“Why doesn’t keto fully manage my sugar addiction?”

February 20 2020 by , medical content by in Addiction, Q&A, Sugar/fructose

Why doesn’t a keto diet fully manage your sugar addiction? How can you avoid triggers when you eat with your family? And why have your cravings disappeared on a carnivore diet?

These questions are answered this week by our food-addiction expert, Bitten Jonsson, RN:

Can’t control addiction despite keto

I’ve been keto since 2016. I’m 5’3” (160 cm), and have lost 130 lbs (59 kg). The problem is that I still can not control my urge around trigger foods. I try to control myself by buying things like nuts and nut butters and limit portions but I keep failing. Then I will throw them in the garbage. I want to be in control after four years of keto! Am I fooling myself?

Pam

Pam,

I’m sorry you had to wait so long for an answer. Yes, you are fooling yourself. We also call this denial. We want to keep a backdoor to our “drug” but we don’t want the consequences. What I hear is that you might have a sugar addiction (sugar/flour processed foods) That means we have a very carb-sensitive body and brain. If that is the case, “controlling” is like trying to lift yourself in your hair. You need so much more knowledge about our addicted brain and sensitive body.

To change what you’re eating (doing keto) is only 10%, but the most important start of recovery, and necessary in order to take the next step. You need to start picking up many more tools. You have been fighting this for four years and it sounds to me that it is time to take the next steps. Start by learning more on my website, then join our support group on Facebook and listen to others how they stay drug free. I advise you to read Dr. Vera Tarmans book, Food Junkies. It has excellent knowledge about the science behind this. We also need to evaluate if we have developed a process addiction as a consequence of our sugar addiction such as dieting, starving, overeating and more. The best way is to contact a professional for help with developing a new recovery plan. You will find a document in the Facebook group of professionals that can help you.

Wish you great recovery,
Bitten

How can I avoid triggers when eating with family?

I’ve been a sugar and carb addict for most of my adult life. Now I have type 2 diabetes on top of it. Strict keto works great for me if I can stick to it, but I constantly find myself getting triggered by things that are difficult to avoid in my own home. My family does not eat keto and they are also plant based only and eat tons of bread, rice, and potatoes. Their dinner plates are huge triggers for me. So much so that I end up eating the same foods in secret later, usually 95% of the time!

I’ve had to stop eating with my family which makes it worse. I can still smell the cooking in the other room, hear them talking about how good it tastes and so on. It’s very isolating and I miss eating with my family and sharing our day events with each other over a meal. I’ve asked my husband many times to please not bring certain foods in the house, but I have so many triggers nearly everything he cooks triggers me. On top of it all, my family doesn’t seem to really understand the truth of this sugar and carb addiction struggle. They don’t understand why I don’t just stop and get over it. I feel like I’m hiding in my own home every day, either to avoid what they are eating or to hide what I’m eating.

Kelli

Kelli,

I feel for you, remembering how that was for me. This is such a common and very painful problem for most of us. I wonder if you have other recovering sugar/carb addicts close by? To have a support group that speaks the same language is absolutely necessary for us.

You have done a couple of things I usually suggest, asking your family not to bring drug foods home, and avoiding to eat with them which is sad and only a temporary solution until you are stable on food and recovery plan.

We of course want our loved ones to understand but that might be aim high. Many times our illness is very hard to understand for ourselves. What we can strive for is that others respect us and our journey. Your family needs knowledge. Is there a way you could ask them to watch my videos here with you? Have you read Food Junkies, latest edition, by Dr. Vera Tarman, if not I advice you to start there and ask you family to read certain parts.

Join our support group on Facebook.

One of the best ways to learn is to tell the group about your challenge and ask others how they handle it. The way I teach how to do that is by asking: “If this is/was your problem how do/did you solve it?”

It is not easy.

Then it sounds like you need more knowledge and support for you to not pick up the drug. Recovery from sugar/carb addiction is not about only changing the food. Read my answer to Pam for more on this.

I really hope you keep focusing on you and your health.

One day at a time,
Bitten

Why no cravings on carnivore?

A year and a half ago, I switched from a typical keto diet to carnivore, and I have not had any cravings since then! Why do you think this is?

Mechelle

Mechelle,

If you are a sugar addict, the most possible cause is that you never take even one bite of sugar/carbs/processed foods. They are the psychoactive foods that not only create the addiction but also maintain the addiction. I can once in a while feel a longing for my former “drug food” but it is very mild and I do not act on that signal from my reward center. I rather smile. Maybe you’ve changed your lifestyle in other areas that benefit you too. All I can say is congratulation to being free of cravings.

Keep going,
Bitten

Low-carb basics

MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
Low-carb tips with team Diet Doctor – Traveling
08:05
How do you stay low carb when traveling? Watch this episode to find out!
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
A global food revolution
34:30
The mistakes behind the obesity epidemic and how we can fix them together, empowering people everywhere to revolutionize their health.
MEMBERS ONLY
7 tips to make low carb simple
09:41
The star of the BBC series Doctor in the House, Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, gives you seven tips that will make low carb easy.
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY

Q&A

MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
Women's questions introduction
01:36
In this video series, you can find expert views on some of your top questions about low-carb and women's health.
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
Is low carb bad for gut bacteria?
02:14
Can a low-carb diet be potentially harmful to your gut microbiome?
MEMBERS ONLY

Earlier Q&A

All earlier Q&A posts

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

ckdc-premium

.dietdoctor.com

1 month

app-banner

.dietdoctor.dev.dietdoctor.com

1 day

This cookie shows whether user closed the App Banner prompt

_gaexp

Google LLC

dietdoctor.com

1 year

Used to determine a user's inclusion in an experiment and the expiry of experiments a user has been included in.

_gaexp

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

1 year

Used to determine a user's inclusion in an experiment and the expiry of experiments a user has been included in.

_opt_awcid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_awmid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_awgid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_awkid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_utmc

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_expid

.dietdoctor.com

25 seconds

gtm_auth

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

gtm_debug

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

gtm_experiment

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

gtm_preview

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress

Hotjar Ltd

.dietdoctor.com

30 minutes

The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information.

_ga

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

2 years

This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics - which is a significant update to Google's more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports.

_dc_gtm_UA-3268327-1

.dietdoctor.com

1 minute

This cookie is associated with sites using Google Tag Manager to load other scripts and code into a page. Where it is used it may be regarded as Strictly Necessary as without it, other scripts may not function correctly. The end of the name is a unique number which is also an identifier for an associated Google Analytics account.

_hjFirstSeen

Hotjar Ltd

.dietdoctor.com

30 minutes

The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information.

_dc_gtm_UA-22012422-2

.dietdoctor.com

1 minute

AWSELBCORS

Amazon.com Inc.

www.podbean.com

5 minutes

The cookies AWSELB and AWSELBCORS are functionally the same cookies. The latter has an explicit SameSite attribute set because of changes made from Chrome 80 and upwards.

_ga_YMCP8KW9S4

.dietdoctor.com

2 years

_hjIncludedInSessionSample

Hotjar Ltd

www.dietdoctor.com

2 minutes

This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the data sampling defined by your site's daily session limit

__cf_bm

Cloudflare Inc.

.vimeo.com

30 minutes

This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. This is beneficial for the website, in order to make valid reports on the use of their website.

_gid

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

1 day

This cookie is set by Google Analytics. It stores and update a unique value for each page visited and is used to count and track pageviews.

CookieScriptConsent

CookieScript

www.dietdoctor.com

1 year

This cookie is used by Cookie-Script.com service to remember visitor cookie consent preferences. It is necessary for Cookie-Script.com cookie banner to work properly.

__cf_bm

Cloudflare Inc.

.podbean.com

30 minutes

This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. This is beneficial for the website, in order to make valid reports on the use of their website.

_hjIncludedInPageviewSample

Hotjar Ltd

www.dietdoctor.com

2 minutes

This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the data sampling defined by your site's pageview limit.

_dc_gtm_UA-22012422-1

.dietdoctor.com

1 minute

_gaexp_rc

.dietdoctor.com

25 seconds

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

IDE

Google LLC

.doubleclick.net

1 year

This cookie is set by Doubleclick and carries out information about how the end user uses the website and any advertising that the end user may have seen before visiting the said website.

_uetvid

Microsoft Corporation

.dietdoctor.com

1 year

This is a cookie utilised by Microsoft Bing Ads and is a tracking cookie. It allows us to engage with a user that has previously visited our website.

loc

Oracle Corporation

.addthis.com

1 year 1 month

Stores the visitors geolocation to record location of sharer

test_cookie

Google LLC

.doubleclick.net

15 minutes

This cookie is set by DoubleClick (which is owned by Google) to determine if the website visitor's browser supports cookies.

_gcl_au

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

3 months

Used by Google AdSense for experimenting with advertisement efficiency across websites using their services

_uetsid

Microsoft Corporation

.dietdoctor.com

1 day

This cookie is used by Bing to determine what ads should be shown that may be relevant to the end user perusing the site.

uvc

Oracle Corporation

.addthis.com

1 year 1 month

Tracks how often a user interacts with AddThis

YSC

Google LLC

.youtube.com

Session

This cookie is set by YouTube to track views of embedded videos.

MUID

Microsoft Corporation

.bing.com

1 year

This cookie is widely used my Microsoft as a unique user identifier. It can be set by embedded microsoft scripts. Widely believed to sync across many different Microsoft domains, allowing user tracking.

_fbp

Meta Platform Inc.

.dietdoctor.com

3 months

Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers

VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE

Google LLC

.youtube.com

6 months

This cookie is set by Youtube to keep track of user preferences for Youtube videos embedded in sites;it can also determine whether the website visitor is using the new or old version of the Youtube interface.

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

_ga_7S1SXKKDKN

.dietdoctor.com

2 years

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

_hjSession_1945121

.dietdoctor.com

30 minutes

_hjSessionUser_1945121

.dietdoctor.com

1 year

_ga_Y4DLH4EPXM

.dietdoctor.com

2 years

“Why doesn’t keto fully manage my sugar addiction?”

Can’t control addiction despite keto

How can I avoid triggers when eating with family?

Why no cravings on carnivore?

Top food addiction videos

Low-carb basics

Q&A

Earlier Q&A