Off the Drugs, Onto the Cupcakes

[elleng]

It’s not all their fault; most rehabilitation programs haven’t devoted much thought to nutrition.

“The main focus was just, ‘get them off their substance,’ and the rest will take care of itself,” said Dr. Carolyn Coker Ross, an eating disorder and addiction medicine specialist in Denver who has been a consultant to various rehab centers.

While fruits, vegetables and a variety of proteins were served in rehab, so were refined sugars, sodas, energy drinks, sugary juices and sugary/fatty/salty snacks (the so-called ”hyperpalatables”), all of which are relatively inexpensive and easy to buy in bulk.

Sugar was also considered a harmless replacement for drugs and alcohol. In fact, AA’s “Big Book” — the 12 Step bible — suggests that recovering addicts keep candy on hand. (This may explain why cookies, coffee and plumes of cigarette smoke are often staples at so many 12 Step meetings.)

But though sweets may have eased some people’s drug cravings, many ended up “transfer addicting” from their substance of choice to sugar.

“Once off the drugs, the brain craves the uber rewards of the hyperpalatables — Mint Milanos, Oreos, any sugar. An apple’s reward doesn’t cut it,” said Dr. Pamela Peeke, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland and author of “The Hunger Fix.”...

Research has found that food and drugs have similar influence on the brain’s reward center. A 2013 study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that sugar, not fat, stimulates cravings.

And a widely cited study from that year found that Oreo cookies activated the nucleus accumbens, the brain’s pleasure or reward center, as much as cocaine and morphine, at least in laboratory rats.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/15/addiction-recovery-weight-gain-nutrition/?_php=true&_type=blogs&hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpBlogHeadline&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

[get the red out]

1. Absolutely true!!!!

I knew a man who sobered up and gained about 150 lbs. He passed away earlier then he should have.

[notadmblnd]

2. I agree too.

I stopped smoking in April. So far I've gained 20 pounds.

[get the red out]

6. I did that when I quit smoking

I couldn't believe the sugar cravings I had. I had to change my diet then. One bonus was being able to breathe so much better was that exercise was easier.

[snagglepuss]

3. Anyone so has fought serious food cravings knows that intensity of those cravings.

I'm glad to see research back up what we experience.

[BrotherIvan]

4. Alcoholism and the craving for alcohol are linked to hypoglycemia

Also, studies show that sugar is highly addictive because it stimulates pleasure centers in the brain. People who follow a diabetic diet (removing sugars of all kinds) often resolve their alcohol cravings, leading some researchers to believe that the craving for alcohol and sugar are the same.

[mopinko]

5. i have a BIL who was an alcoholic who transferred to food.

loves the food channel. loves to cook. makes ridiculous portions.
he can barely move any more. srsly.

[Brainstormy]

7. food addiction is quite real

although we've been slow in admitting it. I get angry about our approach to the obesity epidemic and the "it's not our fault, it's a matter of personal responsibility" from the food manufacturers while they're laboratory-designing foods for addiction. For a great many of us, overeating is a biological challenge. It’s one made extraordinarily more difficult by national policies that encourage unhealthy eating, by the food industry’s aggressive marketing tactics, (especially to children) and by sophisticated chemical engineering that essentially turns food into drugs.

[elleng]

8. Yes.indeed,

much.worse.now.than.nature.made.it.

[CanSocDem]

11. Well said. (eom)

[ellenrr]

9. anyone who's been to any "AA"-type meeting or a "mental health support" groups knows

the coffee flows, and cigarettes burn like chimneys.

The thing is there is no evidence of a "biochemical" basis of mental "illness". There is evidence that caffeine can be a dangerous drug. So can sugar.

Why not exercise instead, try yoga, Qi Gong.