by eating the Sugar Addicts’ Diet way. She knows this is the formula for success, and she wants to share it with you.
Nicki’s Tips
Throughout the book, Nicki will be offering her tips on how she kicked her sugar habit, from coping with those difficult ‘no sugar’ moments through to positive messages that have worked for her. Some might work for you, some might not – the important thing is to use these tips either as tools or simply inspiration to find your own methods for getting a grip on your sugar cravings. And if you find your own tips, tell us – we’d love to hear about them so we can pass them on.
What You Need
Keep a pen or pencil with you because you’ll need it to write your diary. Keeping a food diary is a crucial part of the plan – there is a template in the book for you to copy and fill in yourself (as well as a version filled in by Nicki to show you how to do it).
You can record all kinds of information in your food diary, from how sugar is making you feel and who your sugar ‘dealers’ are to the names of sugar-free foods you may hear someone mention on television. Don’t worry – it won’t be like going back to school! And believe us, it’s not a waste of time. Nicki says, ‘Being able to write things down was a vital part of my recovery programme. There’s so much going on in your head when you’re beating an addiction you really need that outlet. It also helps you to be true to yourself – it’s so easy to lie about what you’ve been eating, but if you have to write it down, somehow it’s different.
In the past, not a minute would go by without Nicki thinking about sugar. But why did she crave it? And why is it that you are so desperate for it? In Nicki’s experience, her sugar addiction was made up of two parts – physical and emotional.
The physical was about the ‘hit’ and energy rush she got from sugar, while the emotional was about the role sugar played in terms of making her feel happy and comfortable. When she decided to tackle her addiction, she realized she was going to have to take a good look at both aspects if she was to succeed.
In helping you overcome your addiction in the same way, we can’t just say to you, ‘Stop eating sweets’ or ‘Chuck that chocolate in the bin’. That won’t be the answer – it wasn’t for Nicki. We need to explain to you what sugar is, where it is found in food and how it affects you physically. We’ll also be looking at the emotional side of sugar, how it can be more than just a taste sensation but also a friend, comforter and reward. We explain that while the ‘feel-good’ factor from sugar is an emotion, there are physical factors to take into account, too, such as how sugar affects blood-sugar levels. In other words, if you’re hooked on sugar, it’s not a case of ‘lack of willpower’. There’s a powerful combination of emotional and chemical activity inside you that’s hard to beat!
Bear with us through the explanation of what sugar is. It might sound complicated but it’s crucial to your understanding of what it’s doing when you eat it. It will also start to give you an insight into how you’re going to beat it.
THE PHYSICAL ADDICTION
What is Sugar?
Sugar is what’s known as a carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are fuel for the body and, as our bodies can’t make them, we have to get them from our food. Compared to fats and protein, they are also the quickest-acting form of energy we can get.
The carbohydrates we eat come in two main varieties – simple and complex.
Simple Carbohydrates
These are what we most commonly refer to as sugars, or simple sugars. If you were to look at them under a microscope, you’d see that they are quite small, short units. Because of this, they are easily and quickly absorbed by the stomach or small intestine. You’ll recognize their scientific names because they end in ‘-ose’, such as glucose and fructose.
Complex Carbohydrates
These are generally longer units – in fact, they are simple sugars strung together. Before they can be used by the body, they have to be broken down into smaller, simple units – a process that takes both time and energy.
In order to be used by the body, all carbohydrates are eventually broken down into glucose. We can see from this that glucose (a sugar) isn’t bad – in fact, it’s essential for life. The brain and nervous system need glucose to function. But we get the glucose we need from the breakdown of vegetables, fruits and grains without adding any extra. Also, if the production of glucose from the food is slow because the body has to break it down – as it does with ‘brown’, complex carbohydrates – this helps to regulate the amount of glucose in the blood. If, on the other hand, the breakdown is quick, this can lead to high amounts of glucose in the blood followed by a corresponding dip – poor blood-sugar control. And some carbohydrates cause this to happen more quickly than others. Simple carbohydrates get converted to glucose very quickly (if they aren’t already glucose itself) while complex carbohydrates are absorbed into the bloodstream slowly, helping to avoid these blood-sugar imbalances. For further information about blood-sugar, see ‘The Sugar Roller Coaster’.
Stop! You’re probably thinking that all complex carbohydrates must be good for you because your body has to work to break them down. That’s not the case – some are far better than others. Complex carbohydrates come in two varieties – unrefined and refined.
UNREFINED CARBOHYDRATES
These are eaten pretty much as nature made them. Examples of unrefined complex carbohydrates are whole grains used in whole-grain bread, or brown rice complete with its husks. These release energy slowly in the body. With unrefined complex carbohydrates, the fibre – made up of glucose molecules strung together – cannot be broken down or digested, and as a result helps to slow down the speed at which the rest of the carbohydrate breaks down in the body.
REFINED CARBOHYDRATES
These are essentially ‘sneaky’ sugars that have been processed to extend their shelf-life and make them desirable to us shoppers. But in the process they’ve lost many of the nutrients that made them beneficial in the first place. These refined carbs are often lacking in essential minerals and vitamins. Importantly, they have also had their fibre – such as cellulose or pectin – taken away. It’s this fibre that can help to slow down a carbohydrate’s breakdown into glucose, which in turn helps to regulate blood-sugar levels. The fact that they can be broken down so quickly after being eaten means these refined carbs are essentially just like simple sugars. But because so many of us don’t know the effect they have on the body, they are hidden or ‘sneaky’ sugars.
As you’ll see in Chapter 8, we’ll be telling you about which foods you should eat to help stabilize blood sugar and minimize your sweet cravings. The carbohydrates we recommend are unrefined – refined carbs are a definite no-no.
THE SUGAR ‘ROLLER COASTER’
When we eat simple or ‘sneaky’ sugars, they go straight into the blood. This huge ‘hit’ of sugar causes the body to flood the bloodstream with the sugar-control hormone, insulin, to try and regulate sugar levels. The trouble is that the body isn’t designed for such high sugar levels – the most sugar our caveman