Linda Gardner's Blog: No Sweets of Any Kind, Ever?

If you’re addicted to sugar and carbs, does that mean that you can’t eat sweets of any kind, ever?

This and other questions are answered this week by our food addiction expert, Bitten Jonsson, RN:

No sweets of any kind, ever?

I love dark chocolate, fruit, and occasional desserts. I also love to cook and bake them for my family. Do I have to cut them from my life completely forever?

Susan

Susan,

Yes, as with any addiction you have to take away the “drug” if you are a sugar addict. The things you mention will set off your addiction and you will lose control, we know this today.

We also know that our reward system is changed forever if we have developed an addiction, same as the saying “once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic”. If your problem was “harmful use” you could probably have it sometimes and not lose control.

I advice you to read the book Food Junkies by Dr. Vera Tarman and Phil Werdell to learn the difference and to be brutally honest with yourself about what happens when you eat certain things.

Wish you the best,
Bitten

I joined overeaters anonymous yesterday

Hello Bitten,

I wrote to you a while ago and you advised me to join overeaters anonymous because I have a sugar addiction. I honestly thought I would be okay on the LCHF plan but I have struggled even though I have lost 12 kilos (26 lbs). I need to lose another 20 kilos (44 lbs) to be in my right weight range. After binging over the weekend I realised I cannot continue like this and started to become depressed and full of self loathing.

I then remembered what you told me and I went last night to an OA meeting and I feel like I have been given a lifeline. I am going to abide by the 12 steps and take one day at a time. I already feel a sense of freedom after one day. If you don’t mind, I would love to be able to message you here with my progress. I am very hopeful and have a positive feeling that maybe for the first time in 20 years I may be able to shake my addiction to sugar and carbs. But I will just take one day at a time and I am not looking past that.

Thank you for recommending OA. I honestly don’t know what I would do if you never told me about this wonderful place.

Warmest regards,
Caroline

Caroline, I am so happy for you.

Recovery is a lifelong haul for us addicts. We can never change our sensitive brain chemistry, but we can start living a great life. I say that “recovery is like going uphill on an escalator going downhill, if you don take one step up at a time you will go down”. So it is only for today and the 12 steps are what helps us practice and practice new tools instead of turning to food and that’s how we rebuild our brain, especially the frontal cortex.

Great work, keep it up and thank you so much for sharing. Bitten

High blood pressure?

I’ve been doing LCHF and intermittent fasting (two times per week and sometimes I incorporate one more day, and I never eat breakfast), but my blood pressure is still a little bit high… So my question is what I can do to finally overcome this?

Thanks,
Pablo

Hi Pablo,

It seems like you are doing what you can with your diet so I advise you to look at stress. Read about how to find out what stress is all about and what it is for you and use more tools to lower that. You question does not give me any more clues than that. A little bit high might be OK for you? [NOTE: You may also check out our guide to normalizing blood pressure]

Take care,
Bitten.