Why Moderation Doesn't Work For Sugar Addicts

Are you the type who once you take one bite of chocolate, you want the whole bar; or eat one potato chip and before you know it, the entire bag has disappeared?

OR are you one of those people who when challenged “I bet you can’t eat just one…”, laughs and says “of course I can!” and humbly goes on to do so?

If you fall into the first category, you know that moderation does not work. I am definitely one of these people, and long before understanding my own sugar addition, I knew that it was easier to have none of the cookies, chocolate, cake, *insert drug food here……, than it was to have just one bite.

The concept that “one is too many, and a thousand is never enough” cannot be truer for us sugar addicts. And surprising to some, for many of us, this doesn’t just apply to processed sugars, we cannot control even so called “healthy, whole foods”. Platters full of foods like grapes, melon, or potatoes can disappear in a matter of minutes without us food addicts even batting an eye, once we have that first bite!

If moderation did work then diet companies like Weight Watchers wouldn’t still be in business.

If moderation did work then I wouldn’t have countless clients coming to me stating that “they’ve tried every diet out there, and nothing works”.

If moderation did work, then upwards of 70% of the adult population wouldn’t be overweight or metabolically unhealthy. 1

If moderation did work then the prevalence of obesity of children aged 2-19 wouldn’t be a whopping 19.3%. 2

If moderation did work, then the estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the United States wouldn’t be $147 billion.

If moderation did work then digging “drug foods” out of the trash wouldn’t be a common occurrence for food addicts.

If you’ve ever been on a diet, or changed the way you eat, and someone has said to you, “oh go on, a little bite won’t hurt”, you know how damaging this can be. You likely wish so hard that that statement was true.

However, for food addicts, a little bit does hurt, because a little is never enough. One bite leads to two, then four and then before you know it it’s all gone and all you can think about is MORE MORE MORE.