Emotional Sugar Understanding Sugar Addiction, Through the Lens of Emotional Regulation

By Brittany Forrester

From cupcakes to pies to iced coffee drinks, sugar is found in many foods and is almost impossible to avoid. Emotional or psychological dependence on sugary foods and beverages, also known as sugar addiction, is a fundamental cause of concern for health officials in America. Processed foods and refined grains create additional sugar in the body once the body metabolizes the food. Sugar in moderation is not harmful; however, many overdo it. A recent study suggests Americans eat far too much sugar. Specifically, approximately 75% of Americans eat excessive amounts of sugar, many of whom could be classified as having a sugar addiction.

Sugar consumption can create a short-term high and a spark of energy in the body. Some studies have suggested sugar is as addictive as cocaine. People often enjoy the dopamine release sugar brings. However, due to the addictive nature of sugar, long-term health effects like obesity and diabetes are a risk of sugar overindulgence. Like other compulsions or behavioral addictions, sugar addiction is a risk for people with low moods, anxiety, and stress.

This book explored sugar use, as an addictive process, through the lens of emotional regulation, addressing the research question: What is the lived experience of emotional regulation through sugar addiction?

This book aimed for a greater understanding of the interdependent nature of sugar and emotions. What might a sugar-addicted population express that facilitates recovery and emotional regulation? The lived experience revealed that envy, deprivation, fear of sugar control, and lack of support from authority figures contributed to an inability to get enough comfort foods or stop overconsumption and contributed to feelings of guilt, shame, and loss.

• Language: English
• Publisher: vincenzo nappi
• Release date: Aug 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201480660

Book preview

Chapter 1 Introduction

Every year, the average American eats thirty-three pounds of cheese (triple what we ate in 1970) and seventy pounds of sugar (about twenty-two teaspoons a day). We ingest 8,500 milligrams of salt a day, double the recommended amount, and almost none of that comes from the shakers on our table. It comes from processed food. It’s no wonder, then, that, one in three adults, and one in five kids are clinically obese. It’s no wonder that twenty-six million Americans have diabetes, the processed food industry in the U.S. accounts for $1 trillion a year in sales, and the total economic cost of this health crisis is approaching $300 billion a year.

Who is the average American who is consuming, daily, twenty-two teaspoons of sugar? In the 1950s there were plenty of foods with added sugars. My sisters and I used to mix sugar and cream and dribble it into our mouths when our mother wasn’t looking. Our mother guarded our food. Meals were served with an emphasis on the USDA’s Seven Basic Food Groups. Food was portioned onto the plates in the kitchen. I was speechless when I went to a friend’s home for dinner. The serving bowls laden with food went around the table, and everyone helped themselves! I used to accompany one friend to her home after school when I was thirteen or fourteen years old. She had varieties of ice cream in her freezer. I ate one bowl after another. No one ever complained or banned me from coming back.

In 1970, in my 17th year, I was struck by an epiphany. An epiphany (from the ancient Greek, epiphaneia, manifestation, striking appearance) is an experience of sudden and striking realization. Generally, the term is used to describe scientific breakthrough or religious or philosophical discoveries, but it can apply in any situation in which an enlightening realization allows a problem or situation to be understood from a new and deeper perspective. Epiphanies are studied by psychologists and other scholars, particularly those attempting to study the process of innovation.

My epiphany, at 17, was of a nutrimental nature. I had maladaptive patterns and my rules, regulations, devices, and cajoles worked well to curtail the effects of my sweets overload. When I was conscious I felt confident, strong, happy, proud, and I locked sugar out. Intellectually and compassionately, I was strengthened. My unhealthy sugar bingeing would lead me down the cookie aisle or lead me into the day-old bakery. I was getting an education that encouraged me, and as fast as I could, I gratefully walked away from the unwise choice. Still, the multitude of unconscious moments served to leave me mistrusting, weak, guilty, vulnerable, shaken. I was distraught, disgusted, and powerless. I was incapable of ultimately, consistently resisting sweets.

My sugar consumption had an unfathomably toxic quality. My ability to eat a voluminous amount of cakes, cookies, pies, ice cream and chocolate garnered me a coveted, quantifiable amount of shock, awe, and negative reinforcement. My friends and most everyone I met and knew were amazed as they watched me exalt. Their most frequent comment, How can you eat all that, and look at you, you are so slim!

Three frequently encountered narcissistic personality types are not considered psychopathological but rather variants of the normal human personality, with its assets and defects.

When I reflect on my childhood and think of some of my experiences, I realize that I was not mirrored and I could not idealize. My father was addicted to sugar; my mother was addicted to alcohol. My self-object was sugar, and I was uncontrollably and undeniably unable to live without it. Were such substances nourishing any of my family into a predominantly healthy state? This study of emotional regulation through sugar addiction purposefully zooms in on the relationship existing between regulatory emotional experiences and consumptive sugar templates, patterns, and