We all have one of those days when candies are hard to resist, especially when struggling to deal with difficult emotions.
Sure, candies and sugar from other sweet treats make you feel better instantly by lighting up the reward center in the brain, but the comfort food also creates a “pain cycle”, says a holistic nutritionist.
Holistic nutritionist explains ‘candy cravings’ and ‘pain cycle’
Licensed nutritionist Lisa Kilgour with over 15 years of experience breaks down the effects of artificial sugar on your mind and body, warning you not to give into bouts of candy cravings.
She says candy cravings and chronic pain go together as the artificial sugar from the sweet treats makes the “pain louder.” There are studies to show ingestion of a sugar-rich diet “improves mood and alleviates anxiety”, but the feel-good factor is only temporary.
The body naturally craves more food rich in sugar when your serotonin dips due to the pain you experience. While candies and sugary treats can increase the level of serotonin temporarily, they also “create a pain loop.”
This means the serotonin you’ve achieved from artificial sugars will eventually drop, thus making you crave more by triggering pain.
You can reduce pain in 4 days
People with chronic pain dependent on sugar can break the cycle by excluding refined sugar from their diet. The nutritionist warns that the sudden changes may be hard at first, but you can notice a significant drop in the pain after five days.
“It only takes about four days to have a noticeable difference,” she says, before clarifying that sugar from natural sources such as fruits and other healthy substitutes doesn’t cause pain.
Lisa says you should only worry about refined sugars such as white sugar, glucose, sucrose, fructose, etc. Simply stop using these in your diet and substitute them with natural sugars for four days. “By day five, you should wake up feeling noticeably better,” the nutritionist suggests.
If you can’t curb your cravings for refined sugar despite the natural substitutes, Lisa suggests seeking help, such as speaking with a nutritionist or other health practitioners to make the transition possible.
Even though a large candy bar can make you feel good temporarily, using it as a comfort food in the long run can significantly damage your brain.
High level of blood sugar is believed to damage blood vessels in the brain that carry oxygen-rich blood and the cells in the organ can die when they receive too little blood for a prolonged period.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, high blood sugar can stress the brain.
Lisa Kilgour is a registered holistic nutritionist and a sought-after speaker, educator, and writer. She is a faculty member at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition and the founder of LisaKilgour.com – “dedicated to helping people heal from diverse and complex health issues.”
She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto and a Diploma in Natural Nutrition from the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition.
