I've had dreams about sugar two nights in a row.

[Tobin S.]

Last night I dreamed that sugar was being turned into a weapon. Tonight I just awoke from a dream that sugar was an illicit drug, and I was a sugar addict eating a big bowl of brown sugar.

I've been on a low carb diet since January 10th. It's worked wonders on my waistline. I've lost 26.2 pounds in that time. But apparently it's also doing a number on my subconscious mind as well.

I do think I was addicted to sugar. I paid attention to my intake one night before I started dieting and realized that on a typical day I got at least 1000 calories from sugar-rich foods. I also had similar dreams about smoking when I quit smoking cigarettes, and I sure as hell was addicted to those. But I haven't had much in the way of withdrawal symptoms from quitting sugar until now. A few cravings early on and that's been it.

I did a little reading on sugar and there are some people who think that it is definitely a drug, and there is some science that points to similarities between illicit drugs and sugar. I'm not so sure, though, that it's in the same category. What do you think?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. You may be onto something, my dear Tobin!

I do think cutting back on sugar is a good thing, no matter what your dreams tell you.

As to whether or not sugar is a drug--this depends on how you define drug. Probably most chemicals we eat could be called drugs. I dunno.

I think your low carb diet is working! That's the main thing. You know, keep your eyes on the prize.

[Tobin S.]

3. Good to see you, Peggy!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. I think the comparison of sugar to an addictive drug

is overblown.

However, we evolved as humans long before there was refined sugar out there, other than honey. Almost all of us naturally crave sugar, which wasn't so bad when it wasn't readily available, but now it is. There's a lot of added sugar in processed foods, and so the real secret is to, insofar as is practical, avoid processed foods.

And giant kudos to you for changing your diet and losing the weight.

[Tobin S.]

4. Thanks, Poindexter.

Yeah, staying away from processed foods is the key. My wife has type 2 diabetes and she has picked up on some of my new ways of eating, cutting out the processed foods and eating less carbohydrates. She still has more carbs than I do, though, due to having to have a certain amount so her diabetes med doesn't push her sugar too low. However, in the past few months her a1c has dropped from 7.2 to 6.2- a big improvement. We'd like for her to be able to control her diabetes through diet, and I've heard it can be done in some cases, but we aren't quite there yet.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. It can be done.

My sister was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about five years ago. She changed her diet, lost weight, and now no longer has the diabetes. Her medical records now simply say, "history of diabetes". It probably helped a great deal that she had only been recently diagnosed, and that it wasn't long standing.

She did once say that the nurse she was working with was astonished at the changes my sister made, since so many people make zero changes in their life style.

Diabetes is nasty stuff. One of our brothers managed to ignore the clear symptoms for some ten years. He was finally diagnosed 20 years ago, but by then his kidneys weren't doing so great. He was on dialysis for about 4 years, then got a transplant. Meanwhile his vision deteriorated and he's now totally blind. I will hand it to him that he deals with all of these challenges quite well and is always cheerful. But he's the extreme example of how bad it can be.

So good for your wife for trying to make changes. It's hard, but she needs to do it.

[TexasProgresive]

12. This from someone diagnosed type 2 for 27 years

A low carb high fat diet combined with regular aerobic exercise has given me good control of blood glucose. Many diabetics find this regime to really help. Perhaps you wife needs her meds adjusted so she doesn't have to self medicate by eating carbs for a hypoglycemic event. Sometimes that is necessary but there is a cycle for T2D that is extremely unhealthy. Many of us have an improper insulin response. It's like it is slightly out of phase or doesn't react in a timely manner. Blood sugar goes up above normal and the pancreas says, "Oh shit!" dumping too much insulin which causes BG to plummet. The person then eats some high carb food which begins the process again. The excess blood glucose is then stored as fat by the insulin. This fat has an unintended effect of causing the person to become insulin resistant which causes the pancreas to secrete even more insulin.

By reducing carbs and especially unnatural ones like table sugar, HFCS, white rice and flour is the key to getting good control. T1D who must inject insulin have to set the dose for their pre meal shot by the amount of carbs they will be consuming in the coming meal. Some that I know with that really awful disease eat no more than 20 to 40 grams carbohydrates per day and do very well with A1C levels of 5.8% to 6.0%.

One other advantage I have noticed in myself in following a LCHF diet is that my blood lipids have normalized. I never had really high cholesterol levels, triglycerides were close to 600. The low carb diet lowered cholesterol and normalized triglycerides. Two books she might read are Dr. Richard Bernstein's, Diabetes Solution and Gary Scheiner's Think Like a Pancreas.

[fierywoman]

5. I think there was a study with rats, sugar and heroin.

From what I remember, the rats got used to sugar, got used to heroin, but then when they had to choose one or the other, they invariably chose the sugar.
Dr Mark Hyman has some interesting info about controlling diabetes with dietary changes (there's a book but I don't remember the title.)
Major kudos to you, Tobin S., for kicking the sugar for two months!

[Tobin S.]

6. Thanks, fireywoman.

I'll look up Dr. Hyman.

[secondwind]

7. Big sugar giants like Nestle and other companies push sugar in Central and Latin America.

The children grow up addicted to sweets etc, which results in obesity and eventual diabetes and other health issues.

[rusty quoin]

8. How much sugar do you need to ingest to become addicted.

I’m not judging, but I have never been about sweets. Is it something that gets you without knowing, like processed foods?

My wife has always had a sweet tooth, though she likes healthy home food best when she comes home from her job’s plane travels and hotel stays.

I did the hotel stuff myself, and you end up not caring if you eat or not, because you feel so gross.

[BigmanPigman]

10. Me neither. I have followed Tony Bourdain since 2001 and he doesn't have a sweet tooth either.

I crave protein for some reason. I have found with sugar, salt or fats that if I do have a craving my body is telling me something and I indulge. Then the craving is gone for who knows how long... it varies (a week or two).

[Tobin S.]

14. I don't know. Some people can drink alcohol in moderation, others can't.

Maybe it's the same kind of thing. I have no desire for alcohol whatsoever. Other people can't stay away from it.

[woundedkarma]

11. My 2c

Sugar gives you a high.

It's deadly.

Yet, it's very, very hard to stop.

It might not be in the same class as hard drugs but it comes close.

The death takes a lot longer but it's a very horrible disease. Most people don't know this but it starts with things like the nerves in your feet and legs dying (you can't just not feel things, instead you feel pain, you feel itching you can't scratch, you feel burning). Then it can take your sight. Then it chains you to a machine. Then you die. All the while, society is telling you you could stop if you just tried.

Yet, they put it in almost every food. And when taken in moderation, socially acceptable. Like alcohol.

I don't know what the answer is but it should start with one thing: addiction to sugar is a disease, it isn't your fault.

[mnhtnbb]

13. I finally stopped drinking alcohol 5 days ago

and I have been craving something sweet as a replacement! So I think sugar is definitely addictive. I started allowing myself 5 small chocolate covered
pretzels as my evening snack!

Eight years ago I lost 40 lbs--kept it off for about two years--and then let it slowly creep back until I was
right back where I started about two years ago. Managed to keep it leveled off there, but since I separated
from my husband last November added another 8 lbs.

It's gotten way out of hand and the easiest way for me to start losing again is to stop my daily alcohol consumption of
a cocktail and/or a couple glasses of wine. Some days, both! No more wine or booze in the house.

I'm also doing away with potatoes, limiting pasta and red meat, and no more chips. More vegetables and more water every day.

Good for you with your weight loss! You definitely are an inspiration. Keep it up!

[sl8]

15. On a related note:

From http://www.bbc.com/news/health-39067088:

The secret of why we like to eat chocolate
By Dr Michael Mosley
BBC
24 February 2017

It may seem simple - we like chocolate because it tastes nice. But there's more to it than that - and it relates to a fat/carbohydrates balance that is set right from the very beginning of our lives.

...

You can get lots of natural sugars from fruits and roots, and there is plenty of fat to be found in nuts or a tasty chunk of salmon, but one of the few places where you will find both together is in milk.

Human breast milk is particularly rich in natural sugars, mainly lactose. Roughly 4% of human breast milk is fat, while about 8% is made up of sugars. Formula milk, which is fed to babies, contains a similar ratio of fats to sugars.

This ratio, 1g of fat to 2g of sugars, is the same ratio of fats to sugars that you find in milk chocolate. And in biscuits, doughnuts, ice cream. In fact this particular ratio is reflected in many of the foods that we find hard to resist.

...

More at link.

[McCamy Taylor]

16. When I was 16-17 I gave up sugar to see if it would help my migraines and it did

however it is very hard to have a social life and never eat sugar. I still remember the night I basically said "Fuck it" and ate a donut because the group I was with after the movie wanted to stop and get donuts to eat and I was hungry.

Same for being vegetarian. That was for moral reasons, not headaches. But once I married a meat eater who also happened to do most of the cooking, I gave up the no-meat.

High fructose corn syrup is much worse than honey or cane sugar IMHO.