The sugar addiction

09Jan09

I realised something very recently. I am hooked onto sugar. If there is a dessert on the menu in the cafeteria, I find it extremely hard to resist it. I sometimes get these urges to eat sweets like ice creams, pastry, etc and most of the time I just give into it. I have been consciously trying to avoid sweet things the past few days and my suspicions have been confirmed. I am addicted to sugar. 

I googled ’sugar addiction’ and found that it is very real - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_addiction. The age of the internet has really brought information at our fingertips. The wikipedia article likens this addiction to drug addiction and just like drug addiction, one apparently feels withdrawal symptoms. So, basically I just found out that I am like a drug abuser! And looking by the reaction I have had the last few days, I have to say that it looks like an extremely difficult addiction to kick. Unlike drugs, sugar is available liberally everywhere and I think that is the primary reason why soft drinks are so big. Pepsi and Coca Cola are like fixes. * Shudder *

I wonder why this information is not common knowledge. If people were aware, they might be more careful with this substance. I consider myself fairly well educated and I did not know about it till I was finding avoiding sugar so difficult. No wonder people are overweight in India. We tend to eat sweets regularly and I have noticed that the chaiwallahs in my city serve really sweet tea (perhaps, a cheaper fix to the soft drinks). When people become overweight, they are blamed for it. But really, they are probably under the spell of sugar. Just like any other addiction, I think this would need a lot of support from friends and family, support people rarely get. Most often, the addict is blamed for the visible consequences of the addiction and since they are never really aware of their addiction, they probably never get rid of the habit. 

One of the reasons why I started this blog was this new found awareness of my addiction. And the fact that I was so uninformed of it kind of shocked me. The internet has information but  people’s attitude towards fat people has to change. There are a lot of reasons why people are fat – genes, addiction, hormonal imbalances, depression, lifestyle, etc, etc. None of them are reason enough for the kind of bigotry they face. My parents once tried shaming me into trying to lose weight. It did NOT work. Instead, I think it is really important to arm people with the right information. ‘Right information’ is very important because these days there are so many greedy opportunists who spread all kinds of misinformation just to make a quick buck. This is a hard problem and a fight that needs to be fought!

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Tags: Addiction, Information, Obesity, Overweight, Personal, Society, Substance Abuse, Sugar, Wikipedia