"Hi, my name is David Shoup and I am a candyholic!" Apparently, I am not alone. According to Dr Mark Hyman evidence shows "that people can be biologically addicted to sugar in the same way we can be addicted to heroin, cocaine as sugar stimulates the brain’s reward centers through the neurotransmitter dopamine exactly like other addictive drugs."
Although my above statement may be tongue and cheek, it is certainly not sugar coated. Armed with the understanding that I am facing an uphill battle with the many tempting forms of sugar disguised as healthy sounding options like sorbitol, mannitol, diastatic malt and ethyl maltol.... Okay, I admit I have no idea what those words are, but they are each awesome excuses to indulge my sweet tooth and more proof of the challenge I face.
Unbelievably, several of my friends were able to just up and remove sugar entirely for 30 days and I just about blew my fructose filled gasket at the idea of quitting it all cold turkey. So, instead of putting down the cheesecake, I decided to forego only one of my nemesis's at a time: Candy.
Now, my reason for doing this was twofold:
1) By removing all forms of candy would I in turn reduce the likelihood of sugar consumption or would I instead choose to compensate with other forms? That fact was, I was simply eating too many sweets as it seemed like after every meal I had to supplement it with a treat of the sweet kind. I really wanted to change.
2) How much would this effect my weight? I had hit a plateau with regards to my weight loss from my previous 30 Day Experiments and was hoping the removal of candy would kickstart another drop in pounds.
As I began I gave myself a couple guidelines to help me make this transition to the new improved candy-free David. First, gum is NOT candy. Many may argue otherwise, but for the purposes of this experiment I chose to keep them as an option. Second, mints are NOT candy!! For the same reason above.
I am happy to say, after a few days of irritated and slightly irrational withdrawal symptoms I am candy-free and haven't really missed it. Interestingly, (but not surprisingly) I experienced both of my reasons for this challenge. As a result of no candy, I actually found myself passing on the treat after meals with regularity and additionally have broke through my weight plateau again. Only by a couple pounds, but I'll take it!!
If you want to learn more than read "Healing Foods" by Dr Joseph Pizzorno
Lesson: [tweet]Small changes in the right place can have huge impacts on your end result.[/tweet]