How To Manage Sugar Addiction

HELLO  One of my friends asked me what we can do to cope with sugar addiction. I have read many posts about sugar, but don't recall reading one that had this specific information. Here is a copy of my response to my friend.  Hope it helps. Yes, sugar is extremely addicting. I recently read that the same "reward" areas of the brain light up as when people ingest cocaine! Since sugar and corn syrup are added to just about every packaged food, we NEVER need to add sugar to anything! That includes coffee, cereal, applesauce or whatever. Don't buy any product that lists SUGAR (and there are many forms of sugar) as the first ingredient. Worse yet, some foods list sugar first and high fructose corn syrup as second or third! Words that end in "ose" are sugar: examples, lactose, dextrose, maltose and others. Dextrin is also sugar. They sneak it in any way they can! You've probably heard of the Glycemic Index. That measures how rapidly a food breaks down into sugar in your body. High gylcemic is bad -- sugar goes right into blood and calls for insulin. Insulin tells the body "store these calories as fat", plus it uses up the sugar and tells your body to eat more sugar! Low glycemic foods break down slowly and call for little insulin. High protein foods like meat, eggs, cheese, and nuts are low glycemic. Never eat a sugary food or a starchy food ALL BY ITSELF. If you must have a small amount of sugar, eat it with some protein and a little fat. The diets for Diabetes are based on the glycemic index. Each meal or snack for them contains some protein, some carb, and some fat. When combined, the meal will not be dangerous to their blood sugar level. It also will stick with them and avoid hunger for a few hours. This type of eating is good for diabetes PREVENTION too!