Flowing

Hello all.

I'm getting on pretty well in early recovery, I'm not counting days but I'm sober.

In previous sobriety attempts I've always given myself permission to eat what ever I like, which includes copious amounts of sweet things, cakes, chocolate etc.

I have been researching diet and how it affects me and I have come to the realisation that sugar is a huge problem for me, especially in recovery. It causes fatigue, low mood, and anxiety.

So for the past week i have cut out sugar as much as possible. Everything has improved, everything!

I often hear people encouraging others to eat whatever they want in early recovery but I would disagree, if you're like me and sugar makes you feel like crap then stay away from it as when you feel like crap its so much easier to relapse.

Just my experience, would be interested to know if anyone else has similar thoughts? I wonder if years of alcohol abuse might make us sensitive to insulin?

Thanks

freedomfries

Sugar is terrible for us. Youre better off without.

Cityboy

I know that in the first two or three weeks I had a tremendous craving to raid my wife's baking stash for the chocolate chips. Within about 30 days, these cravings had mostly left. Within about 60 days, I had put on around 10 lbs, but was able to begin establishing better eating habits and drinking limited almost entirely to coffee and a mixture of water, sparkling water, and a small about of sport drink powder.

I'm sure that the alcohol wrecked our systems in multiple ways. We just hope that our bodies will heal in time.

I'm certainly not a dietician or health expert, but I would guess that limiting sugar, bread, processed foods, and keeping diet on track with fresh fruits and vegetables, and limited amounts and forms of meats, and getting regular exercise, is good for overall health.

Dee74

There's another side to the coin tho.

I see people giving up everything at once - coffee, smokes,sugar - it can be too much too soon and more often than not they relapse on their drug of choice - or they interpret cravings for sugar, for example, as alcohol cravings..

I remember in the early days I wanted to be free and clear of all addiction dammit and I immediately went off all sugar - made myself ill. I'd been abusing my body for years and I unwittingly introduced another challenge on the poor old thing.

It's great if you can give up everything and feel good about that - but if anyone reading this can't, I think the second best way, and perhaps the most practicable way, is balance in everything for now, and go for gold later?

D

Anna

I agree that sugar is not good, but there is no way that I could have given up sugar at the same time as alcohol. I needed carbs to get through those early weeks. If you're feeling well enough to remove sugar from your diet, that's great, but I think doing one thing at a time can work, too.

BeABetterMan

Sugar really affects my mood and obviously my weight, but man I can't seem to give it up. I am not happy with my weight and my cravings for sugar. I'm hoping I will exercise more when the weather improves, that is usually the case. But I have to keep in mind that I am 75 days sober and if I have to eat sugar, or nails or any damn thing then that's what is going to happen.

biminiblue

When I decided to quit drinking I had already been logging food on Myfitnesspal for years and I decided that since food is medicine, I would research what the recommended nutrition plan would be when I went off alcohol. Interestingly, I found that it was a higher than normal carbohydrates ratio, moderate fat and a little higher protein than what I had been doing. There is a lot of research to be found that describes higher carb as being good for mood regulation for those coming off alcohol - or just in general carbs being good for serotonin production. Of course, all things in moderation as Dee so wisely said and too much sugar can definitely lead to blood sugar swings that can be distressing. Sugar also causes inflammation and the last thing I needed was increased pain in early sobriety.

So I compromised. I had a bag of Doves dark chocolate on hand at all times. I allowed myself ice cream because it effectively tamped down alcohol cravings. In a few months I was ready to tackle 15 pounds I needed to take off and I was emotionally and physically ready to cut back the added sugar to the WHO limits. Mostly. I mean, treats happen. I don't beat myself up over them any more.

Good luck. Sugar > Alcohol. That's my take on it. Sobriety is hard enough in those first few months without adding more stressful Rules.

D122y

If it is between relapsing and sugar, I vote sugar. My AA mentor said it tricks the brain.

But, I can believe sugar might mess with my chemical balance adding to my suffering as I move forward.

Thanks.

least

When I was early in recovery, I had inordinate cravings for dark chocolate. A few months later, I was back to a normal consumption of it. I don't know if I would have gotten thru early sobriety if I hadn't had dark chocolate to substitute for drinking.

anxiousrock

I wouldn't say no to sweet treats, or whatever gets you through the day properly in order to give up your addiction. I eat more carbs now than I ever thought I would but I'm 100 times healthier! I just have a good balance between food and exercise.

Flowing

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I'm certainly no nutritionist and all of my thoughts on this are entirely anecdotal but I'm definitely finding a link between the cessation of simple, useless sugars and heighten mood, energy and productivity.

Complex carbs are definitely in though and I'm definitely not getting too strict with the finer details.

My main point is that, for me, the more benefits of sobriety I see the more likely it is that sobriety will last and eating tons of crap goes directly against that.

I'd rather put up with the sugar cravings, which at times can be huge, but reap the benefits of that than binge on sugar and feel so rubbish that I think "well sobriety's no better than drinking so i may as well give up"

Also moderating sweet treats is simply not an option for me, it's all or nothing...., sounds familiar!!

Anyway, not a big deal for most but it's something that has massively improved my recovery so thought I'd share incase it helps others.

C0ntr0ls

Sweets were/are a big part of me getting sober because if it knock my craving down, I felt golden at that moment. We are all different.

Phil71els

For me chocolate covered raisins where and are still my go to for when I feel the need for something (which used to be red wine).
I exercise which helps but I know that not drinking is way more important than worrying about eating some chocy raisins every now and then.
Eat the sugar, at least until you are safe in your sobriety then tackle the that. One vice at a time, please pick the one which will kill you the quickest first

DriGuy

I like sugar things, jams, jellies, etc, but when I quit, it didn't increase my sugar intake. Friends in my group often encouraged newcomers to keep hard candy in their pocket, and eat one instead of taking a drink. Granted, cravings were powerful that first week, but the idea of eating sweets as a substitute for alcohol repelled me. I wanted alcohol, not hard candy, and I could not wrap my head around why sugar could be an appealing substitute. I thought (very likely incorrectly) that those people just liked hard candy.

One guy told us many times that he would reward himself for not drinking by going out on the weekend (probably during the week too I would guess) and treat himself to a steak dinner. That sounded good to me, but I'm guessing he just liked eating out, because I made no connection between sobriety and eating steak.

After my first 10 days of sobriety, not drinking became its own reward, and no candy, gallon of ice cream, or steak could be any sweeter than that, not even close. I would eat those things, of course, but they were no more enjoyable to me as they were before I quit.

Having said that, I am not going to argue that it's that way for everyone else. If something works, or works better for someone else, then I say they should go for it. We are all different. Getting sober is a very personal thing, and no matter what your program is, you still have to find your own way.

So yes, I have similar thoughts, and I'm happy you brought that up, because you made an honest and insightful post. I have thought about that often, but never bothered to articulate it until now.

DriGuy

Another thought: I also developed hypoglycemia at one time in my life. I got into a habit of going to the coffee shop for breakfast and having coffee and some kind of pastry. About 10:00 AM at work, I would get weak and kind of dizzy. I had no idea what this was. It was like clock work, and on one occasion, while skiing, I had an attack of [whatever it was] and just fell down in the snow and laid there. Another time it happened while hiking 6 miles back in from the road. I wasn't sure I would make it out.

A woman who I worked with was a diabetic. She said it sounded like low blood sugar to her, but no doctor correctly figured it out. She loaned me an old blood testing kit, and I started keeping track. When I had one of those spells, my blood sugar was indeed low. One time it was so low, it didn't even register, which alarmed my coworker. I started reading, and oddly too much sugar is the cause of low blood sugar. I'm guessing that when your sugar level gets too high, your pancreas over reacts and metabolizes all your sugar if you have hypoglycemia.

All I did was cut out morning sugar. Pancakes and syrup are off the table now, and when I quit drinking 24+ years ago, I haven't had one of those attacks again. People with this condition need to avoid alcohol too, according to what I have read.

prettiekittie

I admire the austerity of people who get their diet in order right away, I’m just not one of them. Daily dark chocolate is one of the most enjoyable parts of my recovery plan. To each their own. Glad you found something that works for you!

Livinchi

About 3 years ago I was the heaviest and softest I have ever been, very inflamed, pinched nerves, developed bursitis, treating my body with a horrible lifestyle combining my addictions of alcohol, weed, and cigarettes with sugar, sodas, processed foods, half my diet was from the gas station food next to work. I was not ready to look at the alcohol and drugs to improve my health so I looked at diet. I expected I might go vegan or vegetarian although I did not want to I figured that would be healthiest. After a ton of research I went a different route - elimination diet to identify what foods I ate that might poison me. Since many of us eat everything all the time we can never find out if we are intolerant to certain foods without eliminating them and reintroducing them systematically.

I did 28 days of carnivore diet/zero carb - I ate only meat, water, and black coffee. This is one of the only times I went off alcohol also, although I drank a good amount of straight vodka at a wedding in the middle of this and felt like absolute death processing it. This was the biggest improvement in my health ever, over 28 days I lost fat, gained muscle, had the best digestion of my life, and had a lot of energy from being in ketosis all of the time. The biggest lasting benefit for me is when I systematically reintroduced foods I discovered that I am gluten and dairy intolerant. So I do not eat those now and that helps my digestion and inflammation. The other big benefit is my gut microbiome changed and I am no longer addicted to or crave sugar and carbs. Even berries taste very sweet now.

I still eat a very high fat, high protein, low carb non processed diet. The Standard American Diet is indeed the SAD diet! For many it makes the body and mind sad... The food pyramid is upside down, from how humans have lived 99.9% of our existence... There is actually more politics and industrial lobbying involved in our diet recommendations than good science. (GMO investments) My healthy eating has probably helped me handle the heavy drinking better.

Our body needs to not have sugar or glucose for 12 hours in order for the liver to reset, and for our hormones and insulin to regulate. The reason diabetes has become so prevalent is because people think 3 meals day and always carbs and sugar is necessary. Some people have not gone 12 hours without glucose in their blood ever! Our body's were designed to go into ketosis (very little carbs/sugar for 3 days+) like the Adkins diet, and also to go through "Autophagy" which is when the body eats its bad cells by fasting completely for 3+ days. Research on autophagy won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Medicine, it is the only "treatment" known to eliminate brain plaque and therefore reduce the risk or symptoms of dementia and Alzheimers. It is also proven to eliminate tumors, cancer, and the weak cells in the body and replace them with healthy fresh ones. Check it out and let me know if my experience can help you!

All of us here are very focused on living a healthy life by controlling our lifestyle and what we put into our bodies. It totally makes sense for us all to consider what we eat every day and how that effects us as well.

Flowing

Livinchi, this is the most thoughtful and fascinating reply I could possibly imagine. Thank you so much for taking the time to write it.

Throughout my life whenever I have looked into dietary changes to address health issues my research has always pointed my in the direction of a Mediterranean/Paleo/Keto/Atkins type approach and it seems this correlates with your advice.

I'm definitely going to look into your suggestions and start taking diet more seriously as it completely makes sense to me, especially in recovery.

Thanks again

AAPJ

In anything but the smallest of quantities, sugar is poison. If one wants to stay healthy in the long run sugar should not be consumed on a daily basis. That said I agree that for those who need it in early sobriety sugar is better than alcohol.

I consume so little sugar these days that my body has become intolerant of it. If I eat a sugar loaded desert in the evening I wake up with a bit of a sugar hangover the next morning. I remember thinking to my self: gosh I'm such a wimp. I mean sugar hangovers - really? But today I can just laugh at myself.