constantly facing sugar cravings. And then eventually they fail and revert to consuming sugar and that’s how the posts and accounts on Instagram saying how cruel it is to deprive yourself of sugar and pleasures are born!
When you eat sugar, this is what happens:
Blood sugar rises drastically
Insulin is released to bring it down, but it also makes the blood glucose levels drop significantly below the normal range. This state is called hypoglycemia, meaning low blood sugar. And this state makes your body crave more sugar.
The gut microbiome gets affected as well. What it means is that pathological bacteria which live on sugar, send signals to the brain to make you eat more sugar because it is their fuel
So each dose of sugar will create more cravings for sugar.
It works like heavy drugs, you cannot just have a little of it every now and then. You need to leave the room and get out of the cycle. Cutting down is pointless and very hard.
Personal experience sharing time:
I gave up sugar at the age of 18. But then over a very long period of time, I had hidden sugars in my diet so overall sugar is entirely gone from my consumption 11 years ago. So if I eat sugar now I will not feel well and this is what happened to me a few times when I was eating meals at the hospital when I was giving birth and unknowingly at some restaurants when a waiter made a mistake. So when it was just a small amount of added sugar, I think no more than 5 grams, I felt like my energy was down, I could not focus that well, I felt like I couldn’t stay calm and I was getting irritable. I have a very high sensitivity to sugar at this point in my life, so if I eat something that has more sugar like a commercial cake for example, I think I feel so bad, that I will not be enjoying my life that day, I will have fatigue and drowsiness and brain fog and I will certainly have less stress tolerance.
A human body adapts to the circumstances you put it in, but of course at a high cost. Many people always battle lethargy and weight gain and need several shots of espresso to stay focused on the job but they don’t realise that it’s the result of their diet and lifestyle habits and they got used to this so much that even the symptoms become a bit less profound and it is their normal state now. And it shouldn’t.
6. The best way to end sugar cravings and addiction.
Therefore to stop sugar, you need to weed it out of your diet entirely.
That is how you get rid of your sugar cravings once and for all.
Some say it takes 2 days to readjust, I’d say from my client's experience it will take around 3-5 days, but then it’s all gone and you will not need that tremendous amount of willpower to carry on.
What is happening is the transition period when your body and brain are adapting to another source of fuel after being used to this easy and accessible glucose in blood all being there all the time. So this transition may be difficult but it is certainly better than enduring it for weeks or months.
Things that can help are:
Good probiotics
Stress management (previous podcast episode)
Good nutrition, with natural nutritious foods that is serving the needs of your body, adequate water, and adequate protein. If you need advice, I provide personal consultations that you can book.
Other dopamine sources are healthy (although we are a bit dopamine addicted nowadays).
I only talk about the physiological part of quitting sugar addiction as I am not a psychologist, but these two aspects can work together to bring you better results.
A Masterclass Is Coming Up!
I have an announcement! In autumn 2023 I am planning to launch an online group consultation in the form of a masterclass to guide you towards healthy nutrition and help you get off sugar as pain-free as possible. If that is something of interest please message me and I will put your name on a waiting list and will keep you updated on all the details on how to sign up!
