Do you use sugar to calm down when you feel stressed?
For many of us, using sugar as a pacifier to calm negative emotions stretches back to childhood.
Sugar was not only my reward for good behavior as a child, but it comforted my loneliness.
When my mother left me with the sitter to go to work, she would often give me “candy money” so that I could go to the corner store.
Being a child, I did not know how to process feelings of loneliness.
But I had the candy. The candy made me feel better.
As an adult, I know now why the candy made me feel better.
Dr. Elliot Blass of Cornell University once did a study of newborn babies and their reaction to sugar.
When sugar water was given to them, their crying times decreased from 40 percent to 3 percent.
It turns out that sugar hijacks pain-killing receptors in our brains via the Dopamine Reward Pathway (DRP).
The scary thing is that drugs like morphine and cocaine use the same pathway!
Even though we know as adults that an addiction to sugar is making us gain weight and ruining our health, we still find ourselves running back to the same childhood coping methods.
But I’m here to tell you that freedom is possible.
To overcome, you must:
- Identify your unique sugar practice pattern
- Eat foods that re-balance your brain
- Learn how to manage your emotions in health-building ways
In Jeremiah 33:6 the Lord promises:
Behold, I will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.”
You need a revelation as to what sugar meant in your life and how to change your thinking today.
With small steps, you’ll learn to find stress relief and fulfillment in better ways.
You can do this!
With God’s help, I no longer eat my feelings using sugar, refined carbohydrates, and junk foods.
So many of our mood swings and depression occurs because the enemy takes advantage of biochemical imbalances in our brains.
However, when we eat to maintain emotional stability, we can shut that door in the enemy’s face!
That leaves us free to trust God with our emotions. In that way, we can finally start living the abundant life Jesus came to give us.
Be Blessed with Health, Healing, and Wholeness,
Kimberly Taylor
Author/Christian Life Coach of the Take Back Your Temple Weight Loss Community
P.S. Do you struggle with overeating sugar? If so, you are not alone!
Overcoming sugar addiction was a key factor on my weight loss journey; I lost 85 pounds and dropped from a size 22 to an 8.
In our 14-day Sugar Detox Challenge online course (inside the Take Back Your Temple Community), you’ll get the same success strategies and support to gain peace in your eating habits and achieve lasting weight loss.
Click here to learn more about the Take Back Your Temple Christian Weight Loss Community.
Thank you for this powerful truth….its so true…I have lost over 100 pounds 3 different times…now due to illness I came off my clean eating and put it all back on….I have to start again…but it’s so hard cuz I am carb/chocolate addicted
Hi Jacki – I pray for a complete recovery from the illness! You may be carb/chocolate addicted and I agree it may be hard to get free. But a question to ask yourself is: ”Just because it’s hard, does that mean I won’t do it?”
Accept that it may be hard, it may take time, but the end result will be victory with God’s help. Be willing to go through the process. Ask God to reveal the lies of the Diet Mentality that drove your weight loss before and give you wisdom for a different approach this time so that the weight loss lasts. God bless you!
Kimberly, thank you for your ministry. I purchased your book some time ago and fear has kept me from diving in. Like so many people, I have deep emotional connections to food (strongholds) that I haven’t fully surrendered to the authority of Christ. Similar to yours, mine are rooted in childhood trauma. I’m praying for strength as I try, try again to be a good steward of His temple. I pray for your ministry too. People need to hear your message. God bless.
So very true. I didn’t realize for years that after having my children I was using carbs to cope with all that was scary or difficult, and raising 5 children was scary for me. But what I also discovered is that I was afraid of being hungry. When I would eat too little, I’d be starving, and quick carbs curbed the hunger real quick. I was praying about it all and found that when I am nourished, satisfied none of this is an issue. So, instead of going off sugar, I started concentrating on putting healthy foods into my body. Using your SANE principles, I was free to eat when hungry, and made sure I had my 2 fruits, 5 svgs. veggies, and 3-4 servings of protein, and some dairy, and guess what? I didn’t need or want the sugar, because I had what my body needed. No hungry, no deprivation, just amazing grace! 🙂
Praise God, Debra! We feel so much better when we eat for nourishment and trust God with our emotions. He is faithful!