Can Ketosis Relieve Sugar Addiction?
The ketogenic diet for complete sugar abstinence has many benefits, including weight loss, blood sugar stabilization, diabetes control, and improved insulin resistance. It also has a special advantage: it helps you eliminate sugar addiction.
The ketogenic diet, which is a strict control of carbohydrates and no sugar at all, says Shahar, a professor at Harvard University, that if you want to quit an addiction, then say goodbye to it for good.
Similarly, if you want to kick a sugar addiction, do the same, but many people will ponder, does this work? Instead, some people are more likely to overeat carbohydrates after giving up sugar, and some foods with sweet flavors become tantalizing forbidden fruits.
Theoretically, since we are no longer able to eat sugar, it may become more tempting. So, can the ketogenic diet actually help us get rid of our sugar addiction?
Can Ketogenic Sugar Cessation Relieve Sugar Addiction?
For many people, ketogenic does curb sugar intake, and many people with sugar addiction, after ketogenic, don’t want to eat sugar at all. Of course, some studies prove this.
Compared to other diets, because ketogenic allows you to eat fat, it’s easier than sticking to a low-fat diet, which is a big part of why ketogenic diets are so popular right now. However, we humans love sugar more than anything else, so how long does it take to quit ketogenic sugar before your sugar addiction goes away?
Typically, after 2 to 3 days of adherence, it begins to break down fat and produce ketone bodies, and some studies have found that once a person enters a ketogenic state, sugar cravings diminish almost immediately.
Many research experts have found that sugar cravings will significantly decrease within 3 to 10 days. However, at this point in time, don’t expect the sugar cravings to disappear completely.
→ Person to Person, Huge Differences
Many people, as soon as they quit sugar, stop craving it so much, but not everyone is so lucky. Some people find that after going on a ketogenic diet, they still crave sugar, even, for a short time, stronger than before.
For the second type of person, the answer to why you crave sugar must be worked on. By over-relying on carbohydrates for a long time, your body has become accustomed to the stimulation of sugar, and for the most part, it’s not so much the sugar that you want as it is the energy that it provides.
So, as soon as you start low carb and your body lacks sugar, you will have extreme sugar cravings. There’s no need to panic too much about this situation; once your body starts producing ketone bodies, the need for sugar decreases dramatically. And, as your body becomes more efficient at utilizing ketone bodies, the cravings for not wanting to eat sugar, become smaller and smaller.
→ Sugar cravings are a learned habit
For many people, eating sugar can be a habit, and many scenarios naturally awaken you to the habit of eating sugar. Recall, that when you lose love, sadness, anxiety, and depression, accompanied you, is not chocolate, popcorn? There is no bad mood that can’t be solved by a piece of sweet cake, if there is, then add another cup of milk tea!
A decade of experience in eating sugar tells you that eating sugary snacks can make you instantly happy, happy, happy. When you are unhappy, you want to eat candy to make yourself happy, and when you are happy, you want candy to make you happier. So, eating candy is one of your ingrained, constantly reinforced habits.
→ Since it’s a habit, it can be broken.
It can take as little as 21 days to build a good habit, and it can take several times the effort to break a bad one. Giving up sugar completely is not an easy thing to do, and it can take months to win the battle of sanity versus habit. Oftentimes, eating sugar isn’t just a habit.
→ Sugar inspires a reward mechanism that keeps you addicted
What’s even better is that eating sugar not only puts you in a good mood, it also has a physiologically rewarding effect. Constantly stimulating the body to produce dopamine, dopamine receptors become increasingly insensitive to the urge to consume more sugar.
For some people, the reward mechanism of sugar is so powerful that they are already deeply addicted to it, and such people are also the least likely to get rid of their sugar addiction. That is, the more sugar you eat, and the longer you eat it, the greater your sugar addiction becomes, and the harder it is for you to get rid of it. Sugar addiction is an addictive substance just like other addictive substances such as nicotine, alcohol, and certain drugs.
→It’s just like quitting smoking – you keep quitting, you keep smoking!
The “relapse” of sugar addiction causes the craving for sugar to spiral upward, perhaps more aggressively than ever. So whether or not you succeed in quitting sugar seems to have very little to do with personal willpower. It’s all about how seriously you take the issue, your surroundings, your lifestyle, your diet, the methods you use, and the strategies you use.
We know how many strong women, with great willpower, just can’t give up sugar. There are such a variety of reasons for having sugar cravings, so it’s different for everyone.
What if I still want to eat sugar after quitting sugar ketogenic?
There is no problem in theory with trying to quit sugar and not eating it in the first place, but why do some people, after quitting sugar, have stronger and stronger sugar cravings? Today I will give you an analysis.
→ How long have you been giving up sugar?
First of all, we have to be clear, you say “a period of time”, how long is it? We know that the body prioritizes the burning of glucose, and after burning glucose, it starts to burn fat and produce ketone bodies.
When you first quit sugar, your brain still needs sugar for energy and doesn’t like ketones as much. It takes a long time for the body to efficiently produce ketone bodies and for the brain to efficiently utilize them, and a deep ketogenic state often takes months.
There are recent studies that have found that the rate of fat oxidation, and ketone body production, increases significantly in week 1 or 2. However, it takes months for the body to be able to efficiently utilize ketone bodies, and once you’re in this state, you won’t want to eat sugar, and your overall appetite is greatly reduced.
Staying on it for more than 1 month is probably the hardest, which is why many people can’t do it, and there are always people on the internet spouting off about ketogenic, thinking it’s horrible to give up sugar, that as soon as I give it up I’ll overeat, and that ketogenic kills people. It is like persuading someone to quit drinking, as soon as I quit drinking, I especially want to drink, and even steal alcohol to drink, he thinks, quitting drinking kills people. Of course, there are other ways to help you ease your sugar addiction besides quitting sugar altogether.
→ Quit sugar, but don’t diet, eat enough protein
Calorie restriction sharpens the body’s reward mechanism and makes it more tempted to eat sugar because it’s the quickest source of calories. This means that in the beginning, if calorie intake is inadequate, you can’t help but want to eat more food, especially tasty junk food.
We also always recommend that at the beginning of a ketogenic diet, consume a lot of fat and enough calories to not even think about losing weight anymore, it doesn’t matter if you gain a little bit of weight.
According to a meta-analysis, after a few months of being on a ketogenic diet, your food cravings will decrease and that’s when you’ll naturally eat less. The study also found that it becomes easier and easier not to eat sugar as time passes, so if you can stick to the ketogenic diet, then this is good news for you this is good news.
Unhelpfully, many people who go ketogenic nowadays, just to lose weight, start with strict carb-cutting, plus dieting. With ketogenic like this, what awaits you is bound to be a carb binge, and even various side effects, hair loss, and it’s the ketogenic diet that ends up taking the fall. Ketogenic is not a kind of sudden weight loss method, but a new way of life, really don’t rush, after adapting to it, you will naturally be very comfortable eating less.
→ Sleep well and don’t put too much pressure on yourself
Self-discipline and stress at work will hollow out your willpower, and when it comes to eating, you’ll indulge yourself, not wanting to be disciplined, and wanting to stuff your mouth with whatever you see that tastes good. Lack of sleep and stress at work will raise cortisol levels, leading to higher insulin levels. It also pushes your body to prioritize glucose intake, and the desire to eat sugar arises because sugar provides a quick energy supply.
So, for people who are stressed at work and want to quit sugar, it may be more important to do what you need to do to relieve stress and improve your sleep. In addition, hormones in the body react to stress, which can also cause you to have a desire to eat sugar.
→ Finding the root cause that triggers sugar addiction
Addressing your sugar addiction will require you to dig deeper into what is triggering your sugar addiction. I recommend that you start keeping a log to track your sugar addiction and jot down the following each time you crave sugar:
1, Your state (boredom, anxiety, nervousness, anger, etc.)
2, What time of day? In the morning, late at night?
3, Hunger level: when you last ate, and when you last ate.
4, In what environment?
5, Who else is around?
6, Any other factors that might make you want to eat sugar.
Relieving sugar addiction, like eating disorders, requires mindfulness and communication with yourself, and logging is the most common tool in cognitive behavioral therapy. Often after logging in for a week or two, you’ll notice some patterns in your sugar cravings. It might be a certain time of day, or in the workplace, feeling stressed or tired.
Maybe you are using sugar to comfort yourself, and if you do have this habit, it is advisable to find another better way to deal with bad emotions.
For example: running, painting, listening to songs, meditating, listening to songs, etc. Any leisure activity that diverts your attention from food is fine; you can also meditate, exercise, drink a glass of water, and eat regular meals or snacks that contain protein and healthy fats.
Finally, if the problem hasn’t been solved, examine your fruit-eating and beverage-drinking habits, which are sources of invisible sugar. You’ve used total abstinence before and it didn’t work, so take it slow and consider eating foods like fruits that are low in sugar. In short, listen to your body on its terms to find the best solution for you.