"Addiction" (for lack of a better term)

[Nick Klemetson]

Hi Jordan,

There are some people I know, for instance, who can't function without 3, 4, 5 cups of coffee in the morning. Sometimes, their daily coffee consumption can total 10-12 cups. Failure to drink this coffee will result in headaches, etc... for them, from what I am assuming is caffeine withdrawal.

I don't drink coffee. But when I drink tea, diet soda, or any other caffeinated beverages or supplements, I feel absolutely no symptoms or any type of withdrawal from it, even the day after I drink a lot of it.

But there is something that I feel like I am "addicted" to, and unfortunately it is sugar. Not a day can go by without me craving some kind of sugar, whether it be cookies, chocolate, frozen yogurt, etc... It can sometimes cause headaches if I try to cut it out either gradually or all at once, but mostly it makes me irritable and crabby and keeps me from falling asleep.

I've tried over and over to try and cut down my sugar intake. I usually manage to maintain my 250/200/75 macros each day, but the amount of sugar is just too high. I'll sacrifice X amount of potatoes or rice so I can have something sweet. Unfortunately, hunger plays no part in it. I don't care how filling of a meal I have, there's always room for something sweet at the end. I'm positive that it's the primary thing that holds me back from reaching my nutritional goals.

Questions...

In your experience, is "sugar addiction" real? Is it like caffeine or any other drug?

Are certain people genetically predisposed to certain types of cravings, or is it mostly influenced by what someone enjoys? If someone told me I wasn't allowed to have caffeine for the rest of my life, I'd be okay with it. I don't "need" it psychologically. But if someone said no more chocolate or cookies, etc... I'd probably cry for 4 days straight.

I mostly would appreciate any insight on the above, but if you had any tips or advice on how to quell my sugar cravings, that would be great. Unfortunately, "man up and just quit eating it, pussy" doesn't work.

Thanks.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Yes, sugar addition is very real. Here's the cliff notes of the mechanism> sugar gets absorbed into the blood stream as glucose and acts on the mu receptors (opiod receptors) in the ventral tegmental area of the midbrain. The opiod neurons connected to the mu receptors are heavily involved in reinforcing and rewarding behavior, and send signals the nucleus accumbens in the cerebral cortex. Quite literally, this reverberating pathway reinforces your craving/desire/need for sugar and sugar containing foods have a higher food reward than an isocaloric food from any other source. This is the same pathway involved in recreational drugs (cocaine, MDMA, etc) but caffeine has more to do with ryanodine and calcium channels with respect to withdrawl.

If you went cold turkey with no sugar for 20-30 days, this would stop. I don't think you need to stop having cookies or chocolate, I just think you need a lower food reward and the only way you can do that is by resetting your palate and brain by abstaining for a while.

[rogerf]

This is great stuff Jordan. Thanks for typing it up.

[idlehands]

When I cut down for my first body building show I went through a palette change. It's bizzare. No sugar for 3 months and I ate some red peppers at a wedding. They tasted like candy !

Coffee is awesome. Don't you dare say anything bad about coffee. 1 pot a day is a serving.

[Luke S]

Having other carbs that end up as glucose in the blood stream wouldnt reinforce this same pathway, or do you need the sugar-palate for the reward mechanism to work?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Having other carbs that end up as glucose in the blood stream wouldnt reinforce this same pathway, or do you need the sugar-palate for the reward mechanism to work?

It depends on many factors, i.e. palatability/fat content/salt content/degree of sweentess/previous emotional connection to the food, etc., so no- it's not quite as simple as glucose= food reward.

[Greg C]

If you went cold turkey with no sugar for 20-30 days, this would stop. I don't think you need to stop having cookies or chocolate, I just think you need a lower food reward and the only way you can do that is by resetting your palate and brain by abstaining for a while.

Interesting topic. Let's discuss this part (the cold turkey) some more, and what that would really mean/look like (partially because the next sentence is contrary). If one were to do this, would you cut out:

1. Artificial sweeteners (like in my whey protein and I put in my coffee).
2. Prepared foods with any added sugars (seems hard to avoid unless one goes somewhat on the anal side)
3. What about fruit (yes, I know this is fructose and not glucose)

Other things to avoid I may be missing?

Thanks.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

The next sentence I wrote wasn't speaking in the same time frame, i.e. if you go cold turkey you won't be having cookies - but this is only transient. Sorry I didn't clarify.

I would avoid all processed foods besides whey, period. Fruit would be fine.

[Nick Klemetson]

Thanks for the response Jordan. I've spent a day or so digesting this, trying to figure out the best plan of attack.

First of all, it's comforting in a way to know that this has a physiological basis, and is not merely psychological. My head is screwed up enough already (severe clinical depression), so I'm glad it's not all in my head.

One quick clarification...

I just think you need a lower food reward

Can you explain exactly what you mean by this? Do you mean I should strive to get to the point where 1 cookie satisfies me, rather than 4? I would certainly love to get to that point.

It's funny with my wife sometimes... I try to ask her to not bring anything sweet home that is packaged or longer-lasting. If she brings home a package of Oreos for instance, she could probably eat those for a month. One here, one there, etc... but with me, I'll grab as many as I can hold in between my thumb and finger and then go back for more 10 minutes later. We both marvel at each other in that regard. "How can you eat so much?" "How can YOU stop at 1??"

Regardless of how it started, I feel like this is the time to try and change it. A good first step was this afternoon... there were cookies at a recital that I went to. I abstained rather than grabbing my normal 4 or so. I'd be lying if I said it was easy though, and now I have a headache.

[Greg C]

So after the 20-30 days, what would you call an acceptable re-introduction of those cookies/ice cream/cake/ho-ho's etc?


(yes, I have a problem. That's the first step, right?)