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Four realistic steps to end a dangerous, health-robbing sugar addiction at your own pace without debilitating detox symptoms or discomfort.
Sugar addiction is a very real and growing problem that has the potential to steal your health just as much as other more high profile dependency issues. Check out this email from Regina asking for help.
Dear Sarah, I’m sure you get lots of emails every day but I sure hope you can give me some advice. I’m 52 years old and a horrific sugar addict. At six weeks old, my mother started me on chocolate milk and other than very short periods of time, I don’t think I have been without sugar. It doesn’t matter what form it is in…just have sugar. This morning I told a friend that I could be rolled in chocolate and be happy!
So, you see my problem. Please help me get off sugar. Even typing that makes me start shaking and looking for my next fix!! I’m working very hard to change our eating habits. We grow almost all of our food…veggies, beef, pork, eggs, chicken, milk. This week I started making our butter, yogurt, etc. and hope to be making hard cheeses soon. Can you help a middle-aged, over weight, grandmother improve her health? Thank you so much, Regina
Regina, I can relate to your situation. I used to be a pretty dedicated sugar junkie myself back in my 20’s. I was the gal who was scarfing down the Snickers bar (King Size, no less!) at 3 pm every day at my desk while I worked a stressful, travel packed, restaurant loaded corporate lifestyle.
A box of donuts on the conference room table was my idea of a good start to the day!
Even after I had the good sense to quit that career and start working from home in 1996, I still had trouble conquering the sugar monster.
Not surprisingly, I was hypoglycemic from the misguided but supposedly “healthy” low-fat lifestyle I was following. Despite eating organic fruits, veggies, and meats much of the time, all that sugar made me a nervous wreck not to mention incredibly moody from seesawing blood sugar.
I’m happy to say that my sugar addiction days are long behind me and while I do still look longingly at a box of Dunkin Donuts, I pass them by. While I do give in and eat one bite-sized munchkin from time to time, I have found the hard way (refined sugar gives me such a nasty headache!) that choosing to eat none at all is far easier than indulging even just a bite or two!
So, how did I do it? How did I slay the sugar monster and keep it at bay for so many years?
Here’s the protocol for slaying a sugar addiction for good without any nasty detox symptoms taking your down for a week. I’m sure there are other approaches that would work just fine too. Here’s what worked for me and has enabled me to stay sugar addiction-free for many years.
How to End Sugar Addiction for GOOD
Below are the four steps for ending a sugar addiction for the long haul. It is important to note that how long each step takes is completely up to you. There is no hard and fast schedule for completion.
The point is to continue to make progress even if one step takes a bit longer than the others. And, if you have a setback, that isn’t the end of the world. You can continue to move forward. Progress, not perfection is the ultimate goal!
Step 1: Replace ALL Refined Sugar with Natural Sweeteners
This step means exactly what it says. You must get rid of all the white sugar and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in your home wherever it may lurk and replace it with natural, whole forms of sugar like honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar and sucanat (whole cane sugar). Do not use agave as it is highly processed.
Don’t forget condiments .. they are a big source of HFCS. Replace them with condiments from the health food store that taste just as good and don’t have some form of refined sugar as the main ingredient.
Not ready to get rid of soda entirely? Then buy soda only from the health food store! There are brands available there that use unrefined cane sugar instead of HFCS. These sodas taste terrific. You won’t miss a thing taste and satisfaction-wise by drinking them, I can assure you.
Stir sucanat or coconut sugar into your tea or coffee instead of white sugar. Only whole, unprocessed sweeteners make the cut here.
Replace those candy bars with healthfood store versions that use whole cane sugar instead of refined white sugar as the sweetener.
Whatever you do, DON”T replace the refined sugars with artificial sweeteners.
Studies have shown that folks who consume artificial sweeteners have more sweet cravings than folks who just eat the sugar in its natural form!
Be aware that you are going to have to start reading labels to complete this step. Refined sugar is hidden everywhere in processed foods!
The goal in this step is not to reduce sugar consumption but simply to replace it with a more nutritious, unprocessed, whole form of sugar.
When you have accomplished this significant step forward, CONGRATULATIONS! You are now ready to proceed…
Step 2: Increase the Amount of Whole, Unprocessed Fats in Your Diet
The sugar cravings many of us experience are due to the lack of enough healthy, whole fats in our diet. Dietary fat stabilizes blood sugar .. sweet cravings become overwhelming on dips in blood sugar.
I used to think that it was a lack of willpower that was preventing me from succeeding in getting my sugar cravings under control. As it turned out, it wasn’t a lack of willpower at all. It was my low-fat diet that was the primary problem.
Once I switched from skim milk to whole milk (preferably unprocessed directly from the farm), the whole yogurt from low-fat or fat-free yogurt, and butter from vegetable oil and butter substitutes, I noticed my sugar cravings rapidly diminished!
As part of this step, be sure to clear out of your pantry any item that features a “reduced-fat” or “fat-free” marketing line on the package.
Fat is your friend when you SLAY the sugar monster!
So go ahead and load up on butter – the best quality your budget can afford. Eat that delicious fat that surrounds your grass-fed steak. It tastes great for a reason! It is full of nutrition and it is a huge asset in stabilizing your blood sugar.
Don’t worry that your triglycerides will shoot to the moon and that you will drop dead of a heart attack. It is the factory fats that are so dangerous to your cardiovascular health, not whole unprocessed fats in milk, cream, eggs, and butter. Doctors and nutritionists who tell you otherwise are not up on their research.
Definitely avoid transfats, partially hydrogenated fats, interesterified fats, and any other rancid, cheap vegetable oils that are used in processed foods. But welcome with open arms cream, butter, egg yolks, coconut oil, and other forms of traditional, nourishing fats.
As you increase the whole fats in your diet, most people find the introduction of a therapeutic strength probiotic and homemade fermented foods to be of great benefit.
Probiotics will help to rebalance gut bacteria to a favorable ratio and keep candida under control. There are dozens of recipes on this blog that show you how to make all kinds of fermented foods and fermented drinks that will keep those pathogenic yeasts in your gut under control that are a big contributor to out of control sugar cravings. Homemade kombucha is an excellent choice for this purpose (NOT store brands that are high in sugar!).
Step 3: Remove All Forms of Processed, Whole Sugars From Your Home
Once you have abandoned the low-fat lifestyle and embraced traditional fats in your home, you are ready for the next step. Get rid of all processed sugar foods in your home even if made with organic, whole natural sweeteners.
That’s right, lose the natural sodas, organic cookies, pop tarts, organic chocolate, and any other organic junk food that you started buying when you switched from refined sugar to natural sugars in step one above.
This may seem difficult but wait…let me explain.
You can still eat as much natural, whole sugars as you want. Examples include maple syrup, sucanat, coconut sugar, and date syrup.
Inconvenience Factor
The catch is that now you can’t buy them…you have to make them yourself.
So if you want chocolate chip cookies, have at it. You must make them yourself using a cookie recipe using whole sweeteners. You can’t just walk to the pantry and pick up a bag of Newman’s Organic Chocolate Chip Cookies.
What this step introduces is the inconvenience factor.
When something is inconvenient, most of the time, you will just skip doing it, am I right?
For example, if I have a bag of organic chocolate chip cookies in the pantry and a very stressful event occurs suddenly out of the blue, the chances that I am going to walk to the pantry and eat some, or more likely, the entire box of cookies is rather high.
At least it is for me.
If, on the other hand, I don’t have any prepackaged, easy to munch organic cookies in my pantry at all, the chances that I will whip out the mixing bowl and make some chocolate chip cookies myself are much much lower.
In this step, you are still allowed to drive to the store and buy some organic cookies if your craving is overwhelming. But, when you walk through your front door, whatever you haven’t eaten in the car gets thrown in the trash (or given away). That’s right – they hit the circular file.
Only homemade sweets made with natural sugars are allowed in your home from this step forward. You can make as many homemade sweets as you like and consume as many as you like. But, they must be made by hand.
This step is where the rubber meets the road. Can you do it? You absolutely can if you are eating lots of whole fats in your diet! Eating lots of whole, unprocessed fats is your ace in the hole because your cravings will never be overwhelming as your blood sugar will be stable the majority of the time.
Step 4: No More than 3 TBL (36 grams) of Natural Sugars per Day
Congratulations are in order if you have made it this far to the fourth and final step. You are now 90% of the way to slaying the sugar monster in your life!
The final step involves a gradual reduction in the amount of natural sugars you consume to a safe level of no more than 36 grams per day. According to Tom Valentine in his classic anthology Search for Health, significant immune system suppression begins to occur above 36 grams of sugar from all sources on any given day.
This is the amount for adults, by the way. It would be about half (18 grams) for children. This is the amount you must try to refrain from exceeding in any given day. Note that the natural sugar in fresh or dried fruit counts toward this daily total.
How long should this step take? As long as is necessary. For some, it will take one week. Others may find it takes several months. The point is to keep moving forward and don’t give up if you fall off the wagon on occasion. Just get up, dust yourself off, and keep going!
Ideally speaking, some of your days should not include any sweets at all after a while. Having a goal of no sweets ever is not realistic, however. I suggest not going there mentally. It sets you up for failure.
Our culture is sugar-saturated so sometimes you are simply going to indulge. Don’t worry about it or feel guilty about it for even one moment when it happens.
If you have slain the sugar monster in your home by transitioning to only natural sugars, eating more whole fats, forbidding organic junk food from finding a regular home in your pantry, and eating homemade sweets only on an occasional basis, then you have absolutely accomplished your goal!
You are now eating natural, whole sweets in moderation and enjoying them in a safe manner that will not threaten your long term health.
Well done, my friend!
Where To Find Wholesome, Natural Sweeteners
These are the wholesome sweeteners I use in my home. Once you transition to unprocessed sugars, you won’t ever go back to white sugar or high fructose corn syrup laden products ever again!
Hi Sarah,
This is a great process for beating the sugar addiction; however I would think that for a lot of us, we should continue to press all the way to #5 (no added sweetners) as suggested by your quote in the comments taken from the WAP website.
As a specific example, I had been consuming a single tablespoon of honey (about 1/2 glucose and 1/2 fructose) with my oatmeal every morning. I measured my blood glucose levels 2 hours after eating and was still above 150 mg/dl. The same meal without the honey barely moved my glucose numbers above 110. I am not diabetic; however I am certain that blood sugar spikes can cause long term health problems before diabetes is ever diagnosed.
Hi Tim, thanks for the comment. Out of curiosity, just wondering if you ate that oatmeal with lots of butter and/or cream? I do not recommend eliminating honey (unless for short periods of time for healing a specific condition) as it is a superfood and a sacred food in some cultures. Raw honey has many benefits when consumed in moderation.
Sarah,
I was in fact eating my oatmeal with a “healthy” amount of butter (maybe 2-3 tablespoons).
I am sure there is some irony in the fact that I have 20 hives of bees and I am being negative against honey. My point is simply that if a food (even honey) is causing blood sugar spikes, you should not be eating it. Doesn’t seem like a superfood if it is having that effect.
…Tim
Hi Tim, definitely lose the hone if it’s not working well for you physiologically! That is VERY ironic that you have 20 beehives you tend to! 🙂
I find I feel more of a sugar/carb crash from a bowl of oatmeal (because it’s low protein, even with lots of fat) than I do with a spoonful of honey. So maybe it’s not so much the honey (or just the honey) but the high carb oatmeal?
Hey Rachel,
I purchased a cheap blood glucose meter to test against a bunch of foods. With the honey, big spike. Oatmeal without the honey, but exactly the same otherwise, almost no spike. Also was getting a big spike from homemade, baked french fries.
…Tim
This is really great info! Thank you! What would you say is a good limit for children?
Hi Martha, I do very very best to keep my children under 20g per day from all sources including fruit.
Great info. I’m at step 4, though I may have done that, too. I usually have one fruit a day (though more in summer) and 2 teas where I use 2 tsp of Rapadura. I’m moving more and more to baked goods made with stevia and/or honey/maple syrup. My sweet tooth has seriously diminished over the years… I’m about to start GAPS so I’ll be cutting down even more – I can’t seem to kick my chocolate addiction. I only have a square or 2 a day and it’s very dark but I seem to crave it after just about every meal. Sigh, there might be another problem here. Hence my decision to do GAPS. Keep the great info coming, Sarah!!
FYI: Kimi at the Nourishing Gourmet just wrapped up a sugar challenge (week). Here is the first in a series of posts – move to later posts for updates.
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2011/01/sugar-free-challenge-jan-17-24.html
Magda, I have heard over the years that Serious Chocolate Cravings are usually due to Magnesium deficiencies. Perhaps you might consider researching that angle? Just a thought 🙂
One of the best, most helpful posts yet, Sarah. Thanks for making it so simple. I’ve been using liquid stevia (both flavored and unflavored) in my tea as well as in recipes like brownies, and would love to hear your opinion of that.
Hi Jenny, liquid stevia is highly processed so try to keep use of it to a minimum. Green stevia powder is unprocessed and a better choice. I know the powder does not quite work as well as the liquid though! I myself have liquid stevia in my pantry, so I know that it is helpful from time to time. I think the key again is moderation and not to overuse it.
Hi, Sarah, I would greatly appreciate your sources and details about how liquid stevia being highly-processed.
Not to be argumentative, but, as a researcher by nature, I always require more than just a statement with no supportive data.
Thanks in advance!
Hi Catherine, I answered this in a comment down below .. that liquid stevia is highly processed came from an email I received from Sally Fallon, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation. I don’t have a direct source for you, only what she told me about liquid stevia directly and how she recommended that it is best to stick with the green stevia powder.
Thank you so much, Sarah! Blessings!
Any ideas on how to make it easier for the little ones to ditch the sugar? I already make everything from scratch because of food sensitivities. Of course it is my oldest who has the sweet tooth and the food sensitivities. I’ve recently moved “treats” to weekends only but boy, you’d think the world was coming to an end. My three year old, who has had good exposure to raw milk and runny eggs and good fats from a much younger age, would probably forget about treats if big sis wasn’t there to remind her. She is also slowly losing the initial signs of what happened to her sis. Big sis developed behavior problems after #2 was born and our processed food intake tripled. Finally getting those under control after almost 3 years. Haven’t done GAPS but have considered it. It’s SO much easier to start your kids out right than to undo the damage of processed food and additives!!
Great stuff. If none of it works for you though, try http://www.oa.org. I was over 100 pounds overweight, and lost it all and have maintained a sugar free and slim life for over 7 years. By the way, OA is completely non-profit. I gain nothing monetarily from this :-). All the best! Thanks for everything Sarah!
Sarah,
This was one of the most informative posts yet.. Alot of women seem to have this problem with sugar. I too, have noticed since giving up the lowfat lifestyle, I have less cravings. However, I still needed this post listed out the way you did. I do love to bake! Very helpful post!
I started getting off sugar when reading a weight loss book about the dangers of sugar. They say that 15 grams a day should be your limit and our family trys to stick to that. I said TRYS! haha!
great post. I think I’d actually be able to kick my sugar addiction if my morning and afternoon cups of coffee weren’t such a happy part if my day! I drink my coffee with 3 heaping teaspoons of white sugar in it. I lo e it that way and I am dying for a way to kick the white sugar but still enjoy the coffee just the same. I’ve tried stevia- horrible. rapdura or cocanut sugar taste the same?? I’m sure all the sugar isn’t helping me lose those last 10lbs from childbirth either!:)
Barb, have you tried raw honey in your coffee? I ‘converted’ this summer and it is a lovely taste… I don’t even like sugar in coffee anymore
Why not just half and half? That is what I use and who needs to sweeten? Then I eat unsalted almond butter with it and it tastes wonderful.
Thanks, Sarah! This just confirmed why I haven’t been craving sweets as much as I use to. I was a sugar addict, hiding candy everywhere, while I told my family how bad it was for them.:( However, since uping the fat and using sucanat, maple syrup or coconut sugar the cravings are definitely under control. I even notice our 9 yr. old asking for fewer sweets. Yay! Now if we could only stop the teachers from handing out candy as treats for everything! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!