About 4 years ago I realised I was an addict. In order to kick my drug addiction I needed to get honest about my relationship to my drug of choice – refined sugar.
First of all, I needed to realise that my sugar addiction was my baby, it was my comfort, my friend… and it was time to cut the cord.
But going cold turkey did not appeal to me. That seemed a bit harsh.
So I cut out ALL refined sugars first and supported myself with only natural sugars. This meant that I was only consuming sugar in the form of honey, maple syrup and fresh fruit..
And even though I was consuming these natural sugars, I still went through withdrawals from my dear friend, refined sugar. But I was determined to kick my drug habit and part of this detox was realising that sugar actually was no friend of mine, as true friends don’t intentionally harm you in the way sugar was harming me.
Exhaustion, Anxiety and the Quest to Eat Sugar
I had been medically advised that my body broke down refined sugars too rapidly, so thankfully, having decided to stop my sugar addiction then and there, I had halted the destructive behaviour that was possibly leading me down the path to insulin dependent diabetes. But… I still suffered with so many other ill symptoms from eating sugar that I cannot really say that I had indeed ‘gotten away’ with eating refined sugars all those years.
For instance, the exhaustion I felt when I stopped getting my ‘highs’ from sugar was debilitating for a while. I struggled to make it through the day and therefore I decided to support myself by having a rest in the afternoons just so I could physically make it through the afternoon/evening with my daughter and husband.
I realised this exhaustion had not necessarily been caused by having eaten sugar – it had in fact been around for some time – the sugar had just been numbing me to it.
Over many years I suffered from quite severe anxiety and this had indeed created a lot of the exhaustion that I was now feeling: eating sugar had stopped me from truly feeling this exhaustion and therefore inhibited my ability to actually address it.
But… could it be said that my sugar addiction had actually INCREASED the exhaustion I had already been experiencing?
The simple answer to this question is YES.
The Impact of Sugar on the Body and Mind
In fact, through researching sugar I have discovered how very harming sugar is to our bodies, and it explains a lot of the symptoms I was feeling during my sugar addiction that I was really unaware of until after I stopped eating sugar.
To explain this simply, once sugar is consumed it sends pleasure messages to the brain and this triggers an ‘excitement’ that reverberates through the body: this basically means that the body accelerates from its natural rhythm to a faster one. In order to maintain this faster rhythm the body works harder, which then depletes the body – as it is far from normal to be functioning at this excessive speed. This depletion exhausts the body and once the effect of the sugar wears off you will feel tired… so you reach for another ‘hit’.
This cycle also affects your mental health. When you are on the ‘high’ you ‘feel good’ and ‘alive’, but when the ‘low’ comes you can feel quite emotional and down.
But actually FEELING this cycle can be a challenge…
As I have also discovered, when I consumed sugar it disconnected me from feeling a lot of what was happening in my body: it NUMBED me. This then enabled me to use my body in ways that I would not normally use it, translating into my doing some or all of the following regularly:
- over-exercising
- staying up later at night
- over-eating
- working longer hours, and
- racing around like a mad idiot getting an outrageously long list of things done… to just name a few!
All very tiring to my body and, always doing more than my body could naturally handle – depleting my body: no wonder I was feeling exhausted.
For many years I also added caffeine to the mix and I was like the super-charged ‘Energiser bunny’ that just went and went and went… oh, the exhaustion of it all!
Medical Research – Confirming the Ill-effects of Sugar
So how else does sugar impact on us?
The research is many and varied but it all shows that consuming sugar impacts us in many negative ways and contributes to many health issues we are currently experiencing on a world-wide scale.
Here are but a few examples:
- Sugar impacts on our mental health; in particular, it has been linked to the development of anxiety, depression and behavioural problems (especially in early childhood). The average age for anxiety diagnosis is age 6 and for depression the average age is 13. Wow!
- Sugar impacts on the health of our heart in various ways. Which makes sense, if you think about it, because if the body is running at a faster speed than normal, this puts strain on the heart (and all other organs) as it is being asked to work faster to cope with the extra pressure placed on the body!
- It has been found that high blood glucose levels are linked to the development of such diseases as Alzheimer’s and dementia and this includes people who do not even have diabetes. This is a concern, is it not?
- Researchers have also found that when people have been given a mouthful of sugary soft drink, their brain activity is the same as that which occurs when people take a ‘hit’ of heroin or cocaine. There was absolutely no difference in the pathways that were ignited in the brain. Scary stuff!!
The bottom line is that refined sugars are a shocker for our bodies and our state of mind!
Life Without Refined Sugars – It is Very Possible
I have now been refined sugar-free for over 4 years and it feels AMAZING!
For me, the most amazing part is that I am no longer controlled by the addiction – I am now completely aware that I have a choice as to whether I eat refined sugars or not. When I was being led by the addiction it felt like it owned me, that I was a slave to the cravings and the underlying exhaustion.
It has been as simple as being honest about what was driving the addiction and being willing to address the cause. It has taken a strong commitment on my part to heal the driving force of this addiction.
This awareness and willingness to commit to my health and wellbeing leaves me feeling energised and revitalised, which leaves no room for artificial stimulants such as refined sugars. For me this is truly AMAZING!
Kicking my drug addiction to sugar has not been easy and at times I have over-eaten natural sweeteners to compensate, but I have found many ways to support myself throughout this process… from resting to recover from the exhaustion, to creating and eating yummy sweets that are refined sugar-free.
Finding ways to support myself has been an important part of my success in stopping my sugar addiction.
By attending presentations by Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon, I was able to make the changes that allowed me to break through the fog that I was in (partly from the sugar, partly from my self-imposed ignorance) so I could see more clearly the harming effects of sugar in my life. This has enabled me to share today what I have come to know so clearly.
By Robyn Jones, 38, B.Sc. (Psych), Counsellor, Goonellabah, Australia
Read Part One: Addicted To Sugar… My Drug Addiction
Read Part Three: From Sugar Addiction to Gluten, Dairy & Sugar Free Yummy Delights
Related Reading:
Sugar: The Artificial Sweetener… and My Addiction
Begin Breaking The Battle With The Sweet Poison
If I crave anything I know there’s something I don’t want to feel underneath it. Stopping to feel and not avoid takes the feet out from under the craving.
Only addressing the root cause of any addiction we can be truly free of it
For me I know that sugar is eaten to dull myself. It’s certainly not eaten for it’s non existent health benefits! It’s a substance that supports an errant being rather than the body it runs ragged.
I have come to the understanding that I use sugar to race my body so that I do not get to feel and appreciate just how clear I can be if I don’t eat it. So actually it is a dulling down of my awareness. I used sugar as my go to as a child because I was very aware but put sugar in my body and I became dull and silly. People I discovered preferred dull silly children because they are less able to expose the dysfunctionality of family life.
I completely get what you are saying about reaching and going for sugar because we are absolutely exhausted and instead of allowing ourselves to feel this and stop and brining in self-love just keep going hence reach for the sugar which keeps the cycle going and makes the exhaustion even more/worse as we are never truly addressing it … just feel like I am understanding this more than ever before … after a week of feeling exhausted.
Being aware of the effects of refined sugar on our body is an opportunity to start to make changes to what we willingly put in our mouth.
There is so much ill mental health in our society, and for sure our current societal diet is a big big factor in this.
Even our language is laced with sugar: ‘How sweet you are,’ ‘Be a sweetie and do this for me,’ ‘Sweet dreams.’
Sugar is so addictive I agree… it was the only thing I have ever really been addicted to. Once I start eating something sweet it’s like I don’t have a ‘no’ button and keep craving more.
Reading this has reminded me of all the sugary foods and caffeine I used to indulge in and still be exhausted at the end of the day. What’s ironic is that we take these things to perk us up out of an exhaustive state without realising that they are adding to our exhaustion.
There are many sugar alternatives, many of them just as bad as sugar, like fructose, dextrose, glucose and many more replacements that are equally addictive and damaging to our bodies.
That research is pretty show stopping, and the way you describe being refined sugar free reminds me of how I talk about being alcohol free. Just because its in everything does not mean its either safe or healthy… I’m reminded of the fact that in olden days they used to make all the plumbing out of lead until they realised it was a poison. As humanity we have made plenty of massive mistakes in the name of convenience.
‘Sugar actually was no friend of mine, as true friends don’t intentionally harm you in the way sugar was harming me.’ This line really stood out for me as if we are eating something that intentionally harms the body, like sugar, then what are we energetically saying yes to in other areas of our life that harm us as well?
Sugar and its addictive nature and the effects on our lives exposed here with a reality and understanding we all know inside and a very valuable sharing to read.
I’ve been increasingly aware of how tired I get in the evenings and how I then reach for sugar as a pick me up which doesn’t actually work as it leaves me more tired than I was before I had the sugar. Learning to honour going to bed early so that I don’t reach for the sugar in the first place seems to be making a more lasting difference.
How often are we given a reminder that exhaustion can be supported in other means that does not give us instant relief or a ‘pick me up’ but an opportunity to feel where and how we run our bodies to support us in our day to day living?
It is amazing to share how an addiction can own us and keep us from honouring our bodies. I love the process you went through and your willingness to look under the addiction and change how you were living.
Sugar is conveyed as such a feel good food, a way to sweeten life, to celebrate with cakes, etc, and the prime ingredient in foods considered treats and rewards. When you consider what it really does to the body it’s kind of like the smiling assassin.
Love this comment – it kills us with a saccharine smile.
A really supportive blog on sugar addiction and the effect it has, that is unseen and used in our daily lives. This is something I really relate to and love the rest idea when cutting it out or whenever one feels tired for I know this is something I go to then and the loss of my clarity and the raciness I feel as a result has such an impact on my life, my sleep and a waste of valuable space and the responsibility I have with this.
I agree Elizabeth, the more we understand the effects of sugar the more we are able to make wiser and more loving choices. I found the most tricky part of giving up refine sugar was to find foods that are sugar-free. I notice in the last few years there are more and more sugar-free food options which highlight that more and more people are asking for refine sugar-free foods. This is pretty awesome to see.
Great blog Robyn, exposing the harmful effects of refine sugar is very much needed. A huge population of humanity is addicted to sugar and most do not know they are addicted. Sugar has become a normal part of our diet. It is difficult to eat out or buy foods that are not loaded with refine sugar. It is an ingredient that is in almost every processed food. Bringing awareness to how sugar makes us feel is so important. We have depression, anxiety, and exhaustion going off the scales, and in my experience, all of these symptoms are related to consumption of refined sugar.
Many who look to sugar for a fix to increase their energy do so without realising that the fix will only last a short period of time and once it is over they will be craving even more sugar as they will feel even more tired than they were before. And all the while their long-suffering body is simply trying to get their attention by saying – I am tired therefore I need to rest not eat, especially a sugar filled product. This is a big lesson I have learned but one that is changing my life in many miraculous ways.
I agree, the more we talk about it and write about it the more others will benefit from it.
That will be interesting to see what they bring, to look at this sugar addiction.
With diabetes rates soaring and the NHS saying that Diabetes alone is enough to bankrupt the system we need to have this message you share Robyn shared loud and clear.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if Headline news tomorrow was “Life Without Refined Sugars – YES -It is Very Possible”
For many not eating sugar would seem an impossibility. I know that at one time this was true for me. To say I won’t eat sugar was like saying one day I will walk on the moon. The food cravings and desire to fill an inner hole was massive, but it was only after feeling the detrimental effect on my body and feeling unwell with it, that gave me the impetus to change.
I’v had a few years without any type of sugar though just recently I have been reaching out for natural sugars, all this is really telling me is I need to slow down and rest when I need to. I know once I do that my sugar cravings will cease.
A super supportive blog for anyone wishing to cut down their sugar consumption and eventually going sugar free. Commitment is key I feel, commitment to your health and well being is what can make it possible along with finding ways that support you during the process – like taking more rest or making your own alternatives when those sugar cravings come in at the beginning.
And alongside commitment we also need honesty about how it truly makes our body feel because sugar can mask both physical symptoms (exhaustion, etc) and how we emotionally feel. This means we may not want to look at it’s impact because it’s a tool (a self harming tool though) to help us manage and cope with life.
It’s clear from the way companies are marketing their products that ‘sugar’ is becoming a dirty word and so they are coming up with more inventive ways to call sugar not sugar, and to generally confuse the public.
They can change what they call it, but sugar is sugar and it is heavy and harming as a product, we all know it, we just choose it.
I would love to see how the world functions without sugar, yes sure it would be absolutely crazy as people went cold turkey – but after that we would be a far more in tune, more aware, more loving with one and other and most relevantly more honest with ourselves and others about how we are truly feeling. We would no longer be able to cover up exhaustion.
I understand what you are sharing Samantha. I reckon the reason we are seeking sugar is to cover up/numb something we do not want to feel. If we do not heal the reasons behind our sugar cravings/addictions then even we give up sugar we may find something else to replace the addiction.
It is very interesting to read about the physiological affects that sugar has on the body, especially the ‘pleasure messages’ that get sent to the brain. And I can understand why sugar is so popular, because life can be super challenging at times and overwhelming.
I use sugar as a go to when I feel the tension of life, its not something I would normally choose, but I do choose it when the tension is felt strong>
You only have to observe a child a few hours after a birthday party to know how addictive and harmful sugar is.
I so agree, any child who has had sugar they are bouncing all over the wall and they later feel very exhausted, with achy limbs.
After a long time of not eating any refined sugar and fruit sugar I have recently found myself wanting water melon, being honest with myself – its because I have been super busy and feeling more tired I have not honoured myself by resting or getting to bed extra early – the direct result of this is that I start to want sugar – its super simple if I honour my body there is no need for any type of sugar.
Its great when we listen to our bodies, we know exactly what it needs and what would support it.
Thank you for sharing Robyn and it is great to feel the levels of exhaustion that I have exposed over the years and recognise how often I used sugar to override my exhaustion and keep my body going when it was clearly asking to stop. Although I have been cutting down on sugar for years I have been under the illusion that I don’t really have a ‘sweet tooth’ but this is a lie as I still have certain things that I go to in an attempt to pick myself up when really it would be better if I tuned into my body and chose to support it in a more loving way.
I use sugar to race my body and in the raciness I lose the stillness in my body which dulls my awareness and the drop that the sugar then gives me puts me to sleep. All because of feeling the tension in my body that I can be so aware of everything around me.
Mary I can so relate to what you are sharing. Its calling this out and working on deepening that relationship with self.
Robyn, this stastitc is shocking; ‘The average age for anxiety diagnosis is age 6 and for depression the average age is 13. Wow!’ There is so much sugar consumotion with children – at parties, at home, at school, – sugar has become a part of almost every child’s diet as far as I can see and there’s lots of it too. It has become so ‘normal’ that it is hardly talked about. And yet as this article demonstrates sugar is an addictive and harmful substance to put into the body and so these statistics of anxiety and depression thus make sense if children are having sugar and then getting a low and needing more of it.
Absolutely Rebecca these statistics are truly shocking. Anxiety and depression are so debilitating and that they are blighting so many children’s lives so young and such a freely available and legal substance is contributing to this needs to be recognised by parents and wider society as often parents are seen as depriving their children of ‘treats’ if they try and limit their sugar intake.
I recently heard that many young children and teens are on medication for anxiety and depression, I have to wonder how much sugar and diet are contributing to these conditions in the young.
“I had halted the destructive behaviour that was possibly leading me down the path to insulin dependent diabetes” with diabetes rates as they are your blog needs to be shown to the whole world. We have the power to turn things around if we so choose.
The power is sure in our hands, we can turn things around if we take responsibility of our lives and our movements.
I am really noticing which foods make me tired and sugar is definitely one, I only eat fruit sugar these days and find even sparking water gives me a short burst of energy before leaving me more tired.
Sugar is in everything so we really need to be more on it.
Yes, we need to read the labels to see exactly what is in the product.
Reading your frank and honest story here Robyn I really get the sense of how much of an addiction sugar can be. Your story reads the same as a recovering alcoholic or heroin addict and the sooner we start seeing sugar in the same way as these drugs the closer we will be to addressing this worldwide health problem.
I agree Andrew and when you put it like that why would you ever give it to a child and yet we do, all the time as a treat or a reward when in fact it is just an unnecessary poison to the body.
I agree we need to see sugar as a poison only then we can work on releasing it out of our lives.
I find sugar forms such an intense addiction, of all the substances I have used in my life, for me, this has been the one that I have struggled with the most and found the most addictive. I know the impact it has on my body- inability to focus, erratic thoughts, exhaustion, depression, lack of clarity to name a few and even though I know all of this- I find it is one I will often still go back for.
How insidious is it to have something right under our noses, put into more foods in higher quantities and make it readily available. Anything that alters the body to this extent will never be good for us, regardless of the relabelling.
The lies and half truths that labelling sell us. But when we search for the alternative are we not just as equal in the game of buyer and supplier.
I agree not all lables have the truth on them and we don’t stop to read the lables and hence we compromise.
These days the more sensitive and feeling I am when I eat sugar it tastes like vinegar in that it’s very sharp! It gives me a fuzzy head and a feeling of spinning within me, also incessant thoughts about eating more! But if I am tired or in pain or anxious already sucking on a sugar cube is no big deal. I have to already be disturbed to want a substance that will further disturb me.
Sugar really does have to be exposed for the drug it actually is, growing up little was made known about how bad it was for us, I mean we used to shovel it on our porridge in the morning added it to already sweet things and thought it was great. I can really tell when my daughter has had anything sugary as it changes her whole personality.
When I was little I ‘loved’ sugar would literally have it with everything. On reflection I can see what I was craving was for the sweetness of who I was and how I felt to be met by the world around me.
Just because we can push on through, we do. But we don’t fully realise it comes at a great cost to our heart, our connection and our health. Instead of numbing ourselves it is so much better to take long, honest look at how we currently live and be real. Thanks Robyn.
It’s so amazing what actually comes up from the body to feel when we stop using something or eating something out of distraction, comfort or numbness. Just this week I’ve given up eating some foods that I’ve noticed I go to when I’m tired or upset about something. I am feeling how tired I am, aches and pains in my body, anxious because there is nothing numbing and I’m feeling so much more around me and within. It does feel a bit awful but I’m also glad because it’s me being real.
Very cool Aimee, its so worth it when we have the confidence to go there.
Many people are addicted to sugar but we don’t realise it because it is in so many foods that you don’t even realise. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we all took notice of what is in our food. When I started to read the ingredients I was blown away by how much unnecessary ingredients there are.
Oh, my, when we read food labels it’s incredible how much sugar there is in everything! I looked at tinned fish today and there was added sugar along with salt. It seems that in almost all packaged food there is added sugar.
We really do need to look at the packaging sometimes they are so loaded with sugar before all the other ingredients.
I’d say my addiction to sugar, to the thrill of food even, began in childhood when I felt life to be flat and dull. I didn’t like what I was feeling so I sought out food to take the edge off life and to make it seem sweeter. I didn’t look to people for support, that didn’t seem an option at the time, nor look to my natural resources, I became dependant on food to get me through the day beyond the purely physical need to feed the body. No longer using food as a pacifier means walking back over those choices and making new ones to reconnect within and the beauty of me that was always there.
When we truly support ourselves in life we are less likely to get an addiction as these always stem from an emptiness and or exhaustion inside.
A great exposé on a poison that not only dulls our senses but holds us back from feeling who we are. It’s amazing how sugar is weaved into so many products these days that are also marketed for children. Luckily today we are hearing more and more about the truth of sugar and what it does to our bodies. Thank you Robyn.
I’ve been so tired this week, not because I’ve been working hard but because I’ve been eating too much sugar. I no longer eat refined sugars as I find the natural sugars leave me feeling exhausted.
It just goes to show our body knows and when we override it
It’s very interesting Robyn you noted how consuming sugar the way you did added to your root cause – a way of burying it further.
I have an addiction of eating Macadamia nuts or I now call them McDonald nuts. It’s different to sugar but still numbing or dulling myself. I sleep in and drop my focus and commitment – it’s an additive to holding back and not bringing all of me. My way out of this is to be ever-so-tender and loving to myself. Appreciate more of me and how much I feel in my body.
There are the stats on what sugar and caffeine do to our body, but more importantly there is the physical, felt effects in our body… We may never develop diabetes or a clinical illness but this does not mean that things have no affect, and it’s so important to listen to the signs and act on how our body responds before we reach a critical point.
I have experienced withdrawals from sugar and it’s no playground. I detoxed off it completely once and each day for the first week I got more and more depressed. It was fascinating (in hindsight only of course – at the time I was ready to kill someone) just how much I had covered everything I was feeling over with my sweet tooth. It’s a work in progress and while my sugar intake is down to an absolute minimum, it’s interesting to observe the different effects foods have on us, and the more sensitive we allow our bodies to be ie: eliminating foods that don’t work for us, we are able to deal with and handle life so much more easily.
So true, Elodie. At first it feels scary and even overwhelming to contemplate the elimination of foods that don’t work for us. The sugar demon especially has been one to turn me away from listening and trusting my body to allowing my thoughts to convince me I ‘need’ the sugar when I don’t want to feel what is truly going on. It causes a domino effect as choosing to not deal with what is going on/coming up for me puts me in a vicious cycle of then having to eat more sugar to keep myself numbed up to continue to not feel. It’s a beautiful feeling to cut the sugar out and realise that doing so lifts the fog and allows me to as you put it, ‘…handle life so much more easily.’ The ease and grace with which life can be lived without refined sugars in the diet is something the whole world should experience.
Yeah I agree sugar is like a drug, it is so easy to become dependent on it and addicted to it and then you get the high and lows associated with its consumption. Then also when you decide to go off it, you get the withdrawal symptoms and it takes a while to clear it from your system and I notice the moodiness, erratic feelings and shakes that I get when I do go without sugar.
A real and honest account of sugar addiction and the harm it does to us, with a loving understanding and true way forward. There is a choice to give up sugar and return to who we really are and the choice of energy we use/how we live with health and vitality.
Making the connection between eating sugar and feeling tired made such a difference to my approach to sugar as I no longer wanted to leave myself feeling exhausted in the afternoons so it made sense that the sugar went.
It makes perfect sense that sugar impacts the brain in just the same way as cocaine or heroin as no amount is ever enough. As soon as I eat sweet things, I start looking for sweeter and sweeter things and I am never satisfied.
I love life without sugar. I discovered this way before I came to Universal Medicine. I have so much more energy and I don’t feel drugged all the time. Nowadays if I have eaten a tiny bit of sugar in the form of honey or something I have to sleep it off! It’s like a hangover! It’s so obvious that sugar does not serve us to be our naturally bouncy and vital selves.
The cycle of exhaustion and sugar feeds itself. The more exhausted we become the more we crave sugar to build ourselves back up. Sugar gives short term lived energy boosts with deep dips in depletion. There is nothing sustaining or nutritious about this substance.
Our body always have the wisdom to heal, if we are willing to listen and to surrender to this true wisdom, the way will unfold.
What a damn fine experiment it would be if one school, all its pupils and all its staff, did not eat sugar – any- for 4 years – you know that with out doubt we find that school would have produced not just some of the most intelligent students but they would be healthy and vital; now that’s true education.
‘ The average age for anxiety diagnosis is age 6 and for depression the average age is 13. Wow!’ Yes this is quite shocking as too are the statistics for obesity in children and the onset of diabetes at earlier and earlier ages. It seems obvious to so many that refined sugar and sugar substitutes have a huge part to play in this. And I feel we must include sugar substitutes for they also wreak havoc on the body….not enough evidence over the long term has been done on these substances but when we actually begin to experiment for ourselves we get to feel the effects and realise the harm they must be doing on a grander scale.
When people say they don’t notice any difference after eating sugar I really feel that they are just not wanting to, they don’t want to give up the “sweetness” and certainly don’t want to admit that their tiredness and anxiety and depression are a consequence. For myself I still want something sweet sometimes but it is a bit like when I was quitting smoking, I would ask myself if my lungs wanted clean air or smoke in them and i would consciously breathe and focus on the breath that I was supporting my body with. Same goes for sugar, in the end it is our responsibility to look after these precious bodies and treat them with the love and respect they deserve.
Because I eat no refined sugar and very little unrefined sugar in my diet the after effects of eating fruit are immediate with a slight headache, tiredness and slight nauseous feeling. I then have an option of ignoring those feelings to eat more unrefined sugar where the symptoms obviously increase or I say no I can’t do that any more to my body. It makes me realise even more deeply the abuse and harm which has become so normal in society we do to our body every time we eat sugar in some form.
Both sugar and salt are as addictive as cocaine.
Sugar not only effects energy levels contributing to exhaustion, sugar takes us on a merry go round of emotions that can drop us from a high height.
In truth taking sugar is never worth the short buzz it us.
Yes, this is so obvious when you observe children before, during and after a sugar, the shift can be quite dramatic.
The deleterious effects of sugar on our physical, mental and emotional state are well documented and widely known but firstly, we generally don’t want to take the responsibility of making different choices and secondly, there are lobby groups and industry interests that are working on undermining what we all know – it is a bit like what happened with cigarettes: everybody knew but the tobacco companies still kept denying it. Until their time was up, of course.
It is amazing to hear that you have committed to your health and wellbeing, which has supported you to see that it isn’t about the addiction, but what the addiction is covering up. Sugar is a big one and a very easy thing to get addicted too – as it is everywhere.
Refined sugar is undoubtedly in so many foods now, possibly more so than ever before, and yet it genuinely is a harming substance to consume in such great quantities – so what is going on? because it is fairly common knowledge about the effects of it, and yet not only does it continue to be so widely available, but as a global population – we seem to continue to fervently ask for it…
Cutting the cord on the addiction of sugar – love it.
“This cycle also affects your mental health. When you are on the ‘high’ you ‘feel good’ and ‘alive’, but when the ‘low’ comes you can feel quite emotional and down.” This effect of refined sugar intake has a very clear parallel with other drug taking.
Salt and sugar are no different to cocaine. All three are poisonous and deadly. All numb and offer relief. All three are highly addictive and alter behaviours, thinking patterns and the way our body operates. Great blog Robyn
I remember the roller coaster ride effect of eating sugar.. on my body and it’s energy levels busters of energy then more exhaustion, my mind with it’s raciness, emotions with the highs and lows and my nervous system so stimulated. I wouldn’t go back to eating for anything now, the benefits of not eating sugar are so very worth coming off it.
Sugar consumption is going through the roof, blogs like yours are very needed to uncover the harm sugar is doing to our bodies and to pose the question of how we as a society are going to deal with this problem.
Sugar is like a band aid. It covers up the exhaustion underneath but in the process creates more that we have to remove ourselves from later. There is another complexity in the mix of healing the underlying issue as now we also have to deal with an addiction to the raciness of sugar.
I keep wondering why addictions, whether obvious or hidden, are so strong and so difficult to get past. It can sometimes take quite a lot of time to find the underlying need and to deal with that need and then – after a transition for the physical effects, if any – the addiction is gone.
It seems our greatest challenge in society is the willingness to being honest about how our bodies are feeling after we consume food, and the viscous cycles we are caught up in. For when we are honest, these substances can have no power over us, as we uncover and expose what is behind the need for craving this kind of artificial sense of fulfilment in the first place. I was very addicted to sugar but have freed myself from this strangle-hold with the support of Universal Medicine healing modalities, however from time to time have thoughts of craving sugar, which is now always a short-lived as I have a greater understanding and connection to who I am and know that this is not worth compromising for any amount of sugar. It seems our greatest challenge in society is the willingness to being honest about how our bodies are feeling after we consume food, and the viscous cycles we are caught up in. For when we are honest, these substances can have no power over us, as we uncover and expose what is behind the need for craving this kind of artificial sense of fulfilment in the first place.
Yes, honesty is a great start and when we get to truth we have even more to work with.
I cut refined sugar out of my diet a few years ago, then natural sugars like honey and most fruits and even sweet vegetables like tomatoes and corn. Finding them too sweet for my body. But for the last two days something triggered in me and I dived into the honey jar and mini meringues at work. Eating my home packed lunch I noticed how my tastebuds reacted to the home cooked, no sugar food as if the sugar had twisted my taste in a way of only wanting the sugary foods. Sugar is not a substance that lets go easily and I do wonder if eating this and then extracting myself is worth it when dealing with the underlying drive makes far more sense and I prefer living in that sugar free clarity much more.
Indeed, Leigh, when you have eliminated sugar from the body for any length of time and then go back to it, it does feel as though the sugar twists the tastebuds in a way of only wanting sugary foods. Giving myself the choice, I too would rather deal with the underlying drive and live with the sugar free clarity.
Being honest about the fact of being an addict to a white substance gives a greater understanding for those who are addicted to any other substance.
It is such a trap… exhaustion leads to sugar craving, which causes a raciness to our physicology (giving energy) but leaves us even more exhausted afterwards… a very detrimental cycle that is very hard to break. In all my years as health practitioner I have never seen more effective modalities and support for this than through Universal Medicine therapies. I have witnessed countless people break and reverse this insidious and very common trend.
In recent months I am starting to hear more and more people sharing honestly their choices to eat sugar that is far from the belief that they have a sweet tooth. Thank you for writing a blog that is starting to ask the bigger question on the demand not the supplier.
Robyn, this is shocking, ‘It has been found that high blood glucose levels are linked to the development of such diseases as Alzheimer’s and dementia and this includes people who do not even have diabetes. This is a concern, is it not?’ And yet we normalise sugar, it is added to so many foods, all the while causing havoc in our bodies.
‘Researchers have also found that when people have been given a mouthful of sugary soft drink, their brain activity is the same as that which occurs when people take a ‘hit’ of heroin or cocaine. There was absolutely no difference in the pathways that were ignited in the brain. Scary stuff!!’ This is indeed scary Robyn and with the popularity of caffeine and sugar laden energy drinks going through the roof I wonder what the impact of this on our societies, over time will be.
It is interesting how sugar can feed our exhaustion levels. Over the years I have opted for the big carb foods that would leave me pumped up and ready to go and then falling into a slumber hours later. Continuing to numb and not listen to the body lead to enormous weight gain and self -worth issues. What is interesting to note here is how we can remove the sugar or various flavours of food numbing but if we have not made the learning about getting to the reason why we eat the food in the first place we are literally back to square one and the opening to make choices that are not supported may not be food related anymore but still fall under the category of numbing ourselves once again.
Saying goodbye to that great comforter of sugar is a big deal. It’s like saying no a reward or a well deserved treat. I often find that the reward / treat seeking behaviour remains even though the sugar as gone, and so the intention and the affect is still the same – even if it is just a piece of lettuce…
And there is no real end in how to cut out sugar in the diet. First of all it could also be said that what sugar also does to the body is keeping us from stillness. You can easily see this in children. They are usually in good sync with themselves and their body and they are in a good rhythm naturally. Give them sugar and you see what it does to them. They get all restless and run around like crazy and you cannot get them to stop. I see this and I’m actually quite shocked that parents cannot make the connection with them being that way and the sugar we keep feeding them in forms of biscuits and whatever it might be. Anyways my point was that it keeps us from feeling the stillness that will naturally arise when we stop stimulating the body in all the ways we know we can. And then we will get super energized by the enormous amount of energy that is inherently in our cells.
Sugar has a huge impact on the body and how we feel. For years I have not eaten sugar, processed, and it has supported a huge improvement in how I feel. I am not perfect and it is not about rules or should haves, every now and then my inquisitiveness gets me and I wonder, how would that feel, usually those tired or low days we get and I give it a go…but it just leaves my body tired and more depleted. Sugar, may give a short term high or raciness that stops has being aware of our feelings, but it does not last, and really impacts on our nervous system. You can not stop eating sugar by rules, it has to come from the other direction, from looking after yourself and learning that you are worth caring for.
It was a process that took roughly three years for me to give up refined sugar and artificial sweeteners. It was something my health practitioner recommended as I had become hypoglycemic and I would experience lows of energy, only to need more sugar to feel ok again. The addiction would be strong…at work there were always cakes and biscuits in the staff room and my hand would be in the tin and the biscuit in my mouth before I could blink. it wasn’t will power that enabled me to stop, but looking underneath at why I was craving the sweetness in the first place. From there the choices became easier to make.
Our problems are not with sugar or with coffee, etc, they are with the elements of life we find hard to handle, and then drop into the cloud of exhaustion, and disconnect with our body and Soul, this is where we seek other behaviours or substances to avoid feeling these patterns.
Robyn, I found the statistics you shared shocking. That we live in a society that has an average age of anxiety in children at age 6 means there is something fundamentally wrong which we are not addressing. We have a relationship with sugar where it is widely seen as a treat for children and adults alike which only digs in deeper the addiction to sugar from an early age. It is time to ask ourselves where is the treat actually in there?
I am reading more and more medical reports on the negative effects of sugar. It has been linked to so many diseases and is a major cause of inflammation in the body. I too used to be hooked on it and it took me a while to cut it out of my diet, but I really feel the benefits of no longer eating it.
Addiction seems a harsh word for sugar, but it is a reality. When anyone tells me how sugar doesn’t affect them, that they don’t get racy, that they don’t have mood swings, that they can live without it, I suggest they give it up for a month. Inevitably they come back and tell me how sick they felt and how bad their headaches were. If sugar were good for the body why would there be such a strong reaction when cutting it out?
I remember when I gave up refined sugar I felt a huge increase in energy and noticed a new clarity in my head like a fog had lifted. Now years later I still feel the pull to eat fruit when I am tired and I know this now provides me with the same fog in my head as refined sugar used to.
At work its very apparent that sugar is a big part of getting through the day. There is an endless supply of cakes, biscuits and chocolates that staff eats throughout the day. I have had conversations with a few colleagues who say they know they are addicted to sugar. I know it was the same for me, and it took me a while to eliminate sugary foods from my diet, but it was worth it because I feel so much better now. My skin has improved, my energy levels better, I experience less bloating and I don’t get so hyper.
Sugar is on the same curve that smoking was once one – a normal and everyday part of life that has serious health consequences and is far more addictive than we have been told. Sugar is still a love hate relationship for me – it can feel like the cycle of being tired, eating sugar to feel less tired, and then feeling tired from eating sugar is very hard to break, however it is possible and I have slowly over time reduced my sugar intake, although it is still not perfect. I have found that having an understanding of why I reach for sugar when I do helps as well – being honest and saying I feel tired, or tense, or board or on edge and I want the nice taste and racy feeling to take that away rather than deal with it.
I find sugar one of those fascinating things in life – when I get run down or find life too hard it is something I want and desire yet when I have it I do not really enjoy it – sure it stops me from feeling what has been going on but this is only very temporary and then I have to work super hard just to get back to where I was before and that is before dealing with what was there to be dealt with and felt. So I know this yet I can easily override my knowingness. I have found what it comes down to is a consistency and yes at 1st it means saying no in the supermarket, then no before you get to the supermarket and then eventually no altogether – there is no little innocent out moment and I find if I have a bit I either want more straight away or the next day I want even more. It is like I have a choice at 1st and then easily can get swept up in it. So there’s no judgement or criticism just an understanding that really long term it definitely does not support the body to be all the love that it is!
This is a really really important point you make – “going cold turkey did not appeal to me. That seemed a bit harsh.” we often see this around us, people wanting to stop eating certain foods, and coming from knowledge rather than listening to their bodies, I know I have done this at point through my life, and it doesn’t work, you cant sustain it, because the energy that is there in our body driving us to make those food choices is still there, we are using force rather than love or self love. I have discovered this recently where I stopped using force around a particular couple of foods, and naturally they dropped away.
Wow Robyn this is an amazingly informative relatable and shocking story of sugar its effects and the enormity of the addiction it allows . The anxiety ,tiredness and depression from sugar the cravings and the comfort ,excitement and simply getting through the day symptoms are very scary espcially as it is all so common and part of everyday life for us all. I really understand all you share having had similar symptons for years since childhood also and I never saw it as an addiction only something I loved and part of my life . Having eventually stopped sugar from my diet gradually over time too it is amazing how sweet simple vegetables and other foods taste now. I was only able to cut out sugar with the wisdom and support of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and the real understanding of why I was eating the sugar in the first place and my new found determination to love ,care for and connect to my body with true focus ,presence and responsibility to life.
That is a great point. We take sugar to be our best friend when in truth it is our best enemy. We love it for what it does to us just because we do not want to be here and helps us to disconnect, to switch off and move in disconnection. Yet, moving in disconnection is devastating for our body.
It took me 8 years to get rid of my sugar addiction. Let us never underestimate just how addictive sugar can be. Of course, we can survive fine on a high sugar diet. I did, and I never put on weight. I suppose I was lucky. However, it affected me in ways I had never considered until I started to reduce its intake. For starters, it kept me quite wired, it contributed to keeping me in a cycle of exhaustion, and most importantly, it helped create a state of restlessness in my being that made it difficult if not impossible to enjoy the stillness of my own being.
Sugar is such a dangerous drug! It subtly pulls you in and before you know it you are addicted and wanting more. Sugar will be known in time for the true harm it causes to us individually and to us as society. It is a drug that we would ultimately be better off not having.
After not having sugar or sweet things for a long time I dipped my toe back in the sweet waters and what I learnt was quite powerful. Until that moment I had been living in a way where I was much more aware of things I was working on – my relationship with my son, function and drive that I go into. I was able to appreciate myself and generally I was living in a very connected way. Inject sugar into the body and suddenly I was in separation – with myself, others and life. I was back in old patterns and quite shut off from the world and who and what was going on around me. I had my blinkers on doing my own thing. It took me a day or so to see the extent of the separation and then I realised how evil the drug commonly known as sugar is.
A well detailed explanation of the harm of sugar, when put into context, sugar is just as harmful as any other drug
Boy, are our strings pulled – and from such a young age… Sugar treats were simply that – i.e. ‘treats’ – from as long as I can remember. They came out on celebratory occasions, along with the sugary, fizzy drinks. Thank goodness my family couldn’t afford to be stocked up on this stuff all the time like some of my childhood friends’ homes were!
And so we have to look deeper as you’ve shared here so well Robyn – just WHY this addiction, just why this off-the-scale consumption that is clearly not doing our collective health any good whatsoever…
What is it that we are avoiding – is it simply feeling the exhaustion in our bodies, our need for a ‘high’ or an ‘up’ moment… Or are we avoiding the exquisiteness of a body that holds steady and centred throughout our day – without perfection, but with an overall consistency? Of a body that, when honoured and lovingly cared for, has the capacity to hold a depth of stillness, joy and true passion for life, again with a known and lived consistency that need not fail us…
We are so much more than the ill-behaviours we’ve succumbed to – getting in touch with this is the key to any true and lasting change.
Many people would not even think that they are addicted to sugar, because it is in so many things, so readily available to buy and with shops and supermarkets making it very alluring by how and where they strategically place things. This still comes back to our responsibility as to whether we buy such things, but the way the world is set up has to be acknowledged, that it isn’t there to support us in our choices. This means it is even more important to become solid within ourselves and who we are and what sort of life we want to live.
I am having conversations with more and more people who are really feeling the effects of sugar on their body and have decided to give it up.
Thank you Robyn for your in depth study of sugar addiction. Your sharing of your journey to freedom from this powerful addiction is truly inspiring for me. I find I let sugar (natural) creep back into my life and have tried to fool myself that it is harmless, not so!
There is a real link between eating sugar and overeating. I pretty much only eat fruit now and when I eat too much I know that I tend to overeat, even if its other things. But as you have done it’s important to look at this much more deeply for it’s not sugar’s fault. Yes it is not a healthy substance and yes people are making their livings from selling products that are basically not fit for human consumption. However it is my choice to consume it, that’s where it’s important to look at why, what’s going on for me? Am I feeling my exhaustion and being honest with that? What am I not wanting to feel if I am overeating? It’s the looking at underneath the behaviours that is what stops the behaviours. Forcing change never works and only further embeds the poor choices.
This is such a crucial point made here in this blog, about how sugar can numb us to what is there to be felt in the body. I do this a lot. And I have observed people I know doing this too. And it is so true that this numbness can feel like a friend, or a comfortable place where it is safe and controllable. stepping out and away from this actually can seem a bit daunting, especially if you do not have the practical tools or skills or role-models for what life can be like without the numbness as a constant state of being. This is one reason why Universal Medicine is so great, with the practical presentations and support offered there, we are given the opportunity to see that there is another way, a way that is simple and accessible to everyone, no matter who you are or your situation in life, because to choose to be aware is a choice, and to not eat sugar is a choice, neither of which is dependant on circumstance or any outside factor.
This sugar-exhaustion cycle can be endless as they fuel each other. It would be far wiser to look at why we are exhausted when we feel it coming instead of not wanting to feel it and override it with sugar. It sounds simple and it is but I know in reality when exhaustion kicks in and there are still things to do it is the easiest to go to sugar. But it is possible if we do not make it about what we do but about who we are and how we feel.
I have recently noticed how honey has crept back into my diet. It came as a shock when I noticed how quickly the container emptied, with only me dipping in. Ouch! Then I had to admit that in fact it is a sugar – natural yes, but nevertheless it leads to a speediness and takes me away from the lovely settlement I would otherwise feel. The effect of the sweet is first a high then a drop in energy and then the feeling of wanting a boost, and so it goes around in a cycle. I’m now committed to stopping to really feel what is going on each time I reach for a spoonful of sweet. There are moments when a stubbornness enters and I close my ears, and like a kid in a tantrum say, ‘shut-up, I just want this now, I don’t want to listen!’. But there is no freedom in this behaviour, so I will remove the honey from the pantry and feel the short term discomfort.
I honestly have never felt so physically exhausted in my life, it’s from how I am choosing to live thats created this. In my head, checked out, anxious, racy and worrying about things, I didn’t realise how much I worry. My nervous energy system must be, is, totally out of whack it’s in constant flight mode I would say, and I have used foods to try and not feel this, and also sadness. I have come to realise over the past week or so, though known it much longer than this, that I eat foods when i don’t like what I feel, say sad, or hurt then my behaviour patterns is to eat, even when I am not hungry. Sugary food to not feel, and this can be what we would call healthy food, it’s the energy I buy, choose to eat it in that makes it the same as having a bar of chocolate, pint of beer, packet of biscuits or tub of ice cream. I also eat to not feel anxious. The anxiety being I am not in my body and fighting awareness of everything I feel. Crazy really and understandable why so many of us are absolutely exhausted and drained being on the constant merry go round of not being ourselves, trying to fit in, play a role, a part , be something, fill a need, with every person we meet. What would happen if we just dropped our guard? I have been trying this, this week at work, I’m still walking on egg shells a bit, but I’m being honest in how I feel, and saying I am exhausted. Honestly, from even this one tiny bit, and not holding back as much, I can only imagine right now, as I am not living this in full yet, just how amazing, energised, joyful, playful and vital we would feel if we totally dropped our guard and stopped worrying about what other people think, whether they like us or not, pretending to be someone else or perfect, or trying to fit in, (what happens if we are not meant to fit in but stand out, big time, like a big shining beacon of light) and just be ourselves, warts and all. Life would be far more real, far more amazing, more than I can even fathom right now, and very very different.
‘It has been found that high blood glucose levels are linked to the development of such diseases as Alzheimer’s and dementia and this includes people who do not even have diabetes. This is a concern, is it not?’ It truly is and if I see how common it is to use sugar in the healthcare there is not yet a sign of a change in an industry which should lead the way.
It is amazing how much we think that having something like sugar or caffeine, a short term fix, is a sensible solution to feeling tired or exhausted. I know it definitely gives the body a pick me up but ultimately it depletes the body meaning you end up craving more and get into a vicious cycle which can be very hard to break. We see sugar in so many things and consider a morning coffee or continuous coffee throughout the day as a normal part of life and ignore the science and what our bodies are telling us.
Realising that no drug of any description is any sort of friend is a good start to quit anything we maybe using as a crutch or comfort. It is amazing how many people are totally addicted to sugar that may not even consider it addiction, so a blog like this goes a long way to changing peoples attitudes to this highly addictive substance.
I am also wondering how many people consider that they are addicted to sugar. The word addiction is used commonly with regards alcohol, cigarettes and drug taking but actually considering we can (and I am sure many millions are) be addicted to sugar is shocking. It is widely given as a ‘treat’ in the form of sweets for instance, to our small children, then followed swiftly by the many different sugar laden energy drinks that are sponsored by sports brands and on offer in shops, to tempt the teenagers and so it goes on. So much more could be done on a personal level to address honestly our own relationship with sugar and on a global scale with governments and manufacturers taking responsibility for what is produced and sold.
Two things I felt so clearly from reading your blog Robyn, was firstly just how addictive refined sugars are (no wonder I have found it so hard to give up!) and secondly the enormous loving support your blog offers anyone considering giving up their sugar addiction. Thank you.
Thank you Robyn for sharing your experiences, your knowledge and your wisdom in relation to ‘issues’ of addiction around sugar. What you have shared I can relate to and appreciate. Sugar, in its many guises, is an addiction I still need to be aware of; re-reading your blog is a gentle reminder of its harmful effects.
People really need to be educated on the dangers of sugar from a young age, and feel and understand the detrimental effects it has on the body.
Thank you Robyn for writing this, I have not cleared sugar binges from my life, they are few and far between but when I do I go for it, and the effects and after effects are horrible to say the least, I feel down, anxious, sad, unable to think clearly, it can turn in a self perpetuating cycle if I don’t watch it. I have to really watch for sugar as one drop invites the door to open the for a whole lot more if I don’t say no to it. But what I realised yesterday when I went for a walk, instead of reaching for sugar, is one I can use natural sugars in the same way, but the sugar rush, the raciness is all used to stop me reading energy, life, people, situations, and really to make things more complicated and avoid evolution. But also I realised I eat sugar of any shape and form as a way to not feel the anxiety in my body, this anxiety is then covering an underlying sadness – one I have yet to get to the route of as this has been going on for several years. My feeling is the best way to heal / deal with this is to give myself space, bring it back to my body, the really simple things, how I walk, open a door, take care of me, make self loving and deeply caring choices for myself and my body. To treat it as preciously as a new born child, and not beat myself up, try to work things out or fix things from my head.
It interesting how we can choose our own forms of sugar that may not fall into the category itself but has the same addictive qualities. I always felt that I was spared this addiction, as I never enjoyed that bar of chocolate or that sweet biscuit. Interestingly enough reading this blog I recognised that my addiction that took the edge off, left me feeling at ease and like sugar would ware off after a while was working hard and long hours. If I wasn’t sleeping, I was working and there never was a moment when I would give myself permission to stop. The results like sugar left me depleted and living in a constant stage of exhaustion.
It is the addictive effect of refined sugar that we crave it when we are looking for a perceived pleasure and treat but the body knows the truth that sugar is anything but a treat and has to work overtime to clear it which leaves us exhausted – and craving more sugar.
I love coming back to this blog as the effects of sugar are so much more than I ever cared to imagine. I find that if I have a little bit before I know it I am having loads and then I sleep badly and wake up feeling exhausted and what do I then crave more sugar!! It is a fascinating experiment to actually observe the effects sugar has on the body as it really is addictive because it depletes the body and then gets you wanting more. We really do know how to play with our bodies to get whatever desired outcome we want!
I was heading for marked oveweightness and for ill health from the sugar I was readily consuming. I actually went cold turkey and felt like a zombie for a week while my body withdrew from sugar.
That was 9 years ago, I am so glad I had that experience and was able to see how addictive sugar had been for my body, i greatly reduced my sugar intake from that point.
Today If I have any with lots of sugar in it i feel so awfully racey and disorientated from myself, I cant bare the feeling and it confirms my resolve to remove as much sugar as possible sugar from my life.
It is interesting Robyn Jones that you have shared sugars were your staple as there are many comforts that we can choose that have the same effect and are just as socially acceptable even though our health stats are saying something else altogether. These comforts are the core of the problem we as a society can choose to ignore. There are growing rates of illness and disease that before always occurred in someone else’s backyard or we would easily ignore as it didn’t impact us directly. When it starts to hit home with our own choices or those of our family members we become aware that this is our global problem. Thank you Robyn for showing that there is another way to live where we can identify the comfort and that we then have a choice to make our lives about living with responsibility in order to not be another statistic and change the tide in our health and well being.
Sugar really is one of those substances that we think is ok but actually has far reaching effects. I know for if I have some I can’t stop and I lose all sense of reality and then the next day wake with an awful hangover. I find you only really see the full effects of sugar once you stop having it because when you are in its grasp you have more and it keeps you from feeling its full effects. We are a society of sugar addicts, which is scary because for me I know when I have had sugar I am not present with myself and so what does that say about society? What are we choosing to not see or feel? And why do we even need sugar?!
It’s extraordinary how sugar can not only hide exhaustion and in doing so stop you from recognising there was something there that needed to be addressed, but also exacerbate the issue. Without feeling the harm, very few will relate any negative symptoms to the sugar or see it as a problem and therefore won’t look to break through the sugar fog as you have done so amazingly, with such profound results.
How often does sugar now play the part in our entertainment? In recent years I have noticed that the party invites I have received relate to tea parties, cupcake making, candy making classes, cake decorating, ice-cream making and many more that are advertised to engage groups of people to have fun when celebrating birthdays, weddings and christening. How interesting is it that the reason for the celebration is often clouded in a sea of entertainment that encourages eating sugar and little room to celebrate and appreciate the people the event was organised for in the first place?
As soon as I start craving sugar I know I’m tired or something is massively effecting me – and there’s always a reason behind it. And the less and less I ate sugar the more I noticed how it actually effects my body for up to 3 days afterwards – there’s nothing fleeting about a moment of ‘sweetness’.
Reading your blog, I cannot but question the level of exhaustion within society – Sugar at every turn, in every aisle, shop, within most foods, if not drinks and marketed to us from young…if we were to take all of this sugar away – imagine the crash. It would be a wake-up call for us en-masse as a society that relies upon many a pick-me-up to cope with day to day life. Perhaps then, we may ask the question as to why are we so depleted and exhausted? What has become of the human race within a short span of time for never before have we been so reliant on sugar and caffeine?
I gave up refined sugar a long time ago, and I still remember the huge difference in the way I felt. Clearer headed, more energy, happier. Over time I have also given up replacement sweeteners and fruit. As a child I was addicted to sugar so I would never have thought I would end up sugar free. If I eat any sugar now I notice it instantly and I start to feel racy, groggy, depressed and tired. A huge difference from one little choice.
There is so much evidence now about the harm of refined sugar but just knowing about its harm does not change our behaviour around it. As with all addictions, we have to get underneath what is driving the behaviour for things to change.
It is what is behind addictions that is never usually addressed, and that is so lovingly looked at here, that is vitally important
Sugar, whilst it may give you a momentary buzz or spurt of energy, depletes the body and leaves you feeling tired the next day, wanting, even craving more sugar. I find once I start it is very hard to stop. My thoughts become foggy and things start to get to me or irritate me. It is amazing how something so seemingly small has big knock on effects.
Robyn, this is a brilliant article, it shows how addictive and harmful sugar is for our bodies and yet it is so commonly consumed and accepted in society, it is great that you expose how harmful sugar is and the illnesses and disease that over consumption can lead to. I too was addicted to sugar for years and now enjoy not having sugar in my body – I do not miss it at all.
I too was a sugar addict, and in the end it was my deteriorating digestive health that was the reason for making the choice to kick the sugar habit that had devastated my body. It wasn’t always easy to end this life of sweet addiction, but it has paid off tenfold with the increased quality of my well-being and my natural energy…..but I am always aware that if I allow myself to become exhausted, or emotional, the old sweet cravings are sitting there waiting to be fed once again.
Such a great article Robyn and I am sure many of us can relate to what you have shared here. This line is a gem that I am sure many experience but few would be honest enough to admit due to them needing their sugar addiction ‘But… could it be said that my sugar addiction had actually INCREASED the exhaustion I had already been experiencing? ‘ I know this was the case for me.
We do need to ask ourselves as a race of people what’s going on that a little chemical reverberation from sugar actually feels better than how we were feeling before. For the sons of God to have got to this point needs serious and urgent consideration.
Sugar will one day be known for the detrimental harmful drug it is, until then for those that know this is a truth, it is hard to see this drug being advertised so widely aimed at all society and especially children.
There is so much investment by huge companies in our sugar addiction to their products, that it will take a long time to change, but as sugar related illnesses continue to rise it will one day be seen to be the poison that it really is.
It is going to take a while to have global acceptance that sugar is harmful. Because of how accepted sugar is, there are may many industries that have set up because of this that continue to feed out need. So it makes sense that we do not want to see the harm at many levels. One day we will have to though as the health costs associated with consuming this product continue to sky rocket.
‘I realised this exhaustion had not necessarily been caused by having eaten sugar – it had in fact been around for some time – the sugar had just been numbing me to it.’ – thank you , a great realisation Robyn.
Sugar addiction is a serious condition and one that is not so easy to kick – I sometimes wonder what will happen to all the kids who are now growing up with a regular diet of Coca Cola, tomato ketchup and sugar laden cereals, to name but a few offenders.
Robyn, thank you for exposing the harmful effects of sugar addiction, in a scientific, clear, and honest way.
I could relate to the addictiveness and harmful effects on the body, such as exhaustion, anxiety and depression. The sugar being the numbing food stopping me from feeling my body and then honouring what it really needs- e.g. resting more, eating more nourishing foods; instead I tended to override my body and be on a mission to get things done at home and at work, only to wake up feeling exhausted not wanting to get out of bed – to start the day all over again.
It is still work in progress to totally remove all refined sugar in my diet, as it is hidden in so many supermarket foods and restaurant meals. Your blog has been very inspiring.
The cycle of the effects on the human body and mind from the drug sugar is the same as any other addictive drug.
It’s great that research is now backing up the truth of what has always been known in the body. Our bodies have been sending us messages for a long time and with the increase in anxiety, and mental health disorders and illness across the board, what will it take for more of us to stop and take notice…
I love the way you expose how sugar feeds exhaustion Robyn. I often catch myself eating fruit in order to stay up later or get moving when I feel tired. I am feeling how lovely it would be to simply honour my body and rest instead of pushing through.
In order to kick any addiction we need to ‘get honest’… and especially anything to do with food…. We have so many blind spots… almost hardwired, and it takes great diligence to free up a neural pathways with choices for our evolution rather then our devolution
Awesome, honest and practical sharing Robyn that reveals the true impact that sugar has on our bodies. I feel much of what drives our addiction with sugar as a society is the fact that we are unwilling to see the true impact it has upon our bodies as you shared when we stay in ignorance to it’s true effects we can easily override what our body is clearly showing us. A great article to ponder on, thank you.
Sugar is so normal now that to suggest that it has ill effects like a drug (I think people accept the problems of weight gain that are related to it) is quite a thing. For me as I naturally started to reduce the amount I was eating, I gradually became aware that there was a marked difference between when I was sugar free, and then when I would ‘enjoy’ some sweet treats. They included tiredness and a mild depression as well as an urge to eat more (the addictive quality). Over time I’ve realised it really is not worth it, and I’m a lot more consistently myself without it. It has been a blessing.
A brilliant article on the ills of sugar, inspiring us to read beyond what’s on the label and to see what lies behind the addiction and how in fact we’re using in order to numb out the pain or to artificially boost an already exhausted physical state.
We just have to consider our obesity and diabetes epidemic to realise our sugar addiction is not a healthy option for anyone.
‘When I was being led by the addiction it felt like it owned me, that I was a slave to the cravings and the underlying exhaustion’ that fed it. Any addiction owns and completely controls us. Understanding why, when and how you use the substance is not only essential for true healing at the root level to occur but the only way that you can truly let something go.
“I realised this exhaustion had not necessarily been caused by having eaten sugar – it had in fact been around for some time – the sugar had just been numbing me to it.” We live so much on the go and so exhausted that we look to sugar and caffeine to cope…so no wonder everything seems packed with sugar and we go for it. I did an experiment with my class recently about how many teaspoons of sugar there are in popular drinks. For some there were up to 14 just in one average sized bottle that you would drink in one go. I am surprised there aren’t more scientific studies on the impact of sugar consumption and behaviour/concentration levels in kids.
I’m really inspired to look at how what’s going on beneath my addictions/habits and see what’s driving them. To really be honest about these addictions/habits and their destructive cycles. To look at ways I can support myself with the underlying choices that I’m making that aren’t serving me but I’m refusing to look at and choosing to ‘manage’ with through these addictions and habits. It’s a blessing that when they are removed what’s there to be seen is clear and what’s so inspiring about reading this article is Robyn your choice to see what’s there and lovingly support yourself.
Looking at whats driving these addictive and abusive behaviours often reveals a painful choice I have made and/or a belief I have falsely lived by (which leads to a hurt) that I have chosen to ignore. In the avoidance I tell myself it’s too much to face but I know this is also a lie. There is no choice I have previously made that I can’t handle and all that comes with it.
Sugar in all forms, even natural ones, really do a number on our bodies. It has now been 6 years since I last consumed refined sugar and I am pleased to report that my body is much better for it. Some days I still have cravings for sweet food and on occasion may eat a refined sugar free sweet, but my body doesn’t even like this nowadays. Anything that has a content of sweetness to it, simply over stimulates my body. This is because our precious bodies are super sensitive and after 6 years of not eating much sweet food, even fruit, it becomes accustomed to its own natural rhythms. So any type of stimulant stands out like a very sore thumb, except usually it is a head ache or a feeling of sluggishness or a tightness in my chest area. Our bodies are amazing, if only we listen to them, and honour them deeply.
Of all the substances that I have chosen to drop from my diet sugar has been a very persistent presence. In the beginning I was amazed at how everything I seemed to want to buy had sugar in it, and most of the free from foods are loaded with it. I managed to exclude refined sugar and felt the benefits although it did show up the underlying exhaustion that I had been running with. After some time I was free of sugar containing foods however having allowed a stressful situation get to me I started eating xylitol sweets and chewing gum, convincing myself they were good for me, and then found my wanting of sweet things returning. It’s as if by letting one thing in all the others wanted to come to the party. I found myself more racy and anxious. With the support of Universal Medicine and it’s practitioners I feel I am coming back to myself and letting go of the need for this false friend.
Interesting to re-visit this informative blog again this morning. Last night, at bedtime!, I reached for some dried prunes. I was aware this was a ploy for sugar, and an act of defiance against sleeping, though I’m not yet sure why it arose. I was like a kid who is tired but doesn’t want to go to bed. Anyway I chose to go with the impulse against my knowing. Of course I could not stop with one so it turned to be quite a few. Within five minutes my body felt like it was cooking from inside, my skin was covered by a red rash and boy was it itchy. It took about an hour for the skin to cool down again, and for me to feel that for me sugar in many forms is addictive and no longer sits well with my body.
When I was a mother of young children I really wanted to feed them food that would really nurture them and sugar was not on the menu, although fresh fruit was. This is over 35 years ago now so even then I was aware of how detrimental sugar is as it takes one on the roller coaster of ‘highs’ and ‘lows’. There was a great outcry from grandparents and all those people who like to win favour with sweets when I informed them of my decision and asked them to reframe from giving the children sweets. My mother told me that I had wrecked her role as a grandmother. I remember saying to her why not just be with them. A friend of mine would not talk to me for 2 weeks because I asked him to respect my wishes and not feed my 2 year old lollies. Another friend lectured me telling me that all children need stimulation. One said that my decision was akin to child abuse! Such was the resistance to my choice!
Sugar was never a big pull for me on the taste department but I used it often as a kid to keep up with my friends and the raciness that I had experienced. To keep up with the others I used sugar as an energy supply and even back then could remember my body feeling whacked by the end of the day once the sugar supply had run out.
The more I have been connecting to my body and listening to it, the more obvious it has been that when I crave something sweet, I have pushed myself a little more and not honoured enough rest and got caught in the doing, at the same time I have not supported my body with nutritious food.
When I am tired or especially when I am exhausted, I find my body craving sugar. If I eat anything with sugar I find my body feel heavy and after a while more tired. I am more aware now that I am just feeding e sugar craving. So now I try to just rest my body and hydrate myself, plus eat nutritious food that supports to stop the craving.
The way you have shared your relationship with addiction is amazing Robyn and applicable to many other addictions that we may have in life. Thank you.
Hi Robyn – loved the article, it confirmed much of my relationship with sugar. I felt blessed that by listening to my body over thirty years ago, my addition to sugar in different forms started to drop away naturally, and there seemed to be ways of letting it go without too much trauma. The exhaustion cycle is huge for many people I know and when I see little ones eating heavily laden sugar treats and lolly’s, I feel the pain in my body. There is such a feeling of freedom once the sugar addition is kicked and the clarity and presence that is felt is truly yummy. Thanks for sharing your research.
I love love all these articles on sugar Robyn. They are the kind of articles that should be disturbed world wide to all schools and all hospitals, basically everyone needs to know about the harmful and addictive qualities of sugar.
As people become more aware of the harmful impact of sugar on our bodies we can see that there is then a growth in the business of sugar substitutes such as; Agave, stevia, coconut nectar, xylitol, honey, rice malt/barley/syrup, molasses, sorbitol.
In my experience removing and substituting one for the other was really a distraction for not dealing with the underlying issues of exhaustion and emptiness.
It is definitely possible to cut out refined sugar. I have done it and I also know many,many people who have also made the choice to no longer be addicted to sugar. I grew up with very little refined sugar in my diet, so when I was introduced to excess sugar at the age of 8, I actually wasn’t able to eat much sugar without feeling physically sick. But gradually I built up a tolerance to sugar and was able to eat more and more of it but still relatively small amounts in consideration to the average quantity consumed by say an average Australian. So, interesting to observe how my body was not able to tolerate too much sugar at first, it took me years to get used to sugar and with time I was certainly able to repeatedly numb my body with various foods as well. Sugar is definitely harmful because if I were to eat it now, I would not be able to function, I’d feel exhausted and disorientated,have a headache and even lost of memory. Sugar affects me hugely, so it is certainly not worth it to put my body through these symptoms for a short period of satisfaction. More and more people are waking up to the harmful affects of sugar which is fantastic.
Wow, I had no idea that some mental health problems were related to sugar consumption. pretty scary if we consider how much hidden sugars there are in everyday food that we would not assume to be sweet. For example, processed ready meals, muesli (which has a reputation for being healthy), bread etc. I started giving up sugar a year or so ago, and now I hardly have any. But if indulge a bit on sweet things, including too much fruit, I literally get a hangover the next day, just like in the days when I used to drink alcohol. Crazy, but goes to show that it really is a drug.
Me too Eleanor, I had no idea that some mental health problems were related to sugar either but it makes sense and I can relate to it because when I used to consume refine sugar my mood changes we dramatic. I used to get exhausted, grumpy and didn’t feel like myself. I was highly sensitive to sugar and I guess many people are the same. I was able to connect my mood changes with sugar consumption. Sugar definitely affects us in more ways than we think. The side affects and health problems it causes is a lot more destructive than many of us are willing to recognise.
Sugar is like a drug addiction, and yes even the research shows it is using the same neural pathway. Sugar is like a drug addiction but worse. Firstly, we all know if addicted to drugs like cocaine, heroine and ice it is not a good thing – we know it’s bad for our health and lives and those using the drug really know this firsthand as the withdrawal process can be horrendous. Withdrawing from such drugs is usually inevitable and this is what makes sugar worse. Sugar is cheap, socially acceptable and available everywhere and at every meal. In fact we have been told we need refined sugar – so we eat it, drink it, have it in between meals too and justify we need it for our very survival. This way we never have to feel the withdrawal from refined sugar as a drug addict does unless of course you have given up sugar before. While admittedly it is not as extreme as other drugs the process is similar, there are physical symptoms like headaches and low energy if not exhaustion, as well as the psychological taunting – sugar cravings and compulsions that are difficult to resist, again similar to a drug addiction. Like a drug, just a small hit of sugar can leave us craving for more almost immediately, the blood sugar imbalance leads to more sugar cravings and the taste buds also become accustomed to sweetness so that the natural sweetness of other foods is not detected. All of this and we have not as a society really admitted the long term health effects of sugar or the impact on our day to day lives.
The negative impact of sugar on our health is currently underestimated by our health care systems and public health initiatives. So many significant health problems are linked to sugar – this blog did not even need to touch on statistics around diabetes and the impact this is having globally. Crazily I have even heard it said that ‘research shows’ sugar does not cause diabetes but when we look to the diets of countries in developing nations with an extraordinarily high prevalence of diabetes what is found is a high consumption of soft drinks and other foods with added refined sugars. There is also research suggesting that sugar contributes to high cholesterol more so than saturated fats but this is not well accepted yet.
I understand why you went from refined sugars to other sweeteners like honey, maple syrup and fruit Robyn, even though these alternatives are still sweet and speed up my body the after effects are not as horrendous as refined sugar. Refined sugar immediately makes me cranky, irritable and reactive, gives me a headache, throws the whole day out if not the following four or five days after and during this time I feel depressed. While I don’t fair so well on other sugars either especially honey, if someone is fond of their sugar using alternatives is a great intermediary step while dealing with the underlying reasons sweeteners are needed.
Brilliant blog in re-reading this today I felt to really look at my issue with comfort and sugar intake.
I do not consume the obvious sugars offered in cereal and served as the white stuff in sugar bowls but I do eat some hidden sugars. Mostly natural fructose. I used these as bridging foods to start with but now realise that these too now make me have a high followed by a low and a raciness in my body. No coincidence that I clicked on this blog today. Thank you Robyn for such informative sharing.
Count me there too Marion. There are still times where I find myself not eating the obvious sugars but the slightly less obvious ones, yet they have the same effect. I have a massive headache and energy low as a result. Working with a good doctor and nutritionist has been amazing to develop the relationship of what works in my body and what simply does not.
Hi Robyn, I love your blogs, they are very real, down-to-earth and easy to follow. “Finding ways to support myself has been an important part of my success in stopping my sugar addiction.” This makes sense – and a pearler of a line. For if we find ways that support ourselves, then we can learn to live with less exhaustion, natural vitality, and then not needing the ups and downs from refined sugar. You have a very clear view of this – and it is inspiration to read how you made many choices to support yourself, from choosing to stop refined sugar, to not going cold turkey, and to beginning to live and love you – and valuing your joyful vitality greater than the ups and downs of sugar. What surprises me, is that although this research has been stated, society and large companies still put this cheap ‘happy drug’, in almost anything – it is very difficult to find something that is sugar free, as well as gf and df! I think the largest change will be when the government and large companies stop using cheap fillers, and begin to make food that only supports our bodies, not damages them.
Great point Arianne, if we find ways to support ourselves, true healing can occur, and there is no longer a need to have sugary foods to pep ourselves up nor do we crave them either.
Absolutely Arianne- Robyn writes fabulous blogs and I too find them “… very real, down-to-earth and easy to follow.’ I also agree the largest change could come through governments regulating large companies addition of sugar to food, large companies won’t change this as they know very well sugar is a ‘happy drug’ that leads to increased consumption. We have a long way to go before the negative impacts of sugar are accepted, similar to alcohol -another socially accepted drug, sugar is very much held under the belief ‘a little bit is okay’. So refined sugar, like alcohol, is known to harm the body but we are not prepared to say if a lot is harming then a little is still harming. What is tricky here is our measure of ‘a little sugar’ is still a lot.
I had to come back to read this article to understand why I keep thinking that sugar is going to give me energy when I feel tired. It is not just refined sugars but natural sugars that my body seems to process badly as well, it frustrates me because I would really like to have a quick fix occasionally but my body will have none of it!!!! The moment I have anything that makes my body go faster…as you say ” In order to maintain this faster rhythm the body works harder, which then depletes the body – as it is far from normal to be functioning at this excessive speed. This depletion exhausts the body” yes, exactly, I end up more exhausted than when I started! My body knows this well but my brain seems to choose to forget that in search of the thrill on my taste buds. Thank you for giving me a little reminder again!
For some time now, I have felt tired after lunch. I do not have any refined sugar in my diet – period. But as I work hard, I have often ended up having 3 apples per day as part of my routine. This was fine, but in time, my body started giving me signals that this was not good. I would feel sick at the sight of an apple early in the morning. I would get tired after an apple at lunch. And over time, I found myself more wired than usual. Then, the other day, I realised the connection (as though it was not obvious) and I started honouring what the body was saying – and dropped down to 1 apple per day, usually around morning tea time). I resisted the cravings for apples after lunch, and to my surprise found I had no dip in energy at all throughout the day – yet I was eating less food. Go figure – the body knows more than test tube science ever will – if only we honour what it is at times so loudly trying to tell us…
I find this too. Having been told from all angles that we must eat to give us energy the truth is by eating far less I have far more energy. Of course it is not just the quantity but what we eat and how we eat it. There have not been any refined sugars in my diet for sometime and there is a seldom any fruit now too and the way I digest food is a lot to do with how I feel when I eat it, especially how still I am.
I can relate to what you are sharing, more and more I am finding I am eating less and less food each day, I definitely noticed that the way in which I eat my food and the nutritious quality has been so important for me. If I have eaten my food in a rush, that food leaves me tired and hungry, where as if I have allowed space and time the body feels nourished.
It is so awesome to be attuned to your body Adam, feeling into what is needed and listening to the signs your body was giving you. I noticed last week while I was driving I felt extremely tired, I was getting to the point where I felt I had to stop and rest but I hadn’t been driving for hours and hours. What I realised was that if I have a long car journey ahead, eating an apple and some nuts can make me feel too tired to drive. So it’s interesting I didn’t notice this before because I usually eat the same as I would when I was at home and when I was out. I realised that natural sugar content in apples can affect me whereas it didn’t before. I had a 4 hour journey ahead and decided to not eat an apple or nuts to see how I felt, I wasn’t surprised that I was feeling energised and was able to drive 4 hours with only a short fuel stop. By listening to my body I was able to drive safely and felt more alert. I feel the same as you Adam, by eating less I also feel more energised.
Amazing. For so many years I ate sugar every day, and didn’t even consider that it could be impacting on our bodies. It is like it is there for a “pick up” whenever we need it, but I never had any consideration about how I was living at all. It was when I started to cut down on my sugar intake that I noticed the huge effect it was having on my body.
It is extraordinary to read about the depths of addiction with something that is so ubiquitous in our lives, and how strong an effect it has upon us.
I am off refined sugar for about two years now, but I sometimes find myself in situation when there is something coming up I absolutely do not want to feel I crave sugar like a drug addict. Like sometimes at late night of work, when the exhaustion brings me to push me to not sleep – I don’t want to feel the push – and so I crave sugar. Or when something really did hurt – and I lose observation and myself in emotional hurts – I immediately crave sugar. No matter that I know deeply how racy it makes me, or any result whatsoever – I can hardly stop this yearning. But what I found is that accepting the fact transforms it right into no more craving. Sometimes it simply needs to address what causes the cravings.
I hadn’t realised the debilitating effect refined sugar was having on me until I stopped eating it. As I gradually reduced and then cut out refined sugar I felt so much healthier, clear headed and could taste many foods that had been disguised in sugar.
It is so hard to find food without sugar in it every sauce I looked at had sugar – even spices I bought from a market had sugar. Have we become so addicted that we actually don’t like the taste of food without it any more. I have been highly addicted so can taste it a mile off yet still I get sucked in to not wanting to feel how tired I am and instead indulge in the quick fix of fruit.
It is quite fascinating just how much sugar is a part of our lives and how it can become so addictive. It really is not just about having a ‘sweet tooth’ or ‘liking something sweet’, it is so endemic in our society, the food we don’t even think needs sugar or could possibly even have sugar in it, but it does. So sugar is an addiction for many people, with many not even knowing or that they are in fact addicted. It is in developing that relationship with self and bringing an awareness that begins that process of understanding.
The harm of drugs and cigarettes is now common knowledge, how is it that the harm of sugar is not publicised or regulated
Great question Joe. Is it because it is in every processed food and it makes it taste so good which becomes irresistible, therefore sells, perhaps it all about profit? Therefore brings the question of how much food is marketed, processed and sold for profit and how much is sold for nutrition and health of the people? I have found almost everything bottled, in a tin or is packaged is loaded with sugar and salt. Sugar is the largest and most commonly consumed drug in the world. I feel it is up to the consumers to make the choice to change this trend and the power is stronger in the hands(hearts) of people collectively working together.
Yes absolutely sugar increases exhaustion. I don’t need a scientific study to tell me this, I know it through my body. When I eat something with sugar I can guarantee that I am almost in a sugar coma following on from this.
The addictive elements of sugar is just now coming to the surface and exposing the true harm it causes. The honesty in your blog Robyn is what is needed.
Yes nb the honesty in which Robyn writes is inspiring, when we bring a truth and understanding of why we need such substances in the first place we are offering ourselves a chance of true healing.
What I feel that each of our choices concerning eating something sugary are actually not about having sugar or not. They are about the willingness to let go of the poison of comfort and to face our hurts, to deal with them and to heal them through a commitment to loving our body!
Thank you for this Robyn!
I have been observing the use and availability of sugar since I have stopped eating it myself. Yesterday at a medical conference it was commented as to why there were lollies on each table, when we had just had a lecture about the cost and importance of what are considered ‘lifestyle’ diseases. These lollies are there due to what I call ‘conference fatigue’. Long days spent sitting at medical conferences can be quite tiring, so lollies are a ‘great’ option when the tiredness and fatigue sets in. It allows the person to override what their body is feeling, and continue to stay in the lecture or presentation they may otherwise fall asleep in. It’s time we started looking at alternatives to the way we live life currently. If we are needing lollies on our tables, it is clear there is another way things could be happening. Thank you for sharing your experience Robyn, I could definitely relate to it myself!
It’s quite extraordinary the substances we use in life that are deeply harming to the body such as sugar and alcohol whose poisonous affects are somewhat ignored as they are considered normal through mass consumption. It is interesting that just like alcohol, sugar has a numbing affect so you don’t realise the harm you are doing, thus inhibiting your ability to address what is not being allowed to be seen. The examples you presented that medical research has discovered are super concerning and should make anyone who reads this think twice about whether it’s worth the impact it clearly has.
Your blog is such fun and informative – I have read this before. This time what stood out for me was that the effects of having a sugar filled soft drink in your mouth sends off the same signals in your brain as does cocain and heroin. This is very alarming as to the level of abuse that is prevalent in our society.
Exactly Toni – why isn’t this front page news? Why is sugar, a substance that has the same effect on the brain as cocaine and heroin, so widely used in just about every product in a bag, packet or can on our supermarket shelves? What are we being fed and why? Yes we have to deal with the issues underlying our end for this sugary relief/numbing tool, but it is also completely insidious that everywhere we turn food is laced with sugar unless cooked from scratch at home with our own known ingredients. Sugar is a scary reality.
Another great sharing Robyn, thank you. This confirms what you were saying in your first blog about behaviours of a sugar addict being the same as those of a drug addict, and science has now shown the pathways affected in the brain are the same! Amazing, and here we are putting excessive sugar into all commercial foods and drinks and keeping a population addicted and heading towards illness and disease. You have done so well Robyn and your health and resultant way of life is showing you the benefits of your healthy choices.
I agree Joanne, I remember the first time I gave up refined sugar and complex carbohydrates – I knew nothing about any of it – I was trying out a diet way back when I tried out lots of diets! I was like a crazed woman. That was when I realised 2 things about myself – I have an addiction to sugar that, as far as I was concerned, was comparable to any addiction to heroin or cigarettes, and that I was completely exhausted without it. My ‘diet’ didn’t last but the lessons I learnt from my body did and they feed my intention to refine my relationship with food to this day.
I have not eaten refined sugar for some years now but have maintained and indulged my love of the sweet by consuming honey and the occasional hit of dried fruit and fresh fruit. From time to time the honey consumption gets out of control and runs me. I have chosen to stop and low and behold on day 3 after this decision I am feeling emotional and tired, clearly exposing how I’ve been using the ‘sweetness’ to avoid what has clearly been calling out to be felt.
Robyn great blog, I love the way you describe exactly what happens when we eat sugar, the raciness, the anxiety and the exhaustion that we feel. It it like a drug, because the cycle goes on the more exhausted we feel the more sugar we reach for. I have found that even foods with natural sugar like fruit begin to taste very sweet.
Sugar in all of its form is addictive. I can finally say that I can feel this clearly having stopped eating it altogether. I have been waiting for this day, when it is an easy choice – to choose me or not. To have the steadiness I now feel is worth so much more than the sweet tastes that I had been so reliant on to feel good.
And now that I have done it, my daughter is doing it too and wow it is gorgeous to feel her connected to herself. I got way too swayed with ‘Oh just a little is fine!’ and all the sugar that permeates everything to do with children! Now I trust my parenting of her, thank God.
I watched this recently too Michelle. I thought it was very well done. The film-maker broke down the belief that “health foods” are actually healthy and good for you. The film spoke to me about being discerning and, listening to our bodies. What messages are our bodies giving us? I know mine speaks loudly – especially if I have not been listening for a while. We can no longer take our illnesses and diseases as “random events” or as being “unlucky”, but appreciate the lesson we being offered and learn from it.
It is great that you have exposed the evils and ills of sugar here Robyn. Sugar is so overused and overconsumed in our society, the truth needs to be told. I have had a similar experience to you with sugar. I eliminated sugar from my diet about 4 years ago now too – I have had to exclude honey and fruit too. I can feel how quickly sugar can bring on anxiety and an increase in my heart beat. Some people look like they feel sorry for me when I talk about it. Quite the contrary, I love my sensitivity and being able to listen to my body talking to me. It is a precious gift.
This is such an awesome blog Robyn, so informative of the ill effects of refined sugar. Any addiction is difficult to break but you are reaping the rewards of banishing this poison from your diet and it is extremely inspirational to read. Thank you.
Robyn your journey from addict to freedom is great to read, i love how you also bring the science into play which is so important as the more its written in fact form the more we take it in, otherwise its so easy to override what the body is telling us and reach for the chocolate.
Its a tough cycle to beat but once you start allowing the body to heal from the addiction the vitality you feel far out weighs the cravings.
Yes Andrew and the only way to break that cycle is to make a choice to understand why we need the sugar in the first place. We can substitute nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, heroin, whatever our drug of choice is that numbs or masks the behaviour, feelings or experiences we are trying to cope with. It is not possible to give up any of these things without looking at why we needed them in the first place, asking ourselves what made them an easier alternative. It takes work and loving support but it is so worth it because then, and perhaps only then, do we have true choice and addiction no longer has a hold over us.
In my experience, being a student of the livingness and receiving the teachings of the Ageless Wisdom – something which is open to all equally – has been a very practical re-connection to my body and my soul. From this foundation I have been able to observe my choices and feel the impact that they are having on my body. This is science – observation, but more importantly, this is freedom. I feel a freedom because of the relationship I am developing with my body – listening to it and honouring it – that is, making choices which confirm my connection to it rather than take me away from it. The sugar example is a good one – we can be told that sugar is bad for us and try to quit it – all from our head. This is different from feeling the impact it has on my body and further feeling into why I eat it and what I am avoiding within myself through the stimulation that it brings. This latter quest is true healing – getting to the understanding and energetic root of what causes my behaviours.. In my life I have been given many formulas and theories, but nothing has come close to this quality of connection with my body and the wisdom that ensues.
So True Sarah. When you make choices from your body and feeling the effect of the energy that the runs the body from that choice – changes the way you live. It changes the choices you make and the quality of energy that you want in your body.
Awesome comment Sarah, I so agree. Connecting to the science of our own bodies through observation, and connecting with the messages it communicates to us is so important. It then becomes not about dos, don’ts or rules but about allowing what our body is communicating – and this is key!
It is amazing how much we actually know this- that sugar puts our body under increased stress as it accelerates the body out of its natural rhythm. I have noticed on days when I am stressed or don’t want to feel what is really going on in a situation, I will reach for sugar and then my body goes into a fight or flight response as it tries to cope with this.
I then go into a bit of a numb state with race behaviours to avoid dealing with things but as you say, then I am left eroded and exhausted, for two reasons, there is still an undealt with tension there and my body is physically tired from the ‘double time’ I have put it through.
Your blog really highlights how easy we are caught in the addiction of sugar. Most common cause of sugar is the vicious cycle of exhaustion. We are tired so we consumed sugary foods and drinks, thinking it will pick us up and get us through that day. We feel a high for the moment we consume and then not long after we feel the drop the low, which is worse than what we started with. We then ignore this feeling and consume some more sugar in another form. The cycle keeps going on, we are not addressing why we are tired or allowing our body to rest we just keep adding. There is no surprise why diabetes is increasing in society. We need to make the stop and start looking at why are we tired in the first place, which will then support us in why we feel to eat sugary foods. A journey I have gone through, coming out at the end end is amazing as I understood my sugar eating was all to do with exhaustion, which I have now addressed.
And while I am on the subject and feel to speak up, alcohol is made from sugar and Caribbean sugar revolutionized the alcohol industry. Not in cheap prices to consumers but in huge profits to the dealers and this is why today we have to pay so much for this cheap poison.
When we compare how feeling energised is in the body compared to how being naturally vital and vibrant as a child, they are not the same and it is in fact a compromise to ever think that they are. Feeling energised does not equal True Vitality!
So true Joshua, I could not imagine knowing the difference till I did a detox from sugar and worked through the utter exhaustion only to bring myself out the other side and find I have reconnected to so much more of what I used to remember from my childhood. It is so much more vital and honest as a result of being able to feel so much more – when I am tired my body tells me – what I do with that communication is then my choice, but the body has done its part and communicated that from the vitality and innocence that has been there from birth.
Slowly sugar is being realised to be the addictive drug that it is, though now has infiltrated the food system so much that it is obvious that much has been invested in this product so will take a while for people to return to a more natural way of eating. However it is also necessary as this blog and the comments share to address the underlying issue if exhaustion which means we all have to get real about how we are living that leads to this. It has been with the presentations of Serge Benhayon that I have been able to get to feel and understand what this sweetness is really doing in my body and whys at times need it and now even the sugar substitutes like honey, maple syrup etc. have the same effect as sugar used to. As a result when I look back it is difficult to see how I could have eaten the amount of sugar I did! Thank you Robyn for your real sharing.
It has fast become apparent to us all what a poison sugar is. Seriously damaging and addictive.
The best thing I ever did was getting rid of it from my diet.
Great blog!
Thanks!
Sugar has a really terrible history. A couple of hundred years ago the British colonised parts of the caribbean solely to grow sugar. Grown by slave labour the profits were huge and the planters employed overseers to drive the slaves whilst lhey themselves lived a life of luxury in London. At the time sweetners were rare fruit, malt from barley and honey.
So lucrative was this trade that the sugar planters bought seats in the House of Lords as was their right and still is today if you have enough money. And that is how this insidious drug became legal in good old democratic Blighty. The planters held around 15 seats in the House of Lords and they did such a great job of controlling the trade in this drug that it is still legal today.
Sugar, like many of the manufactured ill producing products in the world today has had significant links to a whole host of terminal diseases too in recent press and media. I certainly will never go back to relying on it, or think I’m enjoying it – with a greater knowledge of what’s behind all of this, thanks to comments and blogs as above.
The sugar is a hard one to kick. It is in all the foods we consume, hidden at times also. Interestingly the effects can also be quiet subtle with it, yet still impact the body the same. I have had healthy sugar, or so called through fruit etc in my life and can feel the stimulation you get from it. It takes time for the body to adjust not having this pumping though and living from a more stable state of being daily.
I never thought giving up sugar would be more difficult than giving up marihuana!. Sugar is my last resort. Thank you for reminding me that I can temporarily switch to not refined sugars and stick in there for a while.
I recently watched the Sugar film and boy was that a wake up call. A healthy guy changes his diet to ‘healthy foods’ you might find in supermarkets every day.
And the experiences you had with sugar are exactly how he felt. Whats scary, and what we aren’t aware of – is that if supermarkets were to remove every item with refines sugar in them, then we would have 20% of the stock left. That is scary and only shows that we have a huge responsibility for what we are putting in our mouths.
Thank you Robyn for this experience of sugar and how, as a society, we got it so wrong in the past and glorified sugar simply because we misunderstood the effect. A calorie is not the same as another calorie, what is important is the source and intention of our choices. This can be said for a lot of situations.
I have been wanting to see the sugar film. Will make sure that I watch it soon. It does not surprise me that 80% of our food in supermarkets have refined sugar in them. Our supermarkets are poisoning us because of our own ignorance. Sugar has been creeping back into my diet and it feels awful.
I discovered that the mood swings and fits of anger I have been experiencing all my life dissappear when I don´t eat sugar. Pasta, gluten and some other products to a milder degree, seem to have that same effect on me. Thank you Robyn for exposing sugar for what it is.
Yummm, those donuts look so good…. I feel blessed to now choose foods by how they feel hours after I eat them in my body, as opposed to the 1 minute taste in my mouth. I feel blessed in choosing quality of life over taste satiation.
Interesting Simon, all the sights and aromas that I can still appreciate, but no bit of me wants to drink the freshly brewed coffee or eat the newly sizzled bacon in the still warm from the oven bread roll.
How different from a few years ago when I gave up chocolate for Lent, not for religious reasons, just to prove I could, using my strength of character…well until Easter and the chocolate eggs!
Now my body just knows what it wants to eat, all I have to do is listen….and that is a work in progress
I was speaking with a friend yesterday who said he didn’t want to give-up the sugary foods because they didn’t want to feel what it would be like (the exhaustion in particular). I said, perhaps it’s a great thing to feel that, so they know actually where they’re at and can work with themselves from there – rather than never actually registering where their body is at and continuing to exhaust it.
Thanks for sharing that Oliver. Often I know we don’t want to give up certain behaviours because we would have to feel what the consequences have been if there has been any element of self neglect.
I have always seen sugar addiction as a secondary issue, as are all addictions. If we look underneath all addictive behaviour, we will find that in all cases we are using the behaviour to block out tensions in life that we would rather not feel. Thus, the real issue that should always be discussed is why we feel ill equipped to deal with life’s tensions, and why they are so unbearable that we would rather put our body into a state of such dis-ease than allow ourselves the opportunity to feel what is really going on. After all, NO ONE starts out as an alcoholic or drug addict. Yes, in some cases it may only take one shot of heroine and one is hooked, but before that decision was made, one was not an addict. So we can easily see that the addiction itself is not the real issue, but rather a complication that follows suite. Having said that, once our body is in the throes of physical addiction, we should certainly seek medical help to assist us, and not be ashamed to seek psychological assistance should we find ourselves in such a predicament. For if we are honest, we can see that life can be extremely harsh at times, and thus why the pathway to addiction is understandable, even though it is certainly not necessary.
I have also completely stopped consuming refined sugars and find it still amazing how sweet the many vegetables taste once the taste buds are not clobbered and numbed with the white stuff anymore.
I have recently cut sugar out of my life after being honest about why I was craving it and what it was doing to my body. It also did not make sense to me anymore that I was having something that tasted delicious, yet at the same time I was putting a lot of strain on my body. That didn’t add up for me. I would feel racy and anxious before a crash and burn of tiredness.
So once I addressed why I was choosing sugar (as a reward, to pick me up) and I became much gentler with my body, I found it was very easy to let go of. So now I’ve stopped eating all forms of processed sugar, honey ect. And it feels great. I used to ‘need’ sugar everyday – now this is simply not the case and it has shattered my illusion of needing sugar to keep going. I feel much more steady in my body due to these choices.
The effect sugar has on my body these days is severe – I feel that it should be put on the labels of all food as a warning, for I certainly have adverse reactions to it (processed sugar) in even small quantities.
It always amazes me when parents offer their children sweets as a reward for ‘being good’. Sometimes the children are being naughty precisely because of the sugars and additives they have been eating. Sugar is endemic in our society – it is in just about every processed food. I consider that I’m ‘being good’ when I stay off the sugar and processed food but I also criticise myself for ‘being bad’ when I succumb to it. I am learning about sugar as an addiction but my body is still numb from the true effects of it, so it is not yet fully renounced. Working on appreciating and accepting where I am helps me to stop bashing myself up about it or worse, being dishonest.
Carmel you make a great point. My weakness is honey, and when I cut back I find myself seeking yet another sweet substitute, so I have had to recognise that I have not yet resolved the sugar addiction itself. Letting go of the self-bashing has been an important step in getting deeper understanding and dealing with the pull it still has on me.
I do not eat refined sugar directly either, but is is found in a lot of (not to say most of) processed food. So therefore I still have it. It is a choice. And as you pointed out, Robyn, sugar addiction is just the outcome – what lies underneath is the exhaustion. And yes, where this exhaustion comes from everybody for themselves needs to find out. As a kid I loved to eat candies – very regular and on a daily basis. So I had to deal with a life long addiction to sugar as an adult. What helps me is to stop and slow or sit down before I hit the point where I need a sugar kick. And all the effects sugar has on the body physically and physiologically which have been described in above comments – I can confirm. Your blog Robyn, is a good reminder to look deeper in how I relate to exhaustion and sugar addiction.
One way that supported me to make the change from eating foods with high levels of sugar was to feel why sugar is so prevalent. Apart from the normality and acceptance of sugar and a lifestyle that accepts tiredness and exhaustion as normal, was to realise that there is an industry behind sugar that just wants to sell its product no matter how it is done. Sugar is big business and it is geared up to sell it in as many ways as possible. Sugar has made its way into almost all food and every ‘treat’ is laden with sugar. I had to care for me because the sugar industry has its own agenda to sell its product and does not really care about me, even though it is highly addictive and leads to the health issues that have clearly been stated in this blog. It is no different to the alcohol industry. They want to sell their product so they have created all sorts of well-researched alcohol products to cater for all age groups. Some products are geared towards younger drinkers, whilst others are geared towards the more refined and sophisticated drinkers. Some alcohol is cheap while others are very expensive. Not to forget the different flavours and colours that are now possible. The game is turnover, so I’ve chosen to not be part of the ‘bottom line’ for these industries, seeing the clever psychological ways of selling and marketing and it was time to raise my own bottom line.
The over-consumption of refined sugar in the modern diet has been part of what has helped us to re-define what we consider to be normal. We consider it normal to wake up tired, normal to need a coffee to energise us in the morning, feeling tired at around 3.00pm in the afternoon and in need of a pick up,etc. Whilst there are many things that exhaust us that we do not generally think about – such as anxiety, getting drained by other’s emotions, being angry or continuously frustrated, and disconnecting ourselves from our body by over-engaging the mind – there are foods such as sugar, caffeine etc that make it impossible for us to feel these other factors and their true effect on the body. So, as you said, it is true that we can use sugar, like any drug, to numb ourselves from feeling what else is going on in our lives that drains us.
Dealing with exhaustion therefore requires a multi-pronged approach. Starting by looking at obvious deleterious substances is a great start, but in itself is prone to failure – as most diets are – if we are not willing to look at the deeper underlying factors of what truly exhausts us.
Another corker from you Robyn. I have read 3 blogs on giving up sugar now because I had some today and have had the worst headache ever since. My body just hates it and my tongue just lied – it was seduced – the pleasure hit is so addictive and you are right completely numbing.
Sugar makes sure that there is no real presence in the body. It creates a whole state of being that is unnatural although we may deem it as normal. I was high on sugar too up to 18 years old. Now, that my body is essentially free from sugar, even when I eat natural sugar I can feel what it does to us. It is not worth it.
My experience of sugar is that having consumed very little of it recently, I am able to live much more easily free from the highs and lows that are synonymous with it and I feel much more steady and less emotional.
Reading this article brings up for me how exhausted I used to feel when I was eating a lot of refined and natural sugars. I would feel tired and eat more sugar…a cycle that only lead to more exhaustion. I have found learning to live without sugar an interesting exploration, it would not have been possible to do it if I hadn’t looked at and let go of the reasons I ate it in the first place. However doing so is so worth it – I feel amazing.
Robyn I can attest to all you present. I laughed out loud at “racing around like a mad idiot getting an outrageously long list of things done… to just name a few!” – very much recognising my own patterns in your blog.
The tide does seem to be turning against sugar, with more information out there about its harmful impacts on the body, but what you bring here takes that to the next level – living with a deep awareness of what is fuelling us in each moment and taking responsibility for that.
Reading your blog has inspired me to have a conversation with my son’s school about sugar, which is overdue. Thank you.
What I like about this blog is that Robyn Jones’s honesty reads like a recovering alcoholic or hard drug addict and this reveals just how addictive and harmful sugar is, even though we don’t tend to see it like this only because the majority of people are addicted to it.
Everything these days has sugar in it. We have such a taste for sugar that we are addicted without really realising it. Once I started to remove sugar from my diet I could feel how much I relied on sugar to sweeten my life as a reward to pep me up and make me feel better and how much this was a momentary thing, so I had to keep feeding it just like a drug addiict.
Awesome blog Robyn…you really nailed it. Like you said: “eating sugar had stopped me from truly feeling this exhaustion and therefore inhibited my ability to actually address it.” Now that you choose, not to eat sugar anymore, your body is clear for you to feel, what is there to address. Why is this sugar so wide spread and hidden in so many different things on our shelves?
I used to eat a packet of lollies, once a week and I found while eating them, I would just want more and more…. I never felt sustained. But when I had a nurturing meal, for example….. home made lamb stew or home made soup….. my body did feel sustained in what I ate. Which was my body’s way of telling me, this is the food I want….. as the body always tells us the truth, if we listen.
It’s true. I have been free of sugar for a while now as well as caffeine but recently having taken a break from my usual way of living I am finding myself feeling exhausted. The stress that I have allowed and the emotional situations that make up that stress have left me feeling drained. Finding ways to support myself is exactly what I am finding so vital too. Serge Benhayon’s Healing Courses and sessions with practitioners of Universal Medicine are key for me in this time of rest, reflection and realising what I need to focus on going forward.
The energiser bunny bit made me laugh Robyn. I can definitely relate to that as when I was in my teens, twenties and early thirties that was definitely how I lived my life, all fuelled by sugar and caffeine. It does seem ridiculous to run our bodies with a fuel that ultimately drains us. I have learnt too that there is another way to fuel our bodies that does not leave us drained and exhausted, anxious and racy and does not require artificial stimulation to maintain. It is called living from the heart and allowing my body to make the choices in daily life not my brain. It takes a bit of practice and I am still learning but it is so worth it.
It is great that you have talked about the harm and addictiveness of sugar. I know I never used to consider this and it was normal to grab something to eat to fill an empty feeling or suppress tiredness. Anything that makes our body racy is a stress and drain on our body – as we are designed to have a steady stillness within us. It’s not just sugar that can make us racy, it’s coffee, stress, or becoming emotional. It is so much easier to work with your body when you have this awareness.
I love that line Fiona – we are designed to have a steady stillness within us.
That feels amazing and definitely worth giving up the stress and sugar for!!!
I have just read a very famous chef in the UK is going to put sugar tax on drinks in his restaurants as the government aren’t doing anything about it. The money raised will support education in schools on health eating. He could not sell them in the first place, but at the same time, this is a great call, one the government and supermarkets and other shops would do well to adhere to.
“Sugar impacts on our mental health; in particular, it has been linked to the development of anxiety, depression….”. I can testify to this – for my entire life up until about 5 years ago I would get a terrible lowness which would often mean I would find myself sobbing uncontrollably on the bed with absolutely no idea why. The desperation I felt at those times was horrendous and one of the only ways to shut it out was to eat or drink sugary things – chocolate and wine being the most turned to comforts. But what I didn’t realise at the time was I was in a vicious cycle of eating sugar, crashing from the sugar into the depths of my emptiness and then using sugar to get myself out of it. It was only when I started to reduce the amount and type of sugar I was eating I made the connection and suddenly everything made sense. For all those years I’d felt there was something wrong with me that was there to stay but by removing sugar from my diet the moods swings stopped. I can’t say sugar was the only thing that caused the depression I felt but it most definitely created the massive highs and equally massive lows. Stopping eating sugar combined with reconnecting to myself and filling the void I had within with me, which came about directly as a result of attending Universal Medicine workshops and presentations, has changed my life beyond measure. I can wholeheartedly recommend both.
As a child I had a serious sugar habit. I remember when I would go to visit my mother on weekends I would steal change from my her change jar and go down to the shop to binge on candy all day while I sat in front of the television. Looking back on this now I can see that I was desperately unhappy, but it is with hindsight that I can make that assessment.
I didn’t look at my sugar habit until into my early twenties when my girlfriend pointed out to me that I might have a problem with it due to my sudden drops in blood sugar when I hadn’t eaten enough, and more obviously, my mood swings. I didn’t stop sugar right away, and instead tried to find ways to manage my blood sugar for the next 12 or so years. Even with the very clear messages that my body was giving me I was still trying to carry on eating sugar, but the messages were getting so loud that I could not ignore them anymore.
The most immediate effect that sugar had on me was that I would have a very short burst of energy after which I would instantly become exhausted. Not “I think I could use a nap right now” tired, but “I can’t keep my eyes open” flat out exhausted. This alone made having any sugar while at work out of the question.
But the worst was my mood would go into a deep pit for the next two days whenever I had sugar. My fuse became ultra short, my feelings about myself became very destructive, and I became really depressed.
Having now not eaten any refined sugar for about 8 years and having cut back on other sweeteners greatly since then, my energy levels are very even, and my moods are nothing like the emotional rollercoaster I was living on for so long.
thank you for this Naren. It occurs to me that the custom is to reward children for good behaviour with sweets loaded with sugar, which bring such a disturbance to the body and subsequent behaviour!!
Beautifully said, Ariana! “The antidote to love” indeed!
“Sugar impacts on our mental health; in particular, it has been linked to the development of anxiety, depression and behavioural problems (especially in early childhood). The average age for anxiety diagnosis is age 6 and for depression the average age is 13. Wow!” all of these point are huge I just happened to pick this as I can relate to this very easily. I observe daily the impact sugar has on kids, I see kids buying and drinking 2 litre bottles of fizzy juice at lunch times, along with cookies, do-noughts,cakes, large bars of chocolate, not to mention huge amount of energy drinks – these are also consumed by a vast majority for breakfast too. I was astounded one day when I was in the local super market near school at lunchtime and saw what the kids bought. But the fact is these supermarkets and shops have a responsibility, as we all do, we can’t blame this kids, all the food on offer and near the front door are promoting the consumption of sugar or should I say damaging, numbing and harming ourselves of a very cheap and mass level.
What an awesome article Robyn, I can testify to this, I have used natural sugars in fruit to do the same. “eating sugar had stopped me from truly feeling this exhaustion”, when I ate chocolate I used these refined sugars to numb and harden my body because I didn’t want to feel whatever was going on in that moment. I knew exactly what I was doing and the effects it would have, by body would instantanously harden – and it felt awful! I realised I would much rather feel everything, even if it felt uncomfortable at the time rather than numb and harden myself.
I love how you call sugar out for the drug it is, there is such a cover up going on in our western worlds, its crept into every food type you can image, even water!!!! It is deeply harmful to our stillness and innate inner beauty it keeps us in anxiousness and it also affects our mood and behaviour as you describe. Enough lets free ourselves of this imposition to our bodies.
I agree vanessamchardy that it is time to call sugar the harmful drug it is. It is the other white stuff! To call it a natural food is actually very misleading and allows it to slip into every part of our food and drink chain.
Not so many years ago that donut picture at the top of the article would have had me reaching for my car keys to drive to the nearest donut shop.
Now here is the weird thing. I never really liked donuts, found them greasy and with weird aftertaste and mouth sensation. But I LOVED sugar and just the sight of something sweet (even bereft of smell) was enough to push my cravings into overdrive. I recall going out at night (9 or 10pm) to buy jelly snakes, or chocolate coated ice creams.
Two interesting considerations. I am a dentist by profession and I know what sugar does to teeth. Second I was as skinny as a rake….but as unhealthy as could be.
I was always exhausted and on a roller coaster with highs dependant on liquorice bullets, blocks of chocolate, bakery treats. I felt fine as long as I was around my lolly counter “drug” supplier. What a way to live!
The understanding I now have is that sugar addiction overcomes intelligence and common sense, and its problems are not limited to weight gain. Skinny is not automatically health, and this is something for all of us, including health care practitioners to take into account.
I spent many years eating sugar, dairy, gluten and caffeine, to mask my exhaustion. As you mention, these foods only give a short-term boost, and I was always left reaching for more, to maintain my energy levels. I now no longer consume these substances but am having to deal with the years of disregard – I really feel the exhaustion and am learning to support my body without reaching for a quick ‘pick me up’, that in truth always left me feeling worse.
I noticed that the discussion about sugar is an interesting one, what it brings up with people. Sometimes I get a somewhat aggressive reaction, like ‘I am going to make a birthday cake WITH sugar!’ brought as a joke, but the underlying feeling is that of ‘don’t confront me, don’t bother me’.
Another sign of that is when I visit certain people, they do not bother to take my food choices into account, this is also saying ‘I don’t want to let go of my life and how it is, you interfere!’
This is how strong the addiction is, because it supports a life style and no change is allowed.
What I like about this blog Robyn, is that you not only call out sugar, but also the fact that it is only one of many devices we have at our disposal not to feel what is really going on in our body. I have found any attempt to tackle my chosen form of avoidance, is roundly unsuccessful unless I deal with what I am avoiding in the first place.
well said Ariana, it is exposing to find we tell our selves we want this love yet we make choices that deliberately keep us from it. I am more and more coming to feel and accept that what we eat immediately impacts our ability to be and thus accept love to the finest detail.
What I love is the honesty you highlight in your blog Robin. There is so much evidence available that shows the ill effects of sugar on the body and mind and yet we are still bombarded by it left and right. So why is this not changing? Could it be because we are not wanting to be honest about what we know deep inside, the harm of sugar? I know it has taken me a while to become really honest about what certain foods do to my body and I love how you describe you had to ‘de-friend’ your addiction.
Great point Robyn about the numbing effects of sugar. I find that at times I will knowingly choose to eat something sweet because I have decided that I cannot handle what I am feeling in my body – such as some sadness, or physical pain, or even stupendous glory. I have discovered that I can use sugar as a way to keep going the status quo, undisturbed and comfortable, not ever having to really deal with anything. This is not a pleasant way to live because then the issues just get bigger as I try to suppress them and then when I do finally decide to have a look, it can be a bit overwhelming. When perhaps it would have been simpler and far more loving to just feel what was there to be felt in the first place and then let it go.
Well said Robyn. This is very interesting and highlights the symptoms of sugar in our bodies.
Sugar/food is everywhere. At work yesterday, I got offered cookies, croissants, bread rolls, fruit salad and birthday cake. The great thing is that in me saying no, it almost always opens up a lovely discussion about food. We are so used to just say ‘yes’, whenever we are offered something, without asking our body if we actually want it. I am reflecting that it is more than ok to just say ‘no’, with has nothing to do with the person who offers it, but all with the deepest respect and honoring of my own body and well being.
This is such a great blog highlighting the real effects and causes of sugar and its addiction Robyn thank you. It adds to and helps to create the world epidemic of exhaustion and depletion whilst giving us all a false boast and certainly appeals to everyones taste buds in many ways !The real harm and addiction is starting to be brought out as is the hidden amount it is used in our society.
I have always loved sugar in every form but now see the evil in it and very harmfull niceity as I look back at my journey to give it up and the true effects on my body. Sugar is a powerful substance of money ,trade , ill health and disease keeping us from living truly who we truly are. Wow great exposure !
Robyn, I was reading a book this week on sugar -where the author compares it to the effects of alcohol – in that it is addictive, leads to metabolic syndrome and therefore all the diseases in the world that are self inflicted and killing us, that it is legal, and that advertising still subtly suggests life will be better with sugar in it.
Almost all packaged foods on supermarket shelves contain sugar – and it is slowly becoming what is killing us. A very sad picture to paint indeed.
In reading the back of packets in the supermarket – even when food appears fresh – ie smoked salmon – there is still added sugar. It absolutely amazes me that the government is not helping at all to curb this massive problem. So it is with added awareness and our willingness to take more responsibility – that we can start to change our diets for the better and make loving choices for the future of our bodies.
Yes Hannah we do have a very serious and sad problem here, and it only seems be getting worse. Sugar is used from such an early age to bribe children which is crazy as just like any drug it only makes the problem 1000 times worse in the long run.
Yes I agree Jane, our bodies know exactly what is the right nourishing food for us and what is not good for us.
What if we could learn to listen to our bodies as kids in school, that would be a different way of learning, and
offering truth with our food and ourselves.
I am watching the hidden sugars and have come to this, that it is in nearly everything in the supermarket. It is hidden as corn syrup, dextrose, milk sugar, malt, to name just a view.
Unbelievable what the food industry is trying to trick us and control us with, it is leading to addiction and obesity in people and it is a huge problem as seen on the rise of obesity in the world. What we are sharing here is very great, bringing awareness that all this is happening, because sometimes we don’t want to see this.
So much that is advertised as sugar free actually has chemical sweetners with some most undesirable side effects!
I know what you mean Monika….sugar is hidden, in a lot of our supermarket items on the shelf. Which I find so sad… that the food industry, is doing this to humanity and so many people, are not aware of what is going on. This blog is awesome awareness for everyone, which needs to be shared to many.
Since no longer eating sugar one the great changes I have noticed ability now to differentiate different tastes, textures and flavours is so much greater. How many foods I used to think were quite bland I now find rich in flavour and can be so sweet. Sugar had so greatly dulled my sense of taste.
Wow Robyn this is all so true, sugar really is a poison to our bodies especially with the amount we eat directly and consciously and the amonout hidden in our foods every day as a society. Sugar consumption is definately a by product of the general increasing exhaustion in the world but to learn clearly it is the cause of the exhaustion also and the numbing of this really struct me when reading this again, something I had not wanted to see. The true awareness of the harm and addiction to sugar is a real gift as is the awareness of this worldwide. Thank you for this really informative blog.
Who wants to live in such a way, like really who does, that makes them need something else to pep-them-up (or just feel better about themselves)? I’d say no-one underneath it all.
I agree Oliver – no one really wants to live all racy and out of it on sugar. We have forgotten the energy of our true making, but the choice is always there to re-connect and live from there again.
The research on sugar shows some quite scary results, especially as sugar is ever-present in so many of our processed foods. I ‘gave up’ refined sugar and like you, replaced it with natural sugars like fruit, which was healthier but still harmful for me, as the raciness it produced was not good for my heart, so I’ve reduced my fruit intake considerably. The addiction doesn’t feel like it has truly gone away as I can’t walk past a gluten-free cake counter without craving something – I have to resist the temptation. Reducing my sugar intake has highlighted just how exhausted I am living because now I can feel it. I am exploring the exhaustion and its underlying cause, and learning to be more present with me when I’m at work..
I look back on a large proportion of my life and realise now that sugar pretty much ran me, once you get into a spiral of eating sugar it drags you down. The exhaustive state is relieved by the next sugar hit and whether that is obvious in a sugary snack or less obvious hidden in a meal it has the same effect. It is time that we taxed sugar as we do other harmful substances and stopped kidding ourselves that it is a personal choice that we are all free to make. Because as things stand the sugar industry has all the advantages over the consumer in force feeding us sugar in many items that would clearly taste better without sugar added. Surely it makes sense to give our children a sugar free upbringing to allow them to feel what true vitality is and how much energy it is natural for us to have, a far greater amount I would say without sugar in our bodies.
As more and more info comes to light Stephen over the harming effects of Sugar in our bodies, it is very possible more than ever that our children can have a Sugar free upbringing…many parents are already making that choice.
How interesting that sugar has been linked to anxiety! I personally reach for sugary foods when I’m anxious about something… So the thing I use to numb it actually in truth enhances it! Becoming aware of why I want pudding and all things sweet has really helped me to get honest about why I want it and once I’ve said: “I only want to eat that because I’m worried about….”it seems silly to go ahead and eat it! That’s not to say I’ve mastered this – sometimes I cave and let my addiction get the better of me but 100% of the time, no matter how good it tastes, the result does not feel good, be it feeling bloated, racy or turning super reactive.
Thanks for sharing your experience and understanding of sugar addiction Robyn.
It makes absolute sense that one exhausts oneself by eating sugar – for it elevates our heart rate and speeds up the consumption of energy in our bodies. Essentially, if you can’t get through the amount of work or ‘duties’ required of you, then perhaps you’re asking too much of yourself and should re-evaluate how your life/work balance is set-up? That’s what I did a couple of years ago too when stopping sugar and caffeine. I mean who wants to do more than they can handle, day after day, year after year?
Sugar is no friend of mine either, Willem. I agree, it has been great learning of the medical side of the effects of consuming sugar. So sad that those facts are not known in the general community.
Thank you for your sharing on your experience with sugar, Robyn, yes, it is so addictive for so many people. I am blessed that I have never had a problem with sugar. My weak spot is the savoury side, salt. I am really feeling into this one lately, it is amazing, when I have decided that chips (even the supposedly healthy ones) are right off the radar for me, I can go for quite a while with no problem in being drawn to them, but then suddenly a huge urge to buy them recurs. That is a work in progress.
But back onto sugar, some time back when going to the health aisle at the supermarket I was looking for some healthy gluten/dairy free breakfast cereal when my son and grandson were going to visit. I had a look at the ingredients in many of the gluten free products, and was quite shocked at the levels of sugar in them. In many forms, often all together in the product. Sugar, rice syrup, malt syrup and so on, and in very high quantities, often far more than in the standard gluten products. I imagine many people who have been advised to remove gluten from their diets could be taken in by these so unhealthy products. Even many of the chips have sugar in them now. It is crazy what food manufacturers are doing to us. I no longer buy anything from that area.
Cutting sugar from my diet I feel the stability and evenness that I afford myself. Even with natural sugar I can still feel the poisonous effect it has in my body when I eat it. It knocks me out, I feel spacey, can’t focus, my quality of work drops, energy drops, I can feel my body’s natural resilience is compromised and my endocrine system is knocked out of whack. Cutting sugar is one ingredient that’s made a huge difference to the way I feel.
It never fails to amaze me how much sugar is in products these days and I have noticed a trick the manufacturers do is to re-label things so that people don’t automatically think it is a sugar product or they advertise it in a certain way to sell their product by making it seem healthier than it actually is.
Wow Ariana, this line really struck a cord with me: ‘ I have noticed how much I want sugar when I can’t cope with feeling the natural and gorgeous love that I am’. I understand it now, because I have been Sugar free for some time but every now and then, I find myself looking at sweet products, and although I do not and will never buy them again, I compensate by having a little pig out on some nuts, which is of course for the same reason; I cant cope with feeling the natural and gorgeous love that I am….. a fantastic insight today, thank you Ariana.
Jacqueline, you bring up a great point with how we can compensate any food, really, for one that used to stimulate us like refined sugar. I can relate to the use of nuts in this way (I sometimes feel I am quite the squirrel), and have found that I will eat tons of nuts when there is something I don’t want to deal with or when I feel a kind of emptiness (like from not feeling like I am doing enough to help others) and then will justify the eating of the nuts with a comment to myself like ” well, it’s better than eating sugary stuff”. All these emotions are unfounded, but the point is that we can trick ourselves into using any food to check out and not feel what is there to learn from
Thank you Robin , for a very real and insightful article on a subject that needs to be opened up so much as we are at world high of sugar addiction . I can relate totally to how I used sugar in it many forms – pure refined or in the carbs of alcohol or food etc. I particularly related to this ” For many years I also added caffeine to the mix and I was like the super-charged ‘Energiser bunny’ that just went and went and went… oh, the exhaustion of it all! ”
when I was exhausted and adrenally burnt out in my thirties that’s when I looked for sugar and caffeine, the quick fix.
I remember in my worst moments going to the byron bay cookie co factory outlet to buy seconds and a coffee on the way home from work exhausted and a couple of times ate a pack of five or six large biscuits by the time I got home .
Only to be sugar-bloated and feeling more tired hehe he !
That is such a valuable blog Robyn. Physically and mentally sugar is NOT our friend! It is so important to understand why we need it rather than just see it as bad or it will end up in the same camp as nicotine and other drugs. I, like you, had to realise I want it when I am tired, going beyond what my body can physically do without artificial support. At that point I have a choice, stop and recharge, or artificially keep going with consequences.
I was talking to my daughter about how sugar felt and she assured me she liked the feeling and then said it felt like a disco – fantastic description of what sugar does, and how it hooks you into thinking it’s fun! Awful. I recently had some chocolate having not had some for a few weeks, and my body went nuts like it did just before I stopped drinking coffee, racy anxious, nasty, like all my cells were vibrating too fast. That it is in so many foods is staggering and in my opinion no accident. Best to keep the millions anxious, numb, drug crazed and not know it, than still and empowered. Up to us to choose to be fooled or not!
My wife and I went to a fete yesterday, and I was amazed at the amount of products available, that were laced with sugar. It was not only children eating these things, but also their parents. When will people wake up to the fact, what sugar is doing to their health.
It is incredible Mike how prolific addiction to sugar is. Sugar is also known to contribute to many illnesses and diseases, but not isolated as the only factor which is enough to allow it to be so abundant in food products. The proposition of sugar addiction being about exhaustion explained a lot to me and it is really interesting to see how eating more than a tiny amount of sugar feels in my body when I am really well rested and vital. It feels quite unsettling and not at all healthy.
This is a true celebration “This awareness and willingness to commit to my health and wellbeing leaves me feeling energised and revitalised, which leaves no room for artificial stimulants such as refined sugars. For me this is truly AMAZING!” I can appreciate this description, I do not find it a bore or a struggle to care for myself, the vitality I live is beyond what I could have ever imagined. And this has occurred through learning to care for myself and learning to enjoy it. Thank you for sharing a wonderful blog.
If we were to judge a drug by its impact on our brain function then surely sugar needs more regulation. Society massively underestimates the effects of sugar on our functioning as a whole, and it is fairly obvious that the lack of regulation is affected greatly by the vested interest of those with a lot to financially gain from peddling sugar to the masses.
Yes Stephen we have all been drip fed this drug since childhood that when we become adults we are well and truly hooked… It is interesting to note that when I became ill, the first thing I felt to change was to cut out Sugar from my diet, not because any professional told me too, it was because I felt it deep from within as my awareness grew of how dependant and addicted I was to Sugar, Today, I am Sugar free and Sugar will never be part of my future.
Jacqueline McFadden, you have reminded me of my childhood suddenly, the plates of hot oatmeal in the morning, with milk and lots of brown sugar, or golden syrup poured over it. Oh yuk now. I did not think I had ever been that drawn to sugar, but I know I loved that dish. Funnily, I never liked white sugar, did not have the same flavour. But I have never been very fond of cakes and so on, found much of that far too sweet for me. I have been off that sort of thing for a long while now, it has not been very hard for me, down to green apples, a little red papaya at times, and rhubarb.
Back in the 70’s there was not nearly so much sugar in our diets, but the world of food became obsessed with fat and when it (along with the taste) was removed… it was sugar and salt that the food companies wheeled in to replace them. This has led to the situation where it is ‘normal’ for pretty much all foods to include these. The result for this is that we all grow up not even giving sugar a second thought, and when someone suggests removing it from our diet, then that is deemed to be a bit odd! The comment about how it opens up the same receptors as Heroin and Cocaine shows the insanity of ignoring this dangerous toxin… but what will it take to start changing this Normal?
I have become more sensitive to how my body feels since cutting out sugar. Now when I have something that’s too sweet I can really feel effects. Just yesterday I had something that was too sugary and immediately noticed my mood change and my body become sluggish. I was also less able to think clearly.
Thanks Robin, I love how you clearly outline the harm sugar causes us all and from this we can have informed choice as to whether to take it or not. Having been an addict of both sugar and drugs in the past I agree with you when you say they are similar.From my experience they both give you a high and then you come down, feel depressed and exhausted. It is criminal that sugar is sold so readily with no warnings of its true effect on our body and mind.
It is also criminal that sugar is added to so many processed foods, like we needed are more thank you!
So true Ariana, sugar provides a short term ‘hit’ of sweetness that is in fact available to me when I connect to my natural essence, but I shy away from feeling it by seeking the stimulation of sugary, salty and caffeine loaded foods. It is crazy, as all I want is to love and be loved, but block this through consuming foods that affect my connection to me as Love.
Even the so-called healthy foods that are gluten and dairy free are packed full of sugars. It’s a tricky situation because as a society we are highly dependant on sugar. We can look at the levels of diabetes and obesity to scare ourselves into not consuming it, but that doesn’t come from the truest intention. Cutting down on sugar will be a lot easier once as a society we begin to value the natural worth of a person above and beyond what they can do. As a society we need to care more about our well-being than our performance levels for sugar to not be as demanded and therefore produced.
Wow, Robyn, this is a great blog – there’s heaps of information here about what sugar does to us. I’ve refined my diet in many ways and sugar has been the last hurdle – I’m still battling with it, but I know what you mean about sugar numbing you – I have found exactly the same thing – because it numbed me I thought I was ‘getting away with it’ but in fact it made me racy and more exhausted and I simply craved more and more. I had never thought of it as an addiction, but looking back I recognise the behaviour. We are so used to eating something sweet after a meal, it is interesting breaking the habit and having a drink of peppermint tea instead.
I agree Carmel, great blog by Robyn, pack full of information about the impacts of sugar. It is something we can all relate to, because there is sugar is so many things we eat and whether you go for chocolate, whether have gone for alcohol in the past or sugar from fruit. If you are reaching for something to help elate you, using sugar this way, it is all the same. So beginning to be aware of what you eat and why is a great first step in letting go of the addiction.
My food choices are a direct consequence of how much I love myself. With a lot of love, sugar doesn’t feature in my diet or desires, but the moment I decide to love myself that little bit less, I find myself craving sweetness. It’s a very clear connection when it’s felt.
Great blog Robyn, your research is a very powerful eye opener to the true harm sugar does to the body. What I really found interesting was the exposè on how it is used to cover up existing exhaustion, not just that it creates exhaustion by running the body too fast. As a society we have all just accepted exhaustion as part of everyday life and most people can’t function without coffee or sugar. The fact that it can be done is as important as the harm sugar does, as I’m sure most people would not realise there is a vital way of living that’s possible without sugar (and caffeine)..
I completely agree Melinda, as a society we have absolutely accepted exhaustion as being a part of everyday life. I know I did until I could feel the difference in me after making some changes I was inspired to make after listening to a number of presentations by Serge Benhayon about the true vitality we can all live with.
Well said Ariana, sugar addiction is absolutely huge on this our planet – as exhaustion is huge – and they go hand in hand; the quick fix and pick-me-up, that then drops us even lower afterwards.
Another fantastic blog Robyn. Sugar is a drug, and like caffeine, one that is not only readily acceptable, but one that no one even considers a drug. The effects are substantial and most of the population suffers from them without thinking there is anything wrong. The picture of society is barely dangling from the wall and not many people have even noticed.
My word – that really puts it in clear words doesn’t it : – “Researchers have also found that when people have been given a mouthful of sugary soft drink, their brain activity is the same as that which occurs when people take a ‘hit’ of heroin or cocaine. There was absolutely no difference in the pathways that were ignited in the brain. Scary stuff!!” I have realised although I rarely eat sugary items, when I do immediately after there is a craving for more. Am onto it now – especially reading this line. Thank you for a great blog.
Such a thorough detailed article about harms of sugar, Robyn, thank you. Even though I know that sugar is not good for my body and it is a perfect food for candida which causes so many symptoms and discomforts in the body, from time to time I want a sweet snack when I feel depleted. Reading your article encourages me to stop it once and for all. Thank you, Robyn.
Important what you share here Elena as I have had candida as well and I know many women suffer from candida, even without knowing. Sugar is the fuel for candida, just like it is the fuel for many other things.
Yes, Mariette, candida feeds off sugar! Yuck!
I love the link you make between sugar and exhaustion Robyn. So if sugar is our fix for exhaustion, and such a huge part of society is feeling exhausted more and more of the time, then it would stand to reason the diabetes rate is increasing more and more (and quickly so) as our bodies struggle to cope with the fix to that depleted way we get through life.
Rosanna when I consider how we label certain people as addicts and attach a stigma to them it makes me realise how much I didn’t register that nearly all of humanity are living addicted to substances and ways of living that are actually not loving, caring or supporting them but instead are coping mechanisms. I look back and see my sugar addiction as something that got me through life but also left me ragged at the same time.
I really appreciate how you have explored further the relationship between your sugar consumption, health and exhaustion. You raise the very important point of how we need to look deeper than just what we eat but how we are living that is disharmonious which makes us look for stimulants such as sugar and coffee in the first place..
Thank you Robyn for sharing your experience and providing great information about what sugar actually does to our bodies. It is a substance that is put in most food items on our supermarket shelves. When it has such debilitating impact on the quality of our lives, we ought to start having more discussions about it as you have started here and deepen our understanding.
I am not quite clear of my sugar addiction, I still have honey and sometimes use Maple syrup in cooking. Thank you so much for your blog on sugar that clearly spells out how it is a poison so to speak, that we need to banish from the human diet. Great research Robyn, thank you.
Robyn I love how you have articulated this from both personal experience and situating it in with current research. I can definetely attest to your findings being sugar-free for a number of years now myself. Sugar is huge to withdraw from– the symptoms I experienced were worse than when I quit cigarettes. I was literally sweating and shakey like a drug addict. And to think that the world is hooked on this most common powdery substance. Diabetes is a bigger problem than Heroin Addiction in terms of its claimed lives and victims — the more awareness that we have of this the better for everyone. But as you say quitting sugar is more than a health choice it is a choice to heal what is driving the addiction in the first place.
Yes rebeccabaldwincreative, many people think quitting sugar is a great health choice, but underneath that sugar craving there is always a reason that triggers it. Being prepared to look at what was driving my sugar addiction is what helped me start to kick the habit. Like you, it was easier for me to quit smoking that it has been for me to remove sugar from my diet. The benefits have been incredible. I now have more energy, don’t get so moody, can think more clearly and don’t suffer from lethargy. I can ‘feel’ more too. Not something that I was initially comfortable with, because I used sugar to not deal with many painful emotions; basically not deal with life. Now I see being able to feel as being connected and I love that feeling.
Well said Rebecca, and the cost to the Health service is enormous, with type 2 Diabetes (the type you get as you get older / or more overweight) is directly linked to the ongoing abuse to the body from sugar… and the complications are scary to read. The correlation with the damage from other drugs is compelling but the common understanding and way of living is still that it is harmless. This is now a proven, dangerous way of thinking.
Robyn you have done an amazing job getting honest with yourself and overcoming one of the most powerful addictions on the planet. I have found sugar feels truly awful in the body, I have stopped consuming it myself although at times overdo the natural sugars as well. I have to say it’s not been an easy habit for me to break but one I continue to work on daily.
This is an article I have been waiting for. The truth about sugar so clearly expressed – thank you, Robyn.
Yes that is true, it comes from Robyn as a lived experience. I like her clarity and expression.
Sugar is a nasty cycle – I know when something happens that makes me feel off, I reach for sugar, which makes me feel even more off and tired, so guess what? I reach for more sugar. It can be a really hard habit to break, and one i am still working on, but eventually cutting the cycle will stop the perpetual exhaustion.
Robyn I have so much admiration for your honesty in sugar addiction and the gentle but consistent way you have worked yourself out of this addiction is so beautiful and immensely healing to the whole world. To further support the world with your yummy refined sugar free foods, you provide a point for so many others who are on the same realization.
I have had a lot of experience of using sugar to numb myself to the exhaustion I have had in my body, it is a vicious cycle that requires a bit of dedication to beat. I love how you describe the process here Robin as it has helped me to understand how much anxiety has caused my exhaustion and how sugar has contributed to it. Something I used a lot when I used to play sport, and I was believing I was getting away with it and being healthy, but there is nothing healthy about masking how truly excessively tired I was.
It is amazing how can either choose to remain slave to sugar addiction or like you Robyn turn your life around by being super honest about what this drug actually does for you. As a society it is crazy how much we use sugar to hide our underlying deep exhaustion, this is absolutely crazy as we just bury it further into our bodies making the problem worse and worse. It is about time as a “developed'” society we all get super honest with what is really going on.
My drug addiction was sugar… I never smoked or drank, but I ate copious amounts of sugar every day. I would get those highs and lows that you speak of and I was hypoglycaemic. I needed my three meals a day plus snacks just to feel normal. Cutting out sugar from my diet was one of the best things I have done. I can now easily miss a meal and not bite anyone’s head off… plus I have tons more energy.
I can absolutely relate to so much of what has been shared here and feel that most of humanity probably could too. Though I began to feel the destructive nature of sugar in the body and it being equivalent to any other drug it wasn’t until I heard the reasons why we turn to sugar through Serge Benhayon and the teachings of Universal Medicine that I could really understand why I had been choosing it from a very young age. Thank you Robyn for shining more light on an ingredient in most peoples diet that is not supportive to our health and wellbeing at all.
It is shocking how something so called normal like sugar is actually a drug for your body. Great revelation you are sharing here, what sugar does to our bodies!!!
Yes Gill I agree, for me an addiction was also alcohol, cocaine and similar drugs and yes now an addiction for me is also sugar and salt. Nowadays I am eating only honey or similar sweeteners but these are still sweeteners – so I am still addicted to the taste of the sweetness in my mouth. For me it is a reward I wanted to have at the end of a day. And after I have had the sweet taste I need it salty again and then sweet and so on and so on. I never pondered before why it is so but since I am refined sugar free, I got an understanding that wanting a reward in the evening means that I do not appreciate myself enough during the day!!!!
I loved reading your blog Robyn, it is so exposing of the harm refined sugars cause;.
What you wrote is very informative and inspirational. Thank you for sharing your experiences and wisdom.
I appreciated you spelling out the consquences of sugar on a person’s mental health, especially very young children. It is an epidemic we need to arrest and it has to start with each of us taking the time to evaluate how certains foods we consume affect our bodies. Thanks Robyn.
Hello Robyn, I find it quite amazing how we can defend sugar. I noticed how people also ‘share’ the harms of sugar can also add to this defence. In other words and like anything if you are trying to get someone to believe you or to do something you want then you can actually push them away. Sugar is harmful to me because of how I feel after I eat it, it doesn’t support me in the way I want to live. People won’t listen alone to what I say about sugar but they will listen to the lived experience of my body. For me there is more to ‘walk through’ and to see on the sugar subject, thanks Robyn.
It is such a great idea to rest the body when it feels tired instead of eating.
Well, we never think of sugar as a drug do we ? It is actually the cheapest drug available and it is everywhere ! When I go to my local supermarket and I see rows and rows of an incredible choice of sweets, chocolate, cakes and biscuits I asks myself do we need all this and why ?
Thank you so much Robyn for casting your light on such a seemingly benign food that we were all brought up with but one that is very addictive and harming.
Interesting what you say about the supermarket Maryline. I recently saw a photo taken within a supermarket with the caption along the lines of, ‘if there is a section in the supermarket called ‘The health food section’ then what is the rest of the supermarket called, ‘The death and disease section’. The truth in this statement is enormous.
And that is the problem Maryline, it is the cheapest drug available and everyone has access to it no matter your age. And have you noticed that the supermarkets arrange it so that as soon as you lift a shopping basket, the first product that meets your eye is a sugar product with bright colours and on offer or buy two get one free!! So when you have a sugar habit, like I did in the past, what do you do, you put it in your basket thinking you’ve got a good deal….
Thanks Robyn for this great article exposing quite clearly the harm-full effect that refined sugar has on the body and celebrating you, and the different choices now being made. Some many years ago I also used refined sugar as one of my drugs of choice when I found then that anxiety and overwhelm were very close neighbours. They were the years when I had no awareness at all as to how this cycle of disregard and self abuse was such an all consuming pattern, without any understanding that there was a deeper cause to the need to eat, eat, eat. Thank you for sharing your insightful article.
Hi Robyn – my second name was “sugar” because I was addicted to sugar as well. Therefore I love your blog and everything you find out about your sugar addiction. It is very inspirational how you cope with your addiction because I could feel that this was not an easy commitment. You are for me a living testimonial that it is possible to chose another way of wellbeing without being a victim – instead taking responsibility for your own body – wunderbar.
It sounds so funny to call refined sugar a drug, although in truth it should be considered as such. How far have we strayed away from our common sense that we make a distinction between substances we call a drug or not conveniently so? Although the overall idea is that sugar is providing energy to us, your article shows me clearly that refined sugar is actually exhausting and depleting our bodies instead and is contributing to the development of some serious illnesses and diseases. Lets stop fooling ourselves and let’s get free from the belief that we need these artificial stimulants in our lives. A life without it is possible and opens the way to live a natural life, not stimulated by external substances but instead connected to the love and truth that innately lives within all of us. The love and truth that will provide us with all the energy that is required for us to serve as the sons of God on earth.
What a great article, eye opening, informative and inspiring. A stand out revelation was: ‘once sugar is consumed it sends pleasure messages to the brain and this triggers an ‘excitement’ that reverberates through the body: this basically means that the body accelerates from its natural rhythm to a faster one. In order to maintain this faster rhythm the body works harder, which then depletes the body – as it is far from normal to be functioning at this excessive speed. This depletion exhausts the body and once the effect of the sugar wears off you will feel tired… so you reach for another ‘hit’.’
Speaks volumes!
Absolutely. I love the way Robyn has brought the facts together to make total sense of the roller coaster relationship we have with sugar.
‘Finding ways to support myself has been an important part of my success in stopping my sugar addiction.’ What you share here is your commitment to stop eating sugar, because in the beginning when we stop eating sugar,we are all confronted with the exhaustion of our body. Supporting ourselves to go through this part of ending the addiction is what is needed here, We have to learn to feel what the body truly needs and to make the choice against the sugar hit and to go for whatever the body is asking for.
Thanks Robyn for your very informative blog about the harm of sugar consumption, its only when you give it up that you realise how unhealthy it is.
This was great to read Robyn. Sugar has been passed off as something you can have a bit of here and there, and may not just a bit but a lot. That it won;t ‘kill you’, even though it won’t be so good for your teeth. But what is coming to the fore is that the ill effects of sugar are so much more than that and so many illnesses can be linked to sugar intake. Indeed, our quality of life is greatly compromised if we eat sugar, when we consider the side-effects of anxiety, exhaustion and depression that ensue. That there is a sugar epidemic with damaging consequences that cannot be denied.
Robyn thanks for sharing so honestly and openly about your addiction to sugar. For me sugar has always affected me greatly, I made the transition to ‘natural sugars’ as well years ago however I found that these were not so natural on my body and had same affect as the refined sugars. Last week I had a couple of bites of Paleo cake with maple syrup in it, and soon after felt really tired and racy in my body, I realise the few seconds of so called pleasure is not worth it as the rest of my day was not so pleasant. Thank you for exposing the effects of sugar – such an important conversation to start.
I was on a train today reading a can of diet coke and it said ‘no sugar’ and I wondered how many people would read this and believe that it was therefore ‘good’ for them and not realise that it is full of sweeteners which have exactly the same effect on the body.
I always found that fascinating why because something that says no sugar but yet has sweeteners, people feels it’s ok. Without really understanding the affects sugar and sweetness have on the body.
Advertising a product with no sugar or sugar free, when it contains sweeteners, seems so misleading…a little like ‘freshly cooked’
Thankyou Robyn Jones for this blog. This clearly shows me that eating sugar is just another addictin of this world and one that just about everyone has to deal with. The taxing effect of sugar on our bodies is enormous and it is great that we are starting to understand what is really going on when it comes to our food choices. For me becoming more consistent with my food is a strong commitment as you say, this is required from a life time of binging on sugar and food to not feel the hurts, and also using food as a wacked out reward system that is no reward at all. A necessary and powerful learning.
While on a trip to the US recently I stopped in a shop for a drink and was looking for something other than water drink to wet my whistle. The shop was well stocked with lots of choices. 90% were soft drinks that left the teas, flavoured waters and juices and energy drinks. The energy drinks got rid of another 5% and it was now down to label reading. Natural, No Sugar added, Real juice not from concentrate, Healthy or so they proclaimed… but they all came with a list of things that were not natural or real and hard to pronounce. Even the flavoured water with a hint of something was not immune form the list of strange ingredients. The only single drink I could find that was 100% of what said it was on the bottle… was apple juice that had more natural sugar than a can of Coke. So, in the end I had a bottle of water.
Great example of how many choices are out there that contain sugar. To stop and see it like this can be mind blowing. When my eldest daughter and I stop for petrol and we go into the shop to pay, I know if she asks to buy a drink or an item of food then 99% of what is sold is not suitable. This is incredible when it is seen in this way.
Great story Steve – just shows what we are all faced with every day. The power that the food and drink Companies wield in affecting our consumer behaviour is extraordinary.
Thank you Robyn for so clearly and openly talking about this much needed topic, and for sharing that it is possible to beat the sugar addiction that so many others are suffering. It can be done, and the rewards are beyond what we can imagine.
A big theme in the sugar fix is the “do we want to know” of it all. I don’t eat refined sugar but I still reach for foods like an apple or nuts when I am tired and often shut down to acknowledging this as the replacement sugar fix that it often is. It is a bit like coffee in many ways in respect of the addiction of sugar can often require that come down, where you can allow the feelings of exhaustion to settle in and the period of readjustment to take place. A commitment to giving up sugar is really a commitment to living a full life. The clarity with which you have written this Robyn is really brilliant as you have given an insight from a lived experience of what happens in the body with or without sugar added.
What I really appreciate about what Robyn has shared and what you have expanded on here Stephen, is the commitment required to be honest about the effects sugar has on us and then the further commitment to explore not eating sugar and being very honest about what we are shown. Thank you.
Much appreciated, Robyn, this is a really helpful blog because I play at reducing my sugar intake. It’s not that I don’t try it’s just that I get distracted in to kidding myself that a little bit here and there won’t matter. As an example I recently heard that one of the experiments on the International Space Station (ISS) is to give the astronaut a mundane, boring task such as vacuuming the space station. They then test their body. They then give them a [sic] ‘comfort food’ such as a chocolate pudding and carry out a second test to see how the body has changed. Apparently it makes a difference to the vacuuming. Are the scientists trying to poison our astronauts I ask or does it mean that I can also get away with (kid myself about) chocolate pudding?
HI Micheal, I read your comment about playing at reducing your Sugar intake…. In the beginning I never thought I would be able to give up sugar, because of my huge dependancy on it every day to give me a boost and well ‘sugar kept my life sweet’, or so I thought. What supported me hugely was having a commitment to stopping my sugar habit but at the same time being fully commited to deepening the relationship with myself and my body, and the more I honored and respected my body, the less I wanted to harm it with Sugar. Today, I am sugar free and sugar will never be a part of my diet or future again, i am very clear on that.
Thank you for sharing your story and the efeects of sugar. We live in a world where we are bombarded with sugar. A baby born in this world must think it is Sugar World. What you write about should be taught at schools and be common knowledge for parents and teachers. How would our world look and feel like if we were all to refrain one month from sugar? That is what I wondered after reading your insightful blog.
It never ceases to amaze me that the mind, also part of our body seems to have no actual regard for our physical wellbeing a lot of the time, when allowing us to indulge in substances such as sugar alcohol nicotine etc. Sugar really is a killer and should be looked at for the drug that it is.
I couldn’t agree with you more Kevin.
Good point, Kevin. The whole of the animal kingdom has a natural response to choosing what’s right for the body, for example lions never overeat and they only hunt when they need to. Where did we go so wrong?
‘Sugar really is a killer and should be looked at for the drug that it is.’ – for something so widely consumed, added to so many other products, this is a huge revelation and fact. Imagine reading the fine print of ingredients list and seeing ‘amphetamines’, or other more commonly labeled drugs listed, that would be off-putting and obvious as to the motivation by the food company to add it… addicted consumers. Shows an area of corruption rarely considered in full.
Spot on Kevin – “Sugar really is a killer and should be looked at for the drug that it is”. It’s a drug that most of the population is addicted to and so the challenge of exposing it as a drug is all the more challenging. We’ve all heard stories of drug addicts coming off their chosen drug. We’re now faced with not just an entire nation, but the global population addicted to a drug that has the same effects as cocaine on the brain. Could be a rough ride….
Wow Kevin that is a strong demand but I can feel what you mean and from my own sugary experiences I can agree without doubt.
This was such a timely blog for me to read Robyn. I ate refined sugar last night and have been feeling low today as a result. The way you present this information has allowed me to feel the full effects of this choice without being ashamed or beating myself up. I can allow myself to feel what is behind my choice and be honest about the very real effects the choice to eat sugar has. This is such a blessing – thank you.
Great point here Leonne, that there is always something else behind the craving to eat sugar. Something coming up that we have the opportunity to either face with the love of our heart, or bury with the sugar.
This is such a support – not just addressing the symptom, but the why too.
I agree Leonne, it is important to not feel ashamed or beat ourselves up as this just adds to the low feeling and then we are more likely to go for another “fix”.
Totally agree – Robyn’s article has allowed me to explore sugar with so much more understanding (less judgment and criticism), seeing the addictive hooks sugar has across the physical, mental, emotional and social board – thank you.
If I do eat something sugary I feel it too. What amazes me is that previously, when consuming larger amounts of sugar, I did not have this awareness. It’s a fantastic thing that now if I eat sugar I feel it. I get exhausted and I’m on a bit of a low for the next 2-3 days with very little energy – all from a tiny bit of sugar. Now that I can feel the effects in my body, I can make a choice based on my body. When loaded up with sugar, even though I didn’t eat all that much, I was under the clutches of addiction and was not as free to make the choice.
Super powerful article Robyn backed with some compelling facts and statistics. It is a great reflection for me to truly commit to eliminating refined sugars from my diet, while they are already not a huge part of it, I do find they manage to sneak their way back in when I am tired or just don’t want to feel what is there to be felt. Definitely time to reassess!
Thanks Robyn – we never seem to associate that sugar is a drug and it is highly addictive and it really does harm our body. My question is why are we not educated at a young age about sugar and other harmful substances?
It is only through education that I got an understanding about sugar and had it not been for the work of Serge Benhayon, I doubt I would have given up my sugar addiction which was very serious.
I recently saw a documentary where a hospital dentist was saying that parents need to be educated as he was removing 20 teeth from a young girl due to sugar decay.
When is the world going to wake up and say NO to eating sugar and stop blaming the sugar industry which is about profits not people.
I absolutely agree Bina, that it’s us who have to take the responsibility for our sugar consumption; yes it is definitely time for the world to wake up and say no more sugar! Maybe – and it’s a big maybe – then these big corporations will start to listen to the public voice, but sadly the chances are fairly slim and they will simply become more devious in how they get sugar into our food. It’s now all about education on the incredible harm of sugar, and that education needs to start at a very early age.
Hi Robyn, Thank you for putting all this fantastic information together in one spot and sharing your personal story. It really is so powerful. I love that you took it to the next level an identified why you were choosing to eat sugar in the first instance. There is a lot more information coming out now about the harmful effects of sugar but I also feel like unless we examine what sits under these choices as you did Robyn we will then be chasing after the next stimulating food hit.
So true Nicole.
Absolutely Nicole. In order to truly ‘kick’ an addiction, the driving energy of that addiction needs to be healed, otherwise we just replace one addiction with another.
I really like how you describe it as a drug addiction as that is exactly what it is. So many people think they consume sugar because they like it but the truth is they are addicted to it.
I agree Elizabeth, sugar is an addiction. I used to love eating pancakes with sweet jam for breakfast; white bread with butter and sugar on it for lunch; cakes or biscuits for afternoon tea and eat desserts with chocolate after dinner.
The only healthy meal in the day was usually dinner cooked by my mother. This set me up for always feeling edgy, nervous, anxious and exhausted- because I learnt to override my body, and then at night I was unable to get to sleep.
It was only in my 20’s when I studied naturopathy that I realised I had a problem. I was diagnosed as having hypoglycaemia. My sugar addiction was the cause of this.
I can see that Sugar has been a drug that I have used since young, whenever I was not feeling great, tired or caught up I would reach for it. Yet within the cycle I never stopped to look at why. What I find so interesting now is that having cut out nearly all sugar I find I don’t miss it and actually feel more steady in myself. Yet what happens is if I get pulled into work issues, dramas or worry about how I am going to get something completed then I find myself without even thinking about it reaching for something to give me a resemblance of sugar – something to pick me up. It is now clear that because of the way I treat my body I then crave the sugar – yet when it was a part of my daily life it was just normal and meant I would not have considered how I am at work or home to be a reason for needing sugar in the first place.
In children we see the affects of sugar almost immediately and know it can make them hypo, racy and we even have a saying that they are ‘climbing the walls’. Adults even joke about it knowing the change is because of sugar. With adults the affects of sugar appears to be more hidden and the behaviors that result more refined, yet sugar is having the same affect on children as it is having on adults. So is a child throwing a tantrum and unable to settle any different to an adult who runs on emotional ups and downs and can’t sit still?
With adults too, I have noticed at events that sometimes presenters have bowls of sweets to pass around the participants, and they keep their sugar levels high all day, with biscuits and cake during the break. When we are caught in the vicious circle of having sugar and then needing more sugar, it certainly is no different to any other addictive substance. And it is certainly not a good sign when presenters need to keep the audience over-stimulated all day – is it to keep them awake?
Very true Janet !
This is such an important subject, Robyn, as most of the world is addicted to sugar and suffering from all sorts of diseases because of that. I remember when the scientific research was first done on heart disease in the 197O’s, it was fats that were the target and pronounced the killer and there was a huge wave of response and cutting fat out of processed foods and diet. Twenty years later when the same scientist admitted he had been wrong, and sugar was the hidden evil, there was no such reaction. It did not quite fizzle out, but it seemed that the fat theory was easier for people to accept than the sugar. This demonstrates how addictive sugar is, there is that typical response of the addict to hide the dependency. Slowly, but very slowly it is starting to be more accepted by the Medical Health organisations, but is still difficult for many to really believe it.
This is huge Joan. Our obesity epidemic has taken off since low fat high sugar hit the high street. Headline news!
A brilliant expansion, Joan – the facts are all there but we do want to face them full on, so skirt around with excuses and smoke screens – thank you for simple clarity.
So true Joan. None would react so heavily to the idea of cutting fat out of the diet.
Thank you for this blog Robyn, I find it fascinating that sugar comes with such complications and exacerbations of disease in the body and yet for such a long time I was oblivious to it. I used to think it was normal to feel tired and exhausted in my body and I too found myself needing to sleep or nap not long after eating something sweet. But not until I experimented with cutting sugar out of my diet did I have a scale from which to gauge and see the symptoms for myself.
Yes. Stopping sugar can reveal so much. I found it very enlightening as I began to understand on a much deeper level what my body had been telling me for so long.
Once I cut sugar out for the most part, I noticed when I did eat something sugary, about half an hour later I was so exhausted I could barely move and would need to pretty much lay down for the next hour or 2! It sounds so extreme but it’s true. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t live it. It has allowed for me to make the choice to really stop eating sugar. Now my body is able to reveal another layer to me.
Great article Robyn. Thank you for the mix of personal experiences and statistics, I look forward to reading part 3.
Sugar I found strongly addictive. After years without refined sugar I quit as well honey, syrups and so on, as well as all very sweet fruits (for it looks like the fruits becoming more sweet every year – can that be?) I started to also let go of very sweet vegetables like tomatoes and carrots. Since then I got really the feeling of drug withdrawal! I did replace refined sugar with honey, then honey with a lot of sweet fruits and these then with sweet vegetables all day. Now without this replacing foods I really have to discover the sweetness in me and to honour me in my Sweetness, Delicateness, Preciousness and Power – just then, I do not come into the need of sugar.
I love what you say here, Sandra that ‘Now without this replacing foods I really have to discover the sweetness in me and to honour me in my Sweetness, Delicateness, Preciousness and Power – just then I do not come into the need of sugar.’ I feel this struggle within me, discovering and honouring my sweetness now that I am in the process of cutting out the honey and maple syrup. It seems a puzzling quandry to be in, discovering, accepting and honouring my sweetness……and finding it a struggle to do so. At what point in my life did I decide to leave my sweetness behind and learn to replace my own innate sweetness, delicateness, preciousness and power with refined sugars and so-called natural sugars??
You don’t need any sugar, you are such a sweetie, Sandra.
Robyn when you consider the effects of sugar and how many foods that it is in then you also have to wonder how many people are actually in their natural rhythm at any one time. If you also consider all of the other things that we use as a society to alter the way that we feel then it seems that we are, as a species incredibly out of whack !
Interesting thought to ponder on there Alexis. There really isn’t a lot of foods that aren’t whole foods, that don’t have sugar in them in some form. And as the lifestyle in our society became about cutting back on fat, the increase of sugar as a substitute for taste has been quite remarkable to see.
Completely agree with you Alexis. When I was eating refined sugar I was not myself and this isn’t isolated to just me. Sugar takes you away from feeling like yourself so anyone who eats it loses this connection in being themselves. It really is quite shocking when it is put like this. We have a society that don’t know who they really are and sugar has a big part in keeping people from realising this and feeling it.
You made a good point here Alexis – yes we as human beings are really good in altering the way we feel. We can say we are real specialists in that and I wonder why we as human beings are not very much alert to this way of living our lives!!! My feeling is we need to be even more out of whack until we will allow ourselves to feel what is really going on.
Great article Robyn. I eliminated refined sugar from my diet years ago and felt quite smug about that until I honestly appraised all the ways I still sought sweetness and stimulation. The need for stimulation is itself a drug and was so familiar it has taken having the actual experience (thanks to Universal Medicine) of feeling settled and still in my body to feel the difference.
Robyn, thanks for exposing some of the facts about how insidious refined sugar is for us humans. And to think that it is addictive and causing much harm to our bodies and minds but still be legally available and widely used in foods, is, in my books, unacceptable.
Yes Ariana, you just need to watch a child have their sweets taken away from them to see that they are addicted.
Great points made here, Robyn. It is amazing to see how far removed from true health and being we have become in society, to think that an addictive substance such as sugar is our friend in any way, shape or form.
Yes it certainly showed me the quality my friendships were based on when I thought sugar was a friend as well.
Superb article Robyn. I too have weaned myself off sugar as I too was completely addicted to the stuff. I ate heaps of sugar as a kid to numb myself because if I kept my body racy it helped me to stop feeling all the tension in the family. After meeting Universal Medicine and using the Gentle Breath Meditation regularly, I found that sugar made my legs hurt, it literally felt like the energy in my legs was running at a different speed. This was such a powerful understanding that it gave me a real marker of what sugar was doing to me and supported me to slowly eradicate it from my diet. Today I am completely sugar free and feel great. Like you I had no idea how awful it made me feel until I stopped eating it. It is a drug and I very glad you have had the courage to claim that and expose your addiction, this is a much needed awareness in our society that needs as much airing as possible.
I gave up refined sugar many years ago and felt so much better as a result. Since then I have been slowly dropping fruit out of my diet too as I am now finding that it can have the same effect. Feeling racy is not a feeling that I enjoy anymore and it ruins the quality of my day.
Totally with you Rebecca. The more I let go of refined sugars, including sugar in fruit etc, the more I feel a gorgeous stillness in my body that is with me all day. No ups or downs, highs and lows but a steadiness that is an awesome quality and feeling to have throughout the day.
Robyn I so can relate to being addicted to sugar! I have mostly kicked the habit now although I sometimes still reach for sweet fruit that can affect me as I have found my body is super fined tuned at letting me know what is good for it or not.
Great Sharon, it is true that the more we let the sugar habit go, the more we feel how the body responds to different foods. We then have a more informed choice about what we put into our bodies based on the subtleties of what it does to the body in the short and long term, rather than how it might taste for a few seconds.
Thank you Robyn, it is always a pleasure to read your blogs. I like that you are pointing out that you were addicted to refined sugar. We are often not aware how much we make ourselves dependent on certain things in life and call these dependencies something we love or like while in fact we need it to get through our day or to feel good.
Beyond alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, sports or anything else used to take the edge off and ‘relax’ with, sugar is the oldest and probably the most addictive, of all these ‘tools’ – our companion from young.
Life without sugar seems like a death sentence until we get to understand for ourselves, in our own time, that life with sugar is death. What we truly want more than any sugar hit is a life where our senses are free not battered, smashed or crushed by the physical, physiological and energetic poison that sugar is no matter how sweetly it is packaged, labelled or presented.
One by one we govern our own bodies in relation to sugar and to the energy it rides with and eventually so too will governments on a national basis begin to do the same with a substance that erodes not just our present state of health but bankrupts the quality of our future health and wellbeing too.
Well said Tony: “Sugar is the perfect mask for exhaustion”. However, the mask can only be sustained if the ‘drug’ (sugar) is continued to be used, otherwise the exhaustion sets in, only this time far worse than when it was originally felt.
Thank you for sharing Robyn I can relate to what you have said and the experiences you have gone through. Sugar, for me, has also been like a drug – I find that if I have something sweet I want something else sweet and a vicious cycle starts. I find that when I eat something sugary I do become racy in my body and less able to be consistent with what I am doing because of the high, wanting to rush around and do lots, followed by the low, not wanting to do anything and usually lounge in front of the TV!
It is really quite extraordinary how many systems in the body sugar is detrimentally affecting including the brain which most people would have no idea about. So long as they have promoted fats as making you fat while seemingly overlooking the fact that sugar is slowing killing us, one mouthful at a time. The great connection for people to make is what makes us reach for sugar? What do we not want to feel? A great place to start.
It’s interesting what you share about fat Joanne. Its almost like the powerful belief that fat makes you fat hides the true destruction of sugar in our bodies by preoccupying and distracting us. For true health we need to look at everything that we eat, how we eat it and when we eat it to get a balanced view on our whole diet and how it affects our bodies by either nourishing it or feeding it with wasted calories that are more harming to our systems than actually healing.
A very timely read, for me, of your blog Robyn. I have just started a new job and have not yet found new rhythms and rituals to support me in this. What I have found is a craving for sugars, refined and natural, which is something I had given up quite some time ago. I have succumbed to the sugar fixes and find myself exhausted, living in a state of anxiety and on nervous energy and though my body is saying stop! What are you doing to me? Please no more headaches, no more sore kidneys, liver and worst of all bile. Time to really listen to what is really going on and time for some truly deep rest. Thank you Robyn.
Thank you Robyn for sharing your journey with sugar. You have inspired this sugar-addict to try breaking up with it!
Robyn, I too am familiar to sugar addiction, in the past I found myself literally pouring the refined sugar directly from the packet over my cereal to create a snow like topping. I chose to be completely ignorant to the harm of sugar because it suited me that way not to deal with it despite what those around me were telling me. Sugar, in all its forms, has been one of the hardest drugs for me to crack but little by little I am noticing my consumption diminish.
Great article Robyn. Outlining both your personal experienes with sugar and the wider effect on the human mind and body. Your letting go of sugar as a prop to get through life is very inspiring. Taking full responsibility for your choices and asking the deeper questions.
Thank you for this in-depth article Robyn. I have pretty much cut out all sugars from my diet, but was holding onto certain foods that were giving me a high at work. It has been great to look at why I need a high and to address the underlying cause for reaching for these foods.
This is a super supportive process to undertake Natalie, to really seek, look and ask yourself when and why such choices are being made.
Thank you Robyn for such a thorough breakdown on the true effects sugar brings us. The full picture we see is anything but sweet. In my experienc the effects and impact of sugar are very much like other drugs. It is high time we began to regard sugar in this category or harmful and addictive substances.
Great article Robyn, to cut out sugar is like a withdrawal from a drug, but it is never too late, to make the first steps out of the vicious circle. Thanks to Serge Benhayon I could see what the sugar does to the body on a energetic level. The missing important link when someone wants to stop sugar.
Thanks for sharing your experience with refined sugars and sugar addiction full stop. Being that sugar is one of the highest traded commodities globally, I feel you are not alone here, and I know I certainly struggled at first giving up refined sugars and dealing with the withdrawals and the exhaustion that followed. Great blog Robyn.
As in your case Robyn, sugar and I were also the best of buddies for a very long time, even though I had moments when I realised that it wasn’t a true friend, as it would do all sorts of things to me that weren’t very pleasant, but it was so very hard to break up that friendship. But finally in 2000 my body was yelling so loudly at me that sugar actually wasn’t the friend I had convinced myself it was, that common sense prevailed, and we finally broke up. Not an easy divorce, but slowly and surely (but also with a few moments of getting back together) – I was able to say goodbye to sugar for ever. And what a huge difference that has made to my body, my life and my everyday well-being. One thing I know now for sure is that my divorce from sugar is absolutely final!
A realisation which struck me yesterday is that many foods that may not have any sugar per say in them can in fact be used in the same way to provide artificial stimulation. An example for me was nuts and seeds.
I have found this with bananas Joshua, whilst it feels perfectly right for others to eat them I have noticed in my own body I feel stimulated afterwards. It’s fascinating to learn and find out what affects all foods can have on us and then impact on our day to day lives.
This blog has reminded me of what an enormous effect sugar has on our bodies, it is something we depend on as you say as a friend, it is the relief after a hard day of work, but very short lived and when truly felt an enormous negative effect on our physical and mental health.
Thank your Robyn for sharing how similar the addiction to sugar is to any other drug and as you so honestly say ‘when I consumed sugar it disconnected me from feeling a lot of what was happening in my body: it NUMBED me.’ Isn’t this what any addict is looking to do whether their addiction is some form of drug or something more socially acceptable like overwork/exercise. All are deeply damaging in many ways and it is great that you have started this discussion of a much needed topic.
Love it Gill – it is so true that we only see what we want to see as ‘drugs’ – the usual suspects of heroin, cocaine, marijuana come to mind. But what ABOUT the more normalised things in our diet/life that we are ‘hooked’ on?
The thing that stands out most when reading this today is the way in which we use this ‘drug’ to seemingly help us out, when in fact it does the opposite. We’ve learnt how to use it but not bothered to address why or how we could support ourselves in that moment. Sometimes we are tired and need a rest, but this is not always possible. What is evident though is that through taking sugar as a power boost, much like any other drug, you are left with a false sense of what your body is feeling and override what in truth is there to be felt. In doing this we end up using even more energy and feeling even more depleted than we ever did in the first place.
Well said, Jenny. The false sense of our body when we have sugar is very harmful, because the artificial stimulation completely overrides what we are actually feeling, and then we treat the body and move in a way that is unloving and untrue.
Thank you Robyn, I,too, can relate to much of what you have written. Sugar the ‘drug’. It can take over and draw you in with its instant high and sweet flavour in your mouth, allowing you to power through, but then, oh the come down. Each day stating to stop but by mid afternoon the slump…. sugar again. It is quite the insidious cycle and yes ‘what is driving the addiction is crucial.’ For me, it was to get me through a very stressful, demanding time, every day to numb this out and ‘give me some energy’. Thankfully, like you, I have found life without sugar and it is AMAZING.
Awesome article Robyn. It’s incredible really, that we choose to not consider, that sugar is an addictive drug yet it appears to be equally challenging to give up as abusive drugs, and it seems that the withdrawals are just as intense. You have presented brilliant insights into reasons why we have used sugar so heavily to distract and stimulate us from the truth of what our bodies are telling us. Sugar was indeed the most challenging and the last one for me to give up when I began to adjust my diet, but now my life is lived with so much more clarity and natural energy.
It takes honesty to cut out a drug (in this case sugar). For without going to the ‘why’ do I eat it, what do I ‘use’ it for and what is the root cause, you cannot let go of it. I tried that, do it on will-power and it doesn’t work. Thank you for sharing
I agree Monika, it does take a lot of honesty to cut out a drug. Going ‘cold turkey’, or using mental will power alone, at least in my experience, has never been enough and I have always found myself at some point returning to the same behaviour or a similar one.
Great point Monika.I used to be a cheese-aholic and never thought I would be able to relinquish my desire for it. However, once I had identified my need for it, to my surprise it was effortless – no withdrawal symptoms or cravings from about day one to the present day eight years later.
Very good point Monika – honesty is the first step in ‘cutting out a drug’… You are spot on – without looking at ‘why’ we need it, and ‘what’ we use it for, it is impossible to let go of it.
I agree Monika, honesty is the key to true understanding.
What I’ve found is that I can wilfully drop things, but when I drop them by sheer will-power alone, it doesn’t last, ever. My body actually gets a bit resentful if I’ve dropped something because I’ve decided it’s a good idea, instead of listening to what my body wants to do. The more I listen to and respect how my body wants to live, instead of how ‘I’ think I want to live, the easier my life becomes and the more at ease I feel in general. The body really does know everything!
I am sure nearly everyone will be able to relate to wanting a sugar fix through the day – I know I can. It took me many years to reduce my sugar intake and I now find that I am more sensitive to small amounts, which can give me an instant headache.
It makes sense to go for the sugar when we are exhausted but from what I understand it doesn’t actually help long term due to the fact that the body is stimulated artificially and then there is a dropping effect, resulting in being even more exhausted.
I can certainly relate to wanting a sugar fix and still get cravings for sugar. What I am finding though is along with the headache that appears immediately I also feel a sadness that I have missed an opportunity to feel what it is my body is trying to tell me, ie why I am exhausted. It is a lose, lose situation and one that I am so much wiser to now. Thank you Robyn for such a great expose on the effect of sugar.
I have experienced that dropping effect all too often. And then it sets you up to have more sugar and the cycle continues. It feels great to not be a slave to that cycle anymore, and when I do have a sugar craving, I now give myself some space and ask myself why.
I have to put my hand up and also say that I am addicted to sugar, and completely relate to so much of what you have shared about your experience with it Robyn. I know that my exhaustion and anxiety is simply being masked by eating sugar, that then dumps me on the floor after a very short lived high. And what I am experiencing more is that the more sugar I continue to eat when I know its affect, the greater the affect. The high is so short – 10 minuets of hyper activity, followed by an afternoon of holding my eyelid open with matchsticks. I am also coming to the realisation that not only is sugar really not supportive of me feeling and dealing with my anxiousness and exhaustion, it is also a big flashing sign that there is something I don’t want to feel or cope with as soon as I reach for sugar, because no matter its effect, good or bad, I no longer feel me.
I love your honesty Rebecca. While I feel that I am no longer addicted to sugar I know at times I still reach for sugary foods when I am tired or not wanting to feel something. What you say about ‘no longer feeling me’ is crucial. The more I allow myself to feel me, the more I know how much more lovely and yummy the feeling of me is. By feeling all of what is going on I can feel the difference between what is truly me and what is not.
That is the sad thing I find about sugar, even if we grasped for it in a moment of exhaustion, we end up not being able to feel ourselves at all, which gives way to a whole heap of choices which may not have been made if we were still present with ourselves. It masks and it numbs, neither of which truly support us.
Robyn a great expose from your lived experience of how harmful sugar actually is to our bodies. Very inspiring.
Thank you for sharing this Robyn, it feels like an important read for anyone wanting to heal addiction, be it sugar, other foods and drinks, drugs or as I read it today having a greater understanding on my dependancy to drama and stress. It gives me a buzz and something to focus on and it is so easy to slip into that at times I don’t clock that I’ve gone into to – or it may be that I have but I just don’t see or believe it to be an issue – somewhere, at some point I have accepted these behaviours of focusing on others situations and giving myself too many balls to juggle/tasks to complete or worrying about things that are not happening outside of my mind that is running around in panic mode. But what I feel is the key here is going underneath as you have questioned with your sugar addiction – what is this behaviour, the eating, the going into drama covering up? What do we need to cover up and not feel? For me I feel a sense of staying in the buzz and spin keeps me from feeling that I have chosen to go into said buzz and spin and to avoid feeling how horrible it has been to be here. But then – why did we feel to do something do avoid feeling what we have chosen to do?
Great question, Leigh – why do we choose to stimulate ourselves with sugar and other substances knowing that it will disconnect us from what we are truly feeling? Nowadays, being able to feel what is going in my body is precious to me, and for all the sugar highs and flavours in the world, there is no question of me being willing to risk loosing that connection.
Thank you Robyn – it is fascinating to read all the effects sugar has on the body and how as you say – it becomes a total addiction.
I am on the journey to cut it out of my diet too – and am reading some information on the effects of sugar – its scary to think how poisonous it is on the body – and yet sugar is in so many foods – basically anything with a wrapper. But because sugar is addictive – it means people buy more of it. And its no surprise that heart disease is the no. 1 killer, and rates of obesity are growing at astronomical levels. Another example of how our health is second to wealth.
This is a very informative article Robyn, thank you for explaining so clearly the harmful effects of sugar.
Wow this is a great article Robyn,it shocked me reading this, ‘The average age for anxiety diagnosis is age 6 and for depression the average age is 13.’ But then when I consider this I can understand why, it is so common in society for children to be consuming vast amounts of sugar on a daily basis that all of this sugar this is going to have an effect.
Thanks for highlighting this part Rebecca – these statistics shocked me too. It is time that we, humanity, be honest and look at what we are eating and the effects this has on our body and mental health. Robyn’s blog is a great support for us all.
Thanks for your insight into sugar addiction Robyn, a great amount if not all of what you present was eerily familiar to me, I was certainly able to use sugar to override how I was feeling on many occasions and push on through, this is often championed in society as a good thing, but the long term effects is that the exhaustion we are pushing through are still there and definitely this is harming the body. The contribution of sugar to this exhaustion should never be underestimated and when we consider the benefits of eating sugar if we are honest we can accept that simply, there are none.
With everything that is known about the ill effects of sugar on our bodies manufactures are attempting to placate the public by proclaiming they have reduced the amount of sugar in there product when in fact they have… by making the product smaller but still contains the same amount of sugar. There have been discussions here in the UK to put a tax on sugary drinks, its a start.
A brilliant article Robyn. As I was a practitioner involved with diet and health I read “Pure, White and Deadly’, a book about the dangers of sugar over 30 years ago. It was a great read for those wanting to confirm and or discover the many hidden dangers of sugar.
Interesting that the information was available then but we chose to ignore it and instead increase the amount of sugar we are all consuming unless we never eat pre-prepared food.
Wow Lorraine I was not aware that this information about hidden sugar are available for such a long time. The question is why did the world do not respond to it and why do we still have hidden sugar in our daily food????
Sugar has been a life long friend to me too. I remember years ago eliminating all sugars from my diet in one foul swoop. Boy were those first 3 weeks off sugar tough. What I remember most about this was the emotional detox that was going on. I was super emotional, especially over my need for chocolate, which wasn’t me at all. After that passed it was really easy, but not long lasting. This did however give me insight to how insidious being addicted to sugar is and what is going on underneath that need, which you have so beautifully shared Robyn.
Growing up sugar was a normal staple food. It was as normal as bread and cheese where I lived and EVERYBODY had sugar EVERY DAY one way or another. Because of the normal-ness of sugar, it has taken me time to realise that eating refined sugar was another harm I was inflicting upon my body. I still do have some unrefined sugar in the form of honey, coconut and maple syrup from time to time when I feel hungry and tired.
Sugar is an addiction and it is everywhere. On every corner, in every shop, store, supermarket, station, airport, school and restaurant. It is in our face, 24/7. It just shows how exhausted we are and how we want to numb ourselves so we won’t feel. When I am offered something sweet, I just say: no thank you, I am already so sweet myself.
A Beautiful (and honest) reply when saying no to sugar Mariette –
“When I am offered something sweet, I just say: no thank you, I am already so sweet myself”.
Thanks Robyn for outing the affects the true affects of sugar. And that goes for not just refined sugars but natural sugars can also have this same detrimental affect on the body. Sugar being a stimulant that takes us away from being ourselves. What I have found is that even the littlest kick or high I get from sugar, I am no longer able to feel my natural innate stillness. Being aware of this has led me to completely cut out refined sugars and limit my intake of natural sugars.
Until you break away from the habits you don’t realise how badly it effects you. It is a constant refinement to develop a relationship with your body to be the most open and loving unit it can be. Expressing equally with everyone.
Absolutely true Luke.
That is well said Luke!
What you share is very true Luke for when we are trapped in the vicious cycle of habits and addictions you cannot see the light of how unhealthy they are for you until you break free of them.
I can relate to how addictive sugar is and how it can control a persons life. I too used it to numb the exhaustion and the anxiety in my body. I agree with what you say sugar is a drug addiction.
Thank you, Robyn, for this very informative and inspiring sharing. I no longer eat refined sugar, but the fruits – I eat a lot. I feel inspired to take a deeper look into my relationship with food.
This is a super post Robyn, and also with some revealing facts about the harm of refined sugar. What you say here with your words: “As I have also discovered, when I consumed sugar it disconnected me from feeling a lot of what was happening in my body: it NUMBED me”, can be equally applied to any form of body-altering habit or activity such as prescription drugs, alcohol, extreme sports, even eating quickly or storytelling dramas. There are so many ways we numb. And when we heighten or stimulate the body raising it beyond its natural state of equilibrium, we live or rather exist, in such a constant up and down depressive state, yes how completely exhausting! From living a level of such exhaustion, I have found it conveniently stops us from looking at what’s beneath our choice to choose (anything), and dealing with the real hurt that is being avoided and masked through the stimulation. Removing the stimulation brings freedom.
3. So true Ariana, ‘sugar must be the biggest addiction on this planet and one that is rampant in children and adults alike.’. Sugar is entwined in so many aspects of our lives – a treat on a special occasion, a reward for a hard day’s work, sharing a cake as a celebration, reaching for comfort when we are down, or a “pep-up” when we are tired and have so much to do…and add to that the many hidden sugars in foods we perceive to be “healthy”! It can be difficult to see, let alone break an addiction when it is so widely accepted as “normal” – it brings to mind the jingle from a TV ad many years ago “sugaaaar, it’s a natural part of life”. What a crock! It is neither natural or normal to consume a substance that obviously causes our bodies harm.
Totally Hannah it is one massive lie that we have be sold and it has seaped into every level of our supermarket shelf. Sugar is everywhere.
Robyn, your blog clearly shows how consuming sugar can be a form of drug addiction. If we see it in this light we can take responsibility for kicking the habit. You show that it is possible to do that without being too hard on oneself, which is the opposite of the nervous energy drive that sugar provides.
“The average age for anxiety diagnosis is age 6 and for depression the average age is 13” this is shocking! I too realised I was addicted to sugar and started to cut down my consumtion, but there came a time when I was starting to feel I had to cut them out all together, so I went cold turkey and this brought up a lot of stress! I realised how much I relied on sweets to make me feel good. thanks for sharing Robin as these blogs are great. Now I look at food like those donuts above (covered in sugar) and go “theres no way I want to eat that”
I have no doubt sugar is the leading drug of our time. As for most it enters our diet even before we are born. So we grow up addicted to something our body actually not only doesn’t need, but one that is in fact harmful for us in so many ways.
Yes-today sugar can even become before exhaustion and anxiousness. Anxiousness, exhaustion and sugar really are strongly linked and combined they form a powerful combination to keep us disconnected from our bodies and what we feel. Robyn you explain really well how you traced their relationship with each other. These days sugar is so commonly consumed that sugar itself could be the starting point for this cycle – sugar in my experience induces or worsens existing anxiousness, the two combined can lead to exhaustion which brings us back around to craving sugar, looking for more and so the cycle goes. As you mention Robyn sugar numbs us to exhaustion so we dig ourselves even deeper into depletion.
That is very interesting to hear – and yet sugar is so openly available and championed despite the same effect!
So true Tony, when we start to look at the effects of stimulants, illicit or not, exhaustion, anxiety, nervous tension or not just feeling good about ourselves seems to offer an instant antidote which in reality is self-depleting.
This is a fantastic blog and one that should be shared on many platforms, so many people are addicted to sugar and wouldn’t even realise it, as it is in so so so many foods, bread, sauces etc. It’s the kids being bought up with this addiction that is yet to be played out and I fear it will have dyer consequences for them as not one of us adults had a childhood full of sugary foods to the extent which our children today are experiencing. To know that it is possible to let go of the stimulation and connect deeply to love is something the world is going to want to know.
Brilliant blog Robyn; I like what you have said here – “sugar actually was no friend of mine, as true friends don’t intentionally harm you in the way sugar was harming me”. I can relate to the feeling that food has been my ‘friend’ in that it helps me to avoid feeling what I want to avoid – but this is not truly supportive
Indeed it is true, We can buy sugar readily, in all different forms and colours of the rainbow. Sugar is a big, unnecessary industry.
I agree it is so easily available and it’s in so many foods and drinks. Definitely an industry which is big and harming.. Many people do not realise the harm sugar causes to the body, mostly because their bodies are craving sugar due to exhaustion.
Brilliant blog. I would like to add that in the early 1980’s there was a prison in Lisbon, Portugal that experimented with the effect of sugar on the inmates in the prison and they found that the prisoners became disorderly and aggressive after consuming sugar. I have found it to be a disturbing substance for myself and feel great now that I am free of it’s influence.
Robyn , this is a wake up call for humanity as sugar is such a socially accepted addiction and many would not dare to call it that. The effects on the body are massive as you have outlined. Your honesty and willingness to share is fantastic and has given much to think about.
Thank you Robyn, for saying it as it is and with the support of your own experience. The scientific evidence of what sugar does to our body, mind and emotions is growing rapidly and yet many of us are not willing to see it for what it is, as we rely much heavier upon it then we are willing to admit to ourselves for relief, a false sense of vitality and numbing. Your blog sheds a much needed light on this subject.
“This cycle also affects your mental health. When you are on the ‘high’ you ‘feel good’ and ‘alive’, but when the ‘low’ comes you can feel quite emotional and down”.. That is HUGE Robyn, this is basically saying sugar IS a drug. And it takes swallowing a massive pill (sugar free of course :-)) to actually surrender to the enormous responsibility this brings.
What I love, love, love about this Robyn is that you healed your sugar addiction in steps. So often we know something is not good for us, vow to give it up forever, can’t sustain it and then give Up. What you implemented here was the act of self-love, where you committed to dealing with the behaviour BUT took it one step at a time, not blaming the food, but looking at your life and what has been causing you to seek sugary foods.
Beautifully expressed Shevon. I found Robyn’s self loving approach to giving up her sugar addiction very inspiring.
Thank you Shevon. Taking my time and really feeling and understanding why I was so addicted to sugar was imperative to this being a long lasting change.
Robyn. Those donuts looked so good to eat. But yes sugar is a real killer,what is does to the body and teeth is frightening.
I am glad I managed to beat my addiction to chocolate and cream cakes. But giving up all those sugary delights has help me to drop a few pounds and kilos, and I feel so much better in my self.
Yes Mike, not eating refined sugars certainly helped my waistline shrink too!
Thank you Robyn – a very inspiring and exposing blog regarding sugar as the addiction and pure poison it actually is to the body.
Having been a complete ‘chocoholic and cake queen’ prior to attending presentations with Serge Benhayon in 2008, I can really relate to everything you write. The exhaustion levels were extreme and another intake of sugar would pick me up ready for the next cycle of high and then low and reaching for more sugar to keep me going.
My body certainly feels much clearer and less racy since letting go of sugar
What is amazing is that food scientist, manufacture food with just enough sugar to trigger the addictive quality…they call it the bliss point… can’t wait to read part two.
Thanks Joel, this really exposes the evil behind food manufacturing and how money is more important to some than the health and well being of the consumer.
It is shocking that manufacturers have coined a term for the amount of sugar required to trigger addiction and I imagine this is used across the board in both savoury and sweet foods.
What is also interesting, Joel, is how sugar is used in so many restaurant dishes. I remember a friend going on a couple of week cookery/chef school and in pretty much every meal they used sugar/a sweetener in some form and this included the main meals. It is the addictive nature of sugar that stimulates the bodies pleasure receptors that makes you wanting more and gives you the instant satisfaction in your mouth most, if not all, of us have experienced.
Are you for real? Scientists and manufacturers have come up with a Bliss point to ensure addiction – that’s unbelievable. What would happen to our society if all that energy that feeds the status quo was used much more purposefully.
When I started refining my diet, sugar remained the last frontier, long after I had removed alcohol and other such addictive substances from my diet. I actually found it the hardest of all, and what you have written here has confirmed to me why it was so hard for so long.
I found that too Adam; sugar was and is the hardest thing to remove from my diet (other than salt) – there seems to always be something sweet that I substitute the last sweet thing I’ve cut out of my diet with, e.g. when I stopped eating cake due to how racy I felt afterwards, I began having ‘healthier’ treats like dried fruit or ‘sugar free’ biscuits.
I agree Adam, that’s been the same for me. Our need for sugar is a tough nut to crack. It has snuck into our foods, without anyone knowing and because everything gives us a taste sensation and a short term buzz we turn that blind eye. It’s not until chronic disease catches up with us that we are invited too look again. Some do and some don’t.
I love how you are able to state so clearly that you are no longer controlled by the addiction. This is well worth appreciating and celebrating as i believe that sugar is one of the most addictive substances on our planet.
I can completely relate to this blog. I’ve definitely had a drug addiction to sugar, constantly needing it to give me that ‘high’ or to stop me from feeling exhausted. Great sharing, thank you Robyn
Thank you Robyn for nominating so clearly the harm that refined sugars have on our body. It is astounding how we have come to accept the excessive abuse that we so openly inflict on our body.
Robyn, you only touched on this but I am wondering if taking in a lot of sugar and anxiety might be reinforcing each other? I don’t know if this is true but could that make sense?
Anxiety puts us into flight or fight mode and sugar does something similar. Is there a connection?
I would say absolutely Christoph, in so many different ways. Anxiety depletes us so we reach for sugar. Sugar depletes us so we feel tired and therefore anxious about being able to manage all that we have on each day. They both certainly can feed off the other.
Thank you Robyn for your enlightening revelation of the sweet white stuff that the majority of humanity are indulging with in care-less abandonment not realizing how addictive and poisonous refined sugar really is.
Thank you Robyn for sharing on your experience with sugar – I can definitely relate to a lot of what you’ve shared here especially the exhaustion & running around like a mad thing trying to get everything ‘done’. For me I would usually end up in such a frazzle that none of it was done with any quality anyway. It has been so supportive for me too having Universal Medicine Practitioners and presentations that reflected to me a way to live that did not need sugar and caffeine, and therefore reduce and eliminate the exhaustion and raciness I was feeling. I now live so much more productively, and energised than I ever have before.
Beautiful, Robyn. A clear and simple message about the true effects of artificial stimulation on the body, and it is powerful to read that sugar is no different to any other drug.
It’s a great accomplishment to give up refined sugar – it interferes with the body in so many ways and quality of life. My body didn’t like sugar so I gave it up completely, eventually. It has had an enormous positive impact on my life – my clarity of mind, mood stability and fungal infections. Removing something as simple as sugar was a great start in the redefining of me, shedding the layers that I had built up. With the new movie out “That Sugar Movie” it is being talked about and it may help people to see how much sugar is in our so called healthy food.
Sugar is very addictive and harming, a great blog exposing its insidious evil nature. How freeing and honouring that you have kicked this habit and more.
and we can buy it by the kilo, for nearly next to nothing, from our local grocery store!!
Good point Marianna, it is super interesting how the food industry works – that fresh, nutritious food is much more expensive than junk food; it creates the excuse that people are not able to eat healthily as it ‘costs too much’.
yep exactly – so the ‘pull’ is towards unhealthy and sugary foods as it is so much cheaper or even on ‘ special offer’ – to lull and dull people. More awareness is needed to the true effects these ‘foods’ have on the body.
Sugar is only one addiction Robyn. Reading about your experience here has me pondering on other things we can be addicted to like attention seeking, thoughts and judgements about ourselves and others, feeling jealous of others. These can be things we feel that we cannot stop doing, not unlike eating sugar, but they too are just symptoms of an underlying lack of self worth. Identifying what is at the core of behaviour is crucial to our return to accepting and loving the already complete person we are. Thank you for inspiring this reflection for me!
Great comment Bernadette, you have inspired me to look deeper at my addictions.
Love your reply here Bernadette, to such a great blog.
Wow Bernadette I have to admit what you mentioned in your comment is revealing and also so true – yes there are much more addiction which we are not aware of – so thank you for pondering and sharing.
True Bernadette – Food addictions are quite obvious but what with the not so obvious ones like you listed. Looks like we can use a lot of things, foods, doings to get addicted to…I am asking myself why do we get addicted, or to say it in a more responsible way: why am I choosing addictions? For me it feels like, when I open up this first door: not expressing who I am truly am and then the next door: being dishonest with myself about my exhaustion of not truly expressing me – what comes in is everything what is waiting on the other side of this door to fill the gab I created. And that can be everything.
Thank you Robyn. I am interested in the link between sugar and mental health, as it seems possible that perhaps this high and low that you have described is exactly part of the addition itself, as we enjoy the drama of the lows just as much as the excitement of the highs?
Good point Shami, excitement is another addiction….and one that’s seen as desirable; to be excited. And sugar absolutely helps to keep us in the overdrive. But what goes up, eventually has to come down. To live in this up-down way is totally depleting and exhausting. I find the steadiness much more enjoyable and sustainable – and not boring at all – as I am with me.
HI Robyn, super to read this and to shine the light on Sugar for the harming, damagaing, and addictve drug it is. Sugar was my choice of drug to keep me in comfort and in a numbed state, and i used Sugar as a reward or treat, bascially to give me a boost and I needed a daily boost or a daily fix several times a day…..up and down with the highs and the lows, for many years I lived like this until I broke this cycle. The thing is I did not even know I had an addiction until I decided to cut out sugar from my diet, and found I could not, it was not that simple, so gradually I cut down and always made sure I had an alternative healthy snack when the cravings would come and they did,…but I was determined to ‘crack my habit’, and after 2 years I was Sugar free. Well worth it for as I have so much more energy today and for the wonderful gift of being able to truly listen to my body, thus I know what supports my body now and what dosen’t and I stop when my body is tired…..
A great conclusion Robyn. Sugars from fruit, honey and of course processed sugars have been shown to stop one group of white blood cells doing their job properly. There are also strong links between sugar and the activation of cancerous genes in a way that is reversed when sugar intake is lowered. Quite amazing really.
All in all there is very little argument for the consumption of this very tasty but very nasty stuff.
The best argument though comes from how we feel when we quit the habit.
I have loved these blogs Robyn because I too was a sugar junkie and can repeat to every word.
Sugar is long gone for me and no longer do I crave the bags of liquorice bullets I used to eat everyday on my exhausted way home from work.
My understanding is that sugar is also involved with any kind of inflammation in the body – and of course contributed to obesity!
Yes amazing indeed Rachel! Sugar has a MASSIVE affect on the body; as you said it is even linked to the activation of cancerous genes in the body… Yet people still try and pull the argument that chocolate bars are good for us, because the ‘milk in them contains calcium’.
There is not one positive to eating sugar that I can see. Some may say the taste but even that is too intense. It has also been mentioned that sugar has absolutely no nutritional value whatsoever! It is devoid of any goodness at all! So really it comes down to the way we use it in our society and the addictive nature of it. We really have a long way to go as a society to break the hold sugar has on us – globally.
I relate to the intensity of sugary foods, once you detox from it, it is amazing what can begin to taste super, super sweet.
Thanks for giving us the extra information Rachel, I was fascinated to hear that sugar links with the activation of cancerous genes. I’m wondering if there’s any part of the body that sugar does not affect deleteriously! Definitely a substance to eliminate as fast as possible.
I find that really interesting Rachel with how sugar affects the body. It seems like it’s a fuel the body cannot really cope with. My feeling is that innately the cells in our body have an energy that is just there ready to be released but they have to have an environment that can support that release.
I’d forgotten about liquorice bullets, they were part of my sugar addiction too.
I just saw “That Sugar Film”, it is a great expose. I don’t know how he could have made himself eat sugar again once he had stopped, but thank him for doing so as it is a potent experiment, no denying what it does to the body, and he was only eating supposedly healthy things as well. Awesome, its a must see.
Thank you Robyn. The difficulty with withdrawing from this drug we call sugar is because it has been part of our lives from birth. As it is seen as a normal part of our diet and is accepted by society, therefore not recognized as harmful. Science proves it, which is no different to the effects of alcohol, we know how harmful and physically destructive it is but it is still consumed and sold in vast quantities. So do we choose to ignore the facts, the science, the obvious physical symptoms of consuming food that makes us sick or do we choose another way and listen to our body.
Yes, Matthew, sugar addiction is absolutely huge in our society. I have experienced that some people around me react to my choice to not put them into my body anymore, because it’s seen as ‘normal’ to consume sugar, alcohol and caffeine. For me the facts are absolutely clear – my body is my science – I just feel much better within myself, both physically and mentally, by not consuming sugar, alcohol or caffeine anymore, .
Great comment Esther, I completely agree with you all you have shared.
A great and much needed blog Robyn, I was addicted to sugar too and it was only when I began to take it completely out of my diet that I could see what it was doing to me and how much healthier I felt without it I could recognise many of the symptom that you described anxiousness exhaustion, a raciness throughout my body but they were masked by my continual need to be on the go and get things done. Thank you for your informative blog when you read all the harm that sugar does to our bodies and to our well being it makes you wonder why we go anywhere near it.
Great article Robyn. Sugar is indeed the hidden evil that no-one really knows about. My life completely changed when I gave up sugar. My head was clearer for a start and it was a relief to be without the highs and lows. It really does then expose how tired we are and gives us a perfect opportunity to look at how we are living
Robyn thank you for a matter of fact account of sugar addiction. When its laid out so clearly in your article it makes me realise just how harmful the effects are. What is also supportive to read is recognising that from the addiction its then a gradual process to come off the drug of sugar. Having watched/read and heard much about sugar many of the programs fall short of inspiring a real change in behaviour whereas I can really see areas in my life where i use different substances such as sugar or natural versions of it to keep going when my body is exhausted.
I certainly can relate to what you describe Robyn. I remember clearly at one stage in my life kick starting my day at work with a donut and coffee. My daily fix. Over time this led to daily energy highs and low, followed by constant re-injection of more sugar and caffeine. Not surprisingly exhaustion followed. I was told by an insightful young practitioner that I had a sugar addiction, the first time I knew this was possible. It made me more aware and stopped taking refined sugars. It took me much longer to fully appreciate the extent to which sugar dominates the food we consume and the harm it causes our bodies. After learning about hidden sugars in food, I became a more discerning shopper. I have almost cut out all sugars and limit carbohydrates in my diet. I find my energy levels are maintained throughout the day, regardless of the number of hours I work.
It is unheard of to call sugar a drug you could be addicted to, but so refreshing to treat it as such. Your article makes it clear to me that sugar is actually to be considered as such and should be taken out of our diets too. As we consider that many products you can buy in the supermarket nowadays have added refined sugar in it, what does this say about society we live in, if we are using that much sugar? For me it shows that many people are exhausted and trapped in a life where refined sugar is the fuel they rely on, unknowingly of the fact that it does not solve the problem but makes it even worse. The physical exhaustion is increasing as are the chances on developing diabetes, Altzheimer’s and dementia. The time has come to call this out and inform humanity about the truth behind refined sugar. Thank you Robyn Jones that you have responded to the call of humanity by writing this article to make us aware of the true nature of this commonly accepted and seemingly harmless product humanity is consuming in great amounts.
I agree the dangers of sugar need to be broadcast far and wide and this is beginning to happen (NB That Sugar Movie). Sugar affects our bodies in many ways and one of the things I find interesting is the fact that sugar is now being linked with dementia. Is it any coincidence that we as a society are now consuming more sugar than ever before in so many different products, and at the same time the incidence of dementia is rising rapidly. And forecast to keep rising.
Yes I find it really interesting to see what happens when I consider sugar as a drug. It makes almost everyone a drug addict cause who is not consuming refined sugar at the moment? Apart from some people who choose not to almost everyone. Sugar has become so accepted as part of our diet that we would not consider it to be a drug, though it triggers the same area in the brain as cocaine and heroine and affects the body in more ways. Isn’t this interesting?
Great blog Robyn. Love how you show so clearly the relationship between sugar and exhaustion and how we can eat ourselves not only into illness and disease but into a lack of vitality that affects our daily life. It is amazing when we become aware of how much food actually controls us and keeps us in a reduced version of our true selves and we call it “food culture” and celebrate our indulgences.
Well said Rachel. It is easy to see the results of this “food culture” around us everyday – it is killing us slowly making us hyper, exhausted, anxious, obese and many more health conditions that put a huge strain on our Health System. It is high time we look at the food we eat !
Robyn thank you for sharing such an informative and honest look at what sugar really does do to the body. For me personally ever since cutting out refined sugar I can truly feel the difference in my day to day life. It’s amazing.
Thanks Robyn for sharing , I only need to look at how sugar, refined or natural, effects my daughter, to know it is a complely unnatural thing for us to do. It can change her from being absolutely georgous into this hyper crazed maniac in seconds after she gets her hands on some sweets or something. It not only speeds her up but it even seems to change her personallity as well.
Thanks Kev for that example. It is easier to see the effect in children because they are very open and transparent in their expression. When we eat the sugar we too become a ‘hyper crazed maniac’ inside compared to the stillness and state of awareness that is possible without the sugar. I have had a sweet tooth and did not let go of refined sugar and man other forms of simpler sugars that easily, however the difference I have experienced from this greater level of care has been huge.
Hilarious Kevin, but very true. Sugar has absolutely huge affects on children, and it really does not take long at all for those affects to kickstart after it’s consumed. As you say, one minute they can be totally fine and the next a completely different hyped up version of themselves.
Kevin, it just shows how super sensitive kids are and they respond immediately. We too can come back to that sensitivity. We have just numbed ourselves over the years by indulging in sweet things.
Kevin, I have noticed the same thing when observing young children.They get hyper-manic within a few minutes of having sugar and bad behaviour is certain to follow. It’s also noticeable how children can change their personalities too, perhaps from normally being rather quiet and and shy into being outgoing and very silly within a few minutes – a bit like an adult who’s been drinking.
Thank you for stating so clearly what refined sugar does to the body. It is a huge health problem and one that we all have to do something about, sooner or later. Our health and the huge load the health system is groaning under are telling us so.
Such a hot topic of conversation here Robyn, and one that is in desperate need of starting up, so thank-you for doing so. It is great to have some understanding around the impact sugar has on our bodies and why we choose to eat sugar as much as we do and to also be more aware of what is in what we buy, and make the choice to buy more natural products. Bringing in a more responsible way of eating and being honest about why we are choosing to eat sugar as much as we are, is a great start to building a truer relationship with ourselves.
Well said Julie, what you have shared is so true – responsibility is the key to our relationship with ourselves.
Thank you Robyn. Reading this blog I could feel that I use naturally occurring sugars in the same way you described using refined sugars. I often feel tired and it is clear I am still using stimulating foods to drive myself. You remind me that I need to be loving with myself as I address this and take steps to live with true vitality.
Robyn, thank you for the salutary reminder of the ill effects of sugar. There is much talk in the media about the consequences of sugar consumption. I have greatly reduced my sweet intake but the battle is not entirely won for me. I love fruits and the occasional home made biscuit. Despite the work in progress I feel the benefits, having more vitality and clarity. The question then is ,if I can feel this good, why not go all the way and feel truly amazing by banishing sugar all together?
I like what you say here Patricia about having more vitality and clarity as Robyn’s blog at the end refers to the lifting of a fog. A great way to describe the heavy veil that we can be consumed under through the affect of sugar similar to drugs or alcohol. It is an external substance that shifts us out from being centered and connected to our stillness.
Just like many other addictive substances sugar also sits in this category. It is an external substance we reach for that actually alters our state of being, like that of alcohol or drugs it is used to dis-connect, to numb and to not feel ourselves, our body, our connection and our stillness.
Sugar ‘actually alters our state of being like alcohol and drugs’ and leaves us wanting for more and more. I am so glad that I have come to understand the threath sugar imposes on our mental and physical health and that I have a choice now.
Patricia thats a really good question – I am the same and whilst I find the deeper care I take of myself the less the need for Sugar (fruits and sweet things) there are times when I reach for it. Yet I know I feel more vital when I don’t reach for these things. The same is true of many areas of my life. If I can feel more me when I don’t do these things – then why not stop doing them?
Great question David: then why not stop doing them? With some things I still struggle and I realize that the more I want to stop them, and I make an effort of it, the worse it gets. I want it even more….What I experience is that with becoming more honest, observe and really see why I do certain things, for example eat things that don’t sit well with my body, the easier it gets to let go. When there is a trying, a force, it does not work for me.
You’ve shared the harm that refined sugar causes so simply and put it in a way that easy to understand yet makes so many good points. Sugar dependence sounds like a roller coaster, a constant up and down game with your energy levels. I know when I have to much sugar (refined or otherwise) my mental health deteriorates and I begin to start feeling depressed on some instances- crazy huh ! I don’t think the world realises the vast impact that sugar has on our health.
I certainly wasn’t aware of the huge impact of sugar and the consequential ‘withdrawal ‘ symptoms . Previously I would have classified exhaustion as ‘undesirable’ whereas in fact I can now appreciate it’s the body telling the truth. Thank you Robyn .
This is a must read read article for anyone addicted to any food. I can relate to the feeling that the addiction owns you. You feel disempowered and unable to change, which is not true at all. A wonderful local naturopath describes the effect of sugar as hitting a cortisol (flight or fight hormone) vending machine. This races your body so you can tick more boxes but also puts it in a state of constant hyper vigilance, wondering where the threat to our safety is coming from. No wonder we get exhausted and anxious!
What a great analogy Fiona, describing that ‘the effect of sugar as hitting a cortisol (flight of fight) vending machine’ which races the body. ‘Soft’ drink vending machines dot the campus of the education institution I work in, and I feel they need to come with an obligatory warning and accurate sugar & caffeine count as we are encouraging students to use this drug to get them through their intense heavy workload.
It takes a bit of discipline to get off the sugar band wagon, but I can attest to it being well worth the effort. Not that I haven’t fallen off a few times and attempted further experimentation and ‘research’ just to make sure I was up to date on my body’s whereabouts. Sugar does not like me nor does it care for me in any way, even after all the years I’ve nurtured it and given it (all) my attention.
Not having the 3pm slums is what has stood out the most to me in my everyday living.
I have a sweet tooth, and I notice that the times I reach for sweet things, be it a refined sugar free sweet or piece of fruit, it’s almost always when I want to avoid feeling something, whether that be a sadness or a discomfort of some sort, the sweet taste in my mouth takes me away from myself just enough for me to forget or surpress the feeling that was coming up. Counter productive really, because rather than deal with it then and there, I’m left with a big pile of emotion that has been stacking up which will always just result in a big explosion.
Elodie, your reference to the 3pm slump certainly resonates with me, although I had not linked it with sugar consumption, so it looks like its time for a sugar-less adventure!
As you say Robyn, the wonder is that you have freed yourself from an addiction, and this is the ongoing dare I say miracle of what Universal Medicine presents to the everyday person… in that it is possible to be truly free from addictions, emotional or substance, by the process of reconnection with oneself… its sounds so simple, but it is what is going to turn around humanity, because addictions, in all their forms , are endemic.
Absolutely Chris,
There are so many man made things in the world that feed on our addiction to them;
– alcohol, gaming, porn, work, sport, beauty, sugar…
Its all set up as a complete distraction of who we truly are.
Universal Medicine has allowed me to strip back what is not me and clearly see the addictions for what they are.
I didn’t want to admit the addictions I had a few years ago, because to me it was comfortable to hide behind food, alcohol, clothes and beauty – but as I expose this more and more, I develop a deeper understanding of who I am first and foremost.
Thanks Hannah for your insightful comment. I have come to know that any addiction is just a way of filling ourselves up in order to not feel how empty we truly feel. They totally keep us distracted!
Well said Robyn…what you have said here…. is so true. It doesn’t matter what the addiction is, even if it’s emotionally drama we create….it is just another form of numbing and distracting ourselves…. from what is truly going on within.
Completely agree with you Chris, “it is possible to be truly free from addictions, emotional or substance, by the process of reconnection with oneself…”
Hello Robyn, this is a great subject so thank you for writing about it as you have. I have played around with sugar for a while now and in particular refined sugar. While I don’t eat refined sugar, I have seen the explosion of ‘better’ sugars, coconut sugar, agave, maple has made a come back etc. While these appear ‘better’ they are just a step in the process for me of not having these sugars consistently in my diet. It’s not that they don’t taste good or that I am turned off by the research done on them but I just don’t like how I feel when I eat them. After the initial taste part, what they feel like is the same. Refined sugar is a little more direct in it’s approach but the ‘better’ sugars are just a little more subtle. This may not be for everyone but I don’t see the difference between all these sugars in the way they feel. I enjoy feeling that really settled feeling in my body and it’s like I can really rest even when I am awake. Thanks to Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon for supporting me to wake from the sugar cycle I was on and for reintroducing that ‘settled’ feeling I enjoy so much.
I agree Raymond, after a lifetime of eating something sweet (usually containing refined sugars) everyday I came to a place where I could no longer ignore the ill effect it was having on me with bloating and frequent bouts of low energy. Eventually I started to choose the ‘better’ or ‘healthier’ sugars and sweeten things with say honey or dates. This was a big step in the right direction but it didn’t address the reason I craved sugar. I continued using the ‘better’ sugars for a few years until it became clear my body was reacting to them in the same way it did with refined sugars. Eventually and as a result of digestive problems it was time to let go of those healthier natural sugars also. My digestion has since normalized and my energy has become more steady and consistent than ever.
Raymond I too can relate to that ‘settled’ feeling I have in my body now that I am no longer addicted to sugar. When I used to consume a lot of sugar I always felt very hyper and anxious. I don’t miss it at all.
It seems like another lifetime ago now when I think back to my foggy-headed years of refined sugar addiction that started from very young. And while a transition to natural sugars, as a staged ‘detox’ approach may be suitable for some, it was just another phase of the addiction for me as eating these foods/substances would still leave me racy and anxious and wanting more – but I dare I say it, entrenched within a deeper level of illusion as I’d convinced myself that these things were ‘good for me’. I now know that if a food takes me out of my natural state of stillness and lightness (the optimal state for the body to function and heal itself), then it definitely isn’t good for me. Thank you Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon for opening my eyes and heart to the extent of the unhealthy relationship I had with this contemporary drug – and similar to Raymond – ‘for supporting me to reintroduce the settled feeling in my body I enjoy so much.
Hi Raymond, yes you are right the ‘better sugars’ is a very tricky way to first help us getting off the refined sugars, but down the track it is the same just a bit different. I too like this settled feeling inside that does not need anything but just to be me.
Great exposing article on sugar and our relationships with it. I remember a friend reminding me of an old saying ‘what comes up, must come down’ and when I related that to sugar/coffee then I started to see the ridiculousness of it all. If I am tired now and I drink some coffee, I will go up for a bit and then only return to where I am now. It did not make any sense because I am only delaying the tiredness that I have now – it does not go away. But I did this cycle for so so so so long until I decided to get really honest – like yourself – about looking at this addiction. I remember when I stopped coffee & sugar (and a few other things) people said – oh you must be feeling amazing – and my reply – at the time was – no actually, I am feeling how exhausted I was. That exhaustion continued for some time and I slept a lot! Thanks for sharing your story regarding sugar and exposing what it does to our bodies. We need to keep having these conversations all the time.
So true what you are saying Sarah, I can relate to the feeling of stopping eating sugar and it not being straight away all great and amazing. I find that feeling the exhaustion and honoring it by resting and sleeping more is such a loving thing to do. It is more real and honest to feel where you are at without the sugar highs.
That feels great to read what you are saying; it is more real and honest to feel where the body is at without this sugar highs, and honoring the body in this process – with more resting and nurturing times and with food that does not stimulate but food that is nourishing to the body.
This is a great point Sarah, ‘I remember when I stopped coffee & sugar (and a few other things) people said – oh you must be feeling amazing – and my reply – at the time was – no actually, I am feeling how exhausted I was’, it could be this that puts us off stopping having sugar and coffee as we do feel terrible at first and then need to make changes in how we are living because the sugar and coffee are no longer keeping us going. I guess this is one of the reasons why they are so addictive.
Yes indeed Rebecca because when we do that, we have to get real about what is truly going on. And for most people, we are not prepared to do that yet. And I can relate to that still because even though I have stopped a lot of harming behaviours, I still have a few sitting on my shelf that don’t seem to want to budge! But with loving commitment and a honesty to what is really going on, I will keep clearing them out and letting go of the addiction to these behaviours.
I wonder if we are actually addicted to not being ourselves? And all the behaviours stem from that. I love what you have shared Sarah about the possibility of not being prepared yet to address the addictions we may have. Only by addressing each and every one will we realise that we don’t need any of them. We are all amazing and there is nothing in the world that is stronger than that.
That is a very true thing your friend asked herself, Mary ‘if coffee can have that effect on her body what else is affecting it without her being aware’. And the answer is: lots of things! Thank God that through Universal Medicine we have learned how to become aware.
Sarah I like the saying from your friend ‘what comes up, must come down’ this is so simple and true. It is funny that we as human beings had nearly forgotten to listen to such an old saying. For me this happens because we are all now more human doings. It is really time to expose that exhaustion is more than a “normal thing” and that most of us are suffering from this kind of dis-ease and that coffee and sugar can’t help us with that in the long run.
Robyn it was clever to look at the sugar as your friend in the beginning, it gave you a great way to view how you as a friend should be treated.
I learnt a lot of information I wasn’t aware of in your blog. I could relate to some parts as well, from when I was in the process of getting rid of stimulants in my life, and how much I realised my body was addicted to them. Yours is an inspirational story that I’m sure many people would relate to. It’s a story worth sharing, thanks Robyn.
Great point Kim, a great lesson in how you want to be treated by your friends.
Thank you Robyn for sharing another real blog about your addiction to sugar and the exhaustion that comes with it that i can relate to very much. I too have been addicted to sugar since I was a child and have been fighting exhaustion, tiredness and sugar cravings all my life.It was with the help of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon that I have finally understood the effects on my body and with the understanding of why i was needing it I too have been able to give up sugar and gradually reduce the cravings . I have more energy and do far more than ever before. Which combined with a healthy diet and rhythm and way of living has changed my life immeasurably to one of healthy vitality and joy .
I love what you share here Amina – “the way we live each day is what creates that exhaustion or not.” I have found this to be true in my life. If I spend the day rushing and living from my head in total disregard of my body, running on empty, I end the day feeling exhausted. Our choices certainly catch up with us. Alternatively if I spend the day choosing to be connected to my body while I go about my tasks it is like this presence with me feeds my body back and I end the day feeling settled and full.
Our choices certainly do catch up with us Bianca. A Sydney endocrinologist was saying that he can not keep up with how many patients he is diagnosing with diabetes. This is very revealing of our choices, isn’t it? Sugar hurts us in so many ways that we are largely unaware of. I didn’t realise I was exhausted to the extent I was until I stopped eating sugar. Imagine how many people are having warning signs like these along their way to illness and disease and are missing them from being caught up in the sugar cycle and numbness that comes with it too.
I agree Amina, Exhaustion is a killer and what we are doing when we are hiding from the reason of the sugar addiction we bury it deeper into the body, and increase even more the exhaustion.
Agree with everything you share Amina. Exhaustion I am realising is caused by anything that is not honouring to me and my body and as soon as we are in the exhaustion we search for anything to take us out of that and not make us aware. Best thing is to just stop and feel and be honest with where I am truly at.
Amina I agree exhaustion is a killer and the way we live our life daily definetly is what creates the exhaustion. What I become aware of more recently is that there are times in the month, where we need to allow our body to slow down to recharge and which then supports the body to go back into a more action period. When this rhythm is honoured there is less likely cause for exhaustion.
This is a powerful revelation Amita and one I completely agree with.
Thank you for sharing Robyn. What I learnt from your blog is just how similar sugar is to any other drug out there – we take/consume it, and get a sudden ‘high’, racy and energised feeling in our mind. After what is usually quite a short period of time, this begins to wear off, and slowly slowly we return to being with our body, which ends up feeling 10 times worse than before we ate the sugar. So what do we do? We go again, and again, and again – until (as you have shared) we finally begin to look at why we seek this ‘high’ in the first place. Quite incredible how easily we can be sucked into the cycle! I know I have definitely done this in the past… I would go so far as saying that sugar addiction should be classed as a worldwide epidemic.
Yes I agree, thank you Robyn. I can see more clearly than ever that sugar is a drug; and one of the most ‘socially acceptable’ of them all. It probably has addicts of the youngest age bracket and the scary thing is that there is no regulation on sugar intake. Imagine if schools, workplaces and driving laws all considered the impact of sugar on our behaviour and put guidelines and limits in place. Perhaps then we would also consider how our addictions and behaviour also affects others.
I agree fully, why is this drug not regulated? Is it because there is so much investment in it?
Absolutely Mary. There is a whole food industry built around added sugar. It will be a tough one to crack but inevitably it will be exposed and the corruption and the money grabbing ways will tumble down.
Me too – I am wondering why sugar does not come with a warning sign when using it, just like cigarettes with the pictures of lung cancer.
I agree Monika, all the messages on and around the packging which say ‘eat me I will make you feel amazing and therefore I am good for you to be eating’ should be replaced with the facts of how eating sugar effects us and the addiction that eating sugar is. It is interesting though that I know all of this and yet I still crave sugar as I really don’t want to feel what is going on in that moment or the hurt that I am trying to protect and not feel. Being very loving and understanding with myself and accepting what is there to be felt is a great start. As you share Robyn, knowing that we have a choice as to whether we eat sugar or not is very supportive. What I have also taken from the blog is how supportive you have been in stopping eating refined sugar. There was no cold turkey, but a supportive choice to only eat unrefined sugar instead of refined sugar and gradually start to listen to how eating refined sugar actually effetcs the body and mind.
There is a huge financial and social investment in sugar. That takes a lot to kick. Companies are making so much money by pumping foods with cheap sugar and other sweeteners that getting them to kick that habit would make Robyn’s experience with kicking sugar seem like a walk in the park!
Rosie, your point is great, but regulation does not work. It creates a black market to fill the real problem which is the intense need.
At the height of my addiction I would have happily (well not so happy – I don’t think junkies are ever happy) paid $40 for a block of chocolate. Seriously. The reason was that my need was so great. That is why people part with more than $30 for a pack of cigarettes that are puffed up in a day.
What I had to deal with was my exhaustion, my sadness and my lack of regard for myself. That healed the need, and cut the lifeline between me and the sugar industry – both ways.
Absolutely Kylie, what sugar does to the body is really scary, and should be part of schools and workplaces education systems. This should be more out there, because the people are so numbed from all the sugary food they eat every day – hidden in almost every processed foods.
What a great point you make Kylie, how our addictions and the resulting behaviour affects others is a huge and necessary consideration, and sadly is not really something as a society I feel we do take conscious note of. In other words by not opening our eyes to see, feel or know, but remaining in chosen ignorance, we only bypass the gate of responsibility, and continue in our comfort (of, in this case, sugary addiction).
Well said Kylie
I agree Susie – the use of sugar in everything makes it a massive part of everyone’s lives, so that its drug like affects are ignored and/or accepted as normal, rather than being seem and treated like any other drug. Just because something is socially acceptable, doesn’t make it right and so it is great to read how Robyn came to feel what was and wasn’t right for her.
What a great point you make here Susie… The effects of sugar addiction and the reasons we end up with this addiction, indeed has many similarities to any other drug. To me, this includes not only the most obvious illegal drugs (i.e. heroin, cocaine, ice etc) but also to the many other non-illegal drugs of choice including alcohol, tabacoo, porn etc as well as those not-so-obvious such as an addiction to work, drama, stress etc… Essentially anything that is a distraction and that we are dependent on, that takes us away from being honest with ourselves and feeling what our bodies are telling us is what’s really going on!
I agree Susie it certainly is a worldwide epidemic and a non food which is so readily available to all. Unlike other addictions which require a person to generally be a little older this one often starts in the very young.
Its frightening the way the young are targeted to get them addicted to sugar at a very early age. This week it was found that some of the so called ‘healthy five a day’ fruit snacks marketed for children’s lunch boxes contain more sugar then a packet of sweets.
Yes Catherine I saw that too to imagine giving a child something which is promoted as being more healthy and in fact has more sugar than a packet of sweets.
So true Judy, this topic is big, to realize that there is an exhaustion underneath the sugar addiction and the need for sweets is just a way to treat the symptoms. What if we would listen what there
is to feel – the root course of this addiction.
Great point to consider Monika, and why is it that we are moving further and further away from feeling our bodies and what’s going on with an increasing amount and intensity of these types of addictions? Is it possible there is an even stronger pull for us to truly support ourselves and be who we truly are, and that therefore the behaviors and addictions we use to resist this pull are become more intense…
I agree Susie. Robyn’s article clearly paints a picture of sugar a substance that indeed has all the hallmarks of a drug, highly addictive, has a detrimental effects on the mind and the body and major withdrawal symptoms when the consumer tries to ween themselves off the substance. Yet it is sold to everyday child and adult in the world with huge profits being made off our worldwide addiction. It’s great that articles like this are being written exposing the true nature sugar and its effects.
Same here, and that it is actually an addiction.
Vicky that’s the truth it’s actually an addiction that needs to be removed.
Sugar was also touted as being “good for you” in the 1970’s, much better for us than that naughty fat…oh boy! was that a mistake.
So many children get fed sugar to keep them quiet, or as a reward. Problem is that tasty silence or yummy congratulations are the start of a lifelong battle….speaking from experience. It took me a quite a time to get off sugar, and it was a rocky ride for a while. I have now cut my sugar intake to such a low level that it blows me away.
To anyone considering cutting down sugar I would say go for it and follow Robyn’s gently, gently approach.
Rachael I love what you have offered here. It is about people who are addicted to sugar to be gentle with themselves and consider Robyn’s loving approach as there is often an underlying exhaustion at play. I found having lots of quality proteins, vegetables and good fats really supported to deal with sugar cravings.
I totally agree about the “gently gently approach.” After being hooked on suger most of my life there is no way I could have gone cold turkey. I think it would have put my body into a bit of shock. We need to be loving in the way we drop the habits that aren’t loving, that way we are more likely to succeed.
You are very right Susie. The devastating and addictive effects of sugar are highly underestimated by many and shoved under the carpet for the obvious reasons. When children are young you can regulate their intake but once they grow older they are on their own. I feel something should be done about this major problem.
Haha so true Susie. I can so relate to this and the thoughts of ‘but it tastes so good, I’ll deal with the consequences later, it’s just one last time etc’. Although more often I feel the consequence it will have and this is enough to not go there.
It was important for me a few years ago now, to realise too, Robyn, that “…First of all, I needed to realise that my sugar addiction was my baby, it was my comfort, my friend… and it was time to cut the cord..”. I lived with the effects sugar was having on my body for a long time before I was ready to cut the cord. And it really did feel like that at the time too, like I was cutting a lifeline, I was planning to leave my best comforter behind and move into the unknown. I had these thoughts, what now? What will I now be able to use to get me through tough times? I had always had a packet of biscuits but I was choosing to not use them anymore. What actually happened when that first tough or stressful time came, was not me re-tying that cord, but instead I asked myself why I wanted to eat sugary food at that moment. I was actually able to ask myself that question. There was a very palpable sense that I wasn’t controlled by food, rather I could freely ask questions of myself that I wanted to ask myself, rather than feel like I was being fed questions, thoughts and behaviours. Massive realisation and one that confirms time and time again that indeed I made the right choice to ditch the poison. I’m looking forward to reading Part three!
Yes it`s really about being able to ask yourself questions in the moment you feel the craving and want to eat sweets instead of having them without stopping and feeling. I have often experienced that as challenging and felt resistance when I asked myself why I want to have something sweet now and if I really need it. Of course the answer is that I don`t need it and that I just don`t want to feel something but what then happens quite often is that there comes a very stubborn energy in which says “Yes I don`t need this but I want it and I don`t want to feel what is there to be felt now.” But what happens then is that I miss a chance for a clear insight in the underlying hurts and/or for a healing and I often ask myself why could I choose to miss out on this for a pleasure of 5 or 10 minutes? It just makes no sense!
I could definitely relate to this Eva-Maria, and the dialogue – & sometimes battle and resistance! – that accompanies not wanting to feel why I either want to eat a certain food, or just want to eat in general when often I know it’s not because I’m actually hungry! It takes a level of honesty simply to be prepared to ask ‘why’ am I reaching for this food and the ‘stop’ moment beforehand is also super supportive, and often saves going into automatic food eating pilot behaviour…