Hypnotherapy For Sugar Addiction NZ…Your Secret Weapon?

Hypnotherapy For Sugar Addiction NZ: Sugar Cane or Cocaine?

Sweet Tooth or No Tooth? Sugar Addiction is now being recognised as similar to drug addiction. Let’s talk about hypnotherapy for sugar addiction NZ! 

Scientists have found that sugar is addictive and stimulates the same pleasure centres of the brain as cocaine or morphine.  Just like those hard-core drugs, getting off sweets leads to withdrawal and cravings, which can be hard to wean off.

Eating sugar, similar to drug abuse, changes the layout of our neuron brain cells. This will slowly over time create insidious and uncontrollable habits. 

Here’s a quick video from the Health Nerd on Sugar Addiction:

Sugar and Dopamine

When we eat sugar, our brain releases dopamine, which is what leads to cravings. Dopamine is also released when we take a hit of drugs and it makes us feel pleasure and attachment to what we’ve consumed. 

After long-term drug abuse, dopamine levels drop, which leads to a need to consume larger amounts to get that same pleasurable feeling back. This brain loop mechanism is the reason you can be addicted to sweets the same way you get addicted to drugs.

Sugar And Obesity

Sugar is linked to obesity, hypertension, high blood-pressure, heart disease, depression, headaches,  fatigue, tooth decay, and can make losing weight and those last few stubborn pounds a nightmare. Nevertheless, many people might not even know they have a problem.

We already know that sugar is a leading factor when it comes to obesity and the latest World Health Organisation figures tell us 1.9 billion people in the world are overweight and 600 million are considered obese.

Excess sugar consumption has been proven to contribute directly to weight gain and excess body fat. Hypnotherapy for sugar addiction NZ is designed to give you the tools to cut cravings and take control over life. 

 

Here are some signs that you might be addicted. Even if you’re not hungry, you eat sweet foods because you crave them.

1. 1. You know you should cut down on sweet stuff but can’t imagine getting through the day without it.

1. 1. You feel tired and sluggish after you overindulge.

1. 1. If you don’t have your daily fix, you start to feel bad and it’s all you can think about until you give in and have something sweet.

1. 1. You need more and more of these foods to get pleasure from them – a couple of biscuits are not enough.

1. 1. You have health problems due to your diet (for example, you’re obese) and keep eating high-sugar foods even though you know you are making things worse.

For further information, here is an excellent article from SweetDefeat 

Here’s an extended video from Mark Hyman MD on eliminating sugar cravings!

Have You Ever Tried To Cut Back On Sugar?

“No one can exert cognitive inhibition, willpower, over a biochemical drive that goes on every minute, of every day, of every year.” – Dr. Robert H. Lustig

Have you ever tried to cut back on sugar?

I have, and it’s incredibly difficult to do. I think I’m doing okay, then I’ll get to the stage where I have to have some and nothing can stop me!

Whether it’s the icecream in the freezer or the caramel slice in the café, I turn up at the café with great intentions to only have a coffee, but somehow that caramel slice ends up on a plate in front of me!

This is where hypnotherapy for sugar addiction NZ was extremely helpful to give me the will power I needed for success…

Is Sugar Addiction Hypnotherapy Even Real?

It seems clear that when it comes to sugar, something in the brain does not function like it’s supposed to. That’s the system in our brain that is supposed regulate our food intake and prevent us from gaining weight malfunctions.

To understand why and how this this happens you need to know that sugar can “hijack” the brain chemistry to make us want more and more to until it becomes an addiction.  Sugar is uniquely fattening, primarily due to its high content of fructose.

There are several ways that sugar causes us to overeat and gain weight but the main one is the impact that sugar has on the reward centres of the brain. When we eat foods that contain a lot of sugar, a massive amount of dopamine is released in an area of the brain called the Nucleus Accumbens.

Sugar Dopamine Receptors

When we eat these foods often and in large amounts, the dopamine receptors start to down-regulate. Now there are fewer receptors for the dopamine. This means that the next time we eat these foods, their effect is blunted.

So we will need more sugar next time we eat in order to get the same level of reward. Sugar, due to its’ powerful effect on the reward centres of the brain, function similarly to drugs of abuse like cocaine and nicotine. The exact same brain centres are at play.

Then once you become addicted, you lose control over your consumption. This is basically how sugar hijacks the brain chemistry to make us crave more and eat more. It has an enormous effect on our behaviour and in some cases can end up in full blown addiction.

I talked to a recovering drug addict who has been to a number of rehabs. She was also a smoker for many years and it was a long battle for her to quit.

Taking Back Control From Sugar Addiction:

You could say that she knows addiction like the back of her own hand. She went on to explain that that addiction to sugar is exactly the same as addiction to alcohol where one craves it until one must give in.

It is no different to any other addiction except the substance of abuse is different. Overcoming addiction is one of the hardest things to do, especially on your own.

Ntrance has found a way to stop sugar hijacking your brain chemistry and is having a lot of success in treating this which in turns helps with weight loss and other health benefits.

Please contact us for an appointment and we can assure you we achieve awesome results.

NZ Sugar Addiction Test

I want to share a little personal story. The other day Hugh (my wonderfully patient husband) and I were enjoying a coffee while waiting for a flight at the Wellington departure lounge. We were sitting just across from a stand displaying a vast array of multi-and delightfully gaudy-coloured donuts. 

Sugar Addiction in New Zealand..?

In quiet pursuit of their own business, a continuous stream of passengers passed along the aisle between our table and the donut stand.

We watched in fascination as every now and then, say, one in every twenty or so passers-by, seemed suddenly to enter a magnetic force field and swerve out of the stream of pedestrian traffic before coming to rest bobbing gently up and down against the donut counter.

“I feel addicted to sugar…”

I am becoming increasingly familiar with the ‘sugar addiction’ complaint. Evidently, some people find sugar an even more addictive substance than opioids (Yes! That is a claim made by some medical specialists.) 

Happily, it seems to be an addiction particularly sensitive to hypnotherapy. To date, I have not had a single client on whom my sugar addiction therapy has failed.

A Google search reveals multiple articles on the subject. Are you worried that you might be suffering from this addiction? Here is a simple questionnaire that I have borrowed from the UK’s Daily Mail: 

The Sugar Addiction Test

According to the Mail, if you have positive answers to more than five of the questions – then you have a problem that had best be overcome before the adverse health effects kick in. 

(Personally, I would give you a bit more leeway than just five positive answers – but over ten; it would definitely be time to start worrying!)

How Many Do You Score?

Can you eat sweet, starchy or fatty foods until you are over-full?

Do you feel hungry even after eating a full meal?

Can you eat large quantities of sweets or stodgy foods even when you’re not feeling particularly hungry?

Do you ever feel ashamed (self-loathing, disgusted or depressed) about your eating habits?

Do you ever turn to sugar when you are feeling down or upset?

When things are bad, do you find you need more and more sweet foods to feel better?

Do you plan to eat a small portion (such as one biscuit), but end up binge-eating (demolishing the whole packet)?

Do you find starchy, sweet or fatty foods the most difficult to cut back on?

Do you find it difficult to stop once you start eating starches, snack foods, junk foods or sweets?

Are your eating habits having an impact on your social life, work or physical abilities?

Do you find impossible to stick to healthy-eating resolutions?

Do you feel you need to (have to) have something sweet after lunch or dinner?

Do you eat sweets and chocolates secretly and hide the wrappers because you don’t want anyone to know?

If you cut yourself one piece of cake, do you then find yourself coming back for more and more?

Do you get a foggy head after big meals (or mid-afternoon)?

Daily Mail Article

Breaking The Sugar Addiction Habit

I get clients frequently asking me “does hypnotherapy work for weight loss and to cut sugar addiction cravings?”

Helping clients get control of their sugar addiction cravings is one of my specialties, but don’t just take my word for it, here’s one of my favourite virtual stomach gastric band success stories from right here in Marlborough NZ. 

Chris Steadman

Sugar Addiction NZ Hypnotherapy

Ntrance Hypnotherapy Blenheim