Substances, legal or illegal, they all have a story to tell. When we eat sugary foods they quickly convert to glucose and our blood sugar becomes spiked. Insulin is produced to level out the blood sugar, but as it’s playing catch up, it will end up removing too much blood sugar, leaving you in a low blood sugar "slump". As soon as our brain detects low blood sugar, it quickly goes into "panic" mode and demands more glucose, resulting in a craving for something else that will quickly provide blood sugar, such as sweets, a chocolate bar or a muffin. The cycle then repeats, with more junk food being eaten along with the resulting blood sugar spike. As well as cravings and energy slumps, another sign of being addicted to sugar is your own personal emotional reaction to what you have just eaten. A sugar binge can leave you feeling guilty and ashamed and self conscious about what we have eaten, regretting it soon after. This rollercoaster of sugar highs and lows, negatively impacts on our hormones too. For some this can feel like lethargy, for others it can induce feelings of anxiety. To feel good or to boost our energy we reach for more sugary snacks, perpetuating the sugar craving addiction cycle. Sleep will be all over the place too and you may also suffer from worse PMT if your addiction is really bad. When we pause and take a mindful approach to what we're eating and really look at how sugary foods make us feel it becomes clear if we are addicted or not. The only real way to stop sugar cravings is to stop feeding them. Every time you get a craving and eat something sugary to satisfy it, it’s a temporary fix. The more you eat the more you’ll crave. However, once you start actively dealing with sugar cravings by not feeding them, they will start to get weaker and weaker until they disappear altogether. When you stop eating sugar for a prolonged amount of time, your sense of taste intensifies. Sugar masks other flavours, so when you stop eating it, you begin to ‘taste’ again. You start to enjoy other foods. The more you experiment with other tastes, the more you’ll enjoy and put distance between sweet cravings. Artwork portrays the cycle of sugar addiction. Hi, I am Kiwi Kawaii! Let's discover substances! Is your curiosity high enough? ^^ Very good, I am happy that you will accompany me into this journey.
