One never knows, when he reads something on the internet, whether it is actual news or an amplification of some real news, or even downright misinformation. I read that sugar is more addictive than cocaine. Actually, I have read it more than once on the internet. Today I looked it up a little bit more in detail. I came up with this, from the US NIH:

Overall, this research has revealed that sugar and sweet reward can not only substitute to addictive drugs, like cocaine, but can even be more rewarding and attractive. At the neurobiological level, the neural substrates of sugar and sweet reward appear to be more robust than those of cocaine

Cocaine ain’t got nothing on sugar. Now, I am not the kind of person that wants new prohibitions put on consensual acts. If cocaine is not as bad as sugar, then maybe it’s time to let all the cocaine addicts out of our jails. On the other hand, lots of people are not currently putting cocaine on their breakfast cereal like they might otherwise be if it were perfectly legal.

When I say that I am addicted to sugar, I don’t mean that in an artistic, poetic kind of way. I mean that when I consume enough sugar to get the ball rolling, I tend to binge on it. There are some things that I eat or drink that I believe may have sugar in them that get that cycle started. They don’t have to list ingredients on alcohol or beer here. I think that my near-beer from Coors or Miller that I like, since I gave up real beer a few years back, is getting me high on sugar. Seems like after I have had a six pack of them I find myself wanting the donuts at work a lot more than otherwise.

Since the Royals here in Kansas City are doing so well in post-season baseball I have been getting near-beer to drink while I watch the games. Since I started doing that I have been unable to turn away from donuts, cookies, pop, white bread and candy at work, and even a couple of times for dinner at home. Why that is, is kind of a mystery of how the brain functions. Normally, I could look at one of these foods and just not have a feeling, be neutral to it. When I am in the sugar loop I just have got to try some.

I know that now that I have consciously made the decision to get back on track vis-a-vis sugar I am in for the withdrawal symptoms that I journaled about in the 21 Day Sugar Detox link found at the top of my WordPress page. Hot hands, perpetual hunger, sweating at night are all in my future. This is like almost quitting smoking, but letting yourself have just that one cigarette in the morning with the guys at work. Soon it’s one at break, one at lunch, one before home. Before you know it you are sneaking out to the shed to puff one quickly all the time, hating yourself and finally admitting that you are still smoking. The only difference this time is that I am not ashamed that I am a sugar junkie. I admit it, and I know what it takes to make that change. Every now and then these days I can smoke a cigar with a friend. I am not a smoker. I can consciously eat a wonderful desert, because I can control my sugar intake that way. I can’t drink near beer, though, because that is too much over a period of time and changes the way I look at sweet foods. It starts my craving. Back to the drawing board I go, to draw up my new boundaries of my new relationship to cocaine, I mean sugar.