The Allure of Sugar

My sister-in-law and I were talking this weekend and we had a really interesting discussion about sugar addiction.  You're laughing aren't you?  It's not like sugar is a drug, right?  If you doubt that sugar is or can be addictive, please just run a Google search and type "is sugar addictive?"  Uh, Yeah- it is.

Sugar causes the increases in dopamine and serotonin.  Dopamine is one of our "feel good" neurotransmitters.  Serotonin is another. From what I can tell dopamine is tied to reward and accomplishment in the brain and serotonin is tied to appetite and emotions. So yeah, sugar affects the brain. And yes, sugar gives us a temporary high, but do we really need a bunch of doctors to tell us that?

Think about sugar, or your favorite dessert. It tastes good. You anticipate it. You crave it. You get it. You eat it. You feel good.  Then, if you are like me, you feel guilty.  You wonder why you ate it, or at least why you had 12 cookies instead of 2. You figure, "well I've had this much, I might as well have whatever I want now.  But I'll be really good starting tomorrow."  The next day, you feel sluggish. Your stomach hurts. You wonder why you did that to yourself. You promise to be good today. But there are 4 more cookies sitting on the pan.  Well, you can just finish those off, but you won't make any more and you really will start eating better tomorrow.

Seriously, that is not a healthy cycle.

Do I think sugar is bad?  No- I don't.  I think over-indulgence is bad.  And it is.  So part of this journey is education and really thinking about what is going into my body.  Can I have a piece of cake? Yes. Can I have seconds? No.  That is the point. A treat should be a treat, not the meal.

I think the best way to break the sugar addiction is to not eat sugar, white flour or starches for 2 weeks.  I've done this in the past.  The first 3 days really stink.  By day 14, sugar is a bit overwhelming. I added starches a whole grains back and slowly a bit of sugar.  At that point, a chocolate bar would take me a week to eat.  I would bread off one square during a day and that is all I wanted or needed.  Now I feel like I need the whole bag to myself.

I know that a few frozen blueberries taste better than a handful of chocolate chips, but my brain always goes first to the chips.  Then I can't get them out of my head.  This diet, I hope, will reprogram my mind.  This is the way my lifetime diet needs to be, so I am hoping that it works.

What do you hope to change?