I want to share a rather illuminating experience I had with sugar driving home from the addiction conference West Virginia Association of Addiction and Prevention Professionals (WVAAPP) I attended last week. I visited Bridging the Gaps treatment program on Friday after the conference ended on Thursday and was very impressed!
However, I overdid it a bit. So, I spent most of Saturday in bed rather than traveling, I felt well enough Sunday morning to attempt the rest of the 5- hour drive home – about 3 hours at this point. I tried to eat breakfast, but just wasn’t hungry. I stopped about an hour later but still couldn’t eat anything. I was dragging and was wondering if I could make it home. The only thing that appealed to me was a sugar-sweetened Blueberry Soda.
I categorically avoid anything with high fructose corn syrup in it. Now, I also don’t eat sugar! I will occasionally have a few bites of ice-cream, or a small piece of chocolate, but very rarely. If I do, it is always with a meal that would slow down the rate of absorption of the sugar. This small soda landed on an empty stomach. Within 10 minutes, I was flying! I felt bright eyed and bushy tailed. I had energy. I was happy. I felt great! An hour later, I was beginning to fade again, but still had no appetite. I found a small sugar-sweetened fizzy lemonade with elderberry. It was lovely! Again, within 10 minutes I felt great. This lasted for the next 2 hours. By that time, I was home and resting. I finally felt like something to eat and had my protein. I didn’t desire any more sugar. However, at dinner, the idea of another fizzy lemonade sounded great and I indulged. But that was it.
I’ve had no more cravings for sugar, or even the rest of the lemonade. I’ve not been addicted to sugar since I was a young teenager, so I was able to get away with it. But driving home, I reflected on the drug-like power of sugar to affect such powerful mood and energy change. The effect was much more than just raising blood sugar levels. As I tell my students, sugar is a mood-altering chemical which fires whichever neurotransmitter is depleted at that moment. And at that point in time, I think everything was depleted! It reminded me as to why sugar is such a ubiquitous drug, and why so many people in early recovery switch addictions to sugar. It has the capacity to truly bring relief to a starving, depleted brain. Temporarily!
This is the 3rd time I have spoken at this annual addiction conference in West Virginia, West Virginia Association of Addiction and Prevention Professionals (WVAAPP) and I am beginning to get known.
Several people came up to my table each day and thanked me for sharing my information about sugar addiction. They said that they had started eating protein every 3-4 hours and it significantly reduced their sugar cravings. At least half of them were also sharing this information with their clients and reporting positive results. But it is an upward battle. Most of the snacks at the conference were high carb with no available protein. As usual, I was the only table that sported cheese and nuts rather than candy. When I nicely inquired about this with a treatment owner, I was told that the marketing people believe that it draws people to the table.
Yep!!! I pointed out that no table had beer or THC gummies on it. It wouldn’t be allowed. But no one thinks twice about exposing people with sugar addiction to sugar, over and over again. I then pointed out that the high-protein brain food at my table also attracted lots of people – people who told me how grateful they were for the healthy food. So, I will keep showing up with my brain food and my “eat protein every 4 hours” posters. I will keep talking about sugar addiction and how to prevent it in early recovery. And I will keep trying to share this information with the whole world, so that together, we can make a difference!
