No- wait. I actually meant the other kind. The stuff they put in soda pop and gatorade and just about any other drink on the shelf. Sucrose syrup and glucose-fructose syrup. Ive been eating really poorly these last six months or so, and this last week I cut out the sugar in my coffee, switched from regular milk back to unleaded (Soy) milk, and I've switched from drinking gatorde during the day to water, organic juice (fruc/suc free) instead of junk in the evening, and am having fake eggs (those egg beaters- to be fair, not fake eggs but it takes an act of god to make them taste decent. I'm using lots of veggies fried in Pam, salt and pepper and garlic and a little taco sauce. Gonna try some fake cheese but I don't have high hopes for that stuff. Not after the failure that was fake sausage. Ewwww.... gave me nightmares.)
But anyhow- the first thing I did was bag the sucrose/fructose products, and I pretty much immediately began feeling better (and almost as immediately lost a couple pounds.) Also (I am pretty sure) I quit craving alcohol so much at those peak times when I usually do (from 2 in the afternoon til around six- self employed guy's happy hour). Has anyone heard of anything having to do with sugars and alcoholism? I dont know what I'm looking for- just pretty much anything.
Of course I have about six books up in my house that will probably have it in there, but I need to do the dishes and catch a quick shower, go to a meeting and then come make dinner and play with the rugrat. Anyhow- just curious if anyone had ever heard anything like that.
I'll look through the books later and see what I can find.
Hi there TLH, Sugar and alcohol eh? What I do know is that the liver we do so much damage to has worked itself crazy turning that alcohol to sugars. Therefore, your body DOES crave the stuff after you stop drinking. That's about all I can help you with...Tim
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"We posess the eyes through which the universe gazes with wonder upon its own majesty."
Oh geez. Too wierd. I was kind of on the right track maybe.
I looked up diet in the book "Beyond the Influence" by Katherine Ketchum and found this passage right at the beginning (p. 207) talking about a guy who was sober for seven months but was suffering from radical mood swings. His coworkers at the psych ward he worked at were concerned for him and he himself thought that he was possibly manic depressive or schitzophrenic.
Anyhow- his boss gave him a leave of absence and the guy talked to his sponsor who reccomended an inpatient treatment program and they asked him in detail about his diet and ran a bunch of tests. Turned out the poor guy was hypoglycemic. After five days on a balanced diet of regular meals and between meal snacks with some vitamin and mineral supplements his depression began to lift.
Also it talks a lot about the fact that alcohol messes with your bodies ability to process nutrients.
On page 214 there's some general rules for good nutrition and one section deals briefly again with the idea that sugar stresses alcohol weakened organs and that a high sugar diet can cause fluctuations in blood sugar and related symptoms such as fatigue, depression, anxiety and mood swings.
On page 223 there's also a bit about aspertame (the sweetener in nutra sweet) throwing off the balance of aminos in your brain.
So essentially i guess that's a diet and nutrition issue where sugar effects mood swings and depression and stuff like that. Though I guess some people drink when they're depressed- I personally am more effected by stress.
I find nutrition really complicated and oftentimes the different schools of thought at odds with each other. But I kinda like reading about it just the same. Wierd.
Her first book- Under the Influence- deals with that subject in a way more straightforward fashion. Another nutrition book I have has a couple pages devoted to the adrenalin/cortisol/insulin vicious cycle. It also talks about high sugar foods possibly promoting active cravings.
I think I'm going to ask my doc to check me out for hypoglycemia, just for grins.
Oh now I'm on a mission. I ordered three more books on Nutrition and a couple on alcoholism.
Nobody ever warned me that alcoholics are Neurotic. I think I've taken it to the next level- Obsessive compulsive with a tough of retail therapy thrown in for good measure.
If you're getting into alcohol and nutrition, there is also something about alcohol and vitamin B. If I remember correctly it is something about that alcohol depletes vitamin B, so that supplements are very helpful in recovery. Hey, I think really getting into a subject so that we become 'experts' on it is a good thing.
amanda
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do your best and God does the rest, a step at a time
Alcohol wreaks havoc on potassium levels. So, make sure you're getting enough of that also............educating myself is a another great way to keep on the 'recovery path'.
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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... It's about learning to dance in the rain.
I want to look into all of it. I'm presently in the market for a new daily pack of vitamins. I seem to feel better when I exercise more and get some vitamins in me. Duh? Yeah, duh.
Now I'm going to look into the potassium and Vitamin B, too. I have some reading to do.
Potassium works with sodium to maintain the body's water balance. One possible explanation for potassium's protective effect against hypertension is that increased potassium may increase the amount of sodium excreted from the body.
The kidneys regulate the level of potassium in the body. Potassium deficiency is not common but may result from excessive losses due to severe diarrhea, poor diabetic control, low-calorie diets (less than 800 calories per day), chronic alcoholism, hard exercise, or some diuretics and laxatives.
Although their purpose is to eliminate excess sodium from the body, certain diuretics may increase potassium losses, while others retain potassium. If you take certain diuretics, you may need more or less potassium. Ask your physician about the type of diuretic drug you take and whether you require additional potassium. Some people who take diuretics may be prescribed a potassium supplement to help replace potassium loss.
Under the Influence has a lotta dietary guidelines in the back. And some real clear cut hard facts about the rough stuff us alcoholics go through. I could say a lot of things some of us drunks go through thinking we are in some horrible, personal spiritual struggle have simple roots in things like hypoglycemia, diet and habits, the flip side of that coin, is investing earnest daily time in my personal relationship with God, I begin finding the umph and wisdom to make better decisions in the million little choices and the few bigger ones that make up each day, and the results I get if I dont. Which brings me back around to the physical being symptomatic of my spiritual condition? Which comes first? physically and spiritually speaking-the chicken or the egg? No offense meant here, fellow drunks of any other faith, you may find the same principal in yours, but the Bible tells me the chicken did, and I find it that way with mental health too. If I dont -keep- God first, everything else slowly comes unravelled despite my best efforts. Blahblahblah. I just finished 2 peanut butter and banana sandwiches, half a pot of coffee, some deer chilli, and half a carton of ice cream. With chocolate syrup. Horrible. My easier softer way is to wait till summer when I will burn up and sweat out everything the second I eat it, roofing. I'm like a roof-sloth in the winter, when it's freezing. I dwell on your roof, muttering and cussing, glaring down at you if you come out to watch me work, like I just might jump, and occasionally picking my nose with a frozen finger. Is there such a thing as a roof-sloth? Lettuce anyone? p.s.- there's no such thing as a North American Roof Sloth, according to google.
If I dont -keep- God first, everything else slowly comes unravelled despite my best efforts. It just struck me like a bundle of shingles upside my head. And what drives those best efforts? Something my sponsor once told me. ...Lack of power....that was our dilemna.
Do you mean changing your diet to accomodate your "handicap" is like putting your nutrition before your higher power? Like looking for some easy way around twelve stepping it?
Anyhow- I'm alright with god. My higher power is very well secure in it's place aand prominant in my life. (just clarifying). And at the same time I'm looking at what different foods do to me- some relative to my alcoholism, and some not. Hypoglycemia? Maybe. That'd explain why I have heinous hangovers and drinking even a little bit of booze makes me horribly depressed when I'm normally pretty fricken up all the time.
But yeah- I could see where someone (my mom, f'rinstance- who is a dry drunk, quit drinking because she's allergic to booze- and all kinds of other mold cultures- which I'm not really- and at last check pops valium and zoloft and zanax and any number of other pretty colored pills like they're Pez) Oops- I got off topic. I do that.
Anyhow- yeah I could see where someone would say "hey- I dont need AA- I just need to get my physiological poop together and fix my diet and exercise. I personally was in killer shape- best I've ever been, racing paddleboards long distance, open ocean swimming, racing outrigger canoes, training in Kickboxing and Jiu Jitsu. My nutrition was pretty decent- lots of steamed vegies and fresh fish- nothing fast food at all- albiet a TON of that fricken corn syrup- and somehow despite all that little by little I drank more and did less. Over about four years after I got divorced. Until I rarely surfed or even went in the ocean at all- I just worked and went home and drank beer. I even stooped to drinking crappy beer, which I never would have done before.
Life works in wierd ways. But it seems that everybody has to face their stuff.
Anyhow- I'm all in on the higher power and meetings and stuff. I'm just rambling about related (and unrelated) nutrition stuff.
RyanS wrote: If I dont -keep- God first, everything else slowly comes unravelled despite my best efforts. It just struck me like a bundle of shingles upside my head. And what drives those best efforts? Something my sponsor once told me. ...Lack of power....that was our dilemna.
Now I read it and it totally says to me "For best performance fuel yourself correctly." In hindsight I think that's probably more likely. I do tend to confuse stuff.
I don't see any criticism of learning about nutrition. I do see diversity of perspectives that run the gamut of eating philosophies and habits. It's okay to differ.
If we look at the Bible, we find all kinds of dietary rules, more in the Old Testament and kosher. In the New Testament Paul says that although all is permitted not all is good.
Sometimes I follow my body signals and eat what I crave. Our bodies know what they need,, though animals are more direct in that and humans have become a bit confused in their signals. There is a theory that some alcohol consumption is a confused craving for vitamin B, and that alcohol replaces the vitamin B which gets depleted.
By the way, bananas are a good source of potassium. Peanuts are a protein and oil, and good quality ice cream is milk. Deer meat is good meat. Now, where are your veggies?
The eating habits that started out good, but slowly slipped after a divorce, replaced by drinking, do seem to show the spiritual base of our motives to eat well. I hope that the spiritual base of AA is helping to bring you back to the motivation to take care of yourself. It seems to be doing that, as that may be the motive for this research, right?
So, whether we're at the more basic level of grabbing the nearest thing that is halfway nutritious and going from there,, or we are more selective and learning about what to select intelligently,,,, it's all good.
Now,, I'm going to go have a peanut butter and anchovy sandwich, carrot juice, and fudge for breakfast.
love in recovery,
amanda
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do your best and God does the rest, a step at a time
Good morning all. Yes TLH, as stated above by Amanda and Doll, the B vitamins REALLY get depleted from the drinking along wth the K. My doc advised me to use some multi-mega with a high B and I found this brand, Nature's Life Soft Gelatin Multiple, at a health food store. Lots of goodies at high levels. Between those and a good balanced diet (without the Big Macs and fries) they seem to keep me in fine shape. Although I've lost 15 of my 165 # in the last month and a half that I attribute to the turmoil in my life before a couple of days ago, I'm feeling well and expect to get back to normal shortly. So I'd say yeah, a good diet, supplements and a reasonable amount of physical activity should do any of us good....and feed the sugar jones as required...Tim
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"We posess the eyes through which the universe gazes with wonder upon its own majesty."
