Sugar Addiction and Cravings:
Are You Addicted to Sugar?
We all consume added sugar of some sort, in one way or another even if we are very careful and sometimes without knowing it. If you check the ingredients of what you buy at the shops, you may not see sugar mentioned, but it is usually still there in other forms. But how do you know if you’re addicted to sugar and consuming too much of it?
The first symptom is lethargy, which is like feeling tired, fatigued and having a lack of energy and enthusiasm to do anything or perform in your usual activities during the day and feeling down and even depressed. It is a bit like being a daily joint smoker and not want to do much else other than sitting down on the couch and having a smoke.
They are both addictive, the only difference is sugar doesn’t give your body the same kind of high and offers absolutely no health benefits if we consider the medical use of cannabis, not that we’re recommending anyone to smoke. And to be in that way you don’t really have lots of sugar either. Having normal amounts of added sugar daily is adequate for being addicted and for it to be a burden on our body.
If you feel fatigue and get the munchies at around 11am in the morning and at around 4 in the afternoon, this often shows hypoglycemia as a response to the hyperglycemia because of the sweet meals you have at breakfast and lunch. These are fast sugars that cause the insulin spikes that in turn cause hypoglycemia. And the more this happens the more you can be suspicious of your pancreas being in a pre-diabetic stage.
It will be completely up to you what your body is trying to tell you and in a few years time you’ll be quite likely to have diabetes and heart disease. If you are feeling tired after a meal you are either eating too much or more of the wrong things- high quantity or low quality, like high sugar. The thing is you’d know that it is hard to stop eating the sweet treats after having a bite, cookies, cakes, ice cream, flavored milk and even dry fruits. Just like a cigarette smoker that craves more cigarettes, you will want more cake.
Many people fall into this sugar addiction and can’t do without it and they experience physical and mental symptoms in case of a lack of sugar. Headache is common as a withdrawal symptom from sugar, just like caffeine. The addiction, harmful effects for health (physical and psychological) indeed make sugar a drug, just that we don’t know which class drug. Having said that everyone is different and sugar will easily become an addiction or a drug for some and maybe not for others, or no to the same extent or at the same speed.
This addiction is an easy one to fall into, given the fact that sugar is available everywhere. We have to pay attention to the type of sugar, because a very sweet cookie will not be the same as a piece of fruit, even if organic and without the other harmful substances. The sugar and fat combo has almost no nutritional value but is great tasting and so easy to eat lots of it before feeling disgusted. On the other hand there is much less sugar in an apple and contains vitamins and fiber, is much lower in calories and has antioxidant properties to fight off inflammation and cancer.
The dietary fiber in a piece of fruit decreases the absorption speed of sugar, not giving a spike in blood sugar. It is absolutely silly to point out a single culprit that makes bad things happen in our bodies or cause illnesses, this is sometimes sugar, sometimes fat or meat. And this leads to diets that exclude certain foods and the creators of these restricting diets act like they hold the absolute truth and say things like “Avoid sugar at all costs” or “Fat makes you fat”. It is always a good idea to have everything in moderation, as part of a generally healthy diet, even if you’re trying to lose weight to be able to keep that weight off.
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