Overcoming sugar addiction is the same as overcoming any addiction.  And yes, you can pretty much be addicted to anything.  Being addicted to sugar isn’t the same as wanting it every now and then.  When you HAVE to have it and have it NOW and this thought bounces around your skull 24/7, you just may have a sugar addiction.  The sure-fire way to find out if you are a sugar addict is not to have any sugar for twenty four hours (including any processed or canned foods that may contain sugar).  If you feel incredibly ill, you are experiencing withdrawal pains.

No Need To Go It Alone

There is plenty of help available in overcoming sugar addiction.  Unlike addicts of most other substances, you don’t need to cut it out completely, but cut back substantially.  This will de painful and difficult enough.  It can help you to hear the stories of how others have or are in the process of overcoming their sugar addiction.  You can go to places such as Overeaters Anonymous and sit in on a meeting.  You can ask your doctor for help.  You can go online and find sugar addict support groups.  If you can make the computer room a no-food room, this will enhance your actions overcoming sugar addiction.

Unlike other kinds of addiction like for drugs or drink, you usually don’t need to be hospitalized during the drying our period.  Your body will protest, but after a couple of weeks, the protests will die off as your body becomes adjusted to your new diet.  You need to keep yourself busy and occupied in order to make you tired enough to sleep and to keep from eating.

Other Tips

You can use visualization to help in overcoming sugar addiction.  When you see a sugary snack, imagine it is laughing at you.  It still laughs as someone eats it.  It continues to laugh while being stored as fat.  If you have an imagination like Stephen King, eventually you will need a gun put to your head in order to swallow a spoonful of ice cream.  One Tales Of The Darkside episode had a woman put on special glasses that made all food become alive, and hearing aids to hear their tortured screams as they were being eaten.  Unfortunately, she couldn’t get them off.  Don’t go that far.

Tell your family that you are overcoming sugar addiction so they will hide sugary foods from you, or at least not eat them in front of you.  Just seeing the food can trigger a craving.  If you eat while watching TV, stop watching TV for a while as your body readjusts.

If the thought of hypnotherapy freaks you out of your gourd, you don’t have to do it.  In fact, you CAN’T be hypnotized if you don’t want to be.  If you are going through a food addiction or are morbidly obese or need help curbing sugar cravings to improve your health, then you can feel safe knowing that there are natural and non-surgical options open to you.  You can get hypnotized either by a hypnotherapist or by yourself.

Dog Drool

Pavlov’s infamous experiments in proving that associations exist will explain how hypnotism works.  In his experiment, Pavlov rang a bell before feeding a dog.  Dogs drool at the sight of food.  After a few feeds, the dog began to drool as soon as the bell was rung.  The dog had associated the sound of the bell with yummies.  Hypnotism works in the same way in curbing sugar cravings.

You have a sugar addiction because your brain has associated certain sweet foods with comfort or love or fulfillment.  That has taken years to work its way through the layers of your consciousness into your subconscious.  When you become nervous or upset, you automatically crave sugar.  In hypnotism, you give your subconscious another message.  Perhaps it is “I am not hungry” or “All ice cream is really made out of dog drool.”

Ask For Help

You can always ask your doctor for help in curbing sugar cravings.  He or she might agree that hypnotism might help you.  He or she might be able to recommend a hypnotherapist in your area.  Keep in mind that hypnotherapy is rarely covered by medical insurance.  Contact your health insurance company to be sure.

If you already meditate or spend quiet time each day, then you may want to try self hypnotism to help with curbing sugar cravings.  They are easily available in shops and online.  You can just follow the suggested affirmations on the CD or write your own beforehand to say.  In hypnotism, you get very relaxed, but not enough to fall asleep.  Just before falling asleep is the state that the subconscious is most open to subliminal and hypnotic suggestions.

You can reinforce these suggestions in your battle curbing sugar cravings by writing the affirmations down and pinning them in places where you are sure to see them every day, like in your bathroom mirror or refrigerator door.  And take time out every day to have a good laugh.

We all like to be in charge.  Even those who claim they don’t are lying.  Everyone wants control of their lives, finances, the laws of the universe, other people and especially their bodies.  We should be telling our bodies what to do – not the other way around.  But real life doesn’t work that way.  We are often subject to random and mysterious forces, like sugar cravings.  Giving in to the cravings can make them temporarily go away, but it brings on guilt and bad health.  How can we possible control sugar cravings from hell?

First Things First

The jury is still out on whether people can be addicted to sugar.   To control sugar cravings, you don’t need to split hairs.  If a scientist doesn’t agree that your body is screeching like a banshee at three in the morning for a doughnut, screw him or her.  It’s your problem – you deal with it.  You have to forget what other people think of you and just get on with your life.

A doctor, therapist or other health professional can help you to control sugar cravings.  First off, you need to be properly diagnosed.  You want to be sure your body doesn’t have diabetes or a thyroid imbalance or any physical cause needs treatment.  Tell your doctor what medicines you are taking – even any herbal supplements.  Some medications will stimulate your appetite tremendously.  You would have to discuss with your doctor whether it would be wise to change medications.  Chances are, it won’t.

Eat Something

If your cravings are not a symptom of anything more serious, then you can really knuckle down to control sugar cravings.  When the body is hungry, it starts asking for the highest calorie-laden food possible.  Your body always thinks it has to store away fat in case a famine is around the corner.  This strategy has worked for the human race for millennia, but now we are too well fed. 

Try eating something more nutritious, like an apple, other than reaching for the cookie jar.  Perhaps the craving will lessen just because you are hungry.  If you are not keen on the taste of more nutritious foods, you can train your taste buds to like foods that you’re not keen on now.  Remember when you were a kid and hated the sight of any veggies?  Perhaps now you love salad.  This is evidence that your taste buds can be retrained.

If you need even more help to control sugar cravings from hell, you can turn to internet food addiction support groups or food addiction treatment centers, even places like Weight Watchers, to get your mind off of your cravings and thinking about other things.  In time, your cravings will lessen, but you need to give yourself that time.

You can answer the question “why do I crave sugar?” with the obvious answer that to look at it, smell it and taste it is pleasurable.  Most sugary confections are attractive to the eye and the palate.  Almost everybody knows what their most favorite colors, textures, flavors and temperatures are in sugary confections. 

Eating sugar even causes a temporary mood elevation, which adds to the pleasure of eating sugar.  The brain finds sugar to be useful as a quick energy boost so it gives us all these signals of pleasure in exchange for providing sugar to the body.  It is no wonder that sugar is one of the top craved foods.  Instead of asking, “Why do I crave sugar”, your brain may be asking “why not?”. 

Sugars are popular with almost everyone.  Many celebrations have their own sweet treats that are associated with that time of year.  We are bombarded with text and images that are all about sugary foods.  Everyday, you can see advertising about sugary confections on commercials, signs, and the Internet.  It is not just the corner store that carries sugary treats; you can find confections at the check out line or in the different aisles of many kinds of stores including movie rental stores, grocery stores, department stores, hardware stores and other stores. 

Loss of Vitamin Bs

Eating too much sugar can deplete vitamin Bs from our body.  When you do not have enough vitamin Bs in your body, you can feel tired and for a quick energy boost, you may crave sugary foods.  The two factors can create a circular pattern in your behavior towards foods that are high in sugar.  Natural unprocessed and highly nutritional foods can give your body a longer lasting energy boost so you will not crave the quick energy boosts of sugar.  Nutritional supplements and a healthy diet can help you if this is your situation and you are asking the question “why to I crave sugar?”. 

Medical Conditions

A craving for sugary foods can also be a symptom of medical conditions.  It is important that you visit your doctor if you have developed a craving for sugar so that you can rule out any medical condition that could be the cause for the sugar craving.  This is particularly important if your cravings for sugar started suddenly.  Intolerance to carbohydrates (also called insulin resistance), nutritional deficiency and other medical conditions can cause a craving for sugar. 

Coping with Stress

Sometimes sugary treats are used as a comfort food.  A typical situation may be that you am having relationship problems and are not coping well with the situation and when you feel frustrated about it, you may turn to a bowl or two of ice cream and then turn around and feel guilty about eating the ice cream and finally end up eating more ice cream and feeling depressed about it all.  It can turn into a vicious circle of avoiding the stress issues, overeating and gaining weight.  This cycle is compounded by the fact that eating sugary treats can make us crave more of them.

Boredom and availability of sugary treats can cause you to crave sugar.  You may eat a sugar-laden soda or a piece of cake simply because the treat is there and it tastes good.

Ask yourself the question “why do I crave sugar” when you are reaching for that candy bar or other sweet calorie laden treat.  When you know the answer to the question “why do I crave sugar”, you can begin to address the sugar craving effectively. 

There are certainly many mind-boggling statistics concerning sugar cravings and it would come as quite a surprise to you to know that an average American takes in as much as nearly one hundred sixty pounds of sugar in a year which is more than twenty-five percent more than what it was thirty years ago. What makes matters worse is that most people find it very difficult to control their sugar intake though there are some nutritionists that have come up with effective ways to cut down sugar cravings.

Additive Properties

Sugar is supposed to contain some properties that are addictive and when the sugar content is reduced it can cause certain withdrawal symptoms and there is a lot of fat content in it as well. So, the next time you eat more sugar than is recommended you will not only put on weight which is a health risk in it, but are also running the risk of having your teeth decay earlier than is proper. So, if you want to know how to beat sugar cravings you may need to avoid skipping meals, eat only natural sugars, try out substitutes for sugar and also brush and gargle after a meal. It also helps if you forego buying sugary foods and taking a walk is another good solution to curbing your sugar cravings.

According to researchers that have studied sugar cravings, it is not a true addiction though it is quite similar to cocaine addiction and even obesity. And so, if you are like many other people that want to beat their sugar cravings, try using honey, barley malt or even fructose instead of sugar though some would suggest that there is no better means to control sugar cravings than to forego it completely. Nevertheless, as long as you are careful enough to take a balanced and nutritious diet, the odd spoonful of sugar is not going to do you any harm.

There are some other useful tips as well as to how to avoid sugar cravings and they include not using sugar as a means of distraction, and also waiting for a short period of time to see whether the cravings persist or disappears. Thus, eating appropriately and at the right time will help in overcoming sugar cravings while there is also a need to become well informed about sugar so that you realize that it is not an evil nor is it your friend either – it is really a load of calories and you won’t find any real virtues about it either, which means that though its not going to do you much good, it is also not so bad that you need to avoid it like the plague.

It used to be traditional to give your faithful steed a sugar lump.  Some horses and ponies, especially if they are taken care of by children, will develop cravings sugar cravings, whether it is for the pure sugar or for sweet candy, such as peppermints that horses can become intensely fond of.  Although sugar cravings seem innocent enough in horses, they can lead to serious health and behavior problems.

You Horse Eats Enough Sugar Already

The horse spent millions of years grazing all day in order to get the calories they needed to live.  In modern times, horses usually have to work and live with humans.  That means they eat at the humans’ convenience, and not their own.  Your horse probably eats concentrated feed as well as hay.  This feed gives your horse the nutrition and strength in order to pull a plow or carry a rider.  It usually has molasses or sugar already in it.  You really don’t need to add to the strength of your horse’s sugar cravings by feeding him candy or sugar as a treat.

Behavior Problems

Sugar cravings in horses can become so strong that they will not wait for the master or mistress to proffer the treat.  If they know where the treats are stored (and they will, because they can smell it), they will eventually just chomp down on your pocket – whether it is still attached to you or not.  This can lead to a lot of blood, sweat and tears for both horse and sugar-carrier.  This can be especially frightening and dangerous for children or small adults paired with a gigantic horse.

Tooth Decay

Unlike people – or dogs and cats – horses don’t brush their teeth.  Sugar takes it’s toll on horse teeth the same as it does on your dog’s or cat’s teeth (or yours, for that matter).  Horses rely on their teeth more than other animals.  If they can’t grind their food, the food is swallowed whole or in big chunks.  This can lead not only to colic but a host of other health conditions related to poor nutrition.  A horse with sugar cravings satisfied today may lead to a horse who can’t eat tomorrow.

What’s To Be Done?

The best way to get rid of your horse’s sugar cravings is not to give him any sugar or candy in the first place.  Then you won’t get the begging and the fuss.  But if your horse has already developed sugar cravings, you must be strong.  You can’t give in to him.  Treat with apples or carrot instead.  Don’t eat any sugary treat in front of him.  And put up a sign on his stall warning all others not to give him any sugar.

The word sugar generally gives rise to thoughts that sugar is something that is full of carbohydrates, will dissolve in water, has no color and does not smell either and is made up of crystals even at room temperature, and if you are thinking in such a manner then you will have hit the nail on its head. The importance of sugar can be understood if one considers the fact that it supplies about thirteen percent of the energy that the body gets from the food it ingests.

No Deviation From The Path Of Eating Only Healthy Food

So, if you want to remain healthy and not become a victim to sugar addiction, you must remember that carbohydrates that you consume should be consumed in moderation and also from natural sources of food like fresh vegetables and also maybe cooked vegetables, and it should be balanced with proteins from sources such as soy products. If you were to deviate from this path of healthy food intake, chances are that you won’t be able to help yourself live a healthy life and what’s worse, could end up with a sugar addiction problem.

Most people would more than likely are already having sugar addiction and the addict will find any number of excuses to rationalize his or her addiction. Being so common in the advanced countries of the Western hemisphere, sugar addiction is a major part of its culture with almost everybody consuming more sugar than is recommended? A typical way of reasoning by a sugar addict would be that sure he or she realizes that he/she is taking sugar, but surely not enough to call it sugar addiction.

And, to make matters worse, sugar addiction leads to many debilitating conditions amongst which are diabetes, hypoglycemia, chronic constipation and stomach upsets, arthritis, headaches, obesity and many more other equally serious illnesses. Suffice to say that any sugarholic would figure somewhere in the list of many degenerative diseases and sugar addiction will cause a person to lose his or her body’s ability to metabolize sugar properly, and thus will be putting his or her life at risk of many different serious illnesses and diseases.

The seriousness of the problem is well illustrated if we stop to consider that refined sugar provides twenty percent of calories and that works out to about fifty-nine kilos each year that is indeed gigantic and a serious reason to be concerned about sugar addiction which will greatly upset the body. So, you need to tread the path of sugar consumption with great care otherwise you are not going to live healthy or live for too long either.

“Right, folks,” said Archangel Raphael to the room full of guardian angels in training.  “We need to get the word out there to our charges about a powerful and subtle addiction that can kill millions of not only people, but pets and animals.  The addiction — sugar!”  After the angel training class groaned, Raphael grimaced and said, “What’s the problem now?  Don’t you want to help protect your future charges or not?”

Back To The Real World

Did you react with the same groans the guardian angel class did when they heard about sugar addiction?  Sugar is a pleasure and in and of itself is harmless fun.  Do you think an Addiction Policeman is going to burst into your home and say, “Ah-ha!  Addiction! Sugar and what else I wonder?”  Don’t doctors have anything else better to do than tell us what to eat and what not to eat?

Well, actually, no they don’t.  Doctors, scientists and your mother have all been proving point after point about the harm of any kind of addiction.  Sugar is natural and good and harmless – when taken in moderation.  That’s the sticky point for most listeners.  They might not realize just how much sugar they consume on a daily basis.

Sugar is in not only sweet foods and drinks, but added to sauces, canned products, cereals and just about every other food available in America.  Sugar does not come just from sugar, but also from ingredients like “corn syrup”.  People feel a need so profoundly; they sometimes fill that need with an addiction.  Sugar is one of those ways people fill holes inside of themselves.  These holes can be called “depression”, “insecurity”, “loneliness” and so on.

Sugar only became widely available in the last couple of hundred years.  Before then, it was a rare treat.  Perhaps one day our bodies will evolve to need a lot of processed foods, fat and sugar in order to be healthy, but that won’t happen for thousands of years yet.  In the mean time, too much sugar can lead to health problems like diabetes.

Should We Ban Sugar?

The answer to dealing with sugar addictions is not to ban sugar.  Not only is that impossible but also unnecessary.  It is not anyone else’s responsibility as to what you put in your mouth other than your own.  So, it’s up to you to make the diet decisions all by your little lonesome.  That is one of the reasons studies on sugary foods are done in order to help give you the information you need in order to take car of yourself.  Your guardian angel can only do so much.