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Moods and sugar

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December 22, 2008

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I have been deep in research for my upcoming ebook. What I’m finding is that our moods are intricately involved with our food intake, normally known as “diet”. Did you know that women with the worst PMS symptoms typically eat over 200% more sugary foods in their diet than those who don’t experience PMS? Sugar gives us a temporary feel-good state of mind, but then it can crash your system and you find yourself yelling at your children or spouse for unknown reasons. You become more irritable and cranky with more sugar in your diet. And yet, we’re hooked, aren’t we? Sugar is akin to morphine, and as addictive.

“Addictive” simply means that you suffer withdrawal symptoms if you don’t ingest the substance. If you get a headache at three in the afternoon and the only thing that helps it is a candy bar, you know you’re hooked. If we could just break free…we would see…life is freer and happier when there are no bad-side-effect addictions. (we like being addicted to being in love, don’t we? Why else do teens date so much? It’s the endorphins…the rush, similar to eating chocolate but much more intense!)

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12 comments

  1. Robyn McMaster says:

    December 23, 2008 at 4:32 pm (UTC -7 )

    Jessica, another effect of eating something sweet for a pick me up is that when you have a letdown you feel very tired. Just think what this does in an office mid-afternoon. Sugar addition can be broken. ;-)

  2. Mckay K says:

    December 23, 2008 at 5:13 pm (UTC -7 )

    Sugar is a hard addiction to stop.:oops:

  3. Jessica says:

    December 23, 2008 at 6:26 pm (UTC -7 )

    Robyn: Thanks for your input. That’s the exact dynamic that draws people to eat or drink more sugary foods and sodas. You feel tired, you go for the over-sweetened coffee or soda. That sets you up for irritability and temper problems down the road…

  4. Jessica says:

    December 23, 2008 at 6:26 pm (UTC -7 )

    Mckay: It certainly is! :oops:

  5. Jeanne says:

    December 23, 2008 at 11:06 pm (UTC -7 )

    Jessica,

    My acupuncturist had an article about sugar addiction in his waiting room a few years back. I was sitting there reading it and he came out and noticed that I was looking at it. We got talking about it and it is very true that sugar can be addicting.

    Just ask my teeth!

    :wink:

    Jeanne

    P.S. I see you modified your cartoon picture to a photo on MyBlogLog. :grin:

  6. Jessica says:

    December 24, 2008 at 9:40 am (UTC -7 )

    Jeanne: and I see you found me on Twitter! It was your question “are you on Twitter” coupled with an article sent to me by Ralph, a friend in Antwerp, that finally pushed me over the edge of resistance and encouraged me to try Twitter.

    So, I’m not sure what I’m doing yet, but I’m watching how other people use Twitter and I’ll get the hang of it soon enough. Anyone who is reading, to follow me on Twitter: liveonpurpose
    :roll:

  7. Centria says:

    December 27, 2008 at 6:35 pm (UTC -7 )

    Jessica, we haven’t eaten sugar (well, except for certain vacations) for over two years now. It’s been great for our health, weight, mood and other factors. I recommend it to everyone! For sweeteners we mostly use rice syrup, barley syrup and maple syrup. It’s expensive, but worth it. Glad to see you’re promoting this….

  8. Jessica says:

    December 27, 2008 at 7:35 pm (UTC -7 )

    Wonderful news, Centria! You’ve got it easy now that your daughter’s all grown up. There is no pressure from kids to buy that favorite sweet thing. What would you recommend to parents of young ones who are trying to go refined sugar-free?

  9. Centria says:

    December 28, 2008 at 6:36 pm (UTC -7 )

    Oh dear. You are so right. It’s easy when your kids are grown. I guess my advice to parents of young ones would be to slowly introduce alternative treats (sweetened with maple syrup, honey, rice syrup, bananas, applesauce) into the diets. To slowly wean from the refined sugar treats, maybe allowing them every once in awhile. To make the low-sugar treats & put them on the table and not have refined sugar treats in the house. But also not to be a complete dictator. Allow for moments of refined sugar, perhaps.

    What I have discovered recently is how awful white sugar tastes! Would have never thought that. It’s really so highly sweet that it tastes kinda disagreeable. Who would have thought?

    Hope this helps, Jessica!

  10. Jessica says:

    December 28, 2008 at 7:00 pm (UTC -7 )

    Thank very much Centria. Very good suggestions. I like the one about not becoming a dictator :twisted: like the soup nazi on Seinfeld. (No sugar for you!) Once I tore a lollipop out of my 1 year old’s hands because his big brothers disobeyed me and gave it to him. I caused more trouble than it was worth by doing that because my husband sided with his older sons who gave the lollipop and we fought for a day.

    When we the parents are not in a unified front on any topic, oh how quickly the children notice it and use that against us!

  11. Anaely Acevedo says:

    April 19, 2009 at 11:48 am (UTC -7 )

    Hello webmaster. I think you could also make more of it through a bigger exposure about \”Moods and sugar\”. Perhaps you can have some chocolate endorphins love.

  12. Peter Grievik says:

    May 25, 2009 at 9:48 pm (UTC -7 )

    Hi there. I think you could also make more of it through a bigger exposure about \”Moods and sugar\”. Perhaps you can have some chocolate applesauce.

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