Are you a sugar addict? I am.
In 2005 I vowed to quit and began
writing about life without sweets.
This site contains a forum,
product reviews, my journal,
educational Sugar Challenges,
and the Stop Being Sweet ebook.

Maltitol Sweetened Godiva Chocolate Taste Test

November 21, 2009 • Comments (4)

In this video my parents taste test some Godiva chocolate to determine if there’s a noticeable difference between the Maltitol sweetened chocolate and the sugar sweetened chocolate.

Posted in Product Reviews on 11/21/09 • Comment

Sugar is Addictive

November 20, 2009 • Comments (0)

A research project at Boston University points to sugar as an addictive food, perhaps as bad as drugs or alcohol.

Rats were fed “regular” rat food for seven days and then sugary-chocolately rat food for two. When the regular food returned the rats exhibited anxiety and refused to eat it. When the palatable rat food was reintroduced they overate it until their anxiety subsided.

Sound familiar?

The researchers also looked into the brain chemistry of the rats and found that, “during abstinence from palatable foods, the rats showed increased corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) gene expression and peptide in the amygdala, an area of the brain involved in fear, anxiety and stress responses.”

Study co-author Valentina Sabino, PhD, an assistant professor and co-Director of the Laboratory of Addictive Disorders in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at BUSM stated, “The stress experienced by frequent dieters in abstinence from palatable food has neurobiological similarities to the negative emotional state of drug and alcohol addicts.”

Meanwhile, Kathleen DesMaisons, author of Potatoes Not Prozac, has been noticing drug and alcohol addicts in recovery exhibit addictive eating patterns that mimic their drug or alcohol usage. She’s working on a new book that offers a diet for people to follow. Read more about it here.

Wasn’t there a time in history when opium was considered a good thing and it was given to kids?

Posted in Tips, Tricks, Info & News on 11/20/09 • Comment

Top 10 Excuses for Eating Sugar

November 19, 2009 • Comments (0)

1. I can’t control myself!

If addicts can get off heroine, you can stop eating sugar. What you eat is your choice. Sugar doesn’t jump into your mouth.

2. My family and friends force me.

Unless your loved ones completely hold you down and force cookies down your throat, you are using them to enable your sweet ways.

3. I don’t have a problem with sugar.

If you are reading this you probably have a problem with sugar. In fact, people in America and many other countries have problems with sugar.

4. I just can’t say no.

You don’t want to say no and you’re using the nice people in your life for your own sugary gain.

5. No really, I feel guilty if someone bakes dessert and I don’t eat it.

Then you need to stop being sweet and say no. If necessary, educate people about your choice to not eat sugar. There's no need to launch into a tirade, but issues with sugar can make for great after dinner discussion and you not eating it can be the conversation starter. It is just about you exercising your choice, not about you persuading the table that they are wrong.

6. Something really bad happened and so I was pushed/forced/had to eat a whole bag of cookies.

The problem is that you are using sugar like a drug and are of the mindset that when something bad happens it is a valid excuse to binge. It’s like those people who think that when something upsets them they have the right to walk around in a foul mood all day and treat everyone like dirt.

7. There was junk food in the house and I couldn’t avoid it.

Throw it out. Get other food. Eat something healthy. Go for a walk.

8. I didn’t know it had sugar in it.

Soup, crackers, cheese, bacon, bologna, bread, ham, mayonnaise, ketchup, cereal, rice milk, and a million other products that you eat on a daily basis have added sugars that you didn't even know were there. Start reading labels.

9. I am not fat.

Lucky for you. Wait until you pass 40! If you’re over the hill and still thin then congratulations, but sugar diabetes doesn’t care.

10. I didn’t eat sugar for two weeks once, nothing happened.

That’s like saying you exercised once for two weeks and nothing happened. Eating healthy is a practice and that doesn’t mean you deprive yourself. It means you change your current habits and create new ones. It means CHANGING how you identify yourself.

What are you waiting for?

Posted in Tips, Tricks, Info & News on 11/19/09 • Comment

All I Wanted Was Sweets

November 16, 2009 • Comments (5)

This weekend all I wanted was some sugar. Actually, not true. I wanted something sweet but I didn’t want sugar. Gwenn whipped up some chocolate mousse for me. It was cream and agave syrup with some cocoa. It did the trick for about five minutes.

I made cookies on Friday night. Ate ‘em all. There’s a lot on my plate (things to do, not food) and so my natural tendency is to want to eat lots of sugar. This is how my mind operates. Do you do that?

Do you eat, or want to eat, sweets when you’re stressed or under pressure?

PS - If you’re part of the November Sugar Challenge, let us know how you’re doing.

Posted in My Personal Journal on 11/16/09 • Comment

Back Off The Sugar

November 05, 2009 • Comments (2)

My parents are visiting. The other day we had lunch at a deli and I got a chocolate chip cookie. I felt like a kid again.

Yesterday morning was the end of my “annual sugar binge” and we stopped in a place to get breakfast. Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies stared me in the stomach. I wanted one, but not because I craved it. I wanted one just because they were there.

A little voice in my head said, “You can extend your sugar time for one day. Nobody will know and they won’t care. You make up the rules around here.”

I ignored the voice and left without a cookie. Last night I over-ate at dinner but it’s not worrying me. It will pass.

Today will be even easier—for me. My parents are probably annoyed as I’ve pointed out that they’re still drinking diet soda (although they said they had stopped) and they’re still eating the same sugary foods they always have. But hey, you can’t control others. You can’t even influence them. All you can do is what is right for you.

If and when you want to stop being sweet, you will find a way.

Posted in My Personal Journal on 11/05/09 • Comment