Today I’ll explain what sugar addiction is and how to reduce it.

I want to first clear up a big misconception about what we call sugar addiction. It’s not sugar addiction per se, although I’m sure you’ve heard that sugar is addictive. And that it is even comparable to hard drugs.

SUGAR ADDICTION: THE BUFFALO THAT HURTS YOU

It is a huge simplification that risks doing harm and not good.
Sugar stimulates the pleasure centers in the brain, and leads to the release of dopamine.

This is only part of the truth, which then leads people to overestimate the power of sugar and think about who knows what.
I’ll list other things that cause dopamine release.
A joke, listening to music we like, a funny movie, the amino acids tyrosine and phenylalanine that we find in protein foods, including vegetables, a good glass of wine, dark chocolate, coffee, all foods that contain carbohydrates such as bananas, do love, train, do any activity that gives us pleasure. And yes, of course, everything that stimulates the nervous system too, for example nicotine and hard or soft drugs.

Now do you understand that saying that sugar is addictive because it leads to the release of dopamine is an abnormal oversimplification?

And here you will say: yes, but sugar is addictive .
You eat a biscuit and you don’t get full. You eat a teaspoon of Nutella and want to finish the jar.

Sure, but how many of you when they are craving sweets would be able to eat a pound of sugar? Get ten sachets of sugar from the bar and tell me if they satisfy you compared to ten cookies. The truth is, no one wants to eat 10 sachets of sugar.
We would be nauseated on the fourth packet.

If there was a sugar addiction like a drug addiction, you would have to get rid of whole boxes of sugar. Pounds of sugar. Because the addict wants the drug. Not substitutes. If you want to deepen this aspect of addiction, I talk about it here .
The truth is, when you want something sweet, DON’T get the sugar packet, get the cookies. The snacks. The bars.
And there are 3 differences between white sugar and these foods.

• The first is that these foods also contain salt and fat.

  Salt, sugar and fat together are addictive. Especially if they are dosed in such a way as not to make us feel neither the only salty taste nor the only sweet one nor that of the fats.

• The second is that they contain flavorings and other additives.

  Which make them crunchy or creamy or velvety or pasty depending on the case.

• Finally, the third is that sugar and fat together make you fat and are linked to non-hepatic steatosis .

  Fructose itself does damage when combined with a diet that also contains a lot of fat as these scientists recently discovered . The body burns either sugar or fat, not both together. If we give it both sugar and fat in one meal, it will burn the sugars first. This is a scientific fact, it is how we function biologically.

  Another harm to believe in sugar addiction in such a banal way is that those who say “but I don’t like sweets” and then stock up on chips, pretzels, crackers, pizza, etc. are no less fat than those who love sweets.
  Because?

  Because complex carbohydrates and simple sugars have the same health effects. They are both carbohydrates.
  Simple sugars have no greater effect on blood sugar than a plate of pasta or rice. Sugar has a glycemic index of 68. White bread of 70. Rice cakes of 85. Wholemeal bread? Of 74.
  There is no difference between eating a plate of wholemeal or spelled pasta with vegetables and a plate of vegetables accompanied by a couple of fruits or a slice of bread and honey. Furthermore, for point three above, if I eat pizza I will tend to gain more weight than with a generous plate of fruit salad. So to say that anyone who does not like sweets is lucky is nonsense.
  He often gets fat from other foods.

  In the end. It is thought that as obesity is on the rise, sugar consumption is also on the rise. But no. Per capita sugar consumption has been declining for decades now. Do you know what went up instead? The consumption of vegetable oils, including industrial products, condiments, fried foods.

  ADDICT TO SUGAR OR SWEETS? HOW TO BEHAVE

  Instead of eliminating all types of sugar from our table, eliminate the industrial foods that cause you addiction, and all those foods that you cannot say enough to. And most likely among them there will be a chocolate spread and not fruit.

  If you want to help yourself and defeat your addiction, learn to call it by its name.
  Junk food addiction. Addiction to sweets (which is different from saying addiction to sugar).

  Another commonplace, alas often also said by influential people.
  Eh, but when the sugar wasn’t there, it was better .
  Except that you rely on who is alive right now with you in the present time, and there hasn’t been a man since 1500 to tell you.
  Second: but sorry, how were desserts made before?
  With less sugar (which existed, but which was expensive) and with more honey. And with fruit syrups and wine or liqueur syrups. So all stuff with a lot more fructose. Yet diabetes already existed since the Ancient Egyptians. And it was cured by giving sugar from fruit and juices or bread and by reducing fat from the diet. It was the disease of the rich.

  Nor is it true that hunter-gatherer tribes who do not have modern diseases do not eat sugar.
  They eat honey . Hazdas eat a lot of honey, especially in the winter when other fruit is not available.
  While the tribes of Papua New Guinea consume sugar cane.

  So for heaven’s sake. Be honest.
  You don’t eat sugar and you don’t have any sugar addiction, you are addicted to the sweets you find in supermarkets. From soft and fluffy sandwich bread. From pizza and chips.
  A friend of mine who has gained 12 pounds in the past two years has eliminated sweets from her diet, but she drizzles the potato chips in a bag with mayonnaise. Do you see the contradiction?

  If, despite this, you are not convinced, the solution is very simple.
  Clean the pantry of foods you can’t say no to, and don’t sweeten coffee and herbal teas or any other liquid with a zero-calorie sweetener.
  
  You have to make an effort for fifteen days, drinking only bitter tea or coffee, reading labels to make sure you don’t buy products with sugar. If you want to experiment, it is very important NOT to cheat. These days allow us to reform our taste buds. And in this way you will have solved the problem. The real one (addiction to processed foods) and the one you have built a false belief about (addiction to sugar).