Today, my boyfriend R. was driving back from a medical appointment and told me later that he stopped at Whole Foods and bought three chocolate cupcakes. I reminded him that he could get a referral from his doctor to see a counselor to help him develop some coping skills to decrease his self-destructive behavior. He replied that he'd rather have the cupcakes. Secretly, I agreed with him but I would rather have a nice unagi bowl, which is my stress-busting go-to food. Once you develop a taste for sugar, though, it's probably harder to beat than opiods!
I've never tried to quit opioids but quitting sugar isn't that hard. I followed a very low-carb diet for a while in 2013, which of course prohibited anything sweet, even most fruits (I ate berries, which are lower in carbs than other fruits). After a couple of weeks I didn't miss sugar at all. I could stand in front of a bakery counter and not be the least bit tempted. I've heard others say they had similar experiences.
Since then I've gone back to eating sugar occasionally (and starch much more often) but I don't have the same sweet tooth I once had. If someone hands me a piece of birthday cake I'm probably not going to turn it down. Late at night, if I know my son is harboring chocolate, I might steal a few Hershey's kisses. I did succumb to some pumpkin bread this fall. But i never even look at the dessert menu in restaurants.
Years on years ago, I had a serious sugar addiction, maybe worse than R's. I would go into a bakery and get one of pretty much everything. I would eat until I felt sick, then throw the rest out -- but keeping them in the bakery bag. Later I would fish the bag out of the garbage and eat some more of them (again, they hadn't actually touched garbage, but still). I wasn't like this all the time, but I would get spells of it every few months, each lasting a few days.
I haven't had that happen in several decades, though.
And I had to google unagi bowl but it sounds delicious!
There have been a lot of dramatic phone calls over the past week or two and I'm starting to question his German and Scottish ancestry.
Wow, that's a lot of faith in the power of ancestral countries of origin!
Maybe some ancient ancestor mated with an Irish person and a stray hot-tempered gene made its way down through the generations.