Latest posts by jan (see all)
- Is high fructose corn syrup the one food making you fat? - February 11, 2012
- Stop eating fruit to stop sugar addiction - January 20, 2012
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If you have ever tried to stop sugar addiction, it will come as no surprise that sugar is addictive as heroine and smoking. We love it because it gives us gives us instant pleasure and comfort. What can be more rewarding than a bar of chocolate when we need an energy or emotional boost? Most of us start our sugar addiction in childhood when we are given sugary foods as rewards and treats, not only do they taste good but there is a strong emotional attachment as well. Processed foods today are laced with sugar to capitalize on this; even foods that are normally thought of as savory such as baked beans and barbeque sauce are loaded with sugar. No wonder we have become a nation of sugar addicts.
Why do we need to stop sugar addiction?
An over indulgence in sugar has been implicated in a range of health problems. It leaches Vitamin B which you need to cope with physical, mental and emotional stress, it can cause highs and lows in your energy, suppress your immune system making you more susceptible to illnesses, and interfere with the absorption of minerals needed for good health. It can also elevate inflammation which has been implicated in a lot of health problems such as heart disease, arthritis, diabetes and a host of other serious problems. Not only that, over indulgence can make you feel tired, foggy headed, cranky and lead to unwanted weight gain. If you need to find a reason stop sugar addiction these are very compelling.
A study conducted in 1988, showed that the human body turns fructose (fruit sugar) to fat more efficiently than any other sugars and surprisingly quickly. Fructose is the main sugar found in fruit. When we lived as cave men, there was very little sweet stuff around – maybe the occasional bee hive or native fruit in season. So our bodies did not evolve appetite regulating hormones to recognize fructose, process it and tell us we are full.
When we eat carbohydrates, they are converted to glucose which is then regulated by the release of insulin. Fructose by-passes this system and is processed in the liver. If we eat too much fructose, our liver cannot process it fast enough to use as energy, and instead converts it to triglycerides, which in turn are converted straight to fat in our arteries.
The feedback system that developed to tell our brains that we are full from eating fat, protein and complex carbohydrates, just simply didn’t develop for sucrose. Can’t we always fit in a nice sugary dessert even though we have just eaten a big meal?
So do we need to give up fruit to stop sugar addiction?
If you are trying to stop sugar addiction, then most likely you need to stop eating fruit for 6-8 weeks, this includes dried fruit and fruit juices as well. Most vitamins and minerals found in fruit can also be found in vegetables so up your vege intake. When you can control the sugar instead of the sugar controlling you, add 1-2 pieces of fruit a day back into your diet. I would hate it if I could never again eat the beautiful tropical fruits such as peaches, nectarines, lychees, mangos and winter blueberries and strawberries! Eat the whole fruit for the added fibre. Stop drinking juice or only drink it occasionally as a treat. A glass of apple juice contains as much sugar as a glass of coke which is 10-12 teaspoons!
Top tips for eating fruit if you have a stop sugar addiction
Avoid overripe fruit as it contains more sugar, and has a greater chance of the sucrose converting to fat. I cut up a slightly overripe mango the other day which was super sweet and very delicious, but the minute it touched my lips, the thought of chocolate popped into my mind!
Eat fruit with protein or fat. For example eat an apple with a few nuts or a slice of cheese, or mango with Greek yogurt (as I did) because protein and fat slow the rate at which sugar floods into your blood stream and stops the highs and lows.
Do you have any good tips to help stop sugar addiction?
Twitter: @reviewsin
You are right on the money. I never really considered the sugar in fruit to be a problem until my doctor recommended that I go on the South Beach diet to help with some issues I was having with my liver. I am not selling South Beach, it just fits with what you wrote. If you have read the book it discusses exactly what you have described. I went through the first 2 weeks with no sugar at all, only veggies, meat, and dairy. It wasn’t easy but my tastes changed when I was done. Food had better taste, I didn’t crave sugar and bread as much as I did before and it made it much easier to stick to the diet. Some fruits are worse than others of course, juice is the worst, it’s like shooting the “heroine” directly into your blood stream.
Seth Lyman recently posted..Does no no Hair Removal work?
Twitter: Vemma Brisbane
Hi Seth
I like the analogy of the “heroine”! You do lose your cravings after a short time, and that’s what I want people to understand that it is possible, and that once you lose your cravings it is possible to have a sweet treat occasionally and not set them off again. I don’t know anything about the South Beach Diet but it sounds interesting as well, I will check it out. Thanks!
jan recently posted..I quit sugar – how to stop sugar addiction
Twitter: @reviewsin
It’s an interesting diet and really doesn’t sound anything like what it’s name would imply. I originally thought it would be some kind of a fad diet but it really just teaches you to eat healthy. The first 2 weeks gets your blood chemistry straightened out and then you start reintroducing good carbs and limited quantities of fruit back into your diet. The coolest thing is that it is laid out in 3 phases and you can move between those phases as necessary to help your body do what you want it to.
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Twitter: Vemma Brisbane
It sounds great – I have to admit that I always thought it was a fad diet but it sounds pretty sensible, just shows that the name is important to get people interested!
jan recently posted..I quit sugar – how to stop sugar addiction
I was under the impression that fructose behaved differently to other sugars…? I’ve certainly seen that somewhere before. That said, I do find that fruit doesn’t help my hypoglycaemia.
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Twitter: Vemma Brisbane
Hi Matt
Very sweet fruits such as bananas, grapes and water melon can definitely have an effect on hypoglycaemia. Everybody is different and would need to experiment to find out if they get the sudden spike followed by a low.
When you eat fructose (fruit) sugar, it does behave differently in that we don’t have a bio-feedback system for fructose. It doesn’t go through the normal metabolic process but goes straight to the liver where much of it converted straight to fat.This only becomes a problem if you eat a lot of processed foods that contain fructose or high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener, or you drink a lot of fruit juices. You can easy down a glass of apple juice with all that fruit sugar in it but you would be pretty hard pressed to sit down and eat five apples in one sitting. Also we don’t get the “full” signal from eating lots of fructose sugar so that we can really over-eat. But if you are eating a couple of pieces of whole pieces of fruit a day, that is not a problem for most people.
jan recently posted..How to stop sugar cravings and sugar addiction
Thanks Jan for your article. This is interesting to me as I am a recovering addict & alcoholic. I still smoke, but as far as sugar I had no idea I was addicted.
I love fruit and most of the other items mentioned in your article, which is somewhat of a eye opener to me. As I get older or we all get older we need to do everything in moderation.
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Hi Bryan
There is a strong correlation between sugar addiction, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar levels) and alcoholism but you never hear much about it, there is a good article on this site http://talkrehab.org/sugar-craving-recovering-alcoholics/.
I agree with you that as we get older you need to do things in moderation, excesses do catch up with you one way or another health wise or weight wise
jan recently posted..Why you feel tired after meals
I never thought that eating fruits can enhance my sugar addiction. Thank you for sharing these tips how to stop sugar addiction. This is very helpful to avoid diabetes. Now I have to switch my diet more on veggies instead of fruits.
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Hi Catherine
Glad you found the tips helpful, you can still enjoy fruit but not 3 or 4 pieces day!
jan recently posted..I quit sugar – how to stop sugar addiction
I am stump when i read the line “If you are trying to stop sugar addiction, then most likely you need to stop eating fruit for 6-8 weeks, this includes dried fruit and fruit juices as well” Stop eating fruits for 6-8 weeks? are you serious? I think when it comes to diet, eating in moderation is key. Simply not eating fruits for a long period like 6-8 weeks is simply too drastic. I think it might be wiser to cut down on sugar intake or taking lesser fruits than completely not eating them at all.
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Hi Zac
6-8 weeks is not a long time to stop eating fruit given that most of us live for 70-80 years. The sweetness of fruit can be enough to set a sugar addict off. As I said in my post, when I tasted that sweet, sweet mango, the thought of chocolate immediately popped into my mind. You can get the same nutrients in vegetables and there are many healthy people in the world who don’t eat any fruit at all!
jan recently posted..Lack of sleep and weight gain
Tips to stop sugar (and other mild) addictions:
1) Meditate – meditation will focus your mind and increase your will power.
2) Hypnosis – same as above, basically guided meditation.
3) Keep a food diary, helps improve self awareness.
4) Substitute sugar for other snacks you like. I substitute chocolates for carrots whenever I get peckish.
In order to give up you first need to want. From there everything else will follow.
Twitter: Vemma Brisbane
Excellent advice, thanks David, you have raised some really good points.
jan recently posted..High fructose corn syrup, why all calories are not created equal
Twitter: Elena__Anne
I agree Jan.
We must keep in mind that juice has a higher glycemic index than whole foods. Juice, even when freshly squeezed, is a processed food, and processing increases a food’s glycemic index score. When we eat fat or protein with fruit or juice the glycemic index score is lower.
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I agree Elena-Anne. When I went to Weight Watchers one of the topics that they covered was about whether we were drinking our points, in terms of fruit juices, wine etc. Now knowing what I do about fructose, it makes it even more compelling that people don’t drink too much fruit juice. Eating low GI is a great way to go as well.
jan recently posted..How to stop sugar cravings and sugar addiction
Twitter: @alonzoricard
I didn’t realize that sugar in the fruits could be so additive. I love eating the eating mango’s and and my favorite watermelon. I knew that oranges had a high sugar count because my grandfather had diabetes and he couldn’t have oranges or orange juice.
Twitter: Vemma Brisbane
Hi Alonzo
I guess if you are a real sugar addict the sweet taste of fruit will set you off. But once you beat that addiction you should be ok to eat a couple of pieces a day.
jan recently posted..How to spot a diet scam
Sugar and carbs are my biggest enemies and I love both. For the last 2 weeks I have been on a no sugar and lower carbs diet and I have already lost a huge amount of weight so it just shows how much of these things I am eating usually.
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Hi Matt
Good to hear you have lost so much weight, well done. I don’t do well at all on a really low carb diet such as Atkins but I do try to stay off the refined carbs and eat low GI.
I totally agree with eating a protein or carb when enjoying a piece of fruit. I find that having peanut butter specifically with my apple slices was a great way to avoid that craving feeling. I haven’t figured out too many “nut” type snacks that go well with more acidic fruits like oranges but if I come up with anything I’ll let you guys know. It’s been working well for me thus far.
Twitter: Vemma Brisbane
Hi Braden
Peanut butter with your apples is a good idea – I never thought about it in terms of some of the nut butters. With your orange you could have a dollop of natural Greek yogurt instead of nuts as the fat and protein in the yogurt will help. I reckon cashews or macadamia nuts would go well with oranges because they are both a sweetish nut.
jan recently posted..How to stop sugar cravings and sugar addiction
Great article! i just wrote about the dangers of sugars for a healthy lifestyle in my swedish blog, but you really went into the depth of the issue. Would be interesting to see more articles like this but on other “White poisons” such as wheat and milk. Keep it up!
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Hi Carly
I put your article into the Google translator – good article, the only thing that I didn’t understand is the saying Slimming Scrub for well being, but that could be Google Translator! I can’t drink normal homogenized and pasteurized milk, but I can drink milk that has only been pasteurized – which it has to be by law in Australia – you can’t buy it for drinking otherwise, so no buying straight from the farmer! I have had many holidays on a farm where they had milk fresh from the Jersey and Fresian cows and could drink it with no health problems at all, so I have to think that there is something in the processing that alters the nature of the milk.
Wheat is a very interesting topic. I know people who just cannot tolerate it – one friend gets terrible reactive arthritis and sinus and my Mum has to eat gluten free products. For those of us who can tolerate it, I do think that we need to watch how much of it we eat!
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Even when you do not require any sugary food at that time but if you walk by an area where there is a jar of cookies or a bowl of candy, you just can’t help yourself not to pluck one or tow cookies or candy. The main reason for this is that from our childhood days we have instilled these things in our mind as a feeling of happiness. so we never feel guilty when we have one…or even a few.
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Twitter: Vemma Brisbane
That is so true Andrew – it’s best not to have that sort of stuff in the house if you can’t resist, we do equate sweet stuff with all sorts of nice things, rewards, visits from grandparents, special occasions and comfort. We’ve had a couple of days of eating Easter eggs so that’s it for us, none were bought today when the shopping was done! You are also right that we should enjoy those treats when we have them, not feel guilty and then just get back to your normal healthy eating plan.
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I agree with advice to avoid over-ripe fruits. But I think it is important to mention that fruits higher in fiber will have a slower blood sugar impact that hose without much fiber. For example, a handful of raspberries contains more fiber than a bran muffin. Quick rule of thumb- subtract the total grams of fiber in a portion of fruit from the total carbohydrates in it, to get the effective carb impact.
Twitter: Vemma Brisbane
2 good points there Meredith thanks. I sometimes forget to subtract the fibre from the carbs total and it can be quite significant.
I never thought that eating fruits can enhance my sugar addiction. Thank you for sharing these tips how to stop sugar addiction. This is really very helpful.
Gurwinder Singh recently posted..Google Launches Disavow Links Tool
I thought that fruits can be always healthy nutrition. Thank you for these rich and helpful tips how to stop sugar addiction. these tips are important to avoid diabetes.
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I always thought that eating fruit was the healthy alternative to eating something sweet like chocolate so I guess that is wrong. I never realized the negative effects that eating fruit can have on us. I will definately cut back on the fruit that I eat and see what kind of positive effects I get.
Twitter: Vemma Brisbane
Sunny you only need to stop eating fruit if you have a sugar addiction and it sets you off. Once you are over your sugar addiction you can go back to eating fruit as part of a healthy diet. Eating fruit is a healthy alternative to chocolate, although dark chocolate has a lot of good stuff in it!
jan recently posted..Diet myths: the biggest diet myth of all
I agree. I only stopped eating fruit for two weeks while I reset myself and my taste buds. It was not meant to be a long term thing for me. I now eat fruit; mainly blueberries, strawberries, raspberries etc in my breakfast oatmeal and occasionally have a banana or mango. They are a dessert in themselves!
I think you shouldn’t hate fruit or let anyone tell you to be scared of fruit. Just simply cut back on them. Eat a wide variety of fruit but look up low fructose fruit and start there.
I hope you get positive results and remember this is not a diet, just assess where you are at and change it up if things aren’t working for you! We are all different.
Kate Harris recently posted..Calculate Your Daily Sugar Intake: An Example
Didn’t think about it that sugar addiction can be manipulated or controlled…True, increased in blood sugar is really complicated, so i believe implementing points here is really helpful to have a quality life…
This article is full of a ridiculous amount of bad science.
There’s so much of it. It’s bull like this which adds so much conflicting and detrimental information concerning healthy eating.
I will point out just THREE flaws. There are far too many here for me to waste my morning nitpicking them all. And three is the magic number.
“If we eat too much fructose, our liver cannot process it fast enough to use as energy, and instead converts it to triglycerides, which in turn are converted straight to fat in our arteries.”
These things are NOT shoved straight into our arteries. If such was the case, eating an apple would cause a heartattack. You are confusing fruit sugar with refined sugar found in candy. Fruit sugar is more complex and usually contains more than just fructose. Fruit contains many more nutrients and are not made from pure fructose. They contain cellulose for one, which is not a sugar but a material that makes up the fruit (which by the way is found in vegetables too). They also contain many types of minerals, which the body needs.
There is also the simple fact that different types of fruit contain different types of nutrients.
“The feedback system that developed to tell our brains that we are full from eating fat, protein and complex carbohydrates, just simply didn’t develop for sucrose.”
This just isn’t true. It’s not. The body feels full from a compound called leptin. Leptin is released to tell the body it is full. It is released based on how full the stomach is, not chemicals inside of the stomach or the liver. If you say otherwise, you really need to provide sources. I don’t see any sources that you have provided about this.
There are even individuals who lack a receptor for leptin, and they are constantly hungry because of it. It’s a defect that is not caused by any kind of sugar. It’s not what you eat, it’s that you eat at all as far as feeling full goes.
Also, you can most definitely feel full up on fruit.
One more…
“I cut up a slightly overripe mango the other day which was super sweet and very delicious, but the minute it touched my lips, the thought of chocolate popped into my mind!”
If an overripe mango brought the thought of chocolate to your mind, this is a psychological association, not a physiological one. Chocolate candy contains high fructose corn syrup and sucrose, often. A mango does not. This statement contains nothing more than really bad science. Correlation does not equal causality.
You have no sources at all. None. You mention a study in 1988, but what’s the name of it? Do you have the name of the author? As far as I know you might have just made up a study just as much as you seem to have made up your own science.
Twitter: Vemma Brisbane
Hi Colleen – thank goodness you didn’t waste your whole morning nit picking!!
Having a heart attack from clogged arteries is something that happens over a long period of time and not from eating one piece of fruit. When you eat fruit, the fructose is released slowly into the blood stream because of the fibre and can be processed by the liver. If you read my article properly, I have written when we eat too much fructose our liver is overwhelmed – “too much” meaning eating processed foods such as cakes, biscuits and lollies that contain fructose or high fructose corn syrup, which processed foods in the US are full of. If you have a sugar addiction and constantly eat foods with fructose in them, your liver will be overwhelmed and turn it straight to fat because your body cannot use up all of the excess energy.
I am not confusing fructose with sugar – which is 50% fructose anyway. Fruit sugar is not at all complex it is just fructose a simple monosaccharide, there is nothing complex about it at all.
Re your comment about leptin – leptin is released in response to you eating fat, carbohydrates and protein. When you eat fructose, your body does not recognise it and so no leptin is released. This is one of the systems that allows us to over indulge in sugar. When you eat sugar, sugar, sugar (sugar being 50% sucrose) you body doesn’t pick up that half the calories that you are eating and so you don’t get the “full” signal. People who are obese actually have much more leptin circulating in their bodies and so become leptin resistant. Their body’s can recognise less and less the amount they are eating. The feedback system just doesn’t work efficiently allowing them to constantly overeat. Leptin is released to tell the body it is full – but it has to respond to something first!
Also it is not released based on how full the stomach is. Leptin is mainly produced by the fat cells in proportion to the amount of body fat a person has. Brain neurons have receptors that respond to the amount of leptin and regulate your calorie intake. Exactly how it works is not fully understood yet.
And finally my comment about the mango making me think of chocolate. Eric Stice, a neuroscientist at the Oregon Research Institute in the US has used MRI to scan thousands of brains, to find out how our brain responds to sweet foods. His research clearly demonstrates that sugar stimulates the brain in the same way that cocaine does. When sugar is eaten, it targets the reward centres of the brain and stimulates it to release dopamine (the feel-good hormone), which is exactly the same way that drugs and alcohol stimulate the brain. So maybe it was part psychological but there is definitely a physiological response as well!
The 1988 study that I referred to can be found at http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20080731/fructose-may-make-you-fatter. I only look at journal articles that have been published in reputable journals as well as authors and doctors who have studied this phenomenon for many years. A great source of information was Dr Lustig’s lecture called Sugar: The Bitter Truth. Dr Lustig is an endocrionologist and works with obese children. Another good source is David Gillespie’s “Sweet Poison”.
I am more than happy for people to dispute my content but you don’t seem to have any understanding of the science behind fructose, sugar and obesity at all yourself. I suggest you check out some of the excellent references above.
jan recently posted..Four more fabulous diet myths
I didn’t realize that the sugar in fruit was so addictive. I avoid sugar in the rest of my diet but do indulge in fruit. Thanks for the info.
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Quitting sugar was actually a lot harder for me than I ever thought it would be. I have been sugar free for a few years and actually went completely sugar free for two weeks while I was resetting my taste-buds. Now I am more in control than ever before.
Simply by starting with quitting sugar, I was able to control my food addiction which has helped me focus on whole food and healthy eating combined with moderate exercise. I am losing the weight I have had for YEARS. I simply could not have done this without resetting my taste-buds and realizing the damage I was doing.
Kate Harris recently posted..Calculate Your Daily Sugar Intake: An Example
Twitter: Vemma Brisbane
It’s great that you have had such success Kate. Until I started Weight Watchers I didn’t really give up sugar properly, but when I did it was much easier to stay off sweet junk food.
jan recently posted..Diet myths: the biggest diet myth of all