Break Free from Sugar: Discover the Secret to a Sweet Life 

Did you know sugar can be addictive ?

Finally the sun is talking and I am kicking sugar…

1.	Personal experience of sugar addiction and overcoming the same
2.	Scientific work corroborating my personal experience of sugar addiction

Did you know sugar is addictive?!

Finally the sun is talking. And I am kicking sugar….
Don’t Laugh. It was two months of sheer hard work.

Yes. Sugar is addictive. So are chocolate cookies.
But for an Autoimmuner like me the combination of winter and chocolate cookies is a recipe for disaster.
Every ingredient that goes into making one — flour, sugar, vegetable oil/butter plays havoc with a weakened immune system like mine.

For most of last year I have suffered frequent bouts of physical low, pain, acute stiffness impacting mobility where I found my quality of life is comprehensively dented.

I attribute several reasons (not excuses) for this frequent illness cycle I was experiencing:

1.Two years ago I shifted city. The brighter side was being available to my aging parents and coming back to my old place and friends, but that also meant losing my space to create. I walked into a vacuum even though I was happily busy setting up my new space. At least I thought so.

2. Last year I had a reality check as both my parents fell sick in a serious way and on occasions we thought we have lost them. Though both are doing well at the moment, my father’s deteriorating health is a cause of concern. 
I know the inevitable is the ultimate truth. But there is a difference between knowledge and experience. The fear of imaginary looms large.

I am in a habit of taking dark chocolate/ chocolate cookies during my physical slumps as they often lead to disease-induced depression.
I failed to realise when this habit turned into addiction.

It is not uncommon for people like us to fall into depressive phases (reversible) as we are constantly battling a distressed system.
Add stress to that and it becomes a perfect recipe to find ourselves in the vicious sickness-addiction-cycle.

I was consuming 4–5 packets (each packed with 6 pieces) of cookies everyday, feeling high momentarily and then experiencing a slump as it was normal after an abnormal sugar spike.

I was gaining weight, encountering frequent breathing problem & severe fatigue losing my ability to carry on my basic routine and was finding it hard to concentrate or focus. 
I lost my reading habit and thought I have lost my writing too.

I don’t remember when I bought the first packet of chocolate cookies after a long gap of 3 years but looking back I have been taking them in loads everyday since a year.

Many a times last year, I have forced fed myself with cookies after a full meal

I realised something is not right when one evening, December last, I found myself reaching out for my Cookie Jar, when I had no penchant to have onSomething inside told me it was time to take note.

Studies conducted by researchers in University of Bourdeaux have revealed that sugar and sweet reward can not only substitute addictive drugs like cocaine, but can even be more rewarding and attractive. 
At the neurobiological level, the neural substrates of sugar and sweet reward appear to be more robust than those of cocaine as the former is more resistant to functional failures.

Chocolate cookies forge silent addiction as they are a sociable food option and tastes good. 
What we tend to ignore is the fatal impact of white sugar/fat/salt.

In their review Sugar and Sweet Taste-Rewarding or addictive ,Danielle Greenberg, John V St Peter, observes that the notion of food “addiction” often focuses on the overconsumption of sweet tasting foods or so-called “sugar addiction”.
In the extreme, some have suggested that sugar and sweet tastes elicit neural and behavioral responses analogous to those observed with drugs of abuse.
Though the validity and reproducibility of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methodologies used to characterize neurobiological pathways related to sugar and sweet taste stimuli is uncertain, the feeling of high after chocolate/ sugar consumption in us is real.

In their review Intense Sweetness surpasses Cocain Reward , Magalie Lenoir, Fuschia Serre, Lauriane Cantin, Serge H Ahmed observed in rats the preference for saccharin was not attributable to its unnatural ability to induce sweetness without calories because the same preference was also observed with sucrose, a natural sugar.

The preference for saccharin was not surmountable by increasing doses of cocaine and was observed despite cocaine intoxication, sensitization or intake escalation — the latter being a hallmark of drug addiction.

They speculated since refined sugars (e.g., sucrose, fructose) were absent in the diet of most people until very recently in human history, in most mammals, including rats and humans, sweet receptors evolved in ancestral environments poor in sugars and are thus not adapted to high concentrations of sweet tastants. 
The supra-normal stimulation of these receptors by sugar-rich diets, such as those now widely available in modern societies, would generate a supra-normal reward signal in the brain, with the potential to override self-control mechanisms and thus lead to addiction.

But there is good news.
However alarming this may sound, the addiction is reversible with a little help.

I responded to my system signals and consulted a nutritionist who put me on an anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritic diet.
For the uninitiated, autoimmune conditions are highly susceptible to develop inflammation at slightest of stimuli.
Right food is by far the best medicine, as majority of the immune cells reside in our gut.

Most often we don’t realise we are taking the wrong path and more often we go that way in spite of knowing what is right.
But there is always room for course correction if we are willing and determined.

I have not taken a single chocolate cookie for straight 64 days since 16th January 2025, though in the first 20 days I experienced extreme fatigue, abdominal cramp, severe mood swings and irritability.

And the results are here to experience and enjoy. 
I have observed marked improvement in my energy level with significant reduction in mood swing and irritability.
Not denying the advent of summer as the ultimate hedonism-stimulator, I am experiencing an enormous drop in wrong cravings which has been my annoying highlight all through 2024.
I would like to attribute this improved gut response to my new found Food Routine, which I will discuss in details in my subsequent articles.

Does this all mean it’s time to kick your Cookies?
Enjoy them. But be mindful of they taking control of your mind!

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing. -Abraham Lincoln

https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/19-short-inspirational-quotes-for-overcoming-adversity.html

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For more of my auto-immune musings check out:

Bugs Now Guaranteed Be Damned

Seeds of Dissociation

Also find my work :http://Read stories from Soul Bay on Medium

#Addiction

#autoimmunedisorder

#Mental Health

#Overcoming Obstacle

#sugar