A Journey from Darkness – Week 1

I am not a morning person but am required to be on my A-game as early as 6 or 7. My breakfast of choice is a large black dark roast with 3 sugars. No time for food.

I see a lot of my colleagues eating protein bars, power bars and all kind of nut cluster looking things. I ask Cat if this is my destiny. I quickly learn that they contain the devil – sugar in many guises.

I have had some blood work done – running the gamut from blood type to a hormone panel.

Cat advises in my case (she is all about bio-individuality) that I am going to replace sugar with substance and work towards a real breakfast. This week I mastered a poached egg – this is huge for me.

I like this – nothing to radical. I am afraid if I go cold turkey I may have more emotional outbursts and I am out of second and third chances.Continue reading→

A Journey from Darkness – My Odyssey to Curb Sugar Addiction

Today, starts the first in a series of 7 blog entries by Jenny, who has a limited amount of time to get her act together or get fired from her job. Her issue is based in a sugar addiction that now permeates and controls the bulk of her daily life. Jenny has agreed to blog her progress and/or struggles to let other readers understand that many times pills and complicated diet strategies are not the answer. Here is her background entry to give you some understanding to the state of her affairs.
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If you live in New York, you will understand the pace of my life. If you are a single woman, in a competitive job, just trying to scratch ahead – you, too, are living my life.

I am a relatively simple Mid-West girl. I am a university –educated gal who has enough talent to work in art direction for a rather prestigious agency.

My problem began 3 years ago at the end of a relationship. You know the story – work was the priority but then the following week you see him awkwardly pass-by on the street with another girl – thinner, giggling, making you feel like a beluga whale. You run into the nearest corner deli – and the ice cream says, “Hey lovely – I can help.” Little by little sugar seduces you. Little by little it makes you hate the models on shoots even more.Continue reading→

Why We Love Food and How Food Love Goes Bad – Part II

Like our friend fat, scientists at Duke University have also discovered that the biological mechanism that creates an appetite for salt is linked to the way addictive drugs influence the body.

According to the researchers, because the salt craving is so closely linked to drug addiction, this explains why abstinence-based treatments are so hard to enforce.

Sugar by far is the most well known when speaking about food cravings gone bad. The most heavily debated and studied, the bottom line is more science backs up its addictive nature than does not. The best pioneer in this area is Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D. , author of the bestselling book: Potatoes Not Prozac, Little Sugar Addicts: End the Mood Swings, Meltdowns, Tantrums, and Low Self-Esteem in Your Child Today, and Your Last Diet!: The Sugar Addict’s Weight-Loss Plan.

Food manufacturers recognize and utilize our cravings, through ads and packaging, but also by using lots of dense little calories that stimulate dopamine production = feeling good (short term). Continue reading→