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caffine and cigarettes are addicting. I never seen rehab clinic for those either.
Bottom line is sugar is NOT ADDICTING. Its just fat people being unable to pry themselves away from the table or away from eating the bad food. Its like an escape or comfort for them to eat bad unhealthy/sugary stuff. Like reading a good book is an escape and/or comfort for those who pursue intellectual endeavors. You never hear them say "oh Im addicted to reading". Its like uh "NO, you are NOT addicted to reading, you just really like to read".
Its just an easy way out of not taking responsibility for one's health to say "Oh I am addicted to sugar".
sugar never made me fat and I am addicted to it. Yes I am addicted to sugar and not fat.
There was a study done at a college. Half were thin half their lives and the other half heavy. They split them into pairs. Half ate only the foods the thin partners ate and other half ate only what the heavier partner ate. After the month was over they weighed everyone.
The heavy people who were paired with thin partners gained approx 1 pound, thin partners 0. The thin group who ate foods with the heavier partners gained again 0 and the heavy group gained approx 3 pounds.
While the heavier group didn't gain as much with the thinner group, the thinner half on both sides didnt gain anything, even eating foods higher in calories. Therefore genetics must be a factor in some peope's weight.
Last edited by Cupcake77; 10-20-2010 at 08:52 PM..
Here's an interesting article about addictions, including sugar. Perhaps if more people focused on how to help people overcome cravings, and less time judging them for the "moral failing" of it (and of being poor, or overweight), we'd get better results.
Bottom line is sugar is NOT ADDICTING. Its just fat people being unable to pry themselves away from the table or away from eating the bad food. Its like an escape or comfort for them to eat bad unhealthy/sugary stuff. Like reading a good book is an escape and/or comfort for those who pursue intellectual endeavors. You never hear them say "oh Im addicted to reading". Its like uh "NO, you are NOT addicted to reading, you just really like to read".
Its just an easy way out of not taking responsibility for one's health to say "Oh I am addicted to sugar".
Lao, I don't mind people not agreeing, but I wish you'd disagree in a more agreeable way. You come in here and just spout stuff off about lack of personal responsibility, but you ignore everything that's been said about how to take control of this and get over an addiction, which is being about as personally responsible as you can get. It's no big deal to stop eating sugar if you're not actually addicted, the same as it's no big deal to stop smoking if you just started today. Oops, I just quit my heroin habit. Oh wait, I never had one to begin with. OK, being silly there, but I can let a bag of potato chips sit on the fridge til they turn green, b/c they don't tempt me as much--I love them, but not enough to keep eating the whole bag.
And glad you brought up the reading analogy b/c I am also addicted to reading and yes I have told people that. The diff is that reading hasn't really caused me any problems in my life, except to get me branded as a nerd. When I'm going to go stand in line, I take a book so I can entertain myself and I can get smarter. If I read so much that I couldn't keep a job, then it would be a problem.
The diff between sugar and reading is that sugar causes changes at the metabolic level and affects every cell in your body. Long before a person becomes diabetic, their ability to metabolize glucose and other sugars is impaired. This is a huge problem in every country in the world and getting worse. If it was easy to quit eating sugar, then why are diabetics struggling so hard to get it out of their diet, when they know their life depends on it? People who are overweight usually have too much insulin floating around in their system, so their glucose may test normal, but their insulin level is too high, and that causes them to gain fat. People who are thin are thin b/c their metabolism isn't all whacked out and they're not craving extra food b/c of it.
It's also a huge problem b/c there are so many of us. It's easy enough for us to stay away from heroin, and you have to make a conscious decision to smoke in the first place, but we've all been eating candy since we were babies, and no one ever told us it was wrong to do this--church people are some of the worst sugar eaters b/c they don't view it as sinful and they reason that they don't have any other bad habits so what will a little dessert hurt.
Anyway, my apologies to any medical personnel who are cringing at my lack of terminology, and I want to say that when I speak of your metabolism being off, I'm talking about the balance between your glucose level and insulin level, and ghrelin and leptin are in there somewhere too. I'm sure there's much more to it than that, but it will do for this discussion.
Anyway, I'm doing the self talk now and have had my first sugar-free day today. Wish me luck. And cupcake, that was an interesting study--thanks for sharing. And thanks for making this thread to give me a nudge to stop the crazy sugar binging--"My name is stepka and I'm a sugarholic."
Oh, if we could all just be as PERFECT as SOME people on this forum!
I believe any substance can be addicting. It may have nothing to do with the chemical makeup of the substance, but the fact that certain people tend to turn to things to comfort them when they feel happy, sad, bored, excited, indifferent, and depressed.
I've never been a sugar person myself, but I know (and I don't need a stupid Harvard study to prove/disapprove it) I have an addiction to salt and fat=fast food. I've gone through several cycles of withdrawals and binges trying to quit. I'm currently 30 days "sober". Fast food is on my mind every frickin' second.
And before some people jump to it--no, I do not blame the fast food, or any other junk for making me fat. It's ME who made me fat, so don't say "addictions are just excuses fat people make to justify being fat."
I don't pretend to know what's going on physiologically, but I do know that the more sugar I eat, the more I want. If I eat something sweet in the morning, forget it. I spend all day thinking about eating more sweet stuff. I also crave chocolate after lunch. I start thinking about it as soon as I've eaten and the desire is in the back (or front) of my mind til about 4 p.m. The only way to get over that craving is to give chocolate up alltogether and it takes a couple of weeks to stop wishing for it.
Should it be classified as an addiction? I don't know. But it is a struggle.
No, there is not such a thing. Sugar increases your blood sugar, gives you fast satisfaction feeling. That only means you are lacking healthy carbs in your diet. Right amount of whole grains throughout the day should fix it.
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