How Your Sugar Addiction is Sabotaging Your Health

Fact: sugar is the most highly addictive substance on the planet

Photo by Ralph Mayhew on Unsplash

It’s more than just a “sweet tooth.” It’s more than just needing a little extra “sweetness.” It’s more than just “candy.” Eating enough refined sugar over time becomes an ingrained habit and lifestyle choice.

Then the cravings start. Over time, they may become more intense; especially if you’re stressed, depressed, bored, or overwhelmed. You learn to resort to needing sugar first to calm these symptoms.

The next thing you know, your feeding a sugar obsession and can’t stop. Some people even love the “rush” they get when they consume way too much sugar; hence a “sugar rush.”

But over time you’ve gained weight, feel sluggish, experience brain fog, and maybe some headaches. Maybe you’re pre-hypertensive or even becoming diabetic. Yet you think nothing of this, and you’re not listening to your body. You don’t see the glaring warning signs flashing in front of your face.

But still, you crave more of the sweet stuff. You keep feeding that vicious addiction cycle so your brain’s reward system keeps you happy and satisfied. Oh, that dopamine rush!

At some point, you might even think to yourself, “how the hell did I get here”? You’re not alone.

Sugar addiction is a quiet epidemic that has flown stealthy under the radar for decades. Refined sugar has evaded practically every common food source and option. And society has downplayed the dangers of this highly addictive substance for far too long. “All things in moderation”, they say. I call bullshit.

Spoiler alert: there’s no “moderation” in any addiction, and refined sugar is no exception.

Research shows that sugar is one of the most easily accessible and most highly addictive substances on the planet. Who doesn’t love some sugar? Not only is it easy to buy, readily accessible, but is completely legal and comes with no warning labels.

Sugar soothes our emotions, eases our pain, and feeds our pleasures. Taken to extremes, it can compromise our health and damage the body over time. It can become a full-on addiction.

Even researchers got rats addicted to sugar. One study I read discussed how the rats first became addicted to a substance, such as heroin or cocaine. Then sugar was later introduced. The next thing the researchers found… the rats were craving sugar more than the drugs. When all three substances were introduced, the rats ultimately chose sugar over heroin or cocaine. And that is powerful.

What about alcohol? Alcohol is a strong and common addiction. In fact, a lot of people in recovery from alcohol abuse find they are turning to sugar to satisfy their cravings. After all, there’s sugar in various different alcoholic beverages. The next thing they know, they're now addicted to ice cream or some other kind of sugary item.

But what exactly is sugar?

Refined sugar (sucrose) is a simple carbohydrate. It provides a quick burst of energy and is digested just as quickly. It’s made up of one molecule of glucose and one molecule of fructose, which are joined together, making it a disaccharide (a molecule composed of two monosaccharides: glucose and fructose).

Sucrose is produced naturally from some plants. But it’s primarily mass-produced commercially from sugar cane and sugar beets through a refinement process; hence ‘refined sugar’.

Corn also plays a role in this too. It usually flies under the name of “high fructose corn syrup” (HFCS). HFCS is an ingredient found in so many processed and packaged foods today. And corn is already one of the most genetically modified items (next to soy). What most people underestimate is that high fructose corn syrup increases your appetite, and promotes obesity more than regular table sugar. So you get hungry quicker and eat more.

And buyer beware: refined sugar and HFCS are disguised with over 200 different names, such as maltodextrin and other names you probably wouldn’t recognize on a food label. Take the time to read food labels to see if you can recognize a hidden name of refined sugar.

While most people think and feel that refined sugar is a relatively benign substance, it’s rather highly addictive. In fact, it’s more addictive than most hard-core drugs like meth, heroin, or cocaine.

A highly cited study in the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews states that “access to sugar can lead to behavioral and neurochemical changes that resemble the effects of a substance of abuse.” This is scientific evidence that sugar is addictive, like any other drug of choice.

Sugar makes us feel happy, thus releasing the proverbial dopamine hounds. The same is true for any other addiction, whether it’s your phone, shopping, sex, or drugs. We all want that dopamine hit to trigger happiness and satisfaction.

Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter. It’s already a part of our brain in that it’s the brain’s natural reward pathway. Dopamine is an important chemical that influences mood and feelings of reward and motivation, as well as other body functions. You can check out some other facts about dopamine here.

The bottom line is that we just want to feel good. We want something seemingly harmless to ease some pain. Sugar easily and readily fits the bill.

Overconsuming packaged or processed foods is a quick and convenient way to satisfy your sweet tooth, even if they have healthy-sounding names. Sugar is a common ingredient in many foods people assume are healthy. Just because something sounds healthy, doesn’t mean it is.

This article will explore how addiction to refined sugar is sabotaging your health.

What are some side effects of consuming large quantities of refined sugars?

It seems as though sugar is practically impossible to avoid. I experienced this in my own life. It’s probably safe to say that most of the human population has experienced sugar from a young age. I had a full-sugar addiction for practically my whole life and never knew it. I never experienced a weight problem, per se. I was the classic “skinny fat” though.

For me, my consequence of addiction to refined sugar looked like this:

• chronic migraines since the age of seven (but my family blamed it on genetics; my dad had chronic migraines too)
• skin problems, even into adulthood (blaming it on puberty, then on hormone imbalance)
• having little to no energy (blaming it on school or work)
• massive brain fog (blaming it on lack of sleep)
• hormonal imbalance (blaming it on the medications I was taking)
• IBS & gut problems (blaming it on stress)

All the while, it was the massive amount of processed foods and refined sugar I consumed on a daily basis throughout my life. I literally thought if a label read “healthy”, then it must be. I was completely wrong.

Eventually, I grew tired of seeking medicine that never worked. It only masked the symptoms and never completely solved the root problem. I wanted a permanent cure to migraines that no doctor could provide. So I became my own science experiment and research project. “Project Me” began in 2019.

I started with my diet. I started the keto diet beginning Thanksgiving week 2019. Yes, I seriously did this; my timing is impeccable. But I was that determined to make a change.

I cut back my carb intake and eliminated all sugars completely. In doing keto, I honestly thought carbs were the enemy. Turns out it was sugar.

I noticed my migraines were significantly decreasing in my total number of headache days per week (there was an app I used for tracking purposes). I was also in the process of taking myself off all of my prescribed medications, cold turkey (By the way, I don’t recommend doing this).

Things I noticed: my body was detoxing and healing; My thoughts were sharper, more focused; My energy increased; My skin tone balanced out, and my digestive tract was normalizing; My monthly cycle was on point with no hormone therapy.

I felt amazing! Who knew this was even a possibility?

In the summer of 2021, I began incorporating healthy carbs back into my diet but left the refined sugars out. I needed the carbs because I needed fuel for my workouts. Healthy and whole foods were never a trigger for me, but I took them out because “technically” an apple isn’t keto-friendly (high in natural sugars and carbs), and I wanted to be compliant with my keto diet.

I tempted fate and was able to resume eating the fruits I once loved but didn’t eat because I was afraid of the side effects of sugar. I started eating fruits I loved like pineapple, watermelon, apples, and peaches. I was astounded by the results. I remained migraine-free. Natural sugars didn’t hurt me; refined sugars did.

As of this writing, I’m still migraine-free.

I was also able to restart something I loved so dearly in my past but struggled with because of the chronic migraines. I was finally able to go back to weight lifting and redefine my body composition.

Today, I still keep refined and processed sugars out of my lifestyle and enjoy a healthy macro-based diet to meet my health and fitness goals. I also don’t consume alcohol any longer (3 years now). My brain and body have thanked me ever since.

Now I’m not telling you that you have to do keto or even do exactly what I did. I’m pretty sure you and I don’t have exactly the same problem. But if we do share the same or similar problem, know that I’m in your corner! We’ve walked similar steps. And it’s my hope that this information will help in some small way.

What I am doing is urging you to rethink and assess what you are consuming on a daily basis. Get to know your body, and see what does and doesn’t work for it. Take notice of how you feel after you consume processed foods and refined sugars. Maybe this is the wake-up call you need.

Healthy, natural, and complex carbs are not the enemy. Healthy fruits and vegetables are not enemies. Healthy fats such as avocados and nuts are not bad for you.

Processed foods and refined sugars ARE the enemy and will blindly rob you of your health. Learn to be your own voice and health advocate.

While it’s challenging at first, it’s completely possible to detox off sugar and begin living a healthier lifestyle. You deserve it. You deserve to be vibrant!

Photo by Jannis Brandt on Unsplash

I explain all that to tell you this:

Sugar is enticing and highly palatable. It’s in almost every form of beverage from soda and carbonated beverages, energy drinks, coffee and iced lattes, beer and wine, orange juice, fruit juice, and iced tea. Sugar hides under numerous names and labels. And governing bodies don’t care about our health and well-being. They care about their bottom line and product. Sugar taken to extremes becomes an addiction.

According to addictioncenter.com “Emotional or psychological dependence on sugary foods and drinks, also known as sugar addiction, is a very real cause for concern among health officials in America. Processed foods and refined grains create additional sugar in the body once the body metabolizes the food.”

While overconsuming anything is never a good healthy quality, consuming too many refined sugars can cause a plethora of health problems. Some of these problems include:

1. Brain fog and cognitive dysfunction
2. Headaches
3. Decreased energy
4. Increased or intense cravings
5. Weight gain
6. Type 2 diabetes
7. Cardiovascular disease
8. Skin issues
9. Digestive disease
10. Metabolic issues

This is just a very tiny list of some common side effects from the consumption of large quantities of processed foods and refined sugars; by the way, the two go hand-in-hand. There is an extensive dirty laundry list of other side effects that refined sugar has on the body.

Emotional eating and sugar

I’ll keep this brief, but it’s important to mention.

The primitive brain is wired for sweets and fats for fuel. Primitive people were continually on guard to “hunt or be hunted.” There weren’t convenience stores or food and drink readily available. It was feast or famine. If you look at evolution and history, primitive people were fit, active, healthy, and strong. Obesity and the multitude of health problems we see today didn't exist. Most likely there wasn’t emotional eating in the form it is today.

If you look further at the timeline of food, processed foods and refined sugars didn’t come into existence in our American diet and culture until about the 1940s. It was around this early time that people were looking for more quick and convenient ways to eat.

The revolution of fast food was birthed, and all the gadgets and convenience items that go with it. And with this, came a sharp increase and continued rise in overconsumption and health problems. Gluttony began and it’s been a downward spiral ever since.

Some people find that their sugar cravings are higher when they are lonely, bored, depressed, or super stressed and anxious. This is where emotional eating comes in; think “comfort foods.”

Sugar is one thing that brings our brain comfort. We are looking to dull and drown out the pain, so we look to something sweet and enticing that’ll bring comfort and pleasure. When we continually consume refined sugars because they dull our pain, we can become addicted to sugar.

Emotional eating is a topic that’s been coming to light in recent years. This brief article by the University of Michigan College of Medicine gives an overview of emotional eating, how to recognize it, and steps to take to curb it.

Photo by Vizu Alni on Unsplash

How is all this related to sabotaging a healthy lifestyle?

In general, people want to be healthy. People want to be active and enjoy life. Most people don’t wake up each day wanting to be sick or unhealthy and knocking on death’s door.

Far too often, people live a life of reckless abandon when it comes to their food choices. While they want to be healthy and eat healthier, their sugary food choices and meal options are anything less than healthy.

Society and corporate food don’t make a healthy lifestyle easy to obtain. In fact, they make it quite challenging. Quick convenient meals for people with ‘busy’ lifestyles have become the mainstay and predominant option. And people buy into the excuse of “I’m too busy”… to plan a meal, to cook, to sit and actually enjoy real food as it’s meant to be enjoyed. Everything is fast and furious and cutting corners.

You shouldn’t have to cut corners when it comes to your health.

Walk down the center aisle of a grocery store. It’s all processed, boxed, and pre-packaged foods filled with refined sugars. It’s at eye level. It’s bright colors with catchy slogans, and the word HEALTHY. It goes in your cart, and then to your home. The final destination is your body.

You can’t have a healthy lifestyle and good nutrition by continually eating processed foods and refined sugars. Your sugar addiction is sabotaging your health.

What does it mean to sabotage something? Dictionary.com says “it’s undermining of a cause.” Merriam-Webster has 3 definitions, one of which states “an act or process tending to hamper or hurt” and a “deliberate subversion.”

While I don’t believe a majority of humanity is deliberately trying to hurt themselves and intentionally eating poorly, I do however believe that the corporate food companies and popular societal narrative want to keep people unhealthy and unwell. After all, this feeds the profit stream of many other industries, pharmaceuticals included.

Hippocrates said, “let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” He is also accredited with saying “illness does not come upon us out of the blue. They are developed from small daily sins against Nature. When enough sins have accumulated, illness will suddenly appear.” For the record, gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins.

Remember, there were no processed foods or refined sugars in the days of Hippocrates. Foods were as close to nature as possible and were used for their healing properties. Fast forward to today, we’ve bastardized and genetically modified so many foods that their more detrimental to our health; sugars included.

If refined sugars were out of the picture (or at least minimized), I argue that there would most likely be lower morbidity and mortality rates for many diseases across the health spectrum, including cancer.

Is it possible to stop sabotaging your healthy lifestyle efforts by eliminating your sugar addiction? Yes, I believe so. Being mindful of your food choices is the first step in the right direction. Learning how to read food labels, learning about real food. Buying from a local farmer or farmer’s market is another step.

Learn about the dangerous effects of processed and refined sugars. It’s an eye-opening and jaw-dropping experience.

I know every time I walk into our local grocery store to grab a few items, my brain goes into a bit of a tissy because I’m surrounded by all the yummy sugary items I used to enjoy. But then I’m reminded of the pain and disruption to my life that came in the form of chronic and debilitating migraines. And at that moment, I realize how far I’ve come over the past few years to be migraine-free and I want nothing more than to stay that way.

Migraines are one of my WHYs that I quit eating refined sugars and processed foods. I have another big why as well, and sometimes we go shopping together (my husband). We often engage in conversation while shopping about how corporate food keeps people sick and in their disease because they make things appear better and healthier than what they truly are.

So what’s your Why?

Are there sugars that are good for you?

Actually, yes. There are sugars on the market that are better for you, and provide a good level of sweetness to any drink or dessert. The main downfall… they’re a tad expensive and come in smaller quantities.

Today, a bulk bag of refined cane sugar goes for approximately $3.00 (average). A bag of stevia-based sugar goes for double that (if not more), plus it’s a smaller bag/container. It’s the classic quantity versus quality argument.

Where does stevia come from? Stevia naturally comes from a plant. And it’s noted to be sweeter than any refined sugar. But like anything that’s sugar related, stevia can be processed and labeled as “healthy”. Again, read the label.

According to Britannica.com “stevia, (Stevia rebaudiana), also called sweet leaf, is a flowering plant in the aster family (Asteraceae), grown for its sweet-tasting leaves. The plant is native to Paraguay, where it has a long history of use by the Guaraní people. The leaves contain a number of sweet-tasting chemicals known as steviol glycosides, which can be used fresh or dried to sweeten beverages or desserts or can be commercially processed into powdered noncaloric sweeteners. Steviol glycosides, particularly the chemicals stevioside and rebaudioside A, can be more than 300 times sweeter than table sugar and are nonglycemic (i.e., they do not affect blood glucose levels). Touted as a healthier alternative to sugar, stevia sweeteners grew in popularity worldwide in the early 21st century.”

This well-written post I came across, written by a Registered Dietician (and medically reviewed), is a great summary of the difference between natural sugars and refined/added sugars.

There are other sugars available on the market that are better for your health and wellness. Monk fruit, yacon syrup, erythritol, and xylitol are other options. This article provides a summary of their benefits.

Summary

Sugar seems to be everywhere and we can’t escape it. It’s like an invasive species that has its grip on us and won’t let go. It quietly seeped into practically every crevice of the food chain.

Refined sugar is mass-produced, easily accessible, completely legal, and comes with no warning labels. But it has a direct negative impact and correlation to poor health outcomes. These negative health outcomes have been documented for decades. And it’s only getting worse as time marches on.

Because it’s everywhere, sugar has become a part of our way of living and culture. Refined sugar has become so invasive that people are becoming addicted to it, like any other substance of abuse.

Addiction to sugar is a quiet epidemic that’s being swept under the rug. The health, wellbeing, and vitality of humanity are being ignored. Like the fall of the tobacco companies years ago, the same needs to happen to the sugar industry. Warning labels on refined and processed sugars need to be implemented.

Ultimately you can pay for your health now by eating better, or you can pay for it later with sickness and disease. The choice is yours.

Key Takeaways

• Sugar is an addictive substance, like other substances of abuse
• Sugar addiction is a real thing, and a real threat to your health
• Consumption of refined sugars and processed foods lead to adverse health outcomes
• Refined and processed sugars have crept into everyday foods, and corporate food has been deceitful on food labels
• Refined sugars are easily accessible, have no warning labels, and have many different names.
• Addiction to refined sugars and processed food develops over time
• Sugar addiction can lead to emotional eating (or vice versa)
• Sugars act on the same reward system in our brain to give us a dopamine hit for pleasure and happiness
• By continually feeding into a sugar addiction, you are sabotaging your health
• Being mindful of your food choices and learning how to read food labels is helpful and a step in the right direction
• Cutting out refined sugars can significantly improve your health and is a pathway to heal your body
• Corporate food doesn’t care about your health or wellbeing.
• You must become your own health advocate
• There are natural sugars available that are better for your health
• Define your Why for a healthy lifestyle
• You can pay for your health now by eating better, or you can pay for it later with sickness and disease.

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