Sugar Substitutes and Sugar Addictions

It is old news that sugar is over-consumed in America, with each of us ingesting over one hundred pounds of it every year on average. Sugar is implicated in a number of diseases, including obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Most people realize that sugar plays a role in poor health, but we generally continue to consume it by the soda-can-full. Why is this?

Sugar is known to be an addictive substance, and the cravings for it can be overwhelming.

The Kaufmann 1 and Two Diets require giving up nearly all sugar. There are two reasons for this: sugar comes from a grain, which may be contaminated with fungal poisons, known as mycotoxins. The second, and perhaps primary reason for this, is that sugar can aid in fungal proliferation throughout the body.

Many people do not realize that if you have an on-board fungal infection, the cravings you experience may be a result of the fungus, itself. Fungi need sugar to survive, and they can manipulate their host to crave that sugar that keeps them alive.

When trying to kick the sugar habit, many people turn to sugar substitutes and artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame and sucralose. These and other sugar substitutes have come with their own set of health concerns and cause many consumers problems such as headaches. In addition, these and the foods they’re in have been known to be addictive, themselves. This jumping from addiction to addiction hardly fixes the original problem.

Addictions to foods can be some of the toughest to break. While the primary goal is protection from pathogenic fungus, one of the goals of the Kaufmann 1 and Two Diets is breaking addictions to foods that prevent you from achieving vitality.

Giving up sugar, sugary foods and foods that quickly convert to sugar (read: carbohydrate-laden foods) is difficult, and takes a good deal of willpower to overcome. Often, when beginning the Kaufmann 1 Diet, dieters feel withdrawal symptoms in tandem with a Herxheimer reaction. This crummy, flu-like feeling is ironically a good sign, a sign that the diet is working. Following this phase in the diet, many report having more energy and mental clarity than ever before. And after going without sugar, often the overwhelming cravings disappear, along with the palate for such sugary foods.

If you feel like you’re addicted to sugar, commit to trying the Kaufmann 1 Diet for a month. In addition to your sweet tooth subsiding, you may find other symptoms clearing up as well. To help get you over the hump, there are some specific sweeteners allowed on Kaufmann 1 and Two; these include Stevia and xylitol. Check our site and our cookbooks for Kaufmann 1-friendly sweets that are allowed on the diet.