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.

Sugar Does Not Equal Love

November 24, 2009 • Comments (0)

As we move into the holiday season I want to remind you of something.

Sugar is not love.

Love is an emotion. Love is not tangible. Love is free. Yet, for millions of people sugar represents love. Baking your sweetie something sweet is a popular way to say, “I love you.”

We give chocolate on Valentine’s Day and share sweets during the holidays. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But where we do go wrong is when we start to mistake sugar for love. Not everyone has this problem, but many sugar addicts do.

Sugar addicts tend to eat sweets as a result of wanting to connect with a loved one in person or from afar. Afar could mean the person is out of town, overseas, or has passed away. For instance, a daughter bakes and eats a particular cake recipe because she used to make that cake with her mother and it was her mother’s favorite. Or, a young man goes to get ice cream every time he feels that does something right because his father used to reward him with a chocolate chip mint sundae. Sound familiar?

As holiday madness takes control of your life in the coming weeks, keep in mind this simple rule:

Sugar does not equal love.

There are other ways to show your love besides eating and giving sugary foods. Find one that works for you.

Posted in Tips, Tricks, Info & News on 11/24/09 • Comment

On Demonizing Sugar

November 23, 2009 • Comments (1)

Candy Cigarettes Not too long ago, during a conversation with my friend, the subject of sugar came up. I mentioned something about how I find it hard to moderate eating sweets. My friend made a face and said, “...and so you demonize sugar.”

It wasn’t a question. It was a statement, possibly even an accusation. It made me think of many endless debates between blaming the object or the people who use/wield/consume that object. For example, “Guns, don’t kill people. People kill people.”

The problem is that sugar doesn’t kill people —at least not in the press-a-button end-a-life kind of way. It is common place for people to eat sugar. People often eat sweets their entire lives and never know what it feels like to be sugar-free. (Feels like are the key words in that sentence.) Even people who don’t think of themselves as having a sweet-tooth are often addicted to carbs and many people who think they are sugar-free are indeed ingesting a huge amount of added sugars without even knowing it.

My friend and I talked about how it became common place for people to take a smoking break at work. In fact, if you want to be able to take regular breaks at certain jobs, it would behoove you to take up smoking! How many people do you know who are allowed (meaning it’s socially acceptable) to take a phone break at work? Ten minutes standing out front of the building to make a call several times a day might get you fired. But in many places there is a designated smoking area for the smoking team. (Imagine a harmonica break!)

armtray There used to be ashtrays on the seat arms in airplanes. People used to smoke inside hospitals. They smoked in movies, on television, and at the table next to you at a restaurant. When I was in high school there was an outdoor smoking lounge for students. The idea seems insane by today’s paradigm. In fact it’s illegal. Why? You know why.

“But sugar is different,” my friend argued, “Sugar is in everything. We need sugar to live.”

I agree that sugar is in everything and we need natural sugars to live. However, we don’t need large quantities of added sugars in everything we consume. Sugar has been pushed on us since we were children. We have been programmed to believe that sugar is fun and gives us energy. Large corporations sell sugar to kids on television (cereal ads), in playgrounds (think fast food playground sponsorships) and in cafeterias at school. Food products that are labeled organic and healthy can still contain large doses of sugar. At the end of the day we’ve eaten a whole lot of sugar if we weren’t paying attention, and that’s often the case even if we didn’t eat candy-ish sweets.

smoke filled plane How much is too much? For certain addictive types, research pointing to fatty and sugary foods as being addictive might mean just a little is too much. Otherwise let Coke teach you and your family about nutrition.

So, to my friend and everyone who might have had the same thought as he, I don’t demonize sugar because we all know it’s bad for us. After all, sugar doesn’t ruin your health. You ruin your health.

Posted in My Personal Journal on 11/23/09 • Comment

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.