Sugar and Addiction

The quick answer:  The objective in eating less sugar is not to replace sugar with sugar-like substitutes, but simply to eat less sugar.  The split pea soup recipe attached delivers wonderful sugar-free flavor.

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Addiction

What’s addiction but the inability to resist harmful behavior.  Though known through out history, the rapid spread of addictive behavior is a phenomenon of our time.  The growing variety of addictions suggests a fundamental human vulnerability triggered by the modern diet and way of living.  Though some people are more vulnerable than others, with repeated exposure anyone is susceptible. 

Food addictions, as we have seen, make a good business for the suppliers.  The success of Coca-Cola, which originally contained cocaine, and of other caffeinated and sugary drinks is testimony to this.  These and other sugary foods are mildly addictive to most, but some find them highly addictive.  A central challenge of healthy eating and living is to live free of addictions. 

Occasionally we hear the refrain, “moderation in all things.”  This is actually a way of saying everything is okay, and we know that isn’t so.  Some things, like tobacco, or trans fats, should be avoided completely.  Other things—like sugar or sugar substitutes—should be minimized.  It would be wiser to say, “moderation in all good things.”

The reader comments to the last post suggest that even diet sodas are addictive and one reader asked for ideas on how to quit.  Serious addiction requires professional help and programs exist to provide such assistance, but here are a few suggestions for the mildly addicted:

1. Make your home a safe place:  If something desirable is in your home, it will be eaten.  So keep your addictions out of the home.  Healthy Change #8, for example, said to “buy candy a piece at a time; never bring a box or bag of candy into the home.”  So if you’re unable to resist soda drinks, just buy one when you do your weekly shopping.  And get a hacksaw and cut the drink holders out of your car.  Ha ha.  
2. Seek friends who don’t share your addiction.  A recent book, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks, followed the behavior of people who stopped smoking, a difficult addiction.  Those who were successful gravitated to social groups who didn’t smoke.  Try inviting your friends to quit unhealthy practices with you; the best outcome is when friends improve together.
3. Eat a healthy diet.  Poor nutrition is addictive nutrition—some researchers, for example, describe sugar as “the mother of all addictions.”  The science is not complete but there is evidence of the depressive effect of sugar on neuro-transmitters like serotonin, which leads to addictive behavior to compensate.  The sugar substitutes may also have this effect.
4. Remember you’re being watched.  There is scripture about the sins of the fathers passing to the sons, and their sons.   If you want to protect your children, work very hard at eating well and avoiding addictive behavior.  The generation X’ers who embraced street drugs grew up in a culture where adults abused prescription drugs.
5. Replace your addiction with something better.  Take a walk when you’re tempted to reach for a diet drink.  Water always tastes better after a walk.

Stevia

Readers have asked about stevia as a replacement for artificial sweeteners.  I think the question misses the point—to improve our diet the safest approach is to reduce all sweeteners, not just our sugar intake.  There is no research, to my knowledge, that shows a total health benefit from replacing sugar with any chemical that has the same sweetening effect.  To improve health and longevity, we need to de-sweeten the modern diet and return to traditional flavors.

Look at the history:  A new chemical or product is regularly discovered and marketed to replace one found addictive or unhealthy.  Since sugar was shown to be unhealthy in the amount being consumed, we have seen a series of potently sweet new chemicals being introduced, from saccharine to cyclamate, to sucralose, to aspartame to the most potent yet, neotame (acesulfame potassium).  Short-term, these products are probably safe to use.  The long-term safety remains unknown and may never be known due to the needle-in-the-haystack difficulty of proving what makes us ill among the thousands of foods we eat. 

Stevia is a traditional sweetener in Latin America and is now used around the world, especially in Asia.  China—not generally considered a safe source for processed foods—is a significant exporter of stevia sweeteners.  The leaves, once used intact, are now chemically processed to isolate several of the sweetening molecules.  Two, stevioside and rebaudioside A are marketed in different forms.  Rebaudioside A was approved for the FDA’s GRAS (generally regarded as safe) list in 2009, which simplifies its addition to food products.  Coca-Cola and Cargill developed a stevia product called Truvia, and Pepsi-Co developed PureVia.  The use of these products will grow and we eat at our risk.

We have used stevia products in our home but have stopped.  My beautiful wife didn’t care for the after taste and I decided I just didn’t know enough about how they are manufactured. 

Please comment:  Reducing sugar intake to the AHA guidelines of 6 tsp daily for women and 9 tsp for men is about a 75% reduction for the average American.  The goal is to de-sweeten our diet, not just to replace sugar with non-sugar sweeteners.  Please share your experience with eating less sugar (whatever the form). 

Recipe:  Split Pea with Ham Bone

In the post on legumes I promised to share our recipe for split pea soup.  It’s a traditional dish good for several meals, full of flavor without resorting to sugar.  We started with the Cooks Illustrated recipe, which follows the traditional ingredients for legume soups but took too long.  Split pea soups are a thrifty dish for using ham bones left over from a Sunday dinner.  We cooked this twice, once with a ham bone from the freezer, the second time using cooked ham hock/shoulder from the store.  Because the amount of bone will vary, we wrote the recipe per pound of bone:

Ingredients

1# ham bone with a little meat attached, or a ham hock/shoulder

4-6 cups water, or enough to cover ham bone

1-2 bay leaves

1 cup split peas, rinsed

½ tsp thyme, dried

1 T EVOO

1 medium onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 T butter

1 garlic clove, minced (optional)

1 new potato, cubed (optional)

Tabasco sauce (optional)

Directions

1. Place the bones with meat in a suitable pot with bay leaves.  Bring to boil and simmer 2-1/2 hours.
2. Remove the bone from the pot and set aside to cool.  Add split peas and thyme to the pot.  Return to boil and simmer 45 minutes until peas are soft.  (Steps #3 and 4 can be done during the 45 minutes.)
3. While the peas are simmering, add olive oil to a frying pan and sauté carrots, celery, and onion about ten minutes, until soft and moisture is evaporated.  Clear a little space in the pan and add butter and optional garlic, then stir into the vegetable mixture. 
4. Remove the meat from the cooled bone(s) and chop into small pieces.
5. Place the vegetable mixture, cubed potato, and meat in the pot of split peas.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer for 20 minutes.  Add optional Tabasco sauce to taste and serve after cooling.  (During step #5 a green salad can be prepared and served with bread.) 

Note:  Not counting the 2-1/2 hours of step #1, this meal can be prepared in a little over an hour.  Cook it on a day when you have extra time and you’ll have enough leftovers for several more meals.  A 3# ham bone made enough to freeze a quart and provide two dinners and a lunch for two people. 

Comments

[queenann]

Yes, I'm trying hard to reteach my taste buds. It works, but it takes patience and diligence. I've never tasted an artificial sweetener that I liked, so I'm not tempted by those, but the real stuff--sugar and brown sugar and maple syrup, oh my!

When baking, I often put less sugar than the recipe calls for. Even a 1/4 cup less sugar in a cake is a start! And not eating the whole cake once it's baked would help, too, I suppose!

One suggestion when eating a heavily sweetened dessert--at a party, for example--is to eat it very slowly and notice exactly that moment when you think "oh, this is very sweet" or "gosh, I need something to drink with that" and stop eating it right then. I'm trying to learn to be satisfied with a few bites instead of compulsively finishing every crumb. It's hard. But it can happen.

[cristie]

seven of us have just completed four months of no desserts,added sugar, candy/no soda. many have lost substantial weight, better even tempers, sleeping through the night (a problem for menopausal women), peace from not being driven to eat the next sweet, clear thinking...it's been a good challenge and remarkable proof to the benefits of sugar free living.

[CamaronO]

I really like how you consistently bring this up. I know I need it! One thing I'm excited for is that my baby is almost 10 months old and doesn't mind (most of the time) sitting in her highchair while I cook. Especially if I'm sitting down to eat too. So that being said, I'm FINALLY gaining back the time to spend over my meals and make something good tasting and good for us. Plus, I'm so ready to ditch the baby food jars! (I couldn't believe how little variety there is in baby food! everything is sweetened--juices, snacks or salty--wagon wheel things or cheetos for the kiddo. Way to train the younger populace!) I'm thrilled that I can give her something real, something that her parents are eating and knowing that for the most part, she's eating well.

I can't control what others will feed my child. (Church, parties, school functions, etc.) But as long as she's at home she'll eat well. She'll still eat less sugar and salt than her peers!

[Stacey Mardene]

When making breads I always use 1/2 the sugar called for and then I replace 1/2 the oil with unsweetened applesauce. The texture and taste are the same and the breads are always much healthier!

[Noelle]

I've cut candy and chocolate out of my diet for the last 2 months! After a couple of weeks I even cut out sugar (I do have a "cheat" day once a week). I feel good about the control I've gained. I haven't really lost weight cause I've turned to chips to replace the sugar. But today, at the store, I past all chips and crackers. I need to eliminate them as well. I plan on filling the void with fruit. Anyway, my girls have commented on how impressed they are with my control and one of them has even decided to do the same thing. I do think we had become addicted to sugar. I hope to further set a good example for them and improve my own health. Thank you for the article. I love your blog and all that I've learned.

[Noelle]

I forgot to mention in my previous post about an experience my husband had with Splenda. He is very fit conscious. He's not addicted to sugar but enjoys sweets. Anyway, over a week period of time he kept having these cramps and became concerned. One day the pain was so bad that he went to the doctor. The doc told him that they would do exploratory surgery and possibly take out his appendix. We talked about it and it occurred to me that he had recently been eating things with Splenda in them. He looked it up on the computer and found numerous cases with the same symptoms. He immediately quit everything that contained it. Within a day or so all his stomach issues and cramping disappeared. We now avoid it whenever possible.

[Sarah]

I have a natural tendency to enjoy sugary/sweet treats more than any other food. Chips and other salty snacks are not my thing, but sugar in it's many forms is pretty much irresistible to me. After discovering a hormonal imbalance that would not only make it difficult for me to have a baby, but could also lead to a much greater risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and all of the other "fat diseases" I decided that I had to treat sugar like the toxic substance that it is. I've been sugar and sweet free for a month and feeling great. Last night we hosted a BBQ and while everyone snacked on s'mores for dessert, I had a banana. :) I've tried to "quit" sugar before, but found myself in a diet laden with sugar-free sweets. Now I'm revamping my diet as a whole - trying to focus on real foods and avoid processed chemically created foods. It's amazing how cutting out the processed foods can really help with the sweet addictions. I feel so much more even and satisfied throughout the day. I think after a long sweet fast I may reintroduce *some* treats, but I think it's important to keep treats special and infrequent.

[kristi]

We told our treat-loving 8 year old daughter that if she would go three months without sugary treats we would pay her $100. Her determination and will power have been an example to me. She wants to buy an American Girl Doll with the money she's earning not eating treats.Thanks for your blog! We love it!

[Lindsey]

This past spring I went totally off all sugar, even fruit, for a time based on the advice of an integrative doctor. It was hard; it really gave me compassion for those with addictions because I felt so strongly the urge to have something sweet. And when I did slip up, I tended to go crazy and eat a ton of sugar. After a week or so, though, I really noticed a difference in my taste. One night I was eating broccoli and it actually tasted sweet! Even now, after adding fruit and small amounts of sugar back, I find a lot of processed food and desserts way too sweet so they're really not as tempting any more. I think that recommendation of 6 tsp a day seems pretty high. The hard thing is that sugary foods are such a part of our sociality so it's really hard to opt out of sweets at times.

[Annmarie]

I am so grateful for this blog. Thank you for the time an effort you spend. I started in April to cut out all processed foods. It became very apparent how addicted I was. I would do well for a few days and then break down. It took a good month to 6 weeks of constantly trying before I felt like I was able to break the addiction. It has been so freeing. I have been able to have a can of pop or a cookie occasionally and it is easy to only have a little bit and not grave it after. I am also amazed at how little It takes to feel me up when I am eating mainly whole foods.

Annmarie

[Lisa]

I am trying to move our family toward intentional sugar consumption. My thinking is that if we really do want something sweet, let's have it in something that is meant to be sweet (small piece of chocolate, one scoop of ice cream, etc) and not consume it in foods that have had it added such as breads, sodas, applesauce, pasta, juice, whatever other processed foods we eat that have added sugar or sweetener.

I totally agree that the overall goal is just less sweet stuff in our lives, period. I think it is a very difficult step for most people, especially those who claim to have a sweet tooth, like me. I come from a long line of sweets eaters, so it'll be an uphill battle but I think it's important not just for me, but for my sons. I know I always feel better when I consume less sugar and fewer sweeteners every day.

[Kate]

When I first tried to give up sugar several years ago it was a terrible experience for me. I had horrible headaches and vicious mood swings.I seemed to have a permanently blocked nose, felt really nauseated, had a lot of trouble sleeping and couldn't concentrate on anything for more than five seconds. It was so hard to resist temptation, but I'm glad I got through it. It was such a great learning experience as I discovered just how much sugar was in the products I bought. Not just the sweets and chocolate but also things like cereal and spaghetti sauce. It was the first step to completely overhauling my eating habits. I still have sugar in my diet, but it is so much less than it used to be, and I'm still working to reduce it further.

For anyone trying to quit the habit, I'd suggest reading Lick the Sugar Habit by Nancy Appleton and checking out sugarshock.com.

[Michelle]

This is wonderful writing, and very persuasive to me. I am a terrible sweet tooth, and I come by it honestly--it's just how I was raised. The main trouble I have had in the past when I've tried to reduce and/or quit is that sugar is such an integral part of celebrations. There's FHE treat, and date night treats, and a tradition of ice cream on Sundays, and those are just the weekly ones. It's like we don't know how to mark an occasion without binging on sugar. :) Seriously, it really is the culture of our family, and that is soooooo hard to change. Our boys get upset if we say, okay this time applesauce IS the dessert, not the ticket to dessert.
I'd love more thoughts on changing a family culture, and ways to feel like you're celebrating without imbibing unhealthy food.

[Skip Hellewell]

Michelle, thanks for writing. You asked for tips on how to control sugar intake in your family. In addition to the tips in the post, The Diet Soda Challenge, here are some more ideas.

1. Start with a family meeting, a council. Explain the problem and the benefits of cutting back on sugar, especially the health of the parents and the appearance of everyone.
2. In preparation for the council educate yourself. Kate mentioned Appleton's book, Licking the Sugar Habit. Appleton is a good health writer (you can learn a lot about her book by looking it over on amazon.com and reading the pages offered there before you decide to buy).
3. Ask the family to start with a sugar fast. Make a ceremony of removing the sugar from the house and putting it in the garbage can. The fast can last a week, a month, or until Labor Day, whatever. Have a good prize to celebrate completing the fast, a family adventure of some kind, whatever the kids want (that won't break the budget). Winning the kid's (and hubby's) cooperation is critical and they need to have some control over how it's done. See the comment above by Kristi, about the discipline of her 8-year-old daughter in their sugar fast.
4. Each day of the fast have a few minutes at dinner to inform the kids about the dangers of sugar. Make it believable and important to them. Cook better than average dinners during this time.
5. After the fast make a written record of how everyone benefited and save this for future reference. Kids want to be part of something that is successful even if hard to do. Set a goal going forward the family will support but make it no more than the AHA goal of 1 tsp (4 grams) of sugar daily per 20 pounds of body weight. (A 120 pound person gets 6 tsp daily, etc.)
6. Write and report to this blog when you're done. Sharing success stories helps us all but will also make you more accountable. Best wishes to you.

[Lisa W.]

My husband and I have overhauled our diets since January. Mainly for fat loss. Also because we are Crossfitters, and eating our American diet was holding us back from our physical goals.

In May we completed our first Whole30, a 30-day healing diet, which can be read about at whole9life.com. The Whole30 helped me end my lifelong Diet Coke addiction, heal me of gastrointestinal issues, and even cleared my 25-year-old face of the acne. I couldn't figure out why I still had it! My diet was the answer.

Now we avoid all sugars and artificial sweeteners, and I can confidently say we always will. We eat a low GI diet to aid with fat loss and maintain high energy levels. Plus, it really helps us in our high intensity workouts. I read ingredient and nutrition labels for every food we buy to ensure we are putting good food in our body. The times I've had sweets, I immediately feel that "buzz" and regret my weakness. For the negative effects it has on our bodies, sugar consumption really isn't worth it.

Skip, your blog is wonderful! Thank you for being a strong, thoughtful advocate of good nutrition.

[Laura]

Based on the acid/alkaline theory, green leafy vegetables will actually help reduce sugar cravings. Basically, sugar is acidic. We want our bodies to be more alkaline. If we eat alkaline foods then we won't crave acidic so much because our bodies will be the way they should be.

[Jenna]

Laura-I didn't know that! I'm going to give that a try, especially around the time when I am experiencing PMS.

Lisa-I like Michael Pollan's advice, that if we want to eat something sweet, we should make it ourselves. Tastes better that way because we appreciate our hard work as we enjoy the treat :)

Thanks so much for clarifying about stevia. I really appreciate the way you take this blog in the direction your readers ask for. I think their is no easy route to reducing our dependence on sugar, not stevia, not splenda, not agave. We just need to fill our bodies with more fiber and protein and vegetables and whle grains.

I know this is a tricky subject, but if y are ever so inclined I would love to hear your thoughts on how you think we can influence the nutritional offerings at our church activities. They are always so full of processed foods, sugar, fat, and more sugar. How do we convince people that the increased amount of work it takes to prepare whole foods for the activities is worth it? (The bonus is that it would be cheaper!) I am already stressing about sending my son into nursery in two months. I am appalled at some of the things I see them feeding our sweet little babies, lots of candies and processed wheat products. :( How do I take a stand and effect change if I'm not the one in charge?

[Laura]

Jenna, I have a son in nursery now (20 months old). I have decided that because my children are healthy and eating right at home (or at least we are working on that) I will let them have things given to them at church and other social events. We don't go to a whole lot of social events, which helps. I don't want my children at school to abstain from a cookie or cupcake in class on someone's birthday. That would be torture for them. It is such a hard thing to decide where to draw the line when it comes to children. I have also found that other people have to come to an understanding of what is actually healthy on their own. Even my own sisters think I am crazy for changing my families diet- after my parents told us all that we needed to follow the Word of Wisdom and laid it all out for us. I try to set an example by bringing healthy options to potlucks. Others can taste it and see that healthy doesn't mean horrible tasting food. I feel that setting the example is about all we can do at this point.

[Kiasa]

I am a sugar addict. I remember as a child (when I was about 10 years old) hiding and eating a whole package of oreos. But we could never have white bread (funny, huh?). Keeping sweets out of my home makes the biggest difference for me. I go through phases of sugar fasting. When I'm working to break the habit (I've done this a handful of times) I will make sure my cupboards are stocked with lots of unsweetened dried fruit (mango is my favorite). And I let myself indulge in honey. I let myself eat those sweet things when I have a craving, but after a week or two I don't really want the honey or dried fruit. Also, when I exercise and get good sleep my cravings are much less. But sleep and exercise are rare with 3 little ones. I posted a reminder posted on my kitchen wall with the benefits of a sugar free diet (from my experience): feel happier, healthier, joints and muscles won't hurt, more patient with and mom, more energy, kids will eat better, and save money.

Also, a bit on the same lines as Jenna and Laura, I've noticed that in general at church there's a bit of a social stigma around eating healthy. I've seen leaders purposely persuade a YW to eat candy when the family is against sweets (like they are doing her a favor). Also, my kids totally poo-poo me and our homemade snacks when we are around friends who have prepackaged snacks. They hover around their friends like vultures. (I don't tell my kids they can't have those things, they eat them when others share.) Socially, sugar and processed foods are hard to deal with for me and my kids. My lds friends are a lot worse about it than my non-lds friends.

[Noelle]

Addressing the church and kids issues I think education and example is the key. Try and encourage classes in RS based on the Word of Wisdom and how to apply it. Offer healthy snacks for the nursery. I know the leaders really appreciate parent involvement but just be flexible because other parents may not see the same things you do. The same goes for at home. Teach the correct principles and let them govern themselves. When my kids were little I was very strict. Then I found a couple of my kids stashing food in their rooms and going all out when we were in public gatherings. We've slackened the control but continue to learn and teach what we know. I have teenagers now that know what is good for them because what we've taught. That doesn't mean though that they eat that way all the time (but they don't hide it anymore). We have our sweets and enjoy what is being served in social settings but I do notice that they will pick healthy options as well. Since I only have sugar once a week, my daughter has been impressed to do the same. What we do and say really does make a difference.