Sugar is addictive

Cookie here, candy there, chocolate everywhere! Sugar is really addictive. Did you know that it’s just as addictive as alcohol and drugs are? I will explain you why that’s the case. When you consume sugar your body produces the chemicals dopamine and serotonin. These are also known as the happy hormones. They give you a good feeling. Unfortunately this feeling doesn’t last long, as a matter of fact it will only last till the moment your dopamine- and serotonin levels drop to normal rates. Your body will crave more sugar to get that feeling back. But this time you will need more sugar to get that same feeling and this goes on and on, so your body asks for more sugar every time. This works exactly the same as other addictions. Before you know it you are trapped in a virtuous cycle and breaking this circle isn’t as easy.

And guess what ladies, we women are more sensitive to serotonin deficiency than men.  Lucky us.. This can be explained by the fact that men produce serotonin 50 times faster than women and their serotonin rate is twice as high as ours. You see girls we can’t help ourselves when we crave for chocolate and cookies ;-). Blame it on my brains, not on me.

I will give you a few symptoms so that you can check if you are addicted to sugar or not. And if so, don’t panic because I can promise you you’re not the only one. Even I have been guilty!

1. You can’t stop after 1 cookie, piece of chocolate of bowl of chips

You must eat the whole bar or bag. You tell yourself you are just having 1 cookie and before you know it you have reached the bottom. Oops.

2. Tired and washed out

Do you feel tired after a day of work and want to do nothing else than be a couch potato? Or are you completely washed out at 4 pm? Pretty recognizable right?

3. A shaky feeling when you don’t eat anything sweet

You haven’t had anything sweet in a while and you feel a bit shaky. Innocent or not so innocent feeling?

4. Experiencing mood swings and being emotional

No ladies it’s not just that time of the month that we are experiencing mood swings. It could be possible that your sugar addiction is causing these swings and emotional ‘break downs’.

This is what a sugar addiction does to our bodies! Also when you stop eating sugar you can experience some symptoms (yes there are actual withdrawal symptoms). It can cause symptoms such as shakiness, feeling tired, headaches, sweating, nausea and cravings. Your body is used to getting sugars and now that has stopped so it has to adjust to that new situation.

Next week I will tell more about how you can break your sugar addiction.

This week’s assignment

Every time you feel like having sugar, I want you to consiously choose not to take anything. I want you to write down in your diary what you feel and think when you crave sugar. Some of you probably want to take action right away but I think this inner part is the most important thing to break your sugar addiction. It’s all about this inner switch. When you’re motivated from the inside, it’s easier to act on it. After this week I want you to re-read your diary. Do you see a trend in your thoughts/feelings? Also take a look at the reasons you eat sugar that I gave you in this blog.