Really, it’s like star-crossed love.
You and junk food were never going to work out. Still, you were drawn together by forces beyond your control.
But I will let you in on a little secret: The extraordinary amount of sugar in junk food is what keeps you coming back for more.
Too much is sugar is like a drug to the body. A drug as hard and streetwise as cocaine or heroin.
But at its root, sugar is fuel.
And the human body celebrates sugar in a way that it will never celebrate a drug.
Unfortunately, many foods are loaded with sugar. Foods that you would never suspect to contain sugar like salad dressing, sauces, deli meat and—yes—even the best organic baby formula.
When it comes to sugar, you can have too much of a good thing. Because when we abuse sugar, we become addicted to it.
Studies show that sugar changes brain activity. It makes us feel good. Teenagers at risk for depression and women struggling with weight loss have reported that they use sugar for comfort and to help with depression.
Sugar ends up being a psychological crutch. We eat sweets when we feel tired, upset, stressed, or when we want to “wake up.”
If you really want to get rid of sugar cravings, the first step is to acknowledge that it’s time to end your abusive relationship with sugar.
The next step is to read labels and get rid of all foods that contain added sugar. Remove them from your home. They are not even an option.
Finally, add cultured foods like sauerkraut and young coconut kefir to your diet. These probiotic-rich foods will help balance your nervous system and your digestion. Also add stevia, a natural and sugar-free sweetener.
Before you know it, excess weight will slip away and you will have a healthy relationship with sugar.
REFERENCES:
1. Ahmed, S. H., Avena, N. M., Berridge, K. C., Gearhardt, A. N., & Guillem, K. (2013). Food addiction. In Neuroscience in the 21st Century (pp. 2833-2857). Springer New York.
2. DiLeone, R. J., Taylor, J. R., & Picciotto, M. R. (2012). The drive to eat: comparisons and distinctions between mechanisms of food reward and drug addiction. Nature neuroscience, 15(10), 1330-1335.
3. Pretlow, R. A. (2011). Addiction to highly pleasurable food as a cause of the childhood obesity epidemic: a qualitative Internet study. Eating disorders, 19(4), 295-307.
4. Rose, N., Koperski, S., & Golomb, B. A. (2010). Mood food: chocolate and depressive symptoms in a cross-sectional analysis. Archives of internal medicine, 170(8), 699-703.
5. Dallman, M. F. (2010). Stress-induced obesity and the emotional nervous system. Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism, 21(3), 159-165.
6. Spring, B., Schneider, K., Smith, M., Kendzor, D., Appelhans, B., Hedeker, D., & Pagoto, S. (2008). Abuse potential of carbohydrates for overweight carbohydrate cravers. Psychopharmacology, 197(4), 637-647.