4 Reasons You're Addicted to Sugar

If you feel like you’re shackled to your sugar cravings, there is hope! Like anything in holistic health, we need to look at WHY you’re dealing with the cravings. Let’s unpack a few possibilities and get to the root of what’s leaving you reaching for the sweet stuff.

Insulin Resistance May Be the Cause of Cravings

Sugar addiction may have a lot to do with your hormones. Whenever we eat sugars or refined carbohydrates, they significantly spike our blood sugar (glucose) levels. This blood sugar spike triggers the pancreas to release the hormone insulin, which enters our blood stream to bring glucose into our cells to be used for energy. The problem with eating excessive amounts of sugar, is that overtime our cells start becoming less responsive to insulin forcing the pancreas to produce more and more insulin to have the same affect. 

Riding these blood sugar spikes and crashes leave us feeling exhausted, moody, hangry and not sleeping well. Naturally, we’re going to reach for more sugar to counteract these crashes! Eventually, insulin resistance can lead to issues like chronic fatigue, anxiety or depression, poor immune function, high blood pressure, neurological diseases and of course, type 2 diabetes.

Your Gut Bacteria & Candida Fuel Sugar Cravings

Your gut bacteria strongly dictate your cravings. If you have higher amounts of unhealthy bacteria, those gut bugs are going to make you crave what fuels them… that’s sugar! Sugar fuels the “bad” guys and suppresses the “good” guys and can leave you dealing with further digestive issues, dysbiosis, fatigue and more susceptible to infection.

Additionally, candida, a healthy  commensal yeast, can also overgrow due to sugar intake (& especially antibiotic use) and affect your cravings big time. We need to bring balance back to the gut to truly deal with sugar cravings.

Eating Sugar Leads to... More Cravings For Sugar!

Food companies know EXACTLY how to get you hooked on their products and keep you coming back for more over and over again. One tactic is by using high amounts of refined sugars, such as high fructose corn syrup, as well as addictive chemicals like MSG.

These substances light up our brain like a christmas tree and ramp up our dopamine levels. Our brain loves the feeling, but hates the fall-out afterwards. Sometimes to get a handle on sugar cravings, we need to just cut it out!! Read my article 5 Tools to Ditch Sugar for Good for more practical tips on how to do this.

Poor Sleep Fuels the Addiction

Have you ever noticed those days you didn’t sleep as well, that your cravings seem to just take over you? That will power you had the day before is suddenly gone and all you can think about it getting your next fix to get a quick energy boost. When we don't sleep well, we have a far less control over our blood sugar and insulin control is also significantly impacted. 

One study in healthy patients with no signs of blood sugar issues or diabetes were subject to 4 hours of sleep for 6 nights. At the end of the week, those formerly healthy patients were 40% less effective at absorbing the standard glucose dose than before, resulting in a pre-diabetic state. Additionally, lack of sleep negatively impacts our hunger and satiation hormones: leptin and ghrelin, leading to excess cravings and making it MUCH harder to resist those sweet temptations. So if sleep isn't something you prioritize, I would start building healthy sleep habits now!

If you’re ready to start eating in a way that supports your gut health, energy and immune system, let’s chat! Feel free to reach out to me here by visiting my contact page or by emailing asher@flourishnaturalwellness.com.

Asher Kleiber

Registered Holistic Nutritionist™

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Sources:

Why We Get Sick by Benjamin Bikman, PhD.

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, PhD.