5 Steps to Break Sugar Addictions Without Restricting Yourself
with Jackie Peterson
Do you ever wonder why you just can't get over your sugar cravings?
The biggest struggle I hear from people is that they self sabotage themselves by binge eating sugar over and over again. They just can't seem to break the addiction.
I understand this struggle myself as a former chocolate addict. I don't know if I will ever fully recover from my sugar addictions, but I can say I have come a LONG way to overcoming my addiction with sugar through the process I've outlined below.
I always wondered how people could go to a birthday party and pass on the cake or get offered a dessert and pass on it. I was ALWAYS in for dessert without fail. It wasn't even a question. And if I did pass on it, it was the absolute hardest thing to do in the entire world. I would go home, immediately find something sweet and binge on that instead. YAY for self control but not so good for my long-term lifestyle.
This became such a big problem for me and I became consumed by sugar. When was my next sweet treat coming? That's literally all I could think about!
Then I started to research and learned the REAL scientific reasons why I was having such terribly bad sugar cravings that I couldn't ignore. I started taking the steps necessary to overcome this issue and now it’s safe to say that while sometimes I will still enjoy a piece of cake, it’s also not something that I NEED. I feel like I finally have the freedom to indulge when I feel it’s worth it and pass when its not.
Here's how I did it.
First, I want you to know that having a sugar addiction is not entirely your fault. The diet industry wants us to believe that it’s simply our own self control and self will that causes us to crave sugar but that's simply not true.
Sugar cravings are caused by your biochemistry, not simply your own desires. Let me first explain how it works.
Your intestinal tract and gut are made up of bacteria, yeasts and cells that have their own inner ecology. When this ecology is out of balance you will naturally crave SUGAR and carbs!
Your gut bacteria and inner ecology can become out of balance in several different ways - through lifestyle choices like (chronic stress, not enough sleep, not exercising, antibiotic use, etc.) and through nutrition (eating too many inflammatory foods like fried foods, alcohol, hydrogenated oils, sugar, etc.).
These lifestyle choices can directly affect the balance of your intestinal bacteria and when this is compromised, you crave more sugar. So, naturally you continue to feed that craving by eating more sugar, which can often cause a candida overgrowth and/or nutritional deficiencies.
Sugar FUELS candida growth so its literally signaling your body and demanding more sugar so that this bacteria can overtake your gut's good bacteria. When you continue feeding it, the cravings just keep growing and growing and it turns into a vicious cycle.