Addicted to Sugar?

Do You Tend to Gorge on Sugar?

How did you do last weekend? Lots of sugar and processed food? Feeling bloated, tired, overstressed, or sick? We all know that sugar is bad for us. We all grew up being told – don’t eat too much or you’ll get sick. Many people enjoy the flavor of sugar but don’t really consider themselves to be addicted to it. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with my good friend, Samantha Taylor. Samantha is a fitness guru and renowned sugar addiction specialist. When you hear about the symptoms of sugar addiction, you might find that they hit pretty close to home, so make sure you stay tuned this week, because I will be talking about the detriments of sugar and exposing sugar addiction for what it really is. I’ve even got a quiz for you to take to help identify whether sugar addiction is part of your problem.

What is Sugar Addiction?

Basically a sugar addiction is something that a person finds themselves in when they eat sugar regularly, over consume it, don’t feel like they want to live without it, feel compelled to eat it when its front of them, can’t just have 1 cookie….it turns into 5 to 10 of them, have sugar in some form or fashion at least every few days or typically every day and don’t feel like they know how to stop eating sugar. So how can you even get addicted to sugar? Sugar is known as a toxic, poison and wrecks havoc on the body when it’s over consumed. It highly affects your blood sugar levels and insulin, causes a spike in the chemicals in your brain like beta-endorphins and serotonin, and causes hormone disruption. Since it makes so many processes in your body spike that also means there will be a crash. It’s many times during the “crash” that you crave sugar more. It’s this never ending cycle of frustration that makes you feel like you are just out of control and you don’t know how to stop eating it all together or how to not eat way too much of it when you do. Samantha says, “When you look up the word ‘addiction’ in the dictionary and study the characteristics of what an addiction is, people that struggle with eating too much sugar fit the criteria of having an addiction. You decide for yourself by checking this out….” The word addiction means: 1) The state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that it’s cessation causes severe trauma. Now, I don’t know about you but eating sugar becomes very habit forming for most and when they try to quit and don’t do it the right way, they have trauma…depression, uncontrollable cravings and strong withdrawals. Samantha was a sugar addict for 30 years so she confirms that to be true! 2) The condition of being abnormally dependent on some habit, especially compulsive dependency on narcotic drugs. Huh, have you ever felt abnormally dependent on sugar? Always wanting it? Eating it emotionally when you had a bad day, eating it daily or just down right gorging on it? Wait till you hear the definition of a drug, you can decide if sugar acts like a drug in the body but first let’s look at one more definition of addiction: 3) Habitual psychological and physiological dependence on a substance or practice beyond one’s voluntary control. Most that struggle with eating too much sugar say they do have a dependence on it that they don’t feel like they can stop eating it even if they wanted to and believe me, many of them have tried. Now check out the definition of a drug: 1) A chemical substance, especially a narcotic, taken for the pleasant effects it produces. Ha, sugar is definitely a chemical substance and, yes indeed, most do take it for its pleasant effects initially…until the ‘come down’! Look at this definition of a drug: 2) Something and often an illicit substance that causes addiction, habituation, or a marked change in consciousness. Yes, excess sugar can definitely cause addiction and habituation where you do it out of habit. Now the real test will be to take ‘The Quiz’ I will be sending out in a few days to see if you even are a sugar addict and since you know yourself better than anyone, you can diagnose yourself.

Diseases & Symptoms Linked to Sugar Addiction:

Samantha has studied sugar for many years and she says that research shows that sugar in excess can be very toxic to the body. It has been linked to the three main killers in this country (top three below) and many other diseases and conditions:

• heart disease
• cancer
• diabetes
• autoimmune disease
• infection
• yeast overgrowth
• osteoporosis
• fatigue
• headaches
• joint pain
• weakened immune system
• mental fogginess
• PMS symptoms
• moodiness
• hot flashes
• depression,
• ADD-like symptoms
• excess wrinkles and the list goes on and on.

Does this list sound familiar? It should, because a lot of the symptoms of excessive sugar consumption are similar to the symptoms of gluten exposure. Many of you have gone gluten free, but still have health issues that won’t resolve. Sugar can play a major part in this lack of healing. This week I want to help you shed some light on the reality of this sugar addiction and hopefully inspire you to think about overcoming it. Make sure you stay tuned in this week so you can take ‘The Quiz’, you will probably be surprised. Maybe you are or maybe you aren’t addicted to sugar…. ‘The Quiz’ will confirm it… You can learn more about sugar addiction expert Samantha Taylor here <<< All the best, Dr. Osborne – The Gluten Free Warrior