Because of my addiction to sugar I have had first-hand experience of how eating refined sugar impacts us both physically and mentally – reinforced very recently through my daughter’s experience with refined sugars. I have also done some research on the subject.
What I have learned is mind-blowing and makes me wonder how this substance can be sold so widely to the masses!
My daughter is 6 years old and the last time we gave her sugar was when she was about 12-14 months old. However, she recently found a friend at school who was bringing lollies to the school so she decided to have some.
The first day she came home we noticed there was something different about her and her behaviour. She was more jumpy, faster in her actions, loud, hyper, over-sensitive, aggressive when things did not go her way, unreasonable, physically invincible (apparently!?), restless and unable to sit still (at all!).
While some of these behaviours could be classed as ‘normal’ for a 6 year old, they were not normal for my daughter. Don’t get me wrong, she is no saint. She has her tantrums and dummy spits like all other children, but what was different this day was the intensity with which these behaviours were coming out and her inability to listen or be reasoned with.
It was only a few days before she spilled the beans and shared what she was doing at school. This was great as it confirmed the suspicions I was having about the cause of her behavioural changes.
We worked with the school to stop the sugar supply, and in the beginning when the supply was no longer accessible we had a very outraged child (addiction behaviour? Ahh yes!) Once she stopped eating the sugar, she was herself again. She settled completely and we have since talked to her about how she feels different when eating sugar, as opposed to when she doesn’t eat sugar. Now that this has been brought to her attention, and we have spoken to her about it so openly, she has been able to feel this difference in her body and her manner.
How can a behaviour-altering substance such as sugar be sold to the masses like it is nothing special??
And sugar is everywhere; sugar is in almost everything we eat. It is in our breakfast cereal, our snacks, our drinks (even flavoured water!), tomato sauce, tinned tomatoes, a jar of olives, even sundried tomatoes! Have you read the ingredients on the canned vegetables in the supermarket? Sugar is added to creamed corn and kidney beans, for heaven’s sake!
There are not a whole lot of snack options in the supermarket for people who have chosen to cut refined sugars out of their diets, especially sweet snacks. It is almost impossible to find a refined sugar-free sweet that is also gluten and dairy-free in a supermarket, and very rare to find one in a café (here in Australia).
So in order to support myself and my family to be refined sugar-free, I got busy in the kitchen, baking.
It turns out I have a natural ability to make yummy tasting sweets that are refined sugar free, as well as gluten and dairy-free!
These yummy delights really supported me in my commitment to not eat refined sugar ever again. They provided me with an option to be much kinder to myself and to my body as I healed the destructive energy that was allowing me to keep myself dosed-up to the eyeballs with refined sugar and disconnected from myself (and my body).
However, I have since felt that even these can have an effect on my body so I rarely have them anymore… but there is still a place for them in my home.
These yummy delights are very supportive for my daughter as she finds her way in a world filled with foods that contain refined sugars. She wants to ‘fit in’ at school and have sweet food like her friends, so these are a great option for her as they are much gentler and kinder to her little sensitive body.
I have also taken these yummy delights out to local cafes as I felt there was a place for them in the wider community. There are many people struggling with sugar addiction and also many more choosing to make more healthy lifestyle choices for themselves, especially those dealing with illnesses. So they are a brilliant option – plus they taste amazing, even better than the sweets fully loaded with sugar!!
The feedback I have been receiving from clients and the café owners has been very encouraging. People are really enjoying the lightness and flavoursome delights being offered.
It is beautiful to be able to offer the wealth of experience that I have in this area so it can potentially benefit others too. I feel it is an incredible healing for me to be able to give people an option that allows them to take better care of themselves (as I have learned to do for myself over the years). And even if they aren’t consciously choosing this and just eat the yummy delights anyway, they will be blessed by all the love I have made them with… and that is pretty cool I think!
With deep thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for showing me that there is another way to live… One that includes great care and love for myself and my body – for what I feed it determines the quality I live my life in every moment of every day.
By Robyn Jones, 38, B.Sc. (Psych), Counsellor, Mother & Baker Extraordinaire, Goonellabah, Australia
Read Part One: Addicted to Sugar… My Drug Addiction
Read Part Two: Exhaustion and the Effects of Sugar Addiction
Further Reading:
Serge Benhayon on Food and Diet
Choices: Weight Loss, Diet, Food & Health
606 Comments
“How can a behaviour-altering substance such as sugar be sold to the masses like it is nothing special??” It’s now been discovered that sugar is as addictive as cocaine. However governments won’t do anything about it on account of the power of big food companies and the money involved.
I remember when I was a child not wanting to eat sugar, but sometimes in a birthday party I did, eating the cake and afterwards, feeling literally awful in my body. Now I appreciate how in those years I already chose not to eat those sugar refined cakes anymore. I felt then the surprise and even the rejection of some adults, but that choice made total sense for me and I preferred those reactions around me than feeling again that awkwardness inside me.
I recall how after children’s parties my son (when a kid) would return home hyper. We laugh abut it now, but it was all those E numbers back in the day, as well as the excess sugar, which he wasn’t used to at home.
A sweet tooth is our spirit loading us up with an addictive substance that shows up as unnatural behaviours and this becomes especially obvious when we have eliminated sugar and over the top sweeteners from our diet. Also this is especially so in those who have never had sugar as you have shared Robyn as the disorientating disturbances brought on by us eating sugar become glaringly obvious.
When we have a craving for something it is time to look at what it is we don’t want to feel.
So true. Looking behind the reason why we have a craving, be it for sweet, salt, – or any sort of ;comfort food, that can vary. Its not always the food per se. Discipline in going without doesn’t work. Find the root cause – always the go-to.
I have found one of the best ways to deal with addiction is to not have the addictive substance in my home, if its there in the cupboard I will go for it when the tension arises. If its not there I have no option but to look at why I am craving it.
Sugar contributes to mental health problems full stop.
I have been addicted to sugar growing up and know how it plays havoc on your body. I have suffered from hypoglycaemia for many years believing it was normal. In order to treat it I would go for refined sugar.
It was only until I met Serge Benhayon at a talk and recognised that the addiction was from not loving and caring for myself more deeply and holding back my natural sweetness, that the craving started to go away.
This is so beautiful to read Loretta. My cravings returned again. Time to more deeply self nurture.
It is interesting that many would never go anywhere near heroin knowing of the potential addiction but freely admit to an addiction to refined sugar.
This Christmas the shops are choc (pun intended) full of sweets biscuits and all things sweet. Come January 1st the media will be all about dieting and removing the excess pounds. What if we lived in such a way that we needed neither, as we feel our own natural sweetness?
When my son was young, thirty years ago now, his behaviour would be off the wall after drinking orange squash or Coca Cola. We laugh about it now. Fortunately my grandchildren aren’t exposed to sugar like that…..
We are not so much addicted to sugar as we are addicted to the high we get living in such a reactive state that prevents us from being aware of what is really going on around us and within us. With awareness levels at an all-time high, we are reaching for sugar and its substitutes like never before. It is not so much an issue with sugar (although I do agree that it is harmful on all levels and is best avoided if possible) as it is an issue with our ever-increasing awareness as a human race.
Yes, wanting to dull ourselves so we don’t feel. There is sugar everywhere we look, even in such things as low fat yoghurts, ostensibly made for those on a diet…..crackers!
You describe how it takes a few days for the sugar to ‘let go’… once its in the system it calls for more and that can be a mini battle to just let that go. That is a classic show and tell for an addictive substance and yet its so normal, so everywhere, with a multi-billion £ industry supporting it all the way into our kitchens.
‘How can a behaviour-altering substance such as sugar be sold to the masses like it is nothing special??’ This really does need to be looked at doesn’t it! We are all aware of how alcohol changes the state of our body and the behaviour change that comes with that, but with sugar it’s not even on our radar. Kids and sweets are synonymous with each other, but we as adults haven’t wanted to see the ramifications excusing the results as being normal.
Of course the best antidote to craving sugar is to living life in full and not holding back. Who needs sugar when we are already living everything.
I have found certain foods really help with sugar addiction, garlic, limes and lemons and lamb – cooking a loving meal really helps with those cravings.
Yes also looking into why the craving returns. For me it’s after lunch – regardless of what time that may be. This is because at boarding school we were allowed 4 sweets from our tin after lunch only. These I had brought from home – so were my connection to warmth and love.