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Comment by midnightcity | Hacker News Reader

It's been said that anything which gives you a high can become addictive, so using that definition I'd say sugar could be addictive (certainly I seem to experience a kind of "sugar withdrawal" when I try to cut it out).

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The most peculiar aspect is the shadowing effect of sugar. When you cut it you start to taste flavors a lot more.

This fact actually helped me reduce sugar intake through soda. I bought a SodaStream and cut all my soda with carbonated water. After enough time, the diluted soda tastes just as sweet as regular soda used to, and regular soda tastes way too sweet. Sure I'm still drinking it, but my intake is down 1/2 over a day. My other trick was to pick 1 day a week I don't drink or consume any sugar (cuts consumption by 1/7 over a week) and during the month of January I don't consume any either (cuts consumption by 1/12 over a year). I've found these short periods of sugar fasting much easier to get through than completely changing my eating preferences, as most people suggest.

Once you’ve gone without soda for a month, why on earth would you ever go back to drinking it?

Sometimes you get a weak moment that you didn't plan for. I think a lot of us are/will be experiencing this sort of thing post-pandemic; you quit x y or z in lockdown environment but can you keep it up once life gets more chaotic again?

What else am I going to drink with pizza?

No, seriously, you imply that you drink soda at least daily and quite likely several times a day. Once you have quit drinking it, why would you take up such an unhealthy habit again? Sure, have a soda once in a while... but why resume the habitual consumption?

I consumed a LOT of sugar until very recently through soft drinks and sweets. Gave it up basically from one day to the other.

And somehow I don't really miss it, except for occasional "a <sweet thing> would be nice" which surprises me in the sense that I expected I'd be having cravings.

Just "quitting" liquid calories also made a huge difference for me in terms of caloric intake.

I still love sugary treats (and carby food like bread and pasta) but I eat less because when I consume a lot, I experience something almost like a hangover the next day. That started happening around age 40 (I'm 51 now). You might be younger than me, but I'm wondering if other people my age experience the same thing?

If it's really that addictive, people would crave sugar when they got out of bed. Instead, they go for coffee and cigarettes. That your body reacts to lowering sugar intake, might be something else.

From what I understand, a true addiction is defined by if it's pathological or not, and the thing is no one is out on the street prostituting themselves for coffee, cigarettes, or candy... but they are for crack, heroin, meth, etc.

If we'd make cigarettes illegal tomorrow, we might see some nicotine related prostitution. If we'd do the same for coffee or sugar, I'd doubt we'd see it.

Idk, I feel like caffeine is just as addictive as nicotine, and we allow kids to consume it. The health effects are different, certainly, but just try taking coffee away from a lifelong drinker.

Same argument could be made about social media. Just because you don't see folks prostituting themselves for a minute of fame doesn't mean... wait a minute ... never mind.

Kid yourself not, smoking is an addiction.

I know, I used to be a tobacco smoker and I want one just as bad after not having had a cig for over a decade... I'm sure it's a nuanced topic, but I'm just relaying what I understand from the clinical perspective. I don't have a horse in this race. I know all of these things are addictive, but the impact is the question.

Probably because coffee, cigs, and candy are cheap?

So is heroin, crack, and meth.... at least until it's not.

Cigarettes are relatively cheap and accessible, if they weren't you'd 100% find people prostituting themselves for them, it's probably as addictive as heroin.

I wasn’t able to summarise such a nuanced thing into one paragraph. So here’s the full link. No one is selling their body for smartphones either but it’s now being increasingly accepted as an object of addiction. It’s more about what impact an object or activity has on your life than anything else. Although, Sugar probably isn’t addictive enough to be so automatic that you are chugging a scoop of table sugar pacing the kitchen.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-is-addiction-201706...

Back before I basically gave it up, I did crave it when I got out of bed. I'd be straight downstairs and eating Cereal with high sugar levels, or toast with jam on it.

I crave sugar. Sometimes i'm craving so much i go out on purpose to buy a 1L icecream or 1kg chocolate and eat it all in one go. At least once a week.

I can relate. For me it's not as frequent - but once in 2-3 months, I have an "attack" leading me to have 3-4 bars of chocolate, or 4-5 bags of chips or something similar with high sugar content. There is one more edible thing which helps during these kind of attacks, but I cannot publicly talk about it.

Can you tell us more about these chips that have high sugar content?

Here's a link - https://www.dietandfitnesstoday.com/sugar-in-potato-chips.ph...

It's a good link, but it really doesn't seem like very much sugar at all..

Ok, actually I had no idea about sugar in potato chips at all before today. I just assumed they do - as it satisfied the same craving as the chocolates.

Only buy ice cream in those mini half serving containers. It makes it a lot easier to stop eating after one or two.

That only works if you only buy one or two at a time and have to go back to the store to get more.

What helps me is the price. 8€ for 500ml Häagen-Dazs is too much.

Not for the first time, I have said to myself, no more buying candy from Costco. I just finished working my way through 1.5 Kg of chocolate from there and yes, I gained weight.

Sugar is addictive. Full stop.

@popotamonga: Don't eat 1 kg in one go though, that's really bad for your insulin swings in your blood. That 1 kg should last you at least ten days.

Coffee doesn't imply a lack of sugar, not by a long shot.

Tell me about it. My grandfather used to put 10 packets of sugar in his coffee. We used to joke with him "You gonna have some coffee with your sugar this morning?"

My coworkers go to starbucks or dunkin first thing to get a bunch of sugar-laced coffee. Coffee goes with sugar and cream.

A grande Frappuccino at Starbucks has 64g of sugar, double the daily recommended intake.

Many people add sugar to coffee. Or eat cereal for breakfast, or donuts and pastries. Jelly on your toast? There are plenty of people who get out of bed and go straight for sugar in various forms.

> people would crave sugar when they got out of bed

They do, it's called "breakfast".

> when they got out of bed. Instead, they go for coffee and cigarettes

I believe, hundreds of millions people start their day with sugary cereal or some similar "healthy" sugar dessert.

Also, from my experience of losing weight on low carb diets, dropping sugar "cold turkey" leads to absolutely brutal sugar cravings.

Sugar has brutal cravings but they disappear after a couple days. If you cut sugar for a week, the physical craving won't be a factor - they are much easier to surpass if you go in with that expectation.

Yes, that's what my experience was as well. First couple of days I had to drink sugarless coke and chew sugarless gum all day just to keep some mental clarity. But after several days cravings just stop.

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