Sugar - could you stop eating it?

Once I entered menopause, it was only when I decreased my intake of sugar and flour that I successfully lost weight and was able to keep it off.  Why might you want to consider decreasing the amount of sugar that you eat?  When I mention sugar, I am talking about added sugars - not the natural sugars found in foods such as fruits and dairy products.  Added sugars may be white or brown and also include sweeteners such as honey, molasses and syrup.  If a word on an ingredient list ends in "ose", that ingredient is some form of sugar.

Eating sugar gives our brains a dopamine hit. Dopamine is a "feel good" hormone, and frequent dopamine hits from sugar make our brains crave more of the same. That is why some people feel that they are "addicted" to sugar.  Their bodies have learned to look forward to that sudden increase in dopamine.

Excess sugars not only can cause us to gain weight and make us more prone to diabetes, but they can lead to the over accumulation of fat in the liver.  Excess sugars can also raise our risk for heart disease, elevate our blood pressure and worsen chronic inflammation. 

Sugar can cause other negative effects.  Often, after a rise in blood sugar and then a sudden spike of dopamine, our sugar levels will quickly fall. Many of us then  "crash" or feel sluggish with the sudden drop in blood sugar. Some of us will still feel this lack of energy into the next day. I noticed that my joints ache the day after I consume a lot of added sugar -  probably due to sugar’s inflammatory effects. Some of us may feel jittery or anxious when our blood sugar levels suddenly drop.

There are also studies that link high sugar intakes to depression in some adults. And for those of us concerned about how we look, sugar may cause skin to age faster and cause more wrinkles and sagging.

The standard advice as to how to decrease our sugar intake is to make substitutions with sweet foods - such as eating fruit, or using sweet spices, when we want to eat something sugary. The usual advice also often includes:

Avoiding processed foods as much as possible,
Avoid eating sugar for energy when we really need to rest, and
Avoid eating sugar when we are really dehydrated and need to drink.

That is all good advice. However, how can we decrease our sugar cravings so that we don't feel deprived? Many of us were often given something sweet when we were unhappy or hurt or visiting relatives, and we associate sweets with celebrations and feeling better. The way to decrease our sugar intake is through thoughtwork!  By changing how we think about sugar, we can actually decrease our desire for sugar.

Instead of thinking about how good sugary foods taste, think about the negative effects of sugar on our bodies (such as causing more wrinkles) or on our minds (feeling tired or sluggish) that occur after we eat something sugary.  When I think that "My joints will hurt tomorrow if I eat that brownie" - I then can think about if I really want to eat that brownie. Rather than thinking "I really want to eat that brownie because it tastes so good", I now am thinking - "I have a busy day tomorrow and I want to feel energetic". When I think about how achy my joints are going to feel tomorrow, then I think that I don’t really want that brownie right now. When I think about how that brownie is going to make me feel tomorrow, then the brownie becomes unappealing to me and I don’t want to eat it.

Thoughtwork takes practice. However, the more we practice thoughtwork, the easier it becomes to think thoughts that will help us to achieve our goals . It is important to find the thoughts that feel true to us and to frequently re-visit those thoughts and examine them. When the negative thoughts about the sugary foods become so true to us that we automatically think them when we see those foods - then we will have lost our cravings.  

Another tool that helps me handle a sugary food that I crave is to actually eat  that food very slowly at a time when I don’t typically crave that food (such as eating ice cream after breakfast). I eat alone with paper and pen nearby and I eat without distractions. After each bite of that sugary food, I write down how it tastes and how I feel. I stop eating the food whenever I no longer want it. When I pay attention to whether that food tastes the same with every bite, I usually find that after several bites, I am no longer really enjoying that food and it is actually easy to stop eating it. Once I can stop at several bites after breakfast, I then practice eating that same food slowly and writing down what I notice with every bite at I time that I am more likely to desire that food (such as after dinner).  With practice, you too may be able to eat some of a sugary dessert, without feeling the need to finish the entire thing!

Controlling sugar cravings starts with mind management. By deciding how we want to think about sugar or sugary foods, we can feel differently about those foods - and then act differently around those foods. The sugary foods lose their power over us and we feel more energetic, more in control, and our health often improves. 

If you are struggling with cravings and want to explore how mind management can  help you to lose weight for the last time, set up a free mini-session with me at https://drbarbaralkatzcoaching.mykajabi.com. The mini-session is free and there is no obligation, and no pressure. 

To make sure you don't miss any of my posts, subscribe at https://drbarbaralkatzcoaching.mykajabi.com.  If you are not receiving my posts, and you think you have subscribed, please check your spam folder.

Share this blog post with a friend and contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions.