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How to beat addiction to sweets and flour?

Medical expert of the article

Psychologist
, medical expert
Last reviewed: 05.07.2025

A person is so designed that he follows his desires, tries to give himself as much pleasure as possible, improving his emotional state. Often this ends in addiction and causes harm to the body, and sometimes even destroys it. Addiction to sweets is one of its forms, which causes so much harm to health that it is incommensurate with the fleeting pleasure.

Excessive consumption of sweets leads to diabetes, obesity, harms teeth, pancreas, liver, thyroid gland, provokes cardiovascular diseases. Nowadays, cooks cannot even imagine cooking food without adding sugar, and more than 200 years ago it did not exist at all. Industrial production has significantly increased the consumption dose. Scientists and doctors are sounding the alarm.

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Epidemiology

Statistics give an alarming signal - almost 80% of the inhabitants of our country are addicted to sweets. They say that it occurs 8 times faster than from cocaine. Considering the steady growth dynamics of sugar consumption from two kilograms per year in the 19th century to forty at present, this is a very alarming trend. Since business is interested in the growth of sugar production, we will continue to be hooked on the sweet "needle", especially since it is so easy to do. If half a liter of carbonated drink contains more sugar than a person's daily requirement, and sugar is also contained in other food products, then all that remains is to "turn on" your own brains and resist this expansion with all your might.

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Causes addiction to sweets

The reasons for addiction to sweets are often psychological, but ultimately have a physiological basis. When various problems arise, people's need for sweets increases. Eating sweets to relieve their troubles lifts their mood, and stress and various failures seem less significant. Why does the need for sweets arise in these circumstances? This is where the laws of physiology come into play.

Negative emotions reduce the level of serotonin and endorphin in the body — hormones of happiness, joy, pleasure, and sweets promote their synthesis. Another reason for cravings may be a lack of trace elements in the body: chromium, magnesium, calcium. They are attributed to the causes of pathology of the digestive organs: fungi and yeast developing in the intestines also cause cravings for sweets. The need for sweets can be caused by a decrease in the level of glucose in the blood, which is typical for diabetes. Its content constantly fluctuates within 2.8–7.8 mmol/l depending on the time of food intake, physical and emotional stress. Food leads to an increase in sugar levels in the body, simultaneously giving a release of insulin — a vehicle for transporting glucose through the body's cells. With insufficient insulin production, glucose does not reach its "destination", and its lack in the supply of the central nervous system causes hypoglycemia, which gives a feeling of hunger.

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Risk factors

Risk factors include an individual predilection for sweets. Not everyone has a craving for them, but those who are partial to cakes, pastries, sweet water, and candies should be especially careful not to become addicted. Sugar has been shown to influence cholesterol formation, so hypertensive patients and people with cardiovascular diseases are also at risk. But the most important risk factor is diabetes.

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Pathogenesis

The pathogenesis of this phenomenon lies in the chain of reactions that accompany sweets from the moment they enter the mouth. On the tip of the tongue are taste receptors that sense a pleasant sweet taste and transmit a signal to the brain via the glossopharyngeal nerve. The latter, reacting to the "message", produces serotonin.

Sucrose is a carbohydrate that breaks down into glucose and fructose when it enters the body. Glucose is the main source of energy, food for the brain. Thanks to gluconeogenesis, it is produced from proteins and lipids. This happens slowly, without disrupting the natural processes of metabolism. Taking pure sugar instantly accelerates its breakdown and leads to the release of insulin, the role of which is to deliver glucose to the brain and other organs. The brain completely converts it into energy, and other cells can partially use it for their recovery, or they can, having converted it into glycogen, accumulate and turn into fat. In addition, a powerful release of insulin gives a feeling of a lack of carbohydrates, although in fact this is a deceptive feeling. The circle closes, the addiction is formed.

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Symptoms addiction to sweets

If the addiction to sweets has a psychological background, then its first signs are a bad mood, constant thoughts about sweets in stressful situations, their implementation. This resembles the behavior of a smoker who, being nervous, smokes one cigarette after another. If the reason is physiological, associated with poor production or complete cessation of insulin synthesis by the pancreas, then the body signals with dizziness, drowsiness, weakness. The approach of hypoglycemia is indicated by such symptoms as excessive sweating, fatigue, tension, rapid heartbeat, constant feeling of hunger. Neurological symptoms may also appear: irritability, aggressiveness.

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Addiction to sweets and flour

They have the same background, because all flour confectionery products contain sugar in various forms: in dough, creams, fillings, syrups. Most often, women show a weakness for desserts and fall into sweet flour addiction. This is explained by hormonal surges that women experience monthly, during pregnancy, after childbirth. There may be psychological conditioning of addiction and other reasons related to health.

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Psychological dependence on sweets

Psychological addiction to sweets, like any other, poses a real threat of influencing lifestyle, self-esteem, and mood. People who are subject to it are unable to control the amount they eat and feel bad without another dose of sweets. In addition, it can lead to serious health problems, obesity, because it not only affects our will, but also disrupts metabolism. Sometimes addiction to sweets reaches such a degree that not only desserts are eaten during the day, but nighttime meals also become traditional. A person expects psychological relaxation, but is faced with excess weight and worsening health problems. Resorting to various diets, he breaks down again, without defeating his “sweet enemy”.

Complications and consequences

In addition to psychological consequences resulting in self-doubt, decreased performance, and sometimes depression, complications associated with the liver, pancreas, digestive tract, and heart disease arise. There is a high probability of developing diabetes.

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Diagnostics addiction to sweets

Diagnosis of sweet addiction begins with anamnesis. The main task is to exclude diabetes mellitus and its characteristic hypoglycemia syndrome. To do this, determine the concentration of glucose in the blood. Since the feeling of hunger is characteristic of hypoglycemia caused by a number of other diseases (hormonal disorders, enzyme deficiency, tumors, alcohol and drug addiction, etc.), it is necessary to differentiate psychological addiction from them.

Sweet Addiction Test

To determine the degree of a person's addiction to sweets, a special test for sweets addiction was developed. It forces you to see the problem more meaningfully by answering questions. The test may contain various questions, here are some of them:

  1. How often do you feel the need for sweets?
    1. daily;
    2. several times a week;
    3. several times a month.
  2. Do you turn to sweets in stressful situations?
  3. Do you feel like your meal is incomplete if you don't have dessert?
  4. Can you go even a day without sugar?
  5. Can candies be stored in a vase on a shelf for some time?

If sweets are eaten every day, and all other questions are answered “yes”, then addiction is obvious.

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Who to contact?

Treatment addiction to sweets

If the addiction to sweets is caused by some illness, the doctor will make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment. If the reason is psychological, you can try to cope on your own. It is unlikely that you will be able to give up the bad habit right away, but it will not be difficult to reduce the portion by replacing it with sports or other physical activity. The fact is that physical activity produces the hormone endorphin, the same as when eating sweets. In addition, a large number of calories are burned, which will also benefit the body. If you replace pure sugar with fruits and vegetables, you can simultaneously get pleasure and replenish the supply of vitamins and minerals. There are also sugar substitutes, at first they will help ease the addiction to sweets.

Your diet should include slowly digestible foods with a low glycemic index and high protein content. It is good to have a reliable friend's shoulder to lean on when fighting any addiction. If you manage to find a partner in getting rid of sweets, this will be a good incentive to compete in strengthening your willpower.

Drugs for addiction to sweets

Chromium preparations help overcome addiction to sweets. Due to its ability to participate in carbohydrate metabolism, increase the permeability of cell walls for glucose and increase sensitivity to insulin, the blood sugar level is maintained. Large amounts of sweets remove chromium from the body. To break this vicious circle, it is necessary to include foods containing chromium in your diet or take pharmaceutical preparations. Fish, best of all tuna, liver, chicken, duck, broccoli, beets are rich in this microelement. Taking brewer's yeast is a good method of replenishing the body with chromium.

On the advice of a doctor, you can buy vitamin and mineral complexes containing chromium, special biologically active additives in a pharmacy. In their reviews, many women note dietary supplements chromium picolinate, garcinia forte, fat-x as means that significantly reduce cravings for sweets. Another drug - glutamine has also proven itself well in the fight against addiction. This is an amino acid that is found in proteins of animal and plant origin. The drug was synthesized for the treatment of gastritis, known for its property to heal inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract well. Along the way, the ability to have a calming effect on the brain and nervous system, to cope with harmful desires was discovered.

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Prevention

The best prevention of addiction to sweets is physical exercise, doing something you love that distracts you from bad habits, and the motivation to have a beautiful figure and healthy children. In a healthy family, where adults are not involved in unhealthy habits, a self-sufficient new generation will grow up that will not need to “eat away” its complexes.

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Forecast

The prognosis for getting rid of sweet addiction is favorable for people with a strong will and the desire to overcome it. Others, following their desires, can get obesity and pathologies of various organs.


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