Sugar is addictive

Sugar has an addictive effect. Processed foods are full of sugar. Eating such foods as intended may result in diseases from diabetes and heart disease to cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Please see all the details in this documentary from CBC (Canadian TV). Then consider: How do we eliminate the sugar addiction for good?
 

Emotional eating

You may have heard of obese people complaining about “emotional eating”. They talk about going to food for comfort and feeling briefly better after eating. Then they get depressed after a couple of hours, only to eat again (see Insulin Effect below). If that sounds like chain smoking that is because both tobacco and sugar are addictive substances. So how do we do a “do it yourself” anti-addiction treatment? Let’s take some clues from quitting smoke addiction.
 

Tobacco addiction control, slow approach

I was a smoker when I was young and thought that I was trapped by my addiction. In my early 20’s I was smoking 1 pack a day (20 cigarettes). On average, this was more than 1 cigarette per hour. So I started by waiting for 1 hr between cigarettes. I actually counted the minutes. At first, I craved my cigarette within 1/2 hr. But then I would get distracted with something else, and discover that I could last 2 hrs or so. In my first attempt, I reduced my addiction to 10 cigarettes/day. Eventually, I was down to 2-5 cigarettes a day. Ironically, getting rid of those 1-2 cigarettes a day seemed the most difficult part. This is because I felt an “emotional” attachment to smoking. I saw it as a part of who I was.
 

Sugar addiction control, slow approach

Fortunately, eliminating sugar addiction is far easier. Once you understand that the problem is Insulin spikes and not just lack of will power. Insulin spikes with every meal or snack, particularly if these meals are rich in carbohydrates. Focusing on satiety, rather than satisfying a sugar craving, then your life could change.

We could borrow the technique to control tobacco addiction. The same way I reduced my very difficult tobacco addiction, you could easily reduce your insulin secretion by reducing the number of meals in a day. Eliminating your snacks will be a great start. The secret may be in Grehlin, the hunger hormone. Grehlin is elevated every day at the time you normally eat. However, if you get busy and ignore Grehlin, its levels usually come down within 1/2 hrs and then you don’t feel that hungry. If you have 3 meals a day, It would be relatively easy to control your Grehlin. However, if you eat repeated snacks between meals, the control of Grehlin becomes more difficult.
 

Sugar addiction control, fast approach

I eliminated my sugar addiction by going “cold turkey” straight into my one meal a day (OMAD) regimen and keep on it for 21 days. Then I had adapted and unwilling to change my new habit. The benefits started to show up shortly: losing weight, increased affinity for exercise and overall increased quality of life.
 

Insulin effect

Multiple meals a day will keep your Insulin levels high. Ironically, Insulin increases your cravings so you become that emotional chain eater. You are NOT an emotional eater, you are simply a victim of your own insulin secretion. Intermittent Fasting, and most especially OMAD is the tool in your hands to reduce your sugar addiction. This is because by fasting you are reducing the number of insulin spikes during the day. It may appear difficult to get started with this new lifestyle choice. But once adapted you’d ask how did you ever do anything different.

Try it, you’d be surprised and delighted. I know I was.