Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

re: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

jschwartz — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:36:34 GMT

Fabulous. According to this research, we can cure cocaine addiction simply by offering sugar water!

re: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

kurt_nielsen — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 13:21:12 GMT

What happened to the 8 healing sugars!!!? The 8 Polysaccharides that increase the flow of information in the body and REDUCE disease... is it a farse? These special sugars are often rare in our diet because the majority may lack variety of foods. I havent had all 8 but I know the difference in terms of my concentration & energy.

I know refined sugars may be bad but isn't stevia refined? hasn't anyone learned that lesson about refined foods being bad for us. Chemicals for example "food additives" are often derived from plant sources and isn't considered synthetic until you change the composition kind of like cooking... maybe cooked foods should be labeled synthetic too LOL

Perhaps there is even a danger with consuming krill oil or salmon oil etc because maybe if we are meant to consume it perhaps we should be eating the fish and not mining all the ingredients. We have been trained to think potency equils power but maybe it equils imbalance.

re: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

moonchild — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 21:39:32 GMT

I have been addicted to sugar all my life. And I have quit it 4 times. This latest time I have been off it for over a year. And I still crave it every day. Every day. Not as overqhelmingly as when I began the restriction from it but I could get hooked again in a single bite. And I feel fantastic off of it. No mood swings, No anger. No jumping heart beat. No exhaustion. No fatigue. No obesity (I've lost over 100 pounds). It is the single most important thing I have done for myself and my family (and we all exercise, eat well, and get enough sleep). I cannot emphasize enough the toxicity of processed sugar. I do eat raw honey on occasion but have not noticed an addictive response to it. I do not intend to eat it again. For me, it is definitely poison.

re: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

foodsuchoose — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 09:03:54 GMT

Simply making these products (Stevia, Perfect Sweet & Agave) ONLY available for the 'market' to purchase is the answer, isn't it, as the WHO knows BUT, the governing body's of our world do not want to make things toooooo easy now do they. They are behind all the poverty in the world and do NOTHING to elieviate those suffering, because they make too much TAX OUT OF OURSELVES BUYING THE PRODUCT/S. There is an answer but we are being led astray by 'MARKETING'.

You decide who is right and do your best to guide others you know to do the same, only point here is, thier 'addiction' to sweetness is sooo great they do not want to listen to you, well, that's what you are finding sisn't it? The sugar drug is to powerful for the high % of people to swallow! Nuf said.

re: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

curious7 — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:24:29 GMT

Look at the way we feed our children in the morning before school. We load them up on a great deal of sugar, in the form of breakfast cereal. Then we add a little more sugar for taste. So by the time they get to school our kids are bouncing off the walls. Next ADAH is diagnosised and they are loaded up on "Big Pharma's" magic pills, and they cannot learn, because they are "Drunk."

Then again that is the whole point.

re: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

Katee Roux — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 17:42:32 GMT

P.S. I'm Katee Roux, by the way. The site has been stating i'm another Katee.

re: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

Katee Roux — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 17:41:23 GMT

I also am doing the candida cleanse. I'm just past 14 days of it. No sugar, including whole fruits. I have allowed myself a few carrots. I was "bad" on Saturday, tho, & had an ice cream bar. (I know, worse than the sugar the other crap in it). I paid for it fully on Sunday, by hurting all over, & being very emotional, & crabby, & just generally in pain & feeling sorry for myself & being angry at myself.

At this point, i think i'm almost past the soda craving. (25 days since the last). What finally did it for me in being willing to quit was reading here about the preservative that causes DNA mutation. I already knew about HFCS, and phosphates, and calcium depletion, and caffeine. But the preservative info was just too much. Now, knowing that the sugar will just make me feel crappy, i have only the most minimal desire to p/u that can of soda - and i don't do it!

I've been discouraged, tho, because i read of people changing their diets to healthy & feeling better & more energy within a few days. I've been doing the healthy stuff for 6+ months, no gluten, low sugar, (except the occasional soda), organic veggies, fruit, nuts. Now, for 2 weeks i've done no sugar at all, minimal sugar veggies, no fruit, no grains, all organic. I still feel like, well, crap. It will get better, won't it? I suspect the candida issues have been a problem since i was a teen, 20 years ago or so.

re: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

MDS_203 — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:20:23 GMT

I quit sugar "cold turkey" 8 months ago, and I certainly agree it's most addictive than cocaine! Considering I've been eating this "drug" nearly every day for 35 years in some form or another (starting young, with cheery breakfast cereals) I don't know why I was so surprised at the pain of detox. I also quit whites (sugars, flour, rice, etc.) and switched to complex carbs. The change has been incredible. No mood swings. More energy. Much happier. Balanced. Calm. Absolutely no PMS. No irritability. No anxiety. Lost 15 pounds.

To quote Carlton Federicks, "For one person in every ten, sugar is a deadly food, paving the way toward a hundred distressing physical symptoms, plus all the tortures of neurotic and even psychotic behavior. For that person a little sugar is akin to a little carbolic acid."

Do I crave sugar or the typical sugar-laden products? Not at all. It takes a lot of label reading and cooking from scratch to avoid sugar, but it's worth it. I haven't had so much as a bite of sweets since quitting, have no desire for them, and now the very idea of eating a donut or slice of cake seems as absurd as eating rat poison.

I now recognize people who are sugar-sensitive by their erratic (Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde) moods and behavior. What's fascinating is how sugar addicts will defend their right to sugar, mock and dismiss any and all studies proving sugar is unhealthy, and become angry at the very idea of cutting down on their drug of choice---as documented in Dr. DesMaisons' book, "The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program."

re: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

Marnie1 — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:18:46 GMT

So, we can start giving all the cocaine addicts sugar, and they'll switch to that addiction. Then we can say we've won "The War on Drugs". Give me a break--no drug addict is going to give up their drug of choice for sugar. Granted it is addictive, but it operates on the body in an entirely different way.

As mentioned in the article, our desire for sweetness is based in our evolution. When primitive man was exploring the world of vegetation, he learned that anything that tastes sweet is less likely to be poisonous and kill us. That's also why it's so hard to get kids to eat vegetables--it's that primal instinct that says if it's bitter, it could kill you.

Also, this study was done in France, and from what I've found out about it, was done in quite a haphazard way. I don't think they had very many controls in place to make this a valid study. But whatever gets them grant money...

re: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

Pwyll — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:29:23 GMT

I don't think rats would relate to getting high on cocaine and wanting to do it again....Only if the taste was preferred does it seem there might be a fair comparison with sugar. MSG is definitely a contender with sugar for addiction--and most do not know they are consuming it. The idea of needing sugar is likely true--without proper nutrient uptake, the body is sending signals for more fuel for the fire--and, if there were only healthy alternatives--those would be the ones consumed.

This is a very difficult one to gain discipline on--because of our need for glucose and the super availability of table sugar running around. Imagine what a store would look like with out any refined carbs in it like the sugar cereals, bread, pasta and so on. Only healthy choices...the size of the store would be a fraction of the mega storage space required now.

re: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

Thr3e — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:52:48 GMT

I love this. They 'speculate' that sweet receptors evolved during times when diets were low in sugar. So does that mean our cocaine receptors also evolved during times when we were low on cocain intake?

re: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

Dr. Tom Taliaferro — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:51:19 GMT

It's conceivable with amount of studies being directed at Glycobiology, the incorporation of the 8 required sugars in Harper's Biochemistry, that there may be a link between sugar addiction, weight gain, and the lack of 6 of these 8 biologic sugars presently in our Standard American Diet (SAD).

God designed a marvelous body and craving carbs may be an innate message that we are craving sugar. Just the wrong type.

re: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

veggienut — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:28:02 GMT

This article is absolutely correct, imo. In my professional experience, it is quite rare for sugar cravings to subside within a day or two after eliminating sugar. If this has happened for you, count yourself lucky. I didn't read all the posts, but don't think I saw anyone mention the book "Sugar Blues" by William Dufty. It's a classic, a brilliant read and explains the whole history of sugar, not only in this nation, but the rest of the world. (Btw, anytime a food can be used as currency in history, it must have some real passionate users behind it.)

Has anyone ever been to an A.A. meeting? What are they drinking? eating? Sugar! & caffeine or both. I've known and counseled many addicts and all had the sugar addiction in common. You can't always say the addiction is as bad as cocaine, no. But many will say the withdrawal experience was similarly difficult and painful.

I pity anyone, including myself, that has to be around those who are coming down off a sugar addiction...not fun! The more whole foods and detoxifying natural substances you get into them, the faster the process goes.

re: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

bagarino — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 12:50:15 GMT

I'm not surprised that the rats, given a choice between calories OR (and there's the key word ..'0R') 'crack' - chose the sugar, especially as rats are programmed to eat every 3 hours or so.

I'm very lucky inasmuch as I don't get sugar cravings whatsoever though the same cannot be said for starchy carbs. The odd thing with the latter, however, is that if I avoid them there is no craving, but just a tiny piece of bread or a small potato will set the cravings off as if a torrent of reward hormones (serotonin?) were pumped in behind a dam and I just HAVE to unleash it,

I'm male, 6' 3" and 216lbs and avoid most starchy carbs. I have a younger sister who is 5' 10" and 160lbs and who follows a similar fish-rich, starchy carb-poor diet . A third sibling, female as well, eats exactly what her brain tells her to eat (or doesn't eat at all and skips all meals 'til after 4 p.m.) She weighs (at a guess, it's a closely guarded secret) about 260lbs but is only 5' 8".

The entire rat experiment sounds like poor science but shows the power of food over the psyche.

I'm just back in Italy from UK and I have to say Dr. Mercola has opened my eyes. I was shocked to see the proportions of shelf-space devoted to appallingly bad "ready to eat" or "ready to drink" "foods", high in carbs, salt and additives - and all far more expensive than the sum of the cost of the components. A shrinking part of each of the supermarkets I went to was devoted to fresh foods (meat / fish / fruit / veg) and cheap, unadulterated tinned goods to be used in cooking (pulses, tomatoes). Most people's trolleys were filled with "junk" and I mean that in the sense of heroin as junk. Food to mess with your brain hormones and give you relief from the stress and pain of daily life, but with a terrible comedown that can only be dealt with by eating more "junk".

No wonder I barely saw a male over 40 (and many far younger) who wasn't overweight with terrible visceral fat. Does anyone in UK / US cook any more?

re: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine?

JLLU — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:51:15 GMT

Katie,

Many years ago, 27 in fact, I was so very ill and the doctors were treating the constant nausea, hives, fatigue, infections, fogginess, and exhaustion as normal for a woman with three children. I finally went, at the request of a friend, after convincing my husband that they were not quacks, to a chiropractor who got me into a program of adjustments and onto a suppliment program. He had me cut out all sugars, processed grains, and chemical laden foods. I was a fanatic for two years. Though I was no longer a fanatic after I proved that I could do it, it started me on the road to doing my own research and living a more healthy lifestyle. I admit that I fluctuated much with a family that has been hard to completely convert and extended family and friends who think I am over the edge. Yet, one place that I have not even been tempted to revert even a little is the soft drink catagory. It was the hardest to grapple with at the time as I could see the other cravings diminishing steadily, but the cravings for Coke lasted for six months. Yet when I was over it, I was over it. Nothing about a coke or other soft drink tempts me or even interests me. Ocassionally, and I mean only a few times in those 27 years, I have tasted one again to see what appealed to me and I am repulsed by the taste. Hang in there on the soft drink issue and perhaps it will happen to you as it did to me. I am even more glad that the taste discusts me since learning about HFCS.