How long to get over food addiction???

Voyagegirl

Voyagegirl

New member
I am addicted for sugar and for the past 5 days i have not had any processed sugars.. I’m starting to feel the withdrawal, usually at night and I’m able to fight it by making myself i big class of orange juice and adding some vital greens with spirullina which has a slight sweetness to it.

Does anyone know how long before I am able to just have my dinner and go to bed without suffering from major withdraw which wont allow me to sleep and make me so restless!.

I’m hoping it wont take long but i have been abusing sugar for a few years now and you could say I have gone cold turkey alto i do have natural fruit juice..

I use to go through a family block of chocolate a night...
when will I be ok?
 
wow, thats a toughy (ha! ever see that commercial?)

anyways, so you've been off of reg. sugar for 5 yrs and your still having withdrawls?? Or did I miss understand you?

I wonder if any of it is phycological? you know?

i dont' know hun, wish i could help you more
 
OOOHHHH!!! lol, I have no idea what I was thinking, I thought you said you hadn't had processed sugar for 5 yrs, not 5 dys, DUH!

Just give it some more time hun, you'll get over it!
 
I think it will be easier on you if you remove everything sweet from your diet, because in this way you will not be reminded about it. Orange juice has fructose in it, which is just fruit sugar.

You've got to eliminate all breads, pastas, etc.

If you've absolutilely got to have fruit juice, either

1. choose lemon or grapefruit juice
2. consume whole oranges (the fiber in them makes you absorb the fruit sugar slower)
 
If you are drinking a big glass of OJ every night you have not even started the process of weening yourself from sugar. You have to cut out fruit juices. They usually are very high in ADDED sugar, let alone the natural sugars.

Once you actually eliminate or mostly eliminate sugar from your diet it should not take more than a few days to break the addiction. I still want sweet soda but I am able to resist. It has gotten to the point where the sweet things I used to like seem inedible and I am becoming sensitive to sugar in foods that I once thought had no sugar.

Jaho, why eliminate grains?
 
I think it is more refined carbs that need to be avoided, as the wholegrains will have the fibre to slow down the sugar going into the blood flow. I herard once that eating white flour was like eating sugar!! It is a pure refined carb just the same.
 
Grains are for the birds

Why quit grains?

Because they aren't people food. Only birds have the gizzard apparatus where they eat the stones and grind up the grains.

Does your mouth water when you smell ripe peaches on the tree? When you stand in a field of wheat?

Read Grain Damage by Dr. Doug Graham for a thought provoker.

Maybe grains are so popular because they are so profitable. Where else can $.06-$.07 of raw material become a $4 box of cereal or a $2 loaf of bread? Oh, maybe sodas...but not in real food.

Warning: Math area===========================
I had always heard this, but I just now researched it.

"resulting in a 2006-07 marketing year average price in a range of $3.50 to $4.10, compared to an average of $3.42 for the year just ending"


"Test weights 60.5 lbs per bushel."
End Math area===============================

Interesting.

Oh...and deforestation, habitat loss, global warming, topsoil loss, ultimately the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico is largely due to grain production (fertilizer and pesticide runoff)...and, as you know, the product is pretty addictive.

Think about it...and always follow the money...that will explain a lot.

K
 
But wholegrains are very good for the heart. I think that the main message that I have heard about a healthy diet is that it should be made up mainly of fruits and vegetables with some carbs and protein and fats. Those foods in moderation, not making up the bulk of the diet, like a lot of us (including me!!) have done in the past.

I think it can be a mistake to look at what we could eat naturally if we did not have all the abilities the human race have (like milling and cooking), because the fact is that we have these skills. Otters cannot get into clams with there bare paws, but they lie with a stone on their chest and bash the clam open. That is a tool they do not have naturally, but does that mean they shouldn't be eating clams?

The fact is that we live longer than our ancestors did, and it isn't just because doctors are able to cure and treat diseases that may have killed us centuries ago. There are people who have never gone to doctors or hospitals because they haven't been ill, and they still live longer than someone would have back when we didn't know so much about a healthy diet.

Rant over :D
 
2 weeks to get over a general food addiction as long as you don't cheat.
 
Yes I agree.

Cheating will cost you no matter how small!

The last time I got on Atkins I lost NOTHING because I would have a sugarless popsicle once a week, but it still had carbs. Even that tiny bit got me! So whatever diet your on- Don't cheat! Also, for the first few days of sugar weaning- Try to stay busy! Plan a road trip or something where you won't think about food as much.

I can also relate- I have a sweet tooth too! I used to be able to eat a box of oreos in a day!

You can beat this suger thing!

-Nightporter-
 
I got it from a friend on another forum who got it from a collection of smilies. I think you can right click on the emoticon and get the properties which will give you the URL. Be warned that some of them in that collection are not appropriate for all audiences.
 
Its such a shame .... my favourite ones are too rude to use here :D . I found one that suits me (a big gabbing mouth, I am such a talker :D ) but I can't get it to work. I shall have to wait until Mr Bear comes back from work and get him to have a go. Thanks for the link ;)
 
Cheating hurts, but at the same time you have to be patient with yourself and expect to hit a couple bumps early on and/or during stressful times. When we put our expectations too high, we get easily discouraged and give up.

Substitutions are great--usually just fresh fruits or veggies or even foods that aren't as bad as the ones you normally eat. Certain types of foods are more fulfilling than others.

It sometimes helps to find foods that can be easily prepared raw or steamed to be picked apart by hand. Finger foods fun to eat and since they take a little work to mow through, you get full before you overdo it.

My personal favorites are pomegranates and artichokes, but those are easier to find in the winter. If you really, really have to have something sweet, watermelon is good stuff.

Drinking unsweetened peppermint tea is helpful, too. Celestial Seasonings makes some nice varieties that you can drink hot or cold. There's also some really neat bottled teas in certain stores called Honest Teas. Some are unsweetened, but quite tasty (and sometimes caffienated).

Make sure to drink plenty of H2O. Took me a while to do this as I'm not used to drinking it (was raised on sweet juices as a kid), but it really makes a difference. Also, vitamins are good to take, because sometimes cravings are caused by vitamin/mineral deficiencies.
 
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so I just have one question.... If you choose to give up sugar... and you go through with it and have no sugar for like months... and you no longer crave sugar, does that mean you have to give it up forever? Could you have some every once in a while, or would it become a full-blown addiction again, like alcoholism? or does it have to build up in your system first? Because I want to eat healthier and not be addicted to it, but I don't want to not be able to ever have anything ever again. Chocolates for valentines day... "But I can't eat this, not even one bite, no matter what"
 
I have given it up mostly but it is really hard to eliminate it completely since it is in so many foods. I have something sweet now and again but I find that when i do I want more and I have to go through the fight all over again.
 
go for artificial sweeteners

Hey BigBear, I can imagine how hard it can be for you to just drop the sugar addiction. I can testify that myself, because that's how I gained so much weight. I needed the sugar in my meals or worse was when I was sad or feeling depressed, I would turn to chocolate ice-creams and other sweet stuffs to cure my woes. When I started realising how much weight I had gained with the excessive sugar intake, I got alarmed and then decided to just cut it. In the beginning it was not at all easy and I had to show proofs of strong self control! I wont that I stopped altogether, but I can say that I did make improvements. Have you ever tried alternating the normal sugar to artificial sweeteners? I recently learnt more about artificial sweeteners, here, read this: . I was thining about doing the same myself because I fear relapses. And I certainly dont want to gain more eright by giving in to the sugar craze.:eek:
 
i don't know a whole lot about it and this may be a bad suggestion and i'm sorry if so, i'm sure someone else would know, but i would say get all the "temptation" foods w/ sugar out of the house, desk at work etc. also maybe keep a small candy jar with low sugar (or a sweetner sub), low cal treats like wintergreen mints, pepermints or i believe weight watchers makes a comprapable hard candy to werthers caramels handy that way, you have a little something to curb the craving that isn't something to beat yourself up over.

at my office, they put out huge candy bowls with everything you could think of (damn them) i've found it helpful to keep a bag of winter green mints in my desk instead and everytime i feel the temptation to take a walk past the hershey kiss bowl i pop a mint in my mouth instead.
 
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