No doubt. I’m an addict.

~ Live & Learn

gingerbread,cookie

Sugar Season. It’s Everywhere, and Addictive by James DiNicolantonio & Sean Lucan:

  • Sugar is everywhere. It is celebration, it is festivity, it is love.
  • It’s also dangerous. In a recent study, we showed that sugar, perhaps more than salt, contributes to the development of cardiovascular disease. Evidence is growing, too, that eating too much sugar can lead to fatty liver disease, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, obesity and kidney disease.
  • Yet people can’t resist. And the reason for that is pretty simple. Sugar is addictive. And we don’t mean addictive in that way that people talk about delicious foods. We mean addictive, literally, in the same way as drugs.
  • Up until just a few hundred years ago, concentrated sugars were essentially absent from the human diet — besides, perhaps, the fortuitous find of small quantities of wild honey.
  • Today added sugar is everywhere, used in approximately 75 percent of packaged foods purchased in the United States. The average American consumes anywhere from a quarter to a half pound of sugar a day. If you consider that the added sugar in a single can of soda might be more than most people would have consumed in an entire year, just a few hundred years ago, you get a sense of how dramatically our environment has changed. The sweet craving that once offered a survival advantage now works against us.
  • Whereas natural sugar sources like whole fruits and vegetables are generally not very concentrated because the sweetness is buffered by water, fiber and other constituents, modern industrial sugar sources are unnaturally potent and quickly provide a big hit.
  • Substance use disorders…exist when at least two to three symptoms from a list of 11 are present…sugar produces at least three symptoms consistent with substance abuse and dependence: cravings, tolerance and withdrawal. Other druglike properties of sugar include (but are not limited to) cross-sensitization, cross-tolerance, cross-dependence, reward, opioid effects and other neurochemical changes in the brain.
  • In animal studies, animals experience sugar like a drug and can become sugar-addicted. One study has shown that if given the choice, rats will choose sugar over cocaine in lab settings because the reward is greater; the “high” is more pleasurable.

Read full op-ed NY Times article here: Sugar Season. It’s Everywhere, and Addictive

Notes: The recipe for the caramel stuffed soft gingerbread cookies in the photograph can be found here: Fabtasticeats.com.

35 thoughts on “No doubt. I’m an addict.”

  3. I will probably RB this tonight. Before reading it, I made the comment yesterday, “This is like cocaine” (which for the record, I will admit to trying once in 1983…at a concert in Madison Square Garden). Having just come off that medically supervised diet, these holiday events are extra tough for me and I am not pleased with how I responded.

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  7. I never cease to be amazed at how pervasive sugar has become in our diets. Seems like a dollop of corn syrup is added to EVERYTHING these days. I will confess to enjoying sweets, but thankfully it takes little to scratch the itch. My hubby, conversely, never met a sweet he didn’t like. It’s a CONSTANT struggle for him. And just for the record, I wish I were at Mimi’s house this morning. I. Love. Those. Cookies….

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    1. I’m with you on your wish to be at Mimi’s house.

      But in full disclosure, need to say that your comment reminded me of “Wayne’s World” with Wayne and Garth and me bowing to you:

      “We’re not worthy!”

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  9. Just like the poisonous apple in the fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was the most beautiful, shiny and tempting apple, sweets are beautifully packaged to make them irresistibly visually tempting. They should be packaged with a skull and crossbones as a warning.

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    1. Awwww, what a terrific analogy. Based on your wonderful comment, I take it you have this fully under control. There you go again. Playing at another level. First planking. And now sweets. Wow. I’m not worthy.

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  13. I’m a recovering alcoholic with 19+ years and when I finally put down the bottle I used sugar as a parachute to slow my cravings. Alcohol, when processed by the liver is converted to sugar, and when I quit this did help alleviate my withdrawal symptoms from booze; however it did help fuel a new addiction. My idea of chips and dip is graham crackers and frosting. A few years ago I went into a weight loss program that eliminated almost all carbs. That did the trick. I went from 307 lbs. to 205 in six months. Sugar, at least to me, is poison. The more I eat the more I want. Yes, it’s difficult to avoid, but it can be done. Educate yourself on products and that’s a damn good start. Most fat-free salad dressings have corn syrup as their main ingredient. Ketchup, ounce per ounce, has more sugar than your average ice cream. In my experience, protein is the cure for sugar hungers. Don’t blame “them,” take charge and exercise the highest form of self love, discipline. Good luck!

    With Love and Compassion, Daniel Andrew Lockwood

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    1. Wow. I read your comment 3x (and then moved over to your blog). You are an inspiration (containing your cravings, weight loss, etc). Thanks for sharing. You’ve fired me up to get after it. Happy Holidays to you and your family.

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