SUGAR ADDICTION IS REAL with Dr. Jen Unwin

I’m 64 and going through chemo for breast cancer I just realized that I said no to sugar/chocolate at least three times today - I’m proud of myself!

I'm a sugar addict. I've tried to quit multiple times and usually after a few days or maybe a few weeks I'd fall off the wagon and binge eat sweets. I'm currently eating carnivore which has helped with the cravings a lot. I'm about seventy days clean. Anyone who claims you can't be addicted to sugar is crazy. Dairy, I can take or leave it.

Have been off cigarettes and alcohol (thanks to AA) for 42 years, but have struggled with my addiction to sugar all my life. I'm now off it again (27 days) and the first week, as always, was hell. Thanks for taking this on in a video. Your analogy about people who don't easily addict, and their disbeliving attitude toward those of us who do, was spot on. And regarding my own current umpteenth attempt to live sugar free, THIS TIME I am applying the AA wisdom of One Day at a Time. Anyone can live without sugar for one day. I certainly can. And when tomorrow becomes today, it's just one more day to take it one day at a time.

Of course sugar addiction is real! Very very real.

I quit years of addiction to cigarettes and alcohol, but quitting sugar is so much harder. I have worse withdrawals after a couple of days of no sugar, then the withdrawals i had from the other addictions.

It is absolutely an addiction. I’m a cancer survivor, had a couple of very scary diverticulitis flare ups and lifelong depression and I know that a proper diet is the way to keep me healthy. But this week I decided to compromise and told myself that as long as I don’t have any donuts that I deserved to have sushi and pizza. I told myself that ground beef and eggs would both be cheaper and healthier but I didn’t listen. Now I’m short on money for rent because I spent all my money on junk food that I couldn’t afford to begin with. It’s absolutely ridiculous that I’ve managed to resist drugs and alcohol my whole life but I’m screwing up my life with pizza.

I got 16 minutes into this interview and got a massive craving for sugar because of all the junk foods being mentioned. I literally almost got up and drove myself to buy ice cream and chocolate and donuts and cake and I had to talk myself down so that I don’t ruin my 9 day carnivore journey. I’m terrified of my addiction, just being honest.

How could it be anything other than addiction? We all know sugar is unhealthy yet people continue eating it to excess despite all the negative consequences.

I hate the word remission! The word suggests that everyone is just waiting for it to come back. The word is reversal! It’s gone, and unless someone starts eating what they did before, it won’t come back. It’s like saying I had a bruise on my leg and it’s in remission, when if I hit my leg again, I’ll get a bruise.

I was a sugar addict, hiding sugar, eating bags, boxes, a couple of family size packages eating it all. I’ve fallen asleep eating and experienced many sugar hangovers. I thank God for discovering Keto and then Carnivore and letting go of sweet taste. I thank God first for leading me, then for all of the great Truths brought to me through Dr Berry and all the others in this space.

Standing in the kitchen cutting up my pork belly for work later and hearing this talk about the conference in May in my home country makes me happy. BUT.... I know that "sugar" will be said a million times but the truth about what that word encompasses will be bypassed over and over again. When the diabetic nurse that's too fat for her chair and has weepy bandaged legs sits there and tells my husband to have wholemeal toast with low fat spread fro breakfast(a meal he's never eaten, so increasing his food window) and the dentist has a chart on the wall showing how many sugar cubes are in a variety of drinks but not orange juice or even milk and telling you to not have "too much" sugar but not explaining crisps(chips) will stick to your teeth and hang around for hours depositing sugar directly onto your teeth. No one has the balls to show just what sugar is really in. No one is explaining what the body does with all these carbs. I sit on my till and watch mother's putting pouches of fruit puree through with corn puffs flavoured with apple or puffed carrot sticks and mini rice cakes with natural strawberry flavour. Their whole shop is just repackaged sugar, even the fruits and veg(that they cover in sugar sauces like pir pir, bbq, teriyaki) and now a lot of the meat is drowned in these sauces too. It's all garbage. I'm lucky enough to of had a home economics/biology teacher who was hot on this even back in the 90''s and she peeked my interest in all this. They need to go back to basics and teach about what the body sees when we give it food and what it does with all the different components, it makes me mad to hear lies being repeated like it's truth.

Big sugar makes way too much money for sugar addiction to ever be recognized. I mean people still think cholesterol causes heart disease, when it’s actually sugar.

So True. I think one of the big confusion starting Keto is to learn the Difference between Carb cravings and Real hunger.

I am a sugar/starch addict. The Proper Human Diet has saved me, I not only no longer have the cravings I am actually turned off by those food ( 6 month carnivore). Would family members leave bottles of booze all around the house when their loved one is trying to get sober? I hope not, the chips and snacks are the same thing to us. Be kind.

Im a sugar addict as well. It is so hard once I eat one thing with sugar, Im off the carnivore diet. Right now Im ok and happily on carnivore. Feeling great as I should.

I’m a sugar addict. Been keto and carnivore for 7 years which for long periods is great. Until I crack or “just have a bit”, and then over indulge, feel like crap and even sometimes give myself a fever with sugar poisoning. I know I’m an addict because I actually hate the stuff. I hate that it’s everywhere and that I still want it even though I know how terrible it is for me. Sugar is a potential poison, it’s addictive and it should carry a label saying so.

I’m another one who is a recovering alcoholic (40+ years sober) and 29 years away from cigarettes, but my addiction to sugar is way worse than either of those addictions, the cravings are awful and I have not been able to quit sugar!

Thank you for taking the trouble to make this video. I just feel so ashamed that I can’t control my appetite. Initially I lost 28 pounds eating carnivore, and I felt great but then I “fell off the wagon“ and I just can’t seem to get back on it. I live alone so it’s easy for me to hide the food I buy. When anyone asks me how my carnivore diet is going I just kind of put them off. I’m too ashamed to tell them the truth that I’ve been eating way too much sugar again. I have at least been fortunate enough that in 18 months I have only regained about 8 pounds. It’s hard to watch the videos of people who have remained carnivore for years. I admire them and wish that I could emulate them but it’s difficult to even watch the videos anymore because I feel like I’m so worthless that I can’t even control my appetite. You have helped me feel better about it all and feel some hope that if I at least keep trying I will eventually succeed.

I'm addicted to sugar. I gave up cigarettes so easy, never got back to it but man.. that sugar is really my drug. Can’t stop it

Sugar addiction is terrible. I've managed to cut back over time and some of the sweets I used to crave, I can no longer tolerate. But I still periodically have strong cravings and sometimes I give in.