Interesting article on Sweet Addictions

[Missy]

http://www.alive.com/1512a4a2.php?subject_bread_cramb=77

I really feel closely related to those poor micey's....:( poor babies! :(

Edit of 2/7/07 ~ I'm dragging this UP out of the archives for my sake and others IF they are interested! lol I find it amusing that I started this thread back then! LOL

[laughingW]

Check out this one. Dr. DesMaisons first started her research with an Archimedean "aha" that some of us are human C57 lab mice....

http://www.radiantrecovery.com/resourcecenter/C57story.htm

[Missy]

good one Laughing! I'm definitely a C57, and know a few (very few though) of the DBA's.

I think that what's gotten "hold of me" since belonging here is the realization that ~in fact~ I have a real addiction. And, I need to take it as serious as any other type of addiction problem.

I was one to get my "fix" off of regular pop...supersized. I drowned my body in that type of "sugar water" like those poor mice. I understand it completely. Who would EVER think that it's that powerful? It was the FIRST thing I'd turn to if I was "giving up" on watching what I ate. Then I'd make a crazed effort and think nothing of consuming as much of it as I could along with a meal. I didn't buy it for me here at home....because I knew if a two liter was around, I'd be "at it" till it was gone...and alot of times, it would be gone in one day.

Chronic stress issues in my life would make it even worse for me....because I feel I was giving myself pleasure and rewarding myself with it. It was my way of medicating myself, I'm positive....stress, depression...it was all a vicious circle.

That leptin book talked about how if your addicted, you'd figure out a way to get that "fix"....and it's so true. My husband would see it in me. But, with "sugar" in it's various forms....you can easily get that "fix" and no one's the wiser. It's perfectly 'normal'.

[laughingW]

I was more anything with white flour and sugar both, but yes, the principle is the same. I've found it quite helpful to learn from the "real" addiction people.

But to be cynical - I feel like I'm lowest on the totem pole in any group, LOL. Among eating disordered people - the fat ones are the least cool. Anorexics get to lord it over everyone for their self control, bulimics sometimes at least stay thin, but just plain non-purging bulimics? We're the N word of the ED world.

Same with addictions. Alcoholics are the grandaddies. Narcs are the bad boys and girls. But food? We're like the N world of the addicts.

But guess what the plus side is! Freedom's just another word for everything left to lose!!!

mwha ha ha

[Ottawa]

Thanks for the links. A great reminder of the "old days" and why we avoid them now.

[Missy]

Well, LaughingW...as they say for any addiction "AWARENESS" is half the battle. Finally I'm AWARE!!!

As far as I can tell, I've never seen, okay, back that up, I have seen "interventions" for obesity....but those are reserved only for the massively obese...the stories you hear about when the people are bed ridden. But...you can stealthy avoid being exposed because this addiction is everywhere, and readily available. Heck, your grandma's probably a "pusher"! lol :rolleyes:

Ottawa, those "old days" aren't to distant of a past for me! :eek: But, thanks to your example, and everyone one else here guiding me along...I finally see a GLIMMER of hope, light at the end of the tunnel.

LaughingW, I find your association with other addictions as being accepted as cool or not! lol....makes me laugh. However, I disaggree with you...Currently, I'm FAT, SASSY and very COOL!! ~ and...I ONLY intend to change ONE of those descriptions! :D

[Omlette]

I have been saying for years that I am addicted to sugar. I know their use to be a drug that people with repeat DUI would get so if they drank even 1 beer they were sick as a dog. I wish I could find a drug like that for anything that turns to sugar.

[Gaelen]

Everyone, I was reading a few articles on sugar and its substitutes recently, and found this article (http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=134) about sugar addiction at www.sparkpeople.com. It's also interesting to note that, while this author doesn't mention it, there is some research work out there that indicates that over-sweetening with non-sucrose sources like artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols (the 'tols) continues to 'enable' sugar addiction, and may foster increased cravings...not unlike low-nicotine cigarettes don't actually help many people quit smoking. Unfortunately, I got so lost exploring the site where this article appeared that I lost the one on over-use of artificial sweeteners and its relationship to cravings.

[laughingW]

Yes, oversweetening keeps beta-endorphin low so the receptors are highly upregulated. The famous "mu" in all the addiction lit.

One of the big deals in not having cravings at all is re-regulating beta-endorphin, by stopping "spiking" with intense manufactured sweets, at the same time doing things that raise BEs gently. What happens is, there is more beta-endorphin floating around, so the receptors can shut down a lot of them, so you don't have the huge rollercoaster of endorphin feast and famine. Craving is literally empty BE receptors screaming. So the fewer receptors, the less craving.

this stuff is in the beta-endorphin chapter of Potatoes not Prozac. Dr. DesMaisons also has 2-week classes on it now.

I needed to understand this before I could be successful at all on PP. Before then I was trying to be a hedonist - and constantly running into cravings. I was highly upregulated.

[Gaelen]

I needed to understand this before I could be successful at all on PP. Before then I was trying to be a hedonist - and constantly running into cravings. I was highly upregulated.

LaughingW, you can still be more of a hedonist than a dilettante...but you do have to pick the choices that define your hedonism carefully. I don't get cravings or spikes from low-carb fruits and veggies, or even from small amounts of legumes, grains or beans, correctly prepared and eaten in Protein-Power 10-15g ECC amounts. As a former meatless eater -- I've always included fish -- who now includes occasional poultry and red meat in maybe1/4-1/3rd of my meals, well -- berries and fresh vanilla or cinnamon whipped cream with a teaspoon of 85% cocoa bar shavings, or a baked creamed vegetable grain with a parmesan/seed/whole grain cracker crumb topping sings hedonism to me...at under 10g ECC per serving. ;)

I know that not everyone can stop at the 10, or 15 or even 50g ECC limit of foods that trigger their cravings...some days, especially when my hormones are in a different place, it's hard for me, too. But I do think that many people CAN reset their need for sweets and learn to control their cravings, even if they consider themselves addicted. First, they have to recognize the condition, and realize that there are ways to stop it (and the 'methadone' of non-caloric sweeteners ain't always the way...)

It doesn't happen overnight and it does require a lot of mental reprogramming from the "I can only eat/drink X if it tastes sweet" to recognizing that many things are sweet enough in their natural state to satisfy. And people have to give foods with minimal sweet enhancement the chance to prove themselves sweet. Unfortunately, tastebuds that are over-sweetened take awhile to get more sensitive and recognize sweeteness that hasn't been enhanced, just like our insulin receptors can take awhile to learn to recognize the correct dietary signals. If there's one thing it would seem we'd all have learned from any extended battle with weight/health issues, very little happens overnight!

[Missy]

I think that this is the way I MUST go, at least for a little while...cold turkey not only on the sugar BUT the sweetner's too. :rolleyes: ...and the full fat. :rolleyes:

I might not like it, but, after all of this reading of these issues, I'm more convience then ever that I must.

Gaelen you wrote:

"It doesn't happen overnight and it does require a lot of mental reprogramming from the "I can only eat/drink X if it tastes sweet" to recognizing that many things are sweet enough in their natural state to satisfy."

Mental reprogramming is it in a nutshell! I see that I have to yet recondition my thinking additionally to get the maximum bang for my buck!

To do this all at once, for an addict seems overwhelming, but now after grasping what I have so far, I think I'm mentally prepared to yet take it all down another notch. Just so I can overcome this "resistance" and get my body responding.

I don't know what I'd do without this forum. Thanks for your feedback!! Great discussion!

[laughingW]

LaughingW, you can still be more of a hedonist than a dilettante...but you do have to pick the choices that define your hedonism carefully.
I understand what you're saying. That's exactly what I tried, though, and when I was still highly upregulated, it didn't work.

berries and fresh vanilla or cinnamon whipped cream with a teaspoon of 85% cocoa bar shavings, or a baked creamed vegetable grain with a parmesan/seed/whole grain cracker crumb topping sings hedonism to me...at under 10g ECC per serving.
Yes, this is what I was always shooting for. It sounds so good on paper! But in practice, the appropriate amounts were too little to fire the good feelings (fill the receptors- I had so many!). So I would have cravings anyway.

But I do think that many people CAN reset their need for sweets and learn to control their cravings, even if they consider themselves addicted. First, they have to recognize the condition, and realize that there are ways to stop it (and the 'methadone' of non-caloric sweeteners ain't always the way...)
Me too. The tolerance for sweet is physical and can be reset in everyone if you ask me. Addiction is biochemical and the desire for addictive substances can be taken away with different nutrition. It has been for me. Mostly adequate protein, omega3s, good browns /fibrous carbs, and no manufactured sweets.

In my case I'm dairy and wheat sensitive too. So after I figured that out, and not wanting intense refined/manufactured sweets, how far was it to go paleo? Not much.

It doesn't happen overnight and it does require a lot of mental reprogramming from the "I can only eat/drink X if it tastes sweet"
We say that re-regulating the brain happens at the speed of growing things. It's not that one day we read something and one nod of the head rows the boat - noooooooooo.

If there's one thing it would seem we'd all have learned from any extended battle with weight/health issues, very little happens overnight!

[Omlette]

okay, so I am severely wanting something sweet right now. I haven't had anything since yesterday, and I could go swimming in a quart. I do have so protein "ice cream" at home, but I will not be there for a few hours. I'm staying strong, but this afternoon is going to be hard, hard, hard.

Do believe I will make the custard tonight. Need to jot down that recipe.

[Missy]

Omlette...do the best you can during these first few days...you know they'll get easier. Don't give in..and if you happen too, don't beat yourself up to bad, and get right back at it!!!!

Take the opportunity to get preplanned prepared legal choices for snacks to help you through.

[cmcole]

Article on long-term Splenda Usage

http://www.sweety.com/

[Missy]

Okay..I'm dragging THIS up out of our archives BECAUSE at ONE POINT I was CLOSE to the VERGE of this discovery...but I must NOT have followed through learning more....:cool: hum. CLOSE but no CIGAR as they say, eh?!

:D

Since I'm reexaminging this issue...I'm OF COURSE looking through OUR archives! :D