Busting the Sugar Addiction Myth

As I sit here recovering from the flu, while my foster cat and her 7 kittens charge around like bats out of hell in the room next door, I’m getting the need to go on one of my rants.

Maybe it’s because I’ve lost my voice, so I need to write, who knows!

This week I’m busting the sugar addiction myth.

I see it everywhere: we are addicted to sugar. Heck, I used to believe it myself.

But here’s another idea to try on.

You ready?

You’re not addicted to sugar.

“But what about all the research that sugar is as addictive as cocaine?” I hear you cry. “What about all the evidence?”

Well, I’ll get to that in a moment. Let’s look at your sugar addiction.

Here’s what happens: you have a long day at work, get home, but there’s no time to relax. There is the kids’ homework, dinner to sort out, kids (and let’s face it, husband or partner as well), dishwasher to put on, kids bedtime, or maybe some time with your partner – but no real time just for you and you only. That’s until they are in bed, your partner is on his/ her phone, TV, or whatever they do, and you are craving the sweet stuff (mine was always Cadbury’s chocolate). So you end up in the cupboard thinking you’ll just have one (but when has that ever worked!), and you end up eating the entire packet before you know it, hiding the packet in the bin so no one else sees.

And it’s not just at night. It’s on the way home, stopping at the store to pick up the doughnuts that you then eat in the car on the way home, even though you know you shouldn’t, but you think, sod it.

We are told that this is a sugar addiction.

But is it really? And if it is, why do my clients unravel this and stop doing it in 6–12 coaching sessions with me, with no weaning off sugar or addiction strategies?

Because they, and you, are not addicted to sugar.

Here’s what’s really going on…

You go home after a long day at work, where you are juggling 100 things and doing everything for everyone else. You then go home to a family that needs you; you bend over backwards for the kids and your partner to make sure they have everything they need.

But who’s seeing to what you need?

Very likely no one.

So you crave not sugar, but just a treat—a moment to yourself, a little pick-me-up, or some relief from the stress of the day. After all, you deserve it. You’ve spent all day looking after everyone else. Why shouldn’t you have some damn chocolate?

So, into the food cupboard you go. In that moment, you feel good—you have your treat, finally something for you, and a moment to relax before it all starts again.

But then, the next morning or maybe even later that night the guilt kicks in. That inner voice starts its chatter up: Why did you do that? Why can’t you have more willpower? You’re so fat already; you’ve just made it worse.

And on and on it goes. Then the: No more of this, from now on I’ll be good. No more sugar in the house. Maybe you even swear to never have it in the house, or (God forbid) go on a detox.

But you don’t. You repeat the same cycle the next day or later that week.

And you keep blaming it on willpower. And you think you’re addicted to sugar.

But you’re not.

Let’s look back at it. What you were craving was not the chocolate, or biscuits, or sugar, or food. You were craving a moment to yourself, emotional relief, a pick-me-up after a long day. Food is just what you have learned to use in order to relieve stress.

You’re not craving sugar. You crave 5 minutes to yourself.

You’re not addicted. I’ve taken my clients through this process using a very specific tool, and it works – with no withdrawal symptoms, no headaches, nothing. Because they’re not addicted to sugar, and neither are you.

Now, if that sounded familiar and you want to do more of a deep dive on how emotions and food cravings work, then grab my free workshop: The Hidden Brain Loop Behind Emotional and Binge Eating.free workshop: The Hidden Brain Loop Behind Emotional and Binge Eating. Even if you don’t identify with the terms “emotional” or “binge eating,” this will give you a huge breakthrough and is life-changing once you understand it.