Here are my questions when you say you can't stop eating sugar

In the 70s it was pasta, in the 80s it was butter, in the 90s eggs and red meat, in the 2000s it was bread, and now we have sugar. Big, bad, scary sugar. 

As a dietitian, I can see how we got here. How the scientific and media messages around the healthful or harmful potential of foods flip flopped its way toward the vilification of sugar, but it’s still very dangerous to look at foods this way. The point being that we need to expand the conversation around sugar to understand what it is (really), why we want it, what happens when we think we can’t have it, and whether it’s helpful or harmful (hint: both and neither). 
 
But for now, I’d like to share what I’m wondering when you say you can’t stop eating sugar, in approximately this order:
 
1.What is it exactly that you are eating? I’m willing to bet it’s not a bowl of sugar. More likely it’s candy, cake, ice cream, chocolate or something of that nature. Why do you think you focus on the sugar content of this food as opposed to the other qualities of the food such as taste, mouth feel, texture, and temperature?
2.What are your beliefs about those foods? Are the foods that you “can’t stop eating” foods that you regularly allow yourself? Are they foods that have been categorized as unhealthy? Were they ever forbidden? Are they still?
3.When do you find yourself eating these foods? Is it throughout the day? At the end of meals? Or towards the end of the day? When you’re eating sweet foods might help you understand what’s going on. Some possibilities are getting too hungry, difficulty tolerating the end of meals, using food to avoid doing something you don’t like, distracting yourself from uncomfortable feelings, or substituting for intimacy and companionship.
4.How present are you when you’re eating these foods? Are you enjoying them? Are you telling yourself you shouldn’t be eating them while you’re still eating them? Do you feel good while and after you eat them? Do you experience remorse and what is the nature of that remorse? How are you speaking to yourself about these foods?
5.Are these foods your only source (or one of few sources) of pleasure? What do you do for fun? Indulgence? Sensuality? Me time? Without a variety of ways of meeting these needs, food can become a stand in.
6.What is your stress level and how are you working with it? Food is soothing. It lights up the pleasure centers of the brain. That’s not a problem. Using food as the only means of comforting yourself, however, distracts from the actual problem, vilifies foods, and never meets your true needs.
 
One thing is certain. We come out of the womb with a taste for sugar. That is what allows us to eat breast milk or formula for growth and development. Our palate continues to mature and become more sophisticated but most of us continue to enjoy sweetness. And sweetness might have a natural association with childhood, care, comfort, and soothing. From my perspective, still none of this is a problem. 
 
Sweet foods – whatever they are – can and should be a normal, regular part of a varied diet. They can be enjoyed when you like to enjoy them – without judgment and without shame or remorse. Usually, when we “can’t stop eating” something, it’s because of unmet physical or emotional needs. Based on the questions above, which do you think it is for you?
 
If you’d like a better understanding of nutrition in Intuitive Eating, consider joining the Intuitive Eating for Life community. Nutrition 101 is our July theme. We’ll be discussing this topic in depth at our monthly workshop on July 5th here.