Stopped Drinking But Now Crave Sugar
“I’m an alcoholic in recovery, so I’ve stopped drinking but now crave sugar and am having a really hard time not bingeing on sweets. Why and what can I do?,” a woman asked at a recent community workshop at which I was the presenter. It was hosted by a chemical dependency alumni association and open to the public. My talk was titled, “Secondhand Drinking – the Phenomenon that Affects 90 Million Americans.” This particular powerpoint presentation helps attendees understand alcohol misuse, addiction, secondhand drinking (SHD)-related stress, codependency, and recovery for the family system from the brain’s perspective. The topics relevant to her question, included:
- the basics of neuroscience (including fMRI and SPECT scans) and how a person’s brain develops and wires unhealthy habits, such as alcohol misuse or secondhand drinking-related coping skills;
- alcohol misuse (and the distinctions between binge drinking, heavy social drinking and alcoholism), which is the cause of drinking behaviors and thus SHD; and
- what a person who misuses alcohol or is experiencing SHD-related stress can do to heal/re- wire their brains.
And it was the connection between alcohol and sugar and the dopamine pathways that best answered this woman’s question, which is a common question for person’s in recovery from alcoholism.
Stopped Drinking But Now Crave Sugar – the Alcohol | Sugar | Dopamine Connection
As I stated, the common connection is the brain’s pleasure/reward pathways, aka neural networks (which are the way brain cells [neurons] “talk” to one another), aka electro-chemical signaling process. These neural networks rely on dopamine neurotransmitters. These are the chemical portion of the brain’s electro-chemical signaling process. This prior post of mine helps explain this concept, “Here’s to Neural Networks and Neurotransmitters – Keys to Brian Health,” and this 1:48 minute video by NIDA is excellent, “The Reward Circuit: How the Brain Responds to Natural Rewards and Drugs.”
So to answer this woman’s question more fully for BreakingTheCycles.com readers, I’ve pulled two pieces. One is an article by Kris Gunnars, BSc, “10 Similarities Between Sugar, Junk Food, and Abusive Drugs,” and the other is Nichole Avena, Ph.D.’s TedEd Video, “How Sugar Affects the Brain.”
To understand how alcohol changes brain function and taps the brain’s dopamine-reliant pleasure/reward pathways, check out NIDA’s Brief Description and NIDA, NIAAA, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, HBO’s The Addiction Project > “Addiction and the Brain’s Pleasure Pathway: Beyond Willpower.”
Lisa Frederiksen
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This is so interesting to me, Lisa. While I never had a drinking problem per se, I have consciously reduced my alcohol consumption in the last 10 years. A couple of glasses per week rather than 1-2 per night. (Nothing like having a daughter addicted to alcohol and meth to change the way you look at things. ) The result has been paradoxical… weight gain rather than loss. It took me a very long time to realize my previous interest in alcohol may have been more about sugar than anything else. Unwittingly, I’ve been trying to replace that dopamine boost ever since. Starting to realize the only way to truly manage sugar is to have none.
I can so relate, Barbara. When I was trying to stop my bulimia (34 years ago, so you know how little was known about it, then), I stopped eating all added sugar, fats and salt for 2 years, so it was dry baked potatoes, plain salads, lots of veggies, chicken/fish/meat without anything – all very boring but it’s what I needed to do not to trigger a binge. Now I’m able to do it all in moderation (although I still have binge moments – but thankfully, no purge!). I appreciate you sharing your experiences.
I’ve read considerably on this issue, because I have been known to indulge in some prodigious sugar orgies. Lustig rang the most truthful with me.
Thank you for sharing Lustig’s video, Larry!
WTF Eat sugar your sober
Because sober is not enough, and I feel sorry for those who think it is.