Why Diets Fail (Because You're Addicted to Sugar) (14 page)

It has recently been shown that sugary foods and other carbohydrates stimulate parts of the brain involved in hunger, craving, and reward. When people tasted high-glycemic-index foods, they showed greater activation in areas of the brain that regulate addictive behaviors as compared to people who consumed low-glycemic-index foods.
³⁰
The bottom line: sugar selectively changes your brain
in a way that promotes hunger and craving, and that turns on the addiction cycle.

What the Science Means

Science is now beginning to support what many people have been claiming for years: some highly palatable foods, and sugars in particular, can produce behavioral changes and alterations in the brain that resemble an addiction in some individuals. Although at first it may have seemed strange to discuss such a common and natural foodstuff in this way, the scientific evidence is mounting, and the data from research in laboratory animals and humans show that addiction to palatable foods has striking similarities to addiction to drugs and alcohol.

Congratulations on making it through part one and hanging in there through all of the scientific detail. It may not seem like it right now, but understanding what’s going on in your brain when you’re eating sugar will help you recognize and overcome those feelings of withdrawal and craving once you start cutting it out. Get ready;
part 2
is all about breaking your addiction to sugar.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

• Identify three research findings included in this section that you find particularly interesting or that relate to your personal struggles with overeating and weight loss
.

• How might understanding the new science behind food addiction make a difference in how you feel about your struggles with food?

• Were you surprised by your results when you took the food addiction quiz in this chapter? Why or why not?

STEP 4

The Sugar Freedom Plan for Breaking Your Addiction

“
Sugar gives you an initial high, then you crash, then you crave more, so you consume more sugar
.”

—
GWYNETH PALTROW

By now, you’re probably beginning to understand more and more why some of your past diet attempts were doomed before they even began. Also, maybe you had never considered the possibility that sugary foods could be addictive, or maybe you weren’t really ready to make a long-term change. You may now see that you’re eating a lot more added sugars and other carbohydrates than you may have thought, and that you may be eating them for reasons that are seemingly out of your control. Your addiction to sugar may be derailing your weight-loss efforts, but with this insight, you are
better equipped to beat it and regain control over your food choices and your body weight.

This chapter describes the Sugar Freedom Plan, which is designed to help you gradually reduce (and in some cases eliminate) the sugars and other carbohydrates that may be fueling your addiction. The plan has five phases.

PHASE

1

DURATION OF PHASE

1–2 weeks

WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF THE PHASE?

Sugary beverages

WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THIS PHASE?

Cutting out completely

FOODS TO FOCUS ON

Soft drinks, coffee, energy drinks, fruit drinks (including 100% fruit juices), sports drinks, iced teas

PHASE

2

DURATION OF PHASE

2–3 weeks

WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF THE PHASE?

Junk foods

WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THIS PHASE?

Cutting out completely

FOODS TO FOCUS ON

Cakes, cookies, candy bars, ice cream, and foods found in vending machines

PHASE

3

DURATION OF PHASE

3–4 weeks

WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF THE PHASE?

Carbs

WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THIS PHASE?

Cutting out (almost) completely

FOODS TO FOCUS ON

Cereals, breads, pastas, rice, and other complex carbohydrates

PHASE

4

DURATION OF PHASE

1–2 weeks

WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF THE PHASE?

Hidden sugars

WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THIS PHASE?

Identifying, eliminating, and replacing

FOODS TO FOCUS ON

Salad dressings, barbecue sauces, sugary marinades, ketchup and other condiments, and sweetened peanut butter

PHASE

5

DURATION OF PHASE

Permanent change

WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF THE PHASE?

Categories from phases 1–4

WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THIS PHASE?

Maintaining all the changes made

FOODS TO FOCUS ON

Foods from phases 1–4

This plan will help you revamp your way of eating; minimize and, in some cases, eliminate the intake of foods that are addictive; and develop the strategies needed to maintain this way of eating. You have already begun some of these steps in the previous chapters by assessing your present food habits, recognizing the factors that can lead to a vicious spiral of dieting failures, and understanding the role that addiction can play in food intake.

The Sugar Freedom Plan

This approach really isn’t very complicated; it’s just different from diets you’ve tried in the past. After hearing the details of how this plan is implemented, it may remind you of other diets on the market that emphasize restricting sugar intake or carbohydrate consumption. However, there are two fundamental differences between this plan and other diets you’ve read about or tried in the past.

WHY IT WORKS

A main reason why this plan is fundamentally different from other diets out there is that it treats certain types of foods like drugs. By understanding the basics of addiction (which were covered in Step 3), it will be much easier for you to recognize and cope with your behaviors, feelings, and thoughts involving food, as well as react in the appropriate way to satisfy your appetite, not your addiction. You will understand what it means to be actually
hungry
, as opposed to irritable from a drop in your blood sugar. You will recognize the temporary side effects of overcoming an addiction, like withdrawal, in the initial phases when eliminating certain sugar-rich foods, and not allow this temporary discomfort to detract from your overall goals. You will recognize the cravings that you have for sugar, chocolate, and other carbohydrates in the short term as nothing more than your addiction trying to control your behavior and reel you back into a lifestyle of eating for pleasure and not for need. You will learn to use food for its original purpose—energy—and to replace the pleasure or comfort that you used to derive from food with other things in your life. You will learn how to navigate food-related situations that could be triggers for you to overeat. Just as an alcoholic learns to avoid going to bars, you will learn how to
deal with the foods, food cues, and situations that may contribute to your addiction.

A second reason why the Sugar Freedom Plan works and differs from many of the other diets out there is that this is not a diet in the way that most people conceptualize diets. It’s not something you do each spring for three weeks in order to squeeze back into your bathing suit; it really is a new way of eating and living. Yes, it’s based on nutrition and science, but the impact on your life won’t be limited to just your food intake or your weight. Once you decide to make the necessary changes in your food choices and learn how to listen to your body and feed it the foods that it
needs
(not the foods that your addiction
wants
), you will find that you can easily maintain this way of eating. And, when you see the results that it will have on your body weight and energy levels, you will be pleasantly surprised to see that not only will you be able to maintain this way of eating, but you will also enjoy it.

HOW IT WORKS

This plan is based on psychology and neurobiology. It is simple and straightforward. Step 3 explained how excess intake of certain foods can change both your brain and behaviors, much like what is seen with drug addiction. The goal of this chapter is to teach you how you can revise your approach to food and avoid common traps and pitfalls that can lead to and perpetuate addictive eating.

The core principle of the Sugar Freedom Plan is that if you restrict your intake of foods that are high in sugar and carbohydrates that quickly break down into blood sugar, you can break your addiction to sugar. By committing to changing your eating habits for the long run, you really can lose weight, and the weight loss can last. As we mentioned in
Step 2
, it can be time-consuming (and confusing) to determine how every food that you might want
to eat will work with this plan, so we have developed the Sugar Equivalency Table (see
this page
) to help decipher which foods are okay to eat, and which are not, according to the amount of sugars, fiber, and total carbohydrates they contain.

If all this talk of restricting and giving up is making you nervous, don’t fret! Many people start to worry that if they have to give up all of their favorite foods, there will be nothing left to eat. Here are two promises: First, you will not starve to death if you can’t have sugar-rich foods. Though it’s hard to imagine, our ancient ancestors—and even those ancestors as recent as your grandmother—survived without access to Dunkin’ Donuts or king-size candy bars). And second, there are
plenty
of other foods out that that are just as delicious and healthier that are just waiting to be tried.