Are you struggling with sugar addiction and battling with sweet tooth without success? Hey, there is an easy way out of this tight situation.
First, you likely don’t have any sugar addiction. You simply like sweet stuff. You don’t believe me? Take this 4Q test to see whether you are a true sugar addict.
Whether you are, or you aren’t a sugar addict, there is an easy way to get your sweet tooth under control. That may sound impossible, but it isn’t. There actually is an easy way of kicking the sugar monster out of your life.
Hedonic happiness, the root of all evil
If you did not know, hedonism stands for the pursuit of pleasure, for the sole sake of experiencing enjoyment, nothing else. Simply put, it is an insatiable drive towards sensual self-indulgence.
Sugar addicts are frequently stuck on pursuing hedonic happiness, a temporary high from eating sweets.
Telling the brain to stay away from hedonic urges would be the ideal solution, but rewiring it to seek eudaimonic happiness instead, isn’t an easy task. Changing things on an attitude level, means long-term counselling and skilled reinforcement. It hard to beat the sugar habit when stuck on a hedonic mode.
Eat more protein
Fortunately, there is another way to exorcise the drive for sugar than by paying a wage to a psychotherapist. You can get out of the sugar rot by simply eating more protein.
What??!!
Let’s translate it into English. Eating higher protein meals means you will automatically reduce your sugar binges, feel more satiated, and have a much easier time to say no to junk.
Low protein diet promotes hunger
Most North Americans (likely including you) eat about 15% of their calories in a form of protein. Although it looks like this is exactly the recommended amount, 15% does NOT seem to promote good health. Adhering to low protein recommendations only makes us hungrier, and more hooked on sugar. Maybe low protein intake has something to us being overweight and nutritionally imbalanced.
I need to give you a little bit of a tip here. Data shows that diets providing only 15% calories from protein lead to overeating? People who eat less than 30% of calories from protein tend to overeat, they tend to eat more calories than they burn.
Furthermore, nutritional experiments show that in order to suppress excess appetite, reduce cravings, and stop overeating, we need to increase protein. For many of us, getting 30% calories from protein, means doubling up on current protein intake.
Why not just zero sugar?
Sugar detox is popular. “21 days off sugar” and “30-day zero-sugar-challenge” lurks at every internet weight loss corner. Despite positive buzz around the trend, the realities of zero sugar aren’t sweet. Most people don’t adjust their menus in any other way than just replacing sugar with diet sweeteners. And that has consequences.
Dropping sugar without adding protein isn’t a smart move. It leads to hunger, food dissatisfaction, and frequent physiological lows. Sugar abstinence without other dietary changes has many shortcomings and is unsustainable. For many, replacing sugar for zero-calorie sweeteners only continues the vicious cycle of crave sweet-eat sweet. Besides, many cases zero-calorie sweeteners can do more harm than sugar.
Like reading our posts? Subscribe!
The sugar-free challenge is especially useless for individuals that display hedonic attitude. These individuals, when confronted with sudden lack of sensual stimulus, will look for other means of satisfying themselves. Look for zero-sugar junk gluttony, portion size increases, or post-challenge binges.
Sugar addiction gone in 40 days of less
Let’s get back to protein, because exactly protein (from food, not powders in a box) can help with sugar addiction by bypassing physiological lows and hedonic sins. Apparently it takes less than 40 days to automatically decrease hunger, stop the cravings, and reduce night binges, when you make a commitment to get 30% calories from protein for that time. Yep, it works like magic.
If your life philosophy, budget, and the kidneys allow you to, give protein a try, even despite all the life challenges popping up unexpectedly.
Maybe you can shed a few pounds effortlessly, painlessly, and with a surprisingly full stomach. Or maybe you will discover something very surprising: that your sugar addiction is not a mental weakness, but an effect of long-standing protein insufficiency. Hmm….
If you like what you are reading, please share the post. This simple “thank you” gesture means a lot to us. Love. LiveUthing.
Here is another thought
