If you can't say no to candy, cookies and soda, you may be one of millions of people who are addicted to sugar. For some people, sugar acts like a drug in the body, and like any other drug, can cause an initial high followed by withdrawal symptoms.Symptoms of sugar addiction include,powerful cravings for sugar, refined carbohydrates or alcohol,mood swings,anxiety,depression,irritability or anger,fatigue,headaches,dizziness,feeling better after eating sugar,It's not just lack of willpower - it really is an addiction,Studies have shown that sugar has a similar effect to cocaine, morphine and other drugs of addiction. Eating large amounts of sugar releases a brain chemical called dopamine that makes you feel alert, energized, motivated and enthusiastic. But over time, sugar reduces the brain's sensitivity to dopamine and you start to become addicted to sugar - you need more dopamine just to feel normal and without a sugar hit to boost your dopamine production, you feel sluggish, tired, foggy and irritable.[]
The scary truth is that sugar is found in all carbohydrates, not just table sugar. Whether it's an apple or a biscuit, a tomato or a slice of bread, once it has been chewed, swallowed and digested it is released into the bloodstream as sugar. This means that all carbohydrates have the potential to be addictive, depending on how quickly they enter the bloodstream as sugar.Whilst some carbohydrates break down into sugar and enter the blood very slowly (low glycaemic carbs), other carbohydrates break down into sugar and enter the blood very quickly (high glycaemic carbs). You won't be surprised to find out that the carbohydrates that have the fastest and biggest impact on blood sugar levels are refined pasta, bread, potato, alcohol and 'empty foods' (sweets, biscuits and cakes) - all the foods we turn to when we're feeling low, stressed or in need of a pick me up. Food companies have also been spending years researching ways to make these foods deliver the sugar even quicker, making them hyper-addictive and ultimately more profitable.
L-Glutamine is an amino acid (a building block of protein) that the brain can use for fuel when blood sugar is low. It also helps to stabilize blood sugar levels. 2 tsp taken three times a day between meals is usually enough to eliminate cravings, but if you do still get cravings, try sprinkling a little glutamine powder underneath your tongue and letting it dissolve - your cravings will disappear almost instantly.Research has shown that 3000 mcg per day of a B vitamin called biotin helps eliminate cravings and stabilize blood sugar in people with both low blood sugar and high blood sugar. In addition, zinc, vitamin E, several other B vitamins and omega 3 fatty acids can all help maintain blood sugar and reduce cravings.
There are two very important things you can do that will biochemically reduce your craving for sugar. If you have a severe and uncontrollable addiction to sugar (you feel you have to eat it every day and cannot seem to voluntarily stop), I advise doing both of these things for at least two weeks before attempting to cut out sugar.Those two things are:Eat fruit every day,Get the right type of exercise,Although both of these things may sound difficult in themselves, they are not as hard as they sound.Firstly fruit: eating a good-sized bowl of fruit salad every day for several weeks will really help reduce your desire for sugar. Fruits contain fructose, a form of sugar that is metabolised more slowly than ordinary table sugar (fructose) and therefore tends to lead to a more even blood sugar level. Refined fructose in itself seems to be worse for health than ordinary sugar, so don't be tempted to buy bags of it and add it to your coffee. But fresh fruit is overwhelmingly good for your health, and will definitely help you to beat your addiction.
There is only one way to overcome sugar addiction and that is the same way you overcome any addiction. You go 'cold turkey' on the addictive substance until you are weaned off it. It's not easy, but it's something you're going to have to commit to.or you better start praying elasticated waistbands come back into fashion.This doesn't mean you have to out all carbohydrate as some diets suggest. It just means you have to go 'cold turkey' on high glycaemic carbs to prevent the sugar rush and re-balance your blood sugar levels. Here are ten simple steps to achieve this, without dieting and without having to give up your social life. Remove all refined sugar from your diet - sweets / cakes / biscuits.Moderate your alcohol intake to just one or two nights a week.Eat a good breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.Increase your fibre intake from wholegrain cereals, fruit and veg.Fill yourself up with good quality, low glycaemic carbs.Choose wholegrain bread, brown rice and wholewheat pasta.Avoid eating carbs on their own, always combine them with proteins.Avoid large gaps between meals that cause blood sugar lows.Snack on fruit, full-fat yogurt and high protein snacks if you have cravings.Do at least 15 minutes of exercise a day to balance your blood sugar.A study from Princeton University yielded results that show a striking similarity between sugar addiction and heroin and cocaine addiction! If you are having a problem with sugar addiction, then read on! You will find plenty of useful information and tips to help you break that sugar addiction for good!
If you find preparing fruit boring, experiment with finding the fastest ways to prepare salads (you should be able to get preparation time down to around 5-10 minutes with a little practice), and get into the habit of preparing them at the same time every day. You can keep a fruit salad reasonably fresh all day in an air-tight plastic container. Even fruits like apples and bananas, which turn brown if chopped and left out in the air, will remain fairly fresh if mixed with juicy fruits such as chopped oranges or grapes and sealed in an air-tight sandwich box.
Good combinations to try for fruit salads are:apple, banana, orange,melon, grapes, banana,Peach, orange, melon Don't be tempted to use canned fruit. For reasons that I don't understand, it just doesn't seem to curb sugar cravings in the same way. And as for dried fruit -- stay off it! It is so high in sugar that it may make your cravings worse.You also have to be careful of fruit smoothies, which can be high calorie if mixed with cream. However, sometimes when I find myself back in the grip of a strong addiction, I like to use the 'nuclear option' of banana milkshakes to help get myself off sugar. Use a kitchen blender to blend ripe bananas with semi-skimmed milk. You can also freeze ripe bananas and blend them while still semi-frozen for a deliciously-sweet drink that tastes so good you won't believe it's good for you.Alongside consuming fruit daily, also consider getting aerobic exercise. Aerobic, or cardiovascular exercise ("cardio") has powerful appetite-suppressing and craving-suppressing effects. Amazingly, recent studies show that this type of exercise even causes parts of your brain to grow in size, leading to higher mental acuity.
The type of exercise you need to reduce sugar cravings is the type that makes you breathe harder to a degree that feels taxing but comfortable, and your heart beat faster. Preferably you should be sweating. You don't have to go to the gym or run around the block; you can buy an exercise bike or cross-trainer and use it in the privacy of your own house. Even a skipping rope will do the trick. While very cheap exercise equipment may be unusable and put you off exercise, a good exercise bike or cross-trainer can be had for as little as around a hundred dollars online, and you can often rent out equipment locally.Try to get at half an hour's exercise every other day. Start your exercise with a five minute gentle warm-up. Listen to music while you exercise; find the most upbeat, up-tempo song you can that you like, and listen to them on an mp3 player while you exercise. Once your warm-up period is done, allow the music to entice you to exercise harder.
Why Manage Sugar Addiction.The good news is that if you lower your consumption of sugar, you will also lower your risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. But for many of us, this is easier said than done. Most Americans eat and drink sweets without giving much thought to damaging effects it has on the body. This is why you need to end your sugar addiction starting now!
To help deal with your cravings psychologically, try to replace your regular sugar consumption with doing something else enjoyable instead. Watch TV or play computer games if you have to; do whatever you need to, to get through the first difficult couple of weeks of craving.If you are overweight, ask yourself whether you want that chocolate bar or you want to be thin. You probably can't have both. Don't allow yourself to think that you can defer the challenge indefinitely; recognize that your cravings have to be faced head-on. If you particularly crave sugar at certain times of the day, brace yourself for a battle.If you prepare sufficiently by eating fruit and preferably exercising too, you can reduce your cravings to a manageable level, then you can start winning your battle with your cravings. After a few weeks you won't even remember why you had such terrible problems in the first place.Change Your Life Scientifically.Break sugar addiction, lose weight, ditch your boss or move to another country.At Fascinating Experiments we discuss how to gain control of your life so that you can do the things that you want to do.Among other things, we look at ways of making money at home, how to get more money in your existing job, how to change career, and how to lose weight and increase your energy levels; with a focus on concrete steps you can take without spending any money and without signing up to dubious programs or buying dubious products.
The scary truth is that sugar is found in all carbohydrates, not just table sugar. Whether it's an apple or a biscuit, a tomato or a slice of bread, once it has been chewed, swallowed and digested it is released into the bloodstream as sugar. This means that all carbohydrates have the potential to be addictive, depending on how quickly they enter the bloodstream as sugar.Whilst some carbohydrates break down into sugar and enter the blood very slowly (low glycaemic carbs), other carbohydrates break down into sugar and enter the blood very quickly (high glycaemic carbs). You won't be surprised to find out that the carbohydrates that have the fastest and biggest impact on blood sugar levels are refined pasta, bread, potato, alcohol and 'empty foods' (sweets, biscuits and cakes) - all the foods we turn to when we're feeling low, stressed or in need of a pick me up. Food companies have also been spending years researching ways to make these foods deliver the sugar even quicker, making them hyper-addictive and ultimately more profitable.
L-Glutamine is an amino acid (a building block of protein) that the brain can use for fuel when blood sugar is low. It also helps to stabilize blood sugar levels. 2 tsp taken three times a day between meals is usually enough to eliminate cravings, but if you do still get cravings, try sprinkling a little glutamine powder underneath your tongue and letting it dissolve - your cravings will disappear almost instantly.Research has shown that 3000 mcg per day of a B vitamin called biotin helps eliminate cravings and stabilize blood sugar in people with both low blood sugar and high blood sugar. In addition, zinc, vitamin E, several other B vitamins and omega 3 fatty acids can all help maintain blood sugar and reduce cravings.
There are two very important things you can do that will biochemically reduce your craving for sugar. If you have a severe and uncontrollable addiction to sugar (you feel you have to eat it every day and cannot seem to voluntarily stop), I advise doing both of these things for at least two weeks before attempting to cut out sugar.Those two things are:Eat fruit every day,Get the right type of exercise,Although both of these things may sound difficult in themselves, they are not as hard as they sound.Firstly fruit: eating a good-sized bowl of fruit salad every day for several weeks will really help reduce your desire for sugar. Fruits contain fructose, a form of sugar that is metabolised more slowly than ordinary table sugar (fructose) and therefore tends to lead to a more even blood sugar level. Refined fructose in itself seems to be worse for health than ordinary sugar, so don't be tempted to buy bags of it and add it to your coffee. But fresh fruit is overwhelmingly good for your health, and will definitely help you to beat your addiction.
There is only one way to overcome sugar addiction and that is the same way you overcome any addiction. You go 'cold turkey' on the addictive substance until you are weaned off it. It's not easy, but it's something you're going to have to commit to.or you better start praying elasticated waistbands come back into fashion.This doesn't mean you have to out all carbohydrate as some diets suggest. It just means you have to go 'cold turkey' on high glycaemic carbs to prevent the sugar rush and re-balance your blood sugar levels. Here are ten simple steps to achieve this, without dieting and without having to give up your social life. Remove all refined sugar from your diet - sweets / cakes / biscuits.Moderate your alcohol intake to just one or two nights a week.Eat a good breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.Increase your fibre intake from wholegrain cereals, fruit and veg.Fill yourself up with good quality, low glycaemic carbs.Choose wholegrain bread, brown rice and wholewheat pasta.Avoid eating carbs on their own, always combine them with proteins.Avoid large gaps between meals that cause blood sugar lows.Snack on fruit, full-fat yogurt and high protein snacks if you have cravings.Do at least 15 minutes of exercise a day to balance your blood sugar.A study from Princeton University yielded results that show a striking similarity between sugar addiction and heroin and cocaine addiction! If you are having a problem with sugar addiction, then read on! You will find plenty of useful information and tips to help you break that sugar addiction for good!
If you find preparing fruit boring, experiment with finding the fastest ways to prepare salads (you should be able to get preparation time down to around 5-10 minutes with a little practice), and get into the habit of preparing them at the same time every day. You can keep a fruit salad reasonably fresh all day in an air-tight plastic container. Even fruits like apples and bananas, which turn brown if chopped and left out in the air, will remain fairly fresh if mixed with juicy fruits such as chopped oranges or grapes and sealed in an air-tight sandwich box.
Good combinations to try for fruit salads are:apple, banana, orange,melon, grapes, banana,Peach, orange, melon Don't be tempted to use canned fruit. For reasons that I don't understand, it just doesn't seem to curb sugar cravings in the same way. And as for dried fruit -- stay off it! It is so high in sugar that it may make your cravings worse.You also have to be careful of fruit smoothies, which can be high calorie if mixed with cream. However, sometimes when I find myself back in the grip of a strong addiction, I like to use the 'nuclear option' of banana milkshakes to help get myself off sugar. Use a kitchen blender to blend ripe bananas with semi-skimmed milk. You can also freeze ripe bananas and blend them while still semi-frozen for a deliciously-sweet drink that tastes so good you won't believe it's good for you.Alongside consuming fruit daily, also consider getting aerobic exercise. Aerobic, or cardiovascular exercise ("cardio") has powerful appetite-suppressing and craving-suppressing effects. Amazingly, recent studies show that this type of exercise even causes parts of your brain to grow in size, leading to higher mental acuity.
The type of exercise you need to reduce sugar cravings is the type that makes you breathe harder to a degree that feels taxing but comfortable, and your heart beat faster. Preferably you should be sweating. You don't have to go to the gym or run around the block; you can buy an exercise bike or cross-trainer and use it in the privacy of your own house. Even a skipping rope will do the trick. While very cheap exercise equipment may be unusable and put you off exercise, a good exercise bike or cross-trainer can be had for as little as around a hundred dollars online, and you can often rent out equipment locally.Try to get at half an hour's exercise every other day. Start your exercise with a five minute gentle warm-up. Listen to music while you exercise; find the most upbeat, up-tempo song you can that you like, and listen to them on an mp3 player while you exercise. Once your warm-up period is done, allow the music to entice you to exercise harder.
Why Manage Sugar Addiction.The good news is that if you lower your consumption of sugar, you will also lower your risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. But for many of us, this is easier said than done. Most Americans eat and drink sweets without giving much thought to damaging effects it has on the body. This is why you need to end your sugar addiction starting now!
To help deal with your cravings psychologically, try to replace your regular sugar consumption with doing something else enjoyable instead. Watch TV or play computer games if you have to; do whatever you need to, to get through the first difficult couple of weeks of craving.If you are overweight, ask yourself whether you want that chocolate bar or you want to be thin. You probably can't have both. Don't allow yourself to think that you can defer the challenge indefinitely; recognize that your cravings have to be faced head-on. If you particularly crave sugar at certain times of the day, brace yourself for a battle.If you prepare sufficiently by eating fruit and preferably exercising too, you can reduce your cravings to a manageable level, then you can start winning your battle with your cravings. After a few weeks you won't even remember why you had such terrible problems in the first place.Change Your Life Scientifically.Break sugar addiction, lose weight, ditch your boss or move to another country.At Fascinating Experiments we discuss how to gain control of your life so that you can do the things that you want to do.Among other things, we look at ways of making money at home, how to get more money in your existing job, how to change career, and how to lose weight and increase your energy levels; with a focus on concrete steps you can take without spending any money and without signing up to dubious programs or buying dubious products.
No comments:
Post a Comment