Why addictions to sugars are so prevalent

At two months of age my ‘food’ was canned milk diluted with water. The milk was sweetened. That was the ‘formula’ at the time, if babies could not breastfeed, for whatever reason. My addicti9n to sugar was so prevalent as a kid that I’d take the hard flower decorations on birthday cakes from others kids’ cake (who apparently weren’t as addicted as I was), and eat them all! They were made with food coloring and hardened sugar.

At the Santa Clara County Fair I would eat an entire cotton candy (ok, maybe not the whole thing, but most of it), a red candied apple, and a strawberry shortcake (yes, I was stuffed, wanted to hurl, and sometimes did when I got home…lol). I visited the dentist a lot.

And to this day, it’s still easy for me to crave ‘sweets,’ so I do the best I can to avoid it. Mostly I’ll choose alternatives to refined white sugar. Often I make my own sweets.

Most packed foods contain some form of sugar

If packaged foods are sweetened, then you’re pretty guaranteed there’s some form of sweetener added to almost everything. In fact, sugar has been added to most packaged foods for decades, and it’s listed with different names. It’s truly one of the hardest addictions to stop. Sugar is more pervasive than any drug or substance out there, as it’s available literally everywhere and often hidden.

You don’t see ads on television selling heroin, cocaine or cigarettes (anymore), or any other illicit drugs for that matter. Even though prescription drugs are a huge epidemic, again, they aren’t added to most of the packaged foods on grocery shelves.

Even ‘natural foods stores’ carry packaged goods that can easily contain some form of sugar. Most sweetened goods in these stores contain sugar in one form or another.

In fact, it’s hard to get any type of sweetened packaged goods (cookies, pastries, pies, cakes, etc) that do not have any type of refined sugar.

Jumping directly into eating all fruits is challenging

The main reason eating only fruits to satisfy a sweet craving is that the addiction to refined sugars comes from years of eating them in one form or another. It’s hard to go from full out sugar addiction to eating just fruit to satisfy. It takes time, consistency, persistence, desire, and the willingness to check out different forms of sweeteners. This has been my first-hand experience.

We eat sugar because, mostly, we crave it. How can you change what your body craves? Keep in mind (if you didn’t already know), you crave what you eat the most…always. Check out what you buy when you grocery shop…every time. Most people buy the same things, almost the same brands, over and over and over.

Change is possible

If this is you, and you want to change your eating habits, but don’t know where to start or what alternatives you have, you can learn all about foods, and how to safely and most effectively make changes. Educating yourself is the first step. Tracking everything you eat will give you an honest picture of your own habits.

Your next step would be a plan. Be sure to check with your healthcare provider to be sure that what you want to do is safe for your current condition. Then contact me and I’ll give you guidance. Rememer that an eating plan (not a ‘diet’) is what you’re looking for. A plan is something that you can change up as you go along. You can adapt to one thing, and then make another change.

Sincerely,

Clara E Minor
Master Trainer-Instructor
Minorsan Self-Defense & Fitness
831-600-5858h