Jenn

I was reading an article in Time magazine today, about a study published in ‘Nature’ that sugar is a toxic substance and should be regulated.

A lot of my weight gain came from sugar in various forms, particularly drinks.  When I first started eating healthy, I went cold-turkey from sugar and refined carbs like pasta. I was sick for well over a week – sick as in violent headaches, depression and vomiting.  That’s actually minor though when compared to the affect sugar was having on me when I was eating it frequently, and still does when I eat or drink more sugar than I can handle (which isn’t much), like lately .

Aside from the obvious weight gain, physiologically, sugar gives me huge anxiety – I get all twitchy and my body goes into fight-or-flight.  If I don’t make it to the gym, odds are I had sugar within four hours previous, because I just want to sleep. The biggest physical reaction to sugar I have though, is night sweats. When I eat even a moderate amount of sugar I wake in the middle of the night boiling hot and perspiring like I’m running a marathon.  I went three years without waking in the night boiling hot (virtually no sugar for three years, yay me!), then ate a bunch of sugar and it started back up. When I stopped again, it stopped.  Now it’s back.  I’ve read accounts from other people who experienced that as well. That’s not a scientific study, but it’s good enough for me.

Is sugar a drug? No. But I have to say, personally I have had a much harder time (both physically and mentally) stopping sugar than anything else, alcohol included (and at one point when I was younger I REALLY loved alcohol).  As my friends all know, I’m a big fan of personal responsibility and Just Say No, that food doesn’t own anyone, but holy crap, sugar is a sneaky one. I wonder if it might be doing more physiologically to us than we as a society think it is. Frankly the night sweats and the fact that I get violently ill for a week when I stop eating and drinking it are pretty convincing for me personally. My motto is, if I have to painfully detox off something, that’s probably not good.

I think I’m just going to have to stop eating/drinking sugar altogether.  Which will actually grieve me a bit, given my long-term daily mocha habit. But given the fact that the prospect of giving up mochas and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Dark Chocolate fills me with dread, that pretty much tells me it’s a good idea; I’m not chocolate’s bitch. So farewell, my morning mocha. Saying goodbye to you is bittersweet, but I’m trading you in for a mid-morning walk and a real snack.  I’m probably in for a world of hurt for a week or so, but as I learned through the weight loss thing, sometimes in life I just have to suck it up.

PS: This is the end of day 1. I have a raging headache already. I had some caffeine earlier to avoid THAT headache, but ate cleanly otherwise. Let the games begin. You won’t win this one, sugar – you’re going down.