I was thinking about what some of my triggers to drink are, and I noticed a big thing, when I am sober I crave sugar like crazy! When I am actively drinking I have no desire for sweet things. Has anyone noticed the blood suger connection?
What has been helping me is when I do get cravings to drink, having some chocolate or a sucker helps it go away really fast.
Anyone have anything about sugar/diet to chime in on?
-- Edited by LucentSunbeam on Monday 2nd of January 2012 08:46:47 PM
I read this with great interest awhile back, and have been unable to find more research to back it up, but it's an interesting proposition: http://knol.google.com/k/alcoholism-and-hypoglycemia#
The basic theory is that the vast majority of alcoholics are hypoglycemic. Read it with a grain of salt, but it could resonate with you and help you think about how to curb cravings by watching your diet.
Yes there is a connection...an old one and your awareness and experience like mine is valid. I also "do" sugar and not booze and then booze is such a very high concentration of refined sugar that after you research that you might come to a realization like I have that my system is looking for balance. I haven't had a drink in decades and my last piece of cake was 20 minutes ago, just after several piece of chocolate and a couple of "diet" Pepsies...(haha fooled me!!)
When I worked in a rehab on the inpatient section we use to keep sugar away from the coffee section and then whalla!! it would appear again right out of thin air!! We can find a drink like that too when we want one.
Continue the research...it's very good to know because it's about you.
It's right there in Living Sober - drink something or eat something sweet. Just watch out if you tend towards diabetes. When I rang the helpline so long ago, the lady on there first asked was I diabetic, when I said no she said right lad, choke a mars bar down and fill up on full fat pop (lemonade etc.) I thought she was crazy, but she explained that alchohol is basically fermented sugars and my body was craving sugar. When I said i was worried about putting weight on she said she hadn't heard of anyone getting busted for being fat and disorderly, no one gets popped for driving under the influence of a cream cake etc. So i did as suggested and I'm still here. Using the tips and tricks kept me dry enough for the last vestiges of alchohol to leave my body and get me in a desperate enough state to get a sponsor and go through the steps of recovery.
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It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you got. BB
Thanks GG, both my mother (36 years sober) and I have hypoglycemic symptoms. I will read this when I have time. Changing my diet again now (bi-annual weight loss).
This saved me today. I woke up this morning, only a couple weeks in being sober, with my first real craving for alcohol. Realizing that this is a whole body/mind transformation, I decided not to eat those left over mashed potatoes for breakfast, and have a salad instead. I couldn't think of anything else I truly would enjoy at that moment, so as weird as it was to have a salad at 7am, It COMPLETELY took away my craving for alcohol! Had I not read this post and article about hypoglycemia yesterday, this day would have been a lot harder I think. I am hypoglycemic and anemic if I don't watch my iron intake. I remember my dad telling me "beer has a lot of iron in it". Another excuse : ) Anyway, I wanted to say thanks to all in this thread for helping save my life today. I'm so grateful to be here.
That's great! Also, if you don't know, a classic bit of wisdom on compulsive behavior is HALT: Watch out for cravings to strike more often when you are:
I was told (by addiction medical specialists) that sugar metabolizes like alcohol, or vice-versa, I forget the details. The point is that too much sugar is not the friend of the alcoholic--using sugar to take the edge off works a little bit like the "hair of the dog"...but it's not a healthy relapse prevention practice, which includes "Eating Right to Stay Sober" (a book on the subject by K. Ketcham and A. Mueller). Like most things it seems to be about balance and moderation (does not apply to diabetes, hypoglycemia, or hyperglycemia, of course.).
In Austrila (however ya spell it) they did a lab experiment and feed rats alcohol for 3 weeks. Upon removing the alcohol, they replaced it with a bowl of food and a bowl of sugar... the sugar got eaten before the food ever got touched by the rats.
What this means, heck I don't know, but I would rather eat a bowl of sugar over a bowl of rat food any day too! LOL
