Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I overcame my addiction to sugar

josem.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 210 posts

Re: How I overcame my addiction to sugar

#181

Post by claar »

ThinkBeat wrote: post #28

To compare it to heroin is a horrible trivialization of something that destroys a person and at time those around the person. I feel that to make this statement in any genuine way, the author should spend 6 months developing a serious addiction to heroin then attempt to get clean. I am blessed I have never done heroin and hopefully I never will. I have gone weeks without sugar and had a craving, some mild headaches a…

You're wrong, actually, based on my conversations with my friends who are sober through Narcotics Anonymous.

Intuition may tell you that "softer" addictions like sugar/food, video games/tech, pornography/sex, etc. are easier to stop than narcotics, but reality doesn't bear this out from those I've spoken with, at least if you have a true DSM-5 criteria addiction to these "softer" substances (which if you have a true addiction, can readily destroy your life and even kill you).

The trivial availability, legality, lack of social stigma/shame and other factors cause such addictions to actually be much more challenging to become sober from than narcotics or alcohol, on average. That said, my sample size is quite small and skewed, since those I've talked to have achieved long-term NA/AA sobriety for the most part.

Re: How I overcame my addiction to sugar

#182

Post by lazylion2 »

hamasho wrote: post #93

What I learned from my weight loss journey is that good sleep does wonders for my brain. It helps me remember my long-term goals and resist those pesky urges for sugary, fatty snacks. Plus, when I'm well-rested, my brain seems to actually register when my stomach isn't empty, so it doesn't send out those annoying craving signals. And after all that health talk, I'll probably still end up scrolling through Reddit for…

One thing that I think helps is to set reddit on text only by searching for self:true. less stimulating

Re: How I overcame my addiction to sugar

#183

Post by senordevnyc »

illiac786 wrote: post #175
coldtea wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone's struggle with addiction is different Not that different, since people still share billions of years of evolutionary mechanisms, and thousands of years of social conditioning. At best there are a few different kinds of struggle with addiction.

Depends on your referential. Within humanity, addiction takes very different form. Compared to mosquitos, our addictions are probably still very similar, yes. I think I fail to see your point though. Are you saying people tend to exaggerate how different addictions are, for example to better sell some new addiction overcoming books or courses?

They're likely just disagreeing to be pedantic. I struggle with this addiction just like coldtea does...although my experience with it is pretty unique ;)

Re: How I overcame my addiction to sugar

#184

Post by smegger001 »

dcchambers wrote: post #159
ralferoo wrote: post #52

> When I returned from my trip, my fridge was empty, so I resisted the temptation to buy those products. This has to be my reality. If I buy treats, no matter how good my intentions are to make them last, they just don't survive in the cupboard more than a couple of days. I have to leave my kitchen mostly empty apart from: diet soda, meat, cheese, yoghurt, peanut butter. Everything else is just too addictive and I ke…

Out of sight, out of mind. It's the only thing that works for me. My wife has the ability to have a pantry stocked full of treats and never eat them. I on the other hand have zero willpower in such cases. A pack of oreos will be destroyed in 24 hours, 1 or 2 innocent cookies at a time. Same with chips. These foods just completely break my brain. Yet if I simply don't have those things in the house, I have no cravings…

Sugary candy is mostly something I can leave alone indefinitely, but baked goods and snack food disapper all to quickly.

I have had some luck with using food chemistry in my favor recently though of salting vegetables with MSG to make them more appealling.

Re: How I overcame my addiction to sugar

#185

Post by MrOwen »

cassianoleal wrote: post #155
cubefox wrote: post #29

Quitting cold turkey after a change of environment (moving somewhere else) is a good tip not just for addiction, but for any change in habit. However, a more practical approach is to reduce the dosage slowly. That works especially well for sweet drinks. If you have a soda maker, you can slowly reduce the amount of syrup you use. After a while, your tolerance for sweetness goes down, so things that previously felt not…

I found that kombucha is an excellent, really low-calorie alternative to sugary drinks. Actually, to sugar in general. I have a sweet tooth and I have difficulty managing it some times. Kombucha is filling and most times one can is enough to make the cravings stop completely. I suspect it's a combination of the slightly sweet taste with the good gut bacteria.

You unfortunately need to be fairly careful about the kombucha you select. Many of the big/common ones sold at grocery store chains oftentimes anywhere from 10-20mg sugar for a 12/14oz bottle (I've seen them with more than that too!). Better than soda but worse than many smaller brands or even local kombucha you might find at restaurants around town or a farmers market. My favorite kombuchas hover around 5mg per 12oz serving which is perfect.

Re: How I overcame my addiction to sugar

#187

Post by benhurmarcel »

throwaway7ahgb wrote: post #114
faramarz wrote: post #44

A decade ago I got into intermitted fasting and forced myself to drink my coffee black at work. Going from a double-double (x2 cream, x2 sugar) at timmies to black. big change but the IF motivation for mental clarity, and increasing my metabolism worked out so well that I didn't mess with the regiment until recently adding oat milk to my coffee, or butter. its really about dealing down the dark coffee flavour. beyond…

One little tip for people trying to move to black coffee from milk and/or sugar: Try to find a good light roast, not dark or medium. Light roasts are usually less bitter which is why milk is sometimes added to cut the bitterness. Coffee preferences are very subjective, this is what worked for me, YMMMV.

What worked for me was switching to pourover coffee (or Aeropress), instead of espresso. I didn’t need the milk anymore.

Re: How I overcame my addiction to sugar

#188

Post by bdcravens »

nradov wrote: post #145
bdcravens wrote: post #133

Sugar is one of my downfalls, but unfortunately I have to keep some sugar around for when I have a blood glucose low (I'm diabetic and have a pump). Of course, I could focus on more healthy versions of sugar (like juice instead of candy), which I almost never do.

Fruit juice is basically liquid candy. For most people there's nothing wrong with drinking a little bit but the effects on blood sugar are similar to eating candy. (This is not medical advice for diabetics.)

Of course - the idea is to have something that will boost my blood sugar in the event of a low. I'm more concerned about what's in it other than sugar. A lot of the candy I get is filled with dyes, HFCS, etc.

Re: How I overcame my addiction to sugar

#189

Post by EasyMark »

smegger001 wrote: post #184
dcchambers wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of sight, out of mind. It's the only thing that works for me. My wife has the ability to have a pantry stocked full of treats and never eat them. I on the other hand have zero willpower in such cases. A pack of oreos will be destroyed in 24 hours, 1 or 2 innocent cookies at a time. Same with chips. These foods just completely break my brain. Yet if I simply don't have those things in the house, I have no cravings…

Sugary candy is mostly something I can leave alone indefinitely, but baked goods and snack food disapper all to quickly. I have had some luck with using food chemistry in my favor recently though of salting vegetables with MSG to make them more appealling.

They also probably have fat and I think that makes them have a synergy that neither fat nor sugar have separately for -some- human brains, including mine. I can have skittles in the cupboard for months. But chocolate chip cookies, even cheap store ones? They aren’t gonna last, so I simply don’t buy them. I depend on the occasional friend dumping a couple on me, but otherwise try to keep them many miles from me.

Re: How I overcame my addiction to sugar

#190

Post by EasyMark »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #124
cubefox wrote: post #29

Quitting cold turkey after a change of environment (moving somewhere else) is a good tip not just for addiction, but for any change in habit. However, a more practical approach is to reduce the dosage slowly. That works especially well for sweet drinks. If you have a soda maker, you can slowly reduce the amount of syrup you use. After a while, your tolerance for sweetness goes down, so things that previously felt not…

I go for very low sweetness drinks too. I don’t have a soda maker but I buy cans of plain sparkling water and add a dash of store bought kombucha to the can. Usually I take one sip off a fresh can and then pour in a little kombucha. You can buy flavored sparkling water but the flavorings they tend to use don’t sit well with my stomach. The right flavor of kombucha does the trick for me nicely though. I would feel sic…

I switched to diet cola, my sugar intake easily went down by 2/3 or more. I’m not sure I can quit cola though :) . I don’t really drink, I eat fairly healthy, I exercise, so if zero coke is my only vice, maybe I can be forgiven by the nutrition gods
Post reply on HN