What is the difference between habit and addiction

[tubbytii]

Hi,
Why are refined carbohydrates so hard to 'give up'?
I have never been a drinker, smoker, gambler or tried drugs and am struggling with the idea of food (refined carbs) addiction.
I gave up meat to become a vegetarian for just over a year several years ago with no difficulty.
I stopped drinking coffee for several months in a bid to help some sleeping problems I was having, again with no problems.
So why cant i just stop eating refined carbs in the same way? What is it that makes cakes and biscuits, crisps and chocolates so hard to resist. Is it just a bad habit that I constantly choose to eat refined carbs or are they really physically addictive? Or is it psychological? When does a bad habit actually become an addiction?

[Gary Turner]

Hi Tubby! (That sounds so wrong typing that!)

A habit, in respect to physical substances, is something where you are in control of your behaviour, where as an addiction is something you are not it.

However I also believe that the lines are a more blurred than that. I would suggest that there is no clear separation between the two, and a habit has elements of addiction, and addiction has elements of habit.

If you don't do a habit you'll be just fine. If you don't do an addiction your mind and your body will respond in such a way that drives you to do that addiction.

Carbs - lots of things at play! If it is an addiction, then you have learnt to associate pleasure and reward with the carbs, so you crave them not for the nutritional value but for the reward and pleasure instead. This is a little 'dance' played between neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin. With the right approach you can work to break this association. A skilled hypnotherapist or other such pscyh professional will be able to help.

There may also be physiological elements at play here too. Your thyroid may have downregulated your metabolism, therefore meaning that it is running slow, so it drives you to eat carbs to speed your metabolism up. Carbohydrates don't satisfy hunger, instead fuelling it (the hormones ghrelin and leptin at play here) so eating carbohydrates will keep you hungry, and as the body uses carbs as it's primary energy source therefore drives you to eat carbs. Cutting out the refined carbs here can help your body to carry out a 'reset'.

Hope this helps give you some more information - what do you think?

[tubbytii]

Thank you for replying.
Your explanation that eating refined carbs actually perpetuates the craving cycle explains why I am reaching for biscuits within an hour of breakfast.
If I am understanding you correctly, if I replace my sugary breakfast with something like egg (low in sugars but high in cholesterol), I will be less likely to crave refined carbs.
Are we talking days or weeks for the cravings to subside. What can I nibble on if I get cravings? I like nuts but they are very high in fat and I have the added problem of high cholesterol.
Any advice would be brilliant.

Ps. I am 5'4" and 20 kilo's overweight so 'Tubby' is actually an understatement.

[Gary Turner]

Hi, it doesn't take long at all. Some people it switches right away, some a few days, some a couple of weeks.

Eggs rock - they are a complete food, and perfectly good for you. Eggs DO NOT raise cholesterol - see my next post.

Ignore eating fat and cholesterol - there is ZERO causation!! Dietary fat DOES NOT cause cholesterol or heart disease. It resulted from a flawed 1950's study by a fella named Ancel Keys. The myth perpetuates to this day despite science knowing exactly what happens to dietary fat. And it doesn't lead to heart disease nor cholesterol.

Interestingly, there IS a causation from eating too many carbohydrates and cholesterol...

Nuts are a great snack.

Note my capitalisation - usually denotes shouting - and I want to shout these bits out

Makes you think hopefully!

[tubbytii]

Thank you