Experiencing Sugar Cravings After Quitting Alcohol

Dulan lists hard-boiled eggs, avocado toast, protein balls, and almonds as a few of her favorite “cravings busters.” Frozen grapes, which she says “taste like a mini sorbet,” are another good option. “It happens because sugar impacts the brain in many of the same neural pathways as alcohol,” Dulan told Insider. “I’m very into sweets. They say when you stop drinking, that you go sweets crazy,” she continued. If you want some support to help you live life happily sober, join our amazing Facebook Group for the kind of motivation and inspiration that will keep you strong. This replacement, or transfer, addiction arises because addiction can become an entire lifestyle in addition to a disease.

This can make it easier to become dependent on that other substance—such as replacing alcohol with sugar. Addiction treatment centers help by providing a safe space, professional treatment options, and long-lasting support for you to achieve abstinence. At All Points North Lodge, of clients benefit from individual and group therapy, medication-assisted treatment, and cutting-edge technology.

Addictions

Addiction specialists and addiction treatment centers are placing more focus on the nutritional component of recovery. Many addiction professionals have developed a holistic treatment approach that focuses on mind-body connection, paying particular attention to food as part of the treatment process. High-protein foods help keep you full, which can curb drug or alcohol cravings.

In other words, if it takes a pack of cigarettes and a pint of ice cream a day in order to not drink, do whatever it takes. “I’ll deal with the food issue later once I’m more stable in my sobriety.”  It’s easy to overlook the dangers of sugar or overeating when you were a blackout drinker. After a day or two without eating, however, these glycogen stores are emptied. The body can normally compensate by having the liver create new sugar, but if a person is drinking, the liver’s top priority is to remove the alcohol from their system. Like alcohol, sugary foods can be addictive and trigger the brain’s reward system. Which means you have to eat more and more to feel the same effects.

Managing Sugar Cravings After Opioid Use

Sugar and alcohol also are known to affect serotonin, another one of your body’s feel-good chemicals. This is why sweets and alcohol can help you de-stress and generally improve your mood, at least at first. A replacement addiction (also called a transfer addiction) is when you quit one addictive behavior but feel like you need to replace it with something else. In this case, your mind and body are tempted to replace alcohol with sugar. High-sugar foods feel much more rewarding and pleasurable than other more nutritious foods, making them harder to avoid and more tempting to people whose dopamine reward networks have been compromised by addiction.

Therefore, eating sugary foods can help to boost energy levels and improve mood. Recent studies show that processed foods like sugar trigger the brain’s reward system in ways that are similar to alcohol and other addictive substances. https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/why-alcohol-makes-you-feel-hot-and-sweat-after-drinking/ In other words, it’s entirely possible for someone to become addicted to sugar. Additionally, some researchers believe there is a genetic component to sugar addiction in families with a history of substance abuse.

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Because sweet-control was a non-significant predictor of study outcomes of interest, we excluded this construct from the final CLPM analysis. While alcohol craving was unrelated to other study constructs, why do alcoholics crave sugar and did not change over time, we elected to retain this construct in our analysis given strong theoretical rationale. Long-term alcohol abuse inhibits the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar levels.

• This is especially important because your body needs to relearn how to produce the chemical without drugs or alcohol so you can start repeating healthy behaviors again.
• Imagine eating a regularly scheduled and well-balanced diet, getting eight hours of sleep every night and still craving sweets.
• While quitting drinking may help to reduce the frequency and intensity of sugar cravings, they can still be a bothersome problem for many people in recovery.
• This is because drinking can impact your appetite, taste buds and nutrient absorption.

When you eat too much sugar, you train your brain to run on sugary foods the same way it did when you were drinking. And when you go without sugar, you’ll experience withdrawal symptoms just like you did when you were struggling with alcohol addiction. Sugar also triggers dopamine receptors in the brain, and over time a person can become desensitized to it, while experiencing strong cravings. In other words, sugar addiction is a real thing, and follows a similar formula in the brain to alcohol addiction. Without staying on top of your sugar intake, you can find yourself caught in this cycle. It’s important to talk to your doctor if you suffer from low blood sugar.

Sugar Cravings After Quitting Alcohol Starts in the Brain

Typically, I see sugar cravings tapering down within a few weeks with the proper nutrition and hydration. First and foremost, don’t give into self-judgment about replacing alcohol with sugar. Going into a shame spiral about giving in to the lure of a piece of cake will only be counterproductive.

Certain nutrients, herbs and especially minerals provide extra support to rebalance your brain and body. Chromium, a trace mineral, works wonders to balance blood sugar. You can find it in a supplement, often with other trace minerals that also help. Herbs such as gymnema, berberine, kudzu, and cinnamon can help. If you need to eat some ice cream every night for a while, that’s fine. Your body and brain are in a healing state, working to get you back to homeostasis, and it feels uncomfortable.

It is known that high carbohydrate consumption may actually create an effect of enhanced serotonin synthesis, which in turn can suppress alcohol intake. However, the same was found to be true with non-carbohydrate substitutes, which have also been shown to suppress voluntary alcohol intake. It may have something to do with the way that sweets stimulate the endogenous opioid system, causing the brain to feel satisfied. DJ Blatner, a registered dietitian nutritionist based in Chicago, told Insider that “alcohol may also impact blood sugar levels, so when someone stops drinking, changes to blood sugar may also lead to sugar cravings.”

• When patients are feeling better physically, they sleep better, stay in a more positive mood and experience an increased ability to focus on their recovery while in treatment.
• Not only does sugar’s long-term effects on the body – like cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes – pose a problem, but the goal of sobriety is to not be reliant on any substance.
• For this reason, people who drink heavily may not consume regular meals, increasing the risk of low blood sugar.
• Each model was conducted separately because the use of sweets to cope with negative affect and impaired control over eating sweets reflect distinct correlates of sweet liking (Kampov-Polevoy et al., 2006).