How to stop Messing up

SlimLizzy said:

Today i ate some biscuits. Not really sure how many. Definitely more than anyone should eat.
What is worse, they were not even nice. Knew I should not be eating them, realised I wasn't enjoying them and kept right on.
Anyone know why this happens? How to prevent it in future.

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Not sure why it happens - except maybe sugary carby stuff is a bit addictive - it certainly was in my case.

When I started getting problems with diabetic retinopathy and my right foot started to go numb l knew I had to take urgent action.

The hardest time was queuing in a cafe for my coffee next to all my favourite cakes. I would look at a cake and mull over the following question "what would I prefer - keep my eyes and feet or eat the the cake '. I would imagine in graphic detail what it was like to lose my sight and have my foot amputated (not hard to do after watching the Panorama programme). A bit macabre but it did work. The eyes and feet always won.

After a while just looking at something sweet made me feel a bit yuk and there was absolutely no way I could eat it. I suppose I sort of brainwashed myself.

Krystyna23040 said:

Not sure why it happens - except maybe sugary carby stuff is a bit addictive - it certainly was in my case.

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I think there’s little doubt that sugar (sucrose) is addictive. It’s 50% fructose, and fructose is a known leptin inhibitor. Some say that we evolved with fructose inhibiting satiety in order to make us eat plenty of fruit during the summer season. In turn promoting insulin resistance in the liver and thus helping us gain weight in order that we can use the fat as fuel during winter.

This, the theory says, is why we like the taste of sugar and can always find room for a huge dessert after a filling meal - the fructose is ‘designed’ to make us keep eating it. Think bears feasting on fruit during the summer to give them fat to burn while they hibernate. The problem now for humans is that we have developed the means of mainlining fructose 24/7/365 in the form of sucrose and year-round supplies of ultra-sweet fruit.

Jim Lahey said:

I think there’s little doubt that sugar (sucrose) is addictive. It’s 50% fructose, and fructose is a known leptin inhibitor.

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Hah! Now that’s a mechanism that’s worth appreciating. Hmm...

Jim Lahey said:

Some say that we evolved with fructose inhibiting satiety in order to make us eat plenty of fruit during the summer season. In turn promoting insulin resistance in the liver and thus helping us gain weight in order that we can use the fat as fuel during winter.

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Makes loads of sense. For me, understanding/appreciating these mechanisms goes a long way to putting shape and definition to my gradual awareness to this nasty, creepy disease.

I’ve never had a sweet tooth. Always been cheese, meat etc. But as I’ve crept up the Ha chart it would appear the craving for more zombiecarbostiens has gotten addictive. But hey, I was on 2x500mg per day! That’ll deal with it. Won’t it? Surely? WRONG!!

My point is that my misdirected confidence and soft ill-conceived understanding of my endocrine system had camouflaged my recognition of my ACTUAL creeping situation. Did I know the Bear-thing? Yes. I’m also aware of the Kalahari Bushmen eating root vegetables and, well, just ROOTS, to store fats for the times of famine. Had I made any of this pertinent to my own situ? Er, no.... But with my meal-driven blood testing I can now actually apply evidenced-based results and a sense of shape to my disease, and disease it is.


In this last 3 weeks I gotten an overall downward trend that persuades me to carry on and roll with the punches. Acknowledging this goes massively towards forming daily, hourly and minute based awareness, a bit like my very own sentries on patrol. And yes, being gentle on myself.

Jim, thanks for posting this timely reminder.

SlimLizzy said:

Today i ate some biscuits. Not really sure how many. Definitely more than anyone should eat.
What is worse, they were not even nice. Knew I should not be eating them, realised I wasn't enjoying them and kept right on.
Anyone know why this happens? How to prevent it in future.

Click to expand...

I only get that now if my bgs are high and I've eaten too much carb for me to process which causes a carb craving.
I counteract it with a fatty protein nibble/snack/early lunch. It takes the craving (head hunger) away. It works everytime for me.
I'm delighted your reading YOUR body. You're it's expert!

Jim Lahey said:

I think there’s little doubt that sugar (sucrose) is addictive. It’s 50% fructose, and fructose is a known leptin inhibitor. Some say that we evolved with fructose inhibiting satiety in order to make us eat plenty of fruit during the summer season. In turn promoting insulin resistance in the liver and thus helping us gain weight in order that we can use the fat as fuel during winter.

This, the theory says, is why we like the taste of sugar and can always find room for a huge dessert after a filling meal - the fructose is ‘designed’ to make us keep eating it. Think bears feasting on fruit during the summer to give them fat to burn while they hibernate. The problem now for humans is that we have developed the means of mainlining fructose 24/7/365 in the form of sucrose and year-round supplies of ultra-sweet fruit.

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That's a really good explanation of what goes on and makes total sense. Of course we are evolved to thrive back in the times when food was scarce over the winter.

That explanation makes me feel a whole lot better about myself. I wasn't weak willed because I couldn't resist the sweet carby stuff - I was hard wired to eat that way.

I think it is literally a mental issue, we have had decades of believing that 'sugary' things are a treat, we 'deserve' it, we've had a long day, we're on holiday and on and on. We have always known that 'sugar' isn't exactly good for us so it's seen as naughty but nice, meaning that even now we have diabetes we are always thinking of that forbidden fruit(!). It is hard but I think you have to try and change your mindset completely and think of those things as absolute rubbish to the extent that even if you weren't diabetic you wouldn't want to eat it anyway. You cannot avoid the lure of it all, it is everywhere whether in your home (for other family members) or at the shops or on the tv. So if you can't avoid it then you need to find a way to change your own response. Hard to do I know! It is useless expecting those around you to place temptation out of your way, by doing that you are keeping the habit going. If you can get to the point where you really do think 'Yuk, no thanks' it becomes so very easy to not feel deprived by not having a mouthful of sickly glucose! x

ianf0ster said:

We (nearly) all are wired to eat that way. In Africa there are tribesmen who will face the dreaded African bees in order to steal some wild honey. We just have to go to the cupboard or the shop.

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Thank goodness getting at the sweet stuff from the shop is not dangerous like having to face African Bees. Just realised how wrong that last sentence was. Of course - having an endless and abundant supply of the sweet carby stuff is far more dangerous to our health than facing a few angry bees. Unless of course you have a bee sting allergy.