Food Withdrawal/Addiction; Is Sugar Toxic?
Tuesday April 19, 2011
Have any of you been watching Addicted to Food on OWN, the Oprah network? It is an interesting show to say the least & has both people that are obese as well as a lady that "gorges herself until she is sick and then rids herself of the "dreaded full feeling" by taking massive amounts of laxatives" & another lady that has been binging and purging 2-3 times every day since she was 14. Each has their own story about how turning to food or doing the other things above was their mechanism of choice to "survive". The show is about food addiction & eating disorders - not just the obese.
Tinisha, one of the ladies in rehab for food addiction, has been going thru withdrawal pains from not being able to eat the foods she was eating before going into rehab. You all know the types of food -sugary everything, fried everything, soda & more. In the 2nd episode, she was throwing up, had unbearable headaches that would not go away, could not focus or concentrate at all. You would see her on the couch throughout the whole show with a compress across her eyes or crying about how she could not stand the pain or hunched over from the pain.
She wanted to go home so she could eat. They asked her to wait it out a week in hopes that getting thru the worst part of the food withdrawal would allow her to see that she needed the rehab. She made it & is staying for now.
Does that pic above do that to you?
If you want more reading, check out this article, Is Sugar Toxic. An interesting read!
After I had already written this post, I watched a recorded Dr. Oz show. On the show was a food addict. The expert on the show said something interesting: He said that there are only 2 times a food addict is not thinking about food - when they are asleep & when they are dead. That is saying it like it is!!
The lady on the show also said this & I am paraphrasing: Food does not let her down. Food is predictable and people are not. She knows what to expect from her food. This lady had a BMI that was morbidly obese & her blood pressure was close to stroke level when they took it before the show! She agreed to go into the Shades of Hope treatment center from the Addicted to Food show.
So, the reason for this post is to ask all of you if any of you have gone thru food withdrawal & as bad as described above. If yes, how did you get thru it? Did you have help like an addiction group or did you do it alone? If alone, what did you do to make it thru?
I have not gone thru anything like what was shown on the show but if we can help one another, let's do it.
Have any of you been watching Addicted to Food on OWN, the Oprah network? It is an interesting show to say the least & has both people that are obese as well as a lady that "gorges herself until she is sick and then rids herself of the "dreaded full feeling" by taking massive amounts of laxatives" & another lady that has been binging and purging 2-3 times every day since she was 14. Each has their own story about how turning to food or doing the other things above was their mechanism of choice to "survive". The show is about food addiction & eating disorders - not just the obese.
Tinisha, one of the ladies in rehab for food addiction, has been going thru withdrawal pains from not being able to eat the foods she was eating before going into rehab. You all know the types of food -sugary everything, fried everything, soda & more. In the 2nd episode, she was throwing up, had unbearable headaches that would not go away, could not focus or concentrate at all. You would see her on the couch throughout the whole show with a compress across her eyes or crying about how she could not stand the pain or hunched over from the pain.
She wanted to go home so she could eat. They asked her to wait it out a week in hopes that getting thru the worst part of the food withdrawal would allow her to see that she needed the rehab. She made it & is staying for now.
Does that pic above do that to you?
If you want more reading, check out this article, Is Sugar Toxic. An interesting read!
After I had already written this post, I watched a recorded Dr. Oz show. On the show was a food addict. The expert on the show said something interesting: He said that there are only 2 times a food addict is not thinking about food - when they are asleep & when they are dead. That is saying it like it is!!
The lady on the show also said this & I am paraphrasing: Food does not let her down. Food is predictable and people are not. She knows what to expect from her food. This lady had a BMI that was morbidly obese & her blood pressure was close to stroke level when they took it before the show! She agreed to go into the Shades of Hope treatment center from the Addicted to Food show.
So, the reason for this post is to ask all of you if any of you have gone thru food withdrawal & as bad as described above. If yes, how did you get thru it? Did you have help like an addiction group or did you do it alone? If alone, what did you do to make it thru?
I have not gone thru anything like what was shown on the show but if we can help one another, let's do it.
Posted by truth2beingfit at 4/18/2011 8:55 PM 
Categories: Weight Loss, Awareness, Challenges, Obesity, Health Issues, Addictions, Dieting, Life Experiences, Acceptance, Food
Tags: sugar food food addiction Addicted to Food Oprah OWN acceptance addictions awareness challenges dieting Diets eating Health Issues obesity weight loss plateaus weight loss maintenance Dr Oz
Categories: Weight Loss, Awareness, Challenges, Obesity, Health Issues, Addictions, Dieting, Life Experiences, Acceptance, Food
Tags: sugar food food addiction Addicted to Food Oprah OWN acceptance addictions awareness challenges dieting Diets eating Health Issues obesity weight loss plateaus weight loss maintenance Dr Oz
Although I have not had food withdrawals to the same degree as the people you describe, I do know that when I cut down on sweets (because that is my trigger) at first I crave them like crazy (this goes on for several days up to a week). After a week the cravings subside a bit and continue to lessen as more time goes by. Even after the craving is mostly gone, I have noticed that when I start to indulge a little too much again with the sugar snacks (you know, a piece of cake from the office party here, a couple of cookies there, a dish of ice cream at night...)I go through the entire craving cycle again. Dana has been doing the 17 day diet, which limits sugar, and says it is hard!
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I cannot say I have gone through withdrawls that I would consider extremely bad. Not for any one tyoe of food certainly. But surely I have just craved to eat and eat NOW!
I'm coming to realize sugar needs to be a controlled substance on a personal level. Sugar is not all bad. But any more than just enough is too much and not going to benefit you.
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I am addicted to food, however, I never went through the above symptoms when eliminating the bad stuff from my life.
When I gave up fast foods and all the huge portions I never went through it either. I gave up processed sugar 2 weeks ago and feel very anxious at times and want to eat and grab, but nothing like that above.
Sounds like she has more than just food addiction, sounds like she's becoming belemick
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I have not seen that show. When I did the first two weeks of South Beach diet in the past, I got what may refer to as the South Beach flu. I think that is a bit of a withdrawal from all sorts of crap.
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I have not gone through anything that extreme but I am a food addict and it takes a lot of vigilance on my part not to overeat. Carbs, any carbs, are a big cravings trigger for me so I am avoiding them as much as possible.
There is a book I would like to recommend. It is by David A. Kessler, a former FDA commissioner, The end of overeating. Kessler, himself a food addict has done an excellent job researching and presenting os some foods trigger our cravings. He points out that food industry is not only aware of which combinations of fat, salt and sugar make us want more, it is actually doing very extensive research in that area.
The answer, prepare your own meals from scratch.
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oh for sure i have gone through food withdrawal-sugar especially. i am really trying to tighten up my diet right now and get rid of some things that have gotten out of hand. the first few days i felt miserable but now i feel great!
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I really didn't have to go through any 'withdrawal' when I changed my eating habits, but I think that was because I approached it with such a positive mindset. I saw it more as what I was adding vs. what I was eliminating in my diet. Plus, I made my changes in such small steps (no wholesale cutting of any foods) that the transition was smoother.
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This is really interesting! I think there is definitely a propensity for us to become emotionally addicted to food but I've never truly considered whether we could become PHYSICALLY addicted to food. Crazy. And SCARY.
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sugar isn't really an issue for me...it never has been...but, I do believe some get addicted to it...I have wanted to watch the show but keep forgetting!
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I've never had a thing for sugar, so I don't miss it.I do have troubles with carbs though, so I try and keep them complex or my hunger goes thru the roof. I'm not so much addicted to food, as having used it as self therapy...it's a hard things to break.
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