Dr. Amen shares his own story on how he overcame his sugar addiction.
As I was doing research for The Amen Solution, I kept coming across studies showing that high-sugar, high-fat foods work on the heroin or morphine centers of your brain. I even came across one study from a team of French scientists who found that sugar was actually MORE addictive than cocaine. No wonder I was always craving sweets.
When I finally got this idea through my own thick skull it made a HUGE difference for me. I LOVE living without cravings. But, for years I fought the idea of giving up sweets, like candy or Rocky Road ice cream.
I thought it was simply about calories in versus calories out. If I stayed within a certain calorie range, I would be fine. The problem was that eating the sugar activated my cravings and made it very hard to stay away from things that were bad for me.
Sweets are mood foods for me. My grandfather was a candy maker and my best memories growing up were standing at the stove next to him making fudge or pralines. But my grandfather was also overweight and had two heart attacks that took him away from me way too early.
I know that kicking the sugar habit isn’t easy for many people, it is like kicking a drug, and it certainly wasn’t easy for me. But I found that when I substituted brain healthy fruit like blueberries, bananas, and apples, the cravings completely went away. Have you ever known someone to eat too many bananas? For most people, it takes about two weeks of completing avoiding sugar for your cravings to go away.