Caffeine and sugar cravings

[patricia]

Caffeine and sugar cravings

Hi gabby1go

I agree with you - a bit of choc has got to be better than the bottle of wine I had every night prior to this challenge - last night just before bed discovered some chocolate and had a few squares (wish I could control the wine like I can control the chocolate) then had some diet lemonade (never said I was sensible) and the contrast in tastes was sheer heaven - that together with Poirot was sheer bliss . . . . sad or what!

[hippie37]

Caffeine and sugar cravings

[ame=

]YouTube - Foamy the Squirrel - "Caffeine Conspiracy"[/ame]

Just had to!!!lol

Hippie
xx

[louise]

Caffeine and sugar cravings

Hippie, I'm from Seattle and Starbucks running all the mom and pop stores out is true. There would be a successful neighborhood shop and they would open just down the block. I boycott them except when desperate and trapped somewhere with no choice, like an airport. I had no idea why they have been so successful - their coffee is bitter! Seattle's Best used to have an ad campaign about being different than Starbucks because their coffee was not bitter and burnt. Starbucks bought them out. Well, this is probably way more than you wanted to know about the coffee capital of the world.

I used to drink about 10 cups a day. Now realize I was self medicating depression. This was before I started to self medicate with wine! I have read that coffee and dark chocolate (in small amounts of course!) are good for you. I've been lucky, only had sugar cravings the first week (satisfied by choc. icecream). But now when I do eat sugar (cakes, etc.), I find myself going on a sugar binge! It seems like if I eat some I want more but if I resist I'm ok. Fruit does not set me off this way luckily.

[me145]

Caffeine and sugar cravings

coffee and sugar cravings increase with me too when i become af

[jinja]

Caffeine and sugar cravings

It's the hypoglycemia link..............

One shool of thought is that when coming off AL it can be assisted by a strick diabetic diet. All to do with the insulin overload after drinking 'pure sugar', this leads to a major metabolic crash from lack of surgar, which then leads to 'emergency' adrenaline being released, which intern triggers a sugar 'dump' into your system etc, etc.....

Eating every 2 to 3 hours, with a high protein based diet will help stabalise sugars over a longer period of time. The L-glut link to reduce cravings is brought in here as this helps to stabalise blood sugar too.

Caffeine also triggers the sugar 'dump' as it stimulates adrenaline and can start that insulin / sugar rollercoaster.

Ciggies ( I have just found out - to my great consternation) is also deeply involved in this fine balancing act, as the curing process of the tobacco increases its' sugar content and the coffee / ciggy relationship messes it all up!!

Oh Joy!! No more vices in life!! I will just have to be satisfied with having a bl**dy healthy body!!

Take care
xxx

PS - Forgot to say - we ex-drinkers produce an 'unnecessarily' high insulin reaction based on how we have taught our bodies to react to sugar. Pavlovs dogs theory. Therefore 'our' sugar balance is harder to maintain.

[TiredofHiding]

Caffeine and sugar cravings

Get rid of it all

I'm with Kimberly on this. Get rid of it all. The sugar cravings won't go away if you keep feeding the spikes and drops with sugar and empty carbs like white flour in bread and pasta.

I did a successful 87 days earlier this year getting Al out of the system and carbs too. I lost 40 pounds in the process (I needed to - many of you may not). After the first 4 or 5 days I never craved sugar.

I fell off track with my 10 year celebration with my husband and struggled to get back.

I am back in the saddle - 10 days AF, 10 days no carbs and feeling great. Once the sugar is out of you it makes it sooooo much easier to keep trucking. Mostly a South Beach sort of diet.

I will eventually allow myself brown rice and whole grain breads and pasta in limited fashion but I think our bodies are just whacked and its best to get it all out of your system until you can control it really well.

My little weird thing - I now crave salty things more than I ever did - pickles and olives stuffed with garlic or jalepenos just make my day! My husband just laughts when he sees me steal a drink of pickle juice - he'd much rather see that that vodka.

I have 2 cups of coffee in the morning and normally a diet coke at some point in the afternoon but that is all for caffeine.

Works for me - give it a try.