It’s a pretty daunting task to write about sugar addiction. That’s because in our culture, sugar isn’t just a food….it represents happiness and comfort and a million other sentimental feelings all wrapped into one. It’s intertwined with many of our most cherished dreams, moments, and memories.
Just imagine a birthday without that luscious, 3-tiered birthday cake. Or Christmas without fudge and candy canes and goodie plates delivered by the neighbors. Or a church meeting without the tantalizingly dessert table at the end. Take away the sugar and it often feels like all our joy goes right along with it.
In fact, I’ve even had people tell me that they’d rather die than give up their favorite treats. That they’re the only thing that makes life worth living. For these reasons and more, many of us get downright defensive when someone starts talking about sugar being unhealthy or addictive. I think sometimes it’s easier to sweep the negative stuff under the rug so we don’t have to face the havoc this little treat may be creating in our everyday lives.
My own emotional attachment to sugar remained firmly intact until one red-letter day back in November of 2004. On the recommendation of a friend, I’d checked out a book from the library called The Sugar Addict’s Total Recovery Program by Kathleen DesMaisons.
Despite the title, I had no intention of admitting I had an addiction. I truly believed my sugar habit was nothing more than a sweet tooth—and a relatively harmless one at that. Yes, all those brownies and doughnuts and chocolate chip cookies may have added a few pounds to my waistline and a few cavities to my teeth, but so what? Well, just pages into DesMaisons’ book that “so what?” was answered in a big, big way. And with that, all my denial and justification and rationalization came to a screeching halt.
Did you know that a high sugar diet can actually cause depression? Irritability? Fatigue? Restlessness? A short temper? Mood swings? And an inability to say no to your body’s cravings? I sure didn’t. I’d always thought my short fuse with my kids was just a lack of willpower. That my erratic mood swings and month-long PMS were just part of being a woman. That the depression haunting me was caused by the stress of my daily life. But before my very eyes, Dr. DesMaisons was connecting all those struggles to the Blizzards and Reese’s peanut butter cups that kept finding their way into my mouth. It was a pretty mind-blowing realization.
I also learned that my love of sugar had caused a chemical imbalance in my brain and it was throwing me off not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. In that moment, I finally began to see sugar not as my best friend and dearest joy, but as one of my most dreaded enemies. This subtle and devious enemy had quietly worked its way into my mind and heart and had wrapped me in extremely powerful chains—chains that were proving incredibly hard to break. But on that same day in November 2004, I felt a yearning growing within me to break free from that miserable captivity and start a new life.
Now, I know some may think I’m being overly dramatic by describing sugar with words like “enemy” and “chains” and “captivity.” But I’m willing to take that risk because I know others will read those words and know exactly what I’m talking about.
Maybe you’re one of those people.
Maybe, like me, you’ve lied to your spouse when he asked you who ate the rest of the brownies. Maybe, like me, you’ve watched yourself continue to binge on chocolate chip cookie dough even though you’d already eaten half the bowl. Maybe, like me, you’ve experienced countless days where you promised yourself that you were going to cut down, but you only lasted a few hours before giving in. Experiences like these finally helped me realize that my sugar habit really wasn’t harmless at all.
In truth, I was acting just like an addict. It was a painful thing to admit, but it was the first step on my journey to overcome my physical and emotional attachment to sugar.
Here’s a little more of my story:
I truly believe the most important point of this whole post is that there is a way out. Really. It isn’t by mustering up more willpower or crossing our fingers and trying to be strong. Like most successful programs for addiction, the secret really does lie in connecting to a Higher Power—which means turning to Jesus Christ and surrendering the whole mess into His capable hands.
Only He can heal in such a way that we STAY HEALED. Only He can hold our hand as we slowly walk our way out of the difficult world of addiction. Only He can strengthen us to do what we could never, ever do if left on our own.
If you heard your own life somewhere in my story, you’ve come to the right place. I have several resources available that can help you find your own personal path to recovery:
- First, you could start with my YOU MADE NEW podcast. I share more of my sugar addiction story in Season 1, Episode 11, and Season 3 is all about Food & Faith-Based Eating.
- You can also check out my YOU MADE NEW Online Courses. In these courses, I take a gospel-centered approach to help you conquer things like yo-yo dieting, sugar addiction, a negative body image, or emotional eating.
- Or you could even subscribe to my YouTube channel. You’ll even find a few of my online courses uploaded there too. 🙂
