Confessions of a Sugar Junkie

When I was a little girl, I used to eat brown sugar melted in a pot with butter every.single.day. I'd come home from school and binge out on sweets. When I was a teenager, my boyfriend KNEW that I needed purple skittles on a daily basis. (Sometimes multiple times a day.)
I was a total sugar junkie on a collision course with diabetes. My body looked great! I stayed a size 2 until I got pregnant and then 1 year after my son was born, while still binging on sweets, I was a size zero! Two more children and I still lost weight rather rapidly. People would say "I hate you. You can eat whatever you want and stay skinny." People truly hated me. Sugar was still damaging me though. I think that being "skinnyfat" is one of the most dangerous body types to have! I was severely depressed at times, had crazy mood swings, and at one point in my mid twenties, was diagnosed as severely bipolar and put on medication. When that medication caused me to gain weight for the first time in my life (30 lbs in 3 months) I weaned myself off of it and vowed to get to the bottom of my sugar addiction.

It is said that sugar is more addictive as heroin. I wholeheartedly agree with that. I would quit for 3 weeks and then gorge myself for a week. Then I could feel myself need to detox so I would get really healthy again for 3 weeks and the cycle continued. It was awful! I was not until I watched the video "The Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollan that I started to feel better about my sugar cravings. The film really puts into perspective what the function of sugar is in our biology. Essentially, the theory is that our desire for sugar is innate and it stems from when we were primitive and all we were concerned with was getting enough calories to survive. Since sugary fruits tend to contain more calories than savory flavored veggies, we were supposed to be drawn to them. The advent of refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup has obviously corrupted that natural, god given instinct. Just knowing that made me feel like it was ok, sweet was ok. I made my peace with sweets, blessed them, and sent them on their way. Sugar in large refined quantity was no longer serving me.

Quitting sugar was harder than quitting a 10 year cigarette habit. I really needed to understand what sugar was, how and why it affected my body, and what translates to sugar in the body. Since my dad is diabetic, I have a ton of great information about that. White bread, white rice, white potatoes, corn, peas, candy, pie, cake, cookies, WINE, all alcohol = ethanol = sugar.

Another great help to me on my journey was the Suzanne Somers Diet. (I never thought I would say that. LOL. Really, I kind of feel like a dork but hear me out!) She asserts that increased fats and decreased sugar was how you overcome that addiction, and loose weight. I have heard the "increase your fat content" argument before; I decided to entertain it this time, mostly since it was dessert in this case. ;) So I whipped up her chocolate pie which is cocoa, heavy cream, and I used agave nectar which has an extremely low glycemic index, and just ate a slice every night to curb my need for sweets. I didn’t overeat because it was terribly rich. I added a handful of almonds into my diet every day. I don't love almonds but the benefit of eating them is too good to pass up. I cook almost everything with olive oil. Avocados with salt and pepper are wonderful! All of these are examples of healthy fats that you can eat to help you curb that sugar craving. Keep almonds in the car for a quickie "avoid the drive-through" snack.

The last point I want to make is sleep. As the mother of 3 children who LOVE to wake me up in the middle of the night, I know that sleep is no laughing matter. When I don’t get enough or when my sleep is broken many times in one night, I totally want to binge out on carbs and sugar the next day. Either that or I want coffee with caffeine. Then when I crash from that, I want sugar and carbs. I felt the most rested for a few weeks when my husband was away and I just went to bed at 8:00 with my kids and stayed in bed for 11 hours. Then if they broke my sleep I had plenty of time to recover it. I don't do that anymore but I would if I was smart! LOL.

There are many obstacles on the path to quitting sugar, but with a few tools and some good information, you can beat it. It is a natural desire. Sugar in and of itself is very good for you. Processed foods are riddled with sugar in many different forms. If you shop in the middle isles of the grocery store at all, you are consuming a TON of sugar without even knowing it. Heinz Ketchup, for example, has not only high fructose corn syrup but also just regular corn syrup totaling 4g of sugar in 1 Tablespoon! The reason that is significant is because when you consume a little bit of sugar (and look how well it’s disguised!) in the form of HFCS (High fructose corn syrup), it completely shuts the center in your brain that controls hunger down. You now no longer have the ability to say "I'm full" for the rest of the day because of a Tablespoon of ketchup. Your best bet is to cut out as much sugar as you absolutely can. I'll help you learn how. Stay posted to my blog and I will teach you a subject near and dear to my heart - how to read a label.