I tried ‘Dry January’ for the second time, and it was terrible again but not because I craved alcohol

While transfer addictions often mean replacing alcohol with a drug or substituting one drug for another one, it can also happen in the form of eating. Alcohol often gets the blame for causing high blood sugar in a person, resulting in advice for diabetics and others to reduce or eliminate alcohol from their lives. On the flip side, alcohol can also lower a person’s blood sugar levels. The liver normally releases glycogen into the bloodstream, but drinking alcohol impedes this process.

First, variable distributions were evaluated for normality and skewness, and missing data were imputed. But what does that have to do with sugar cravings after quitting drinking? Well, craving sugar after stopping alcohol is the result of a whole culmination of reasons.

What Should I Do To Maintain A Healthy Sober Life

When a person finds they crave sugar constantly, and they feel a payoff when they consume it, they may switch their addictive behaviors. While sugary foods do not provide the full-blown narcotic effect of a drug such as opioids or a large amount of alcohol, they still give a high of sorts. They offer a familiar source of a ritualistic high that many find difficult to give up during the early stages of recovery. Sugary foods can help those in recovery because they affect the brain like addictive drugs.

Many who eliminate sugar from their diet find themselves experiencing withdrawal symptoms of irritability, fogginess, moodiness, and low energy. Since many struggling with sugar addiction have binged on sugary foods, withdrawal and cravings can be intense. Tragically, many choose to go back to eating sugary foods for the chemical release in the brain. A much better alternative is to do a dietary swap, whereby the sugar why do alcoholics crave sugar user exchanges unhealthy sweets for natural and healthy options to regain control. When it comes down to maintaining a healthy sober lifestyle, people in early recovery should consider cutting back on sugar. In recent studies, researchers have found that excessive amounts of sugar consumption can cause drug addicts to relapse. ” Sugar is one of the top commodities that fuel the daily activities of most American’s.

Sugar Cravings Are Temporary

If you find that you’re struggling to suppress your cravings for alcohol, you may want to try adding healthy portions of protein like fish, chicken, and turkey breast to your diet. Triggers may occur by the association of places, situations, and people — making it critical to establish a routine in one’s life. While one’s environment plays a large role in their ability to recover from alcohol addiction and maintain cravings, their body also has a critical role to play. Alcohol tends to have the same effect, making our brains release dopamine in the short term.

• It can cripple the emotions with low self-esteem and promote feelings of isolation, rejection, loneliness, hopelessness, and fear.
• Alcohol is typically converted to sugar once the body starts breaking it down, which causes these intense cravings.
• You’ve quit drinking alcohol and now your sugar cravings feel out of control.
• If you want to dramatically increase your chances of controlling addiction to alcohol, it is vital to address dietary habits and to look at what is going on with your blood glucose.
• Sweet craving was assessed by the 10-item Craving Experience Questionnaire (May et al., 2014).