Sugar addiction, like all addictions, is a complex dance between pleasure-seeking, and attempts to soothe inner discomfort. Sugar becomes a distraction, a pacifier, and often an unconscious, compulsive habit. Each bite triggers dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for reward, reinforcing the craving loop and making sugar one of the easiest substances to overconsume.
..our brains still perceive sugar as beneficial (from an evolutionary perspective) and release huge amounts of dopamine when we consume sugary, high-calorie foods. In the long term, this can mimic the effects of addiction and create high tolerance and cravings for sugar. Furthermore, can even lead to withdrawal when we cut it out of our diets.
Sugar and Dopamine: The Link Between Sweets and Addiction, Wellness Retreat Recovery
But neurochemistry isn’t the whole story.
Addictions have roots. And sugar was the first root of mine. Engage in some self-discovery and you’ll likely find the roots run deep.
Perpetually Sticky: How My Sugar Addiction Began
From my earliest days, sugar was my companion, both friend and foe. It met emotional needs that were otherwise unacknowledged, becoming my solace, my focus, and my reliable tool to soothe.
Anything sweet would do. I’d even eat circus peanuts if there was no alternative. Sugary snacks were easy to come by, and I relied on them to soothe the inner discomfort that was my baseline and essentially get my fix.
Chocolate was fine, but I preferred what could pack a sugar punch. My threshold was high!
Fun Dip was my Jack Daniels. A candy stick dipped into flavored sugar packets until you’d easily consumed half a cup of straight sugar and then ate the stick for good measure.
Lollipops: My First Self-Soothing Tool
In the absence of attuned caregivers, sugary treats filled the space. Lollipops showed up when I sucked my thumb too long. They became emotional regulation in the form of confectionery. While the behavior of thumb-sucking was slow to extinguish, my sugar addiction lingers today.
It was the “acceptable” drug, one that didn’t get you drunk… though, in hindsight, the feel good chemicals it released revved my little motor.
To everyone else, it was a means to keep me quiet and occupied. That is until I began doing something problematic, like consecutive handstands against a closet door. My sugar addiction began in diapers and continued through my school-aged years with copious amounts of Hawaiian Punch, white sugar on sugar-coated cereals, and Hostess snacks.
Hawaiian Punch Mustaches in the Age of High Fructose Corn Syrup
I grew up in an era of Red Dye 40 and the rise of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Hawaiian Punch was practically its own food group for me. I often thought that had I been born a decade or more later, I would have received diagnoses for my childhood behaviors.
The poisons we consumed were accepted and promoted. Connecting sugar consumption and food additives to health and behavior was rarely considered. By the 1980s, HFCS had replaced sugar in most sodas. Red Dye 40 and HFCS are now linked to hyperactivity, behavioral issues, and various mental-health concerns. Many countries restrict them—yet the U.S. still allows generous use.
Read more: Why isn’t High Fructose Corn Syrup Regulated?
My childhood hyperactivity was chalked up to “kid energy,” and defiance, not chemical overload. For more on the history of HFCS read more here: HFCS Story Map.
A Family Legacy of Sugar and Self-Soothing
I have a long familial history of self-soothing through alcohol and sweets. My grandmother’s house was a treasure trove of candy dishes. At every turn, there was something new to discover: Ferrari Italian nougat candy in little boxes, ribbon candy, and sugar-coated, jellied orange and spearmint slices. Lunch concluded with a bowl of cling peaches in a heavy syrup, followed by Jello with Cool Whip topping.
The sugar adventures continued with my grandmother’s Cracker Jack and soda stash! I drank Hawaiian Punch pretty exclusively, so Nana’s house was a chance to get a new mustache. Kids could freely consume any of it. It was like my own Willie Wonka paradise.
Why I Bake: The Heart of My Sugar Story
Birthdays meant cake. Holidays meant cookies. Valentine’s meant cinnamon pound cake. Italian cookies with rainbow nonpareils or cinnamon sugar topped with anise-flavored icing at Christmas and cinnamon pound cake in the heart-shaped pan on Valentine’s Day. A Birthday must be commemorated with at least cupcakes, and Halloween requires outrageous baked goods because literal bags of mixed candy are not enough.
Holidays: A Perfect Time For Sweet Treats and Connecting Through Consumption
Excitement, or is it anxious anticipation as a holiday approaches? Baking became my sanctioned form of emotional numbing through sugar devotion, especially during holidays.
Sugar loves company, so I shared my creations freely.
It felt like love… and to some extent, it was.
But it also kept my addiction comfortably alive.
The Dark Side of Sugar Addiction
Over time, chronic high-sugar consumption can have serious health consequences. As noted by Dr. Robert Kiltz in The Dangers of Sugar, excess sugar intake is linked to metabolic syndrome, increased inflammation, insulin resistance, obesity, heart risk, and cognitive decline. While more research is always helpful, these risks reinforce why I now approach sugar with greater mindfulness.
Sugar, Alcohol, and the Compulsion Loop
My first gateway into addiction was trauma. Sugar soothed that.
Later, alcohol numbed it.
Exercise masked it.
Over-studying and overworking gave it purpose.
Sugar was the “safe” compulsion—the one that didn’t come with shame because I wasn’t overweight. But compulsion has nothing to do with size.
Viktor Frankl said,
“When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.”
Whether I was eating candy, drinking, or smoking my compulsions never felt like pleasure-seeking. They felt like relief-seeking; attempts to fill an insatiable emotional hole – a bucket with a huge crack that leaks all its contents. My sugar addiction was a habit no less compulsive than gambling, no less numbing than a tumbler of Jack.
The Lies Sugar Addiction Tells
I once believed sugar was harmless. Natural. Innocent.
But when I watched my daughter’s friend’s mother insist on a sugar-free household, I judged her. Certainly a little sugar wouldn’t hurt her son. And, what kind of mean mother will deny their child sweets? Later, I understood she was doing what I wasn’t ready to: acknowledge what Jim Gaffigan was saying all along. I’m addicted to cake.
I had my own minimizing stories:
- “A little sugar won’t hurt.”
- “I don’t eat that much.”
- “Baby slices of cake don’t count.”
When I finally acknowledged my inability to curb my sugar consumption, especially when emotionally activated, sad, or just checked out, it revealed to me that sugar was not as wholesome as I once thought. How many lies have I told myself that justified my sugar-consuming tendencies?
You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.
Yogi Berra
Some of us use this invisible magic calculator when the moment presents itself. It’s like the room of necessity in Harry Potter that appears when you need it most. The magic calculator makes half a cake, a series of insignificant slivers, and a bottle of wine, only two mere glasses.
Sugar Addiction and Shame
Distractions and compulsions begin by offering relief, but at some point, the scales tip, and what was once desirable and rewarding is seen as insidiously promoting something else. An anxious lie that wells up, connected to any unconscious childhood feelings of being at fault, not because of something you did, but because of something you are. It can take a lifetime to make the connection between shame and overconsumption.
Cake is a true symbol of gluttony. If you eat a whole pizza people will say ‘Wow, you were hungry!’, but if you say you ate a whole cake people are like ‘You’ve got a problem….you’re addicted to cake!’
Jim Gaffigan
From mid-October through year’s end, my vulnerability peaks. Emotional memory sharpens. Without awareness, consumption spirals. If I don’t mentally prepare, I fall into old patterns. Headaches, bloating, and losing my high vibe ‘glow’ are clear indicators, that I have not been consuming kindly.
The Path Forward: Mindful Eating and the “New Sticky”
To make healthier choices around your consumption, increase your awareness of your eating habits and establish tools that help with mindful eating and drinking. Practicing an intentional pause will help you sense whether your addictive behavior is actually meeting a need. Once you start caring for yourself, the unhealthy compulsions fall short.
Most compulsive eating happens under awareness. To shift your relationship with sugar:
- Slow down, breath to notice body sensations and your emotional state
- Increase body awareness through movement and mindful eating practices
- Interrupt autopilot – have regular check-ins to identify actual needs
- Create supportive rituals, like cooking a simple, nutrient dense meal mindfully or naturally sweetened snack each day.
Make treating yourself kindly in all ways a priority: in how you think, drink and eat.
Better habits reinforce themselves.
As sugar cravings decrease, moderation becomes easier.
A Few Supportive Tools to Help Moderate Sugar Consumption
- Start your day with an achievable goal ie., no sugary beverages.
- Increase your water intake.
- Practice an intentional pause before and after you eat.
- Explore healthier alternatives (such as fruit, nut butter, and natural sweeteners).
- Engage in creative and meaningful outlets.
- Eliminate high-sugar items from your home (you can’t eat or drink what’s not there).
- Move your body to reduce emotional heaviness during cravings.
- Rest deeply and consistently.
The “new sticky” is not about deprivation.
It’s about finding pleasurable, nourishing replacements; textures, scents, sounds, rituals that soothe the nervous system without sabotaging it.
Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it a hundred times.
– Mark Twain with a hard truth on addiction recovery.
The same humorously painful truth applies to sugar.
It requires more than willpower to create new healthy habits. Dr. Mark Hyman describes sugar as a “biological addiction,” noting that it triggers dopamine in the same neurological pathways activated by drugs. This makes moderation emotionally and physiologically difficult.
What Moderation Looks Like for Me Now
I’m not sugar-free. I’m sugar-aware.
I choose mindfully, savor intentionally, and treat myself with kindness when I overconsume.
As addiction loosens, your palate sharpens.
High-sugar processed treats begin to feel like an assault on my senses. Additives you once ingested unconsciously start to reveal themselves as the chemical impostors they are. Pre-packaged sweets with preservatives exposed as the processed garbage that they are will make you wonder how you never knew.
“Sugar emergencies” are infrequent and rarely bring me to eating foods I have little respect for, despite their lure to a quick sugar fix.
Not Included in My “New Sticky”
- Artificial sweeteners. I’ve watched too many “safe” products turn unsafe. No pink packet, no blue packet, no matrix pill.
- A prescription “fix.” Masking addiction bypasses healing. I’d rather meet the root than patch the symptom.
Geneen Roth writes,
“We don’t want to eat hot fudge sundaes as much as we want our lives to be hot fudge sundaes.”
Exactly.
Choosing a New Addiction: Caring for Myself
I decided to become addicted to caring for myself; eating, drinking, resting, and being in ways that honor the woman I am becoming.
If you want support on your path, explore my list:
How to Stay Healthy~ (18) Simple Habits. Choose to extinguish what is not working for you and ease into a lifestyle that strengthens and sustains you.
Or visit my Coaching Services page if you’d like personalized support for sugar addiction, mindful eating, or developing a healthy lifestyle that feels like your own “new sticky.”
Contact me to book an appointment New healthier habits and tools to self-soothe await you.
The quick fixes will never meet the deeper need. You deserve a life that nourishes you soul first.
