Connection Between Bulimia and "Sugar Addiction"

Recently, someone wrote and asked me if I thought there was a connection between bulimia and the way sugar seems to affect bulimics and binge eaters - namely, "sugar addiction". (I use " " because, while sugar doesn't lead to the same chemical dependency that, say, heroin does, the intense and immediate cravings sugar causes seem to invariably trigger binges).

My answer is a resounding YES, I do.

Sugar and simple carbohydrates (think white starches) are almost guaranteed to set off a binge, no matter how well-intentioned the bulimic or binge-eater may be about taking "just a little". As I wrote about in my earlier entries "Practical Considerations", a period of abstinence from these types of "trigger foods" is needed as the bulimic walks toward freedom. Later, as attitudes towards food relax and "normalize", it should be safe to add them back in moderate amounts, but you will find it MUCH easier to avoid bingeing by exercising some common sense in this nutritional area. (Just be sure to eat some carbs - healthy, non-binge-inducing ones such as brown rice, sweet potatoes, squash, etc.) You get the idea. As I've said before, I'm a huge fan of common sense.

Interestingly, the day after this discussion about why recovering bulimics should avoid sugar, Yahoo ran an interesting article, "The Top 7 Worst Foods for your Mood". Now, we all know that everything we read on the internet is Gospel truth (insert tongue firmly in cheek here), but in THIS case I get to say "I told you so". You will note that ALL of these foods are processed and high in carbohydrates, including the alcohol, which if you are bulimic you should NOT be drinking anyway. (See? That common sense thing again).

Here is the piece in full:

The top 7 worst foods for your mood

• by Heather Wagner at Better Homes and Gardens, on Fri Oct 30, 2009 10:58am PDT

It’s a dreary weekday. You got a parking ticket. Your boss called you in for a closed-door meeting. There are dishes in the sink and a significant other on the couch. For whatever reason (or combination of the above) you’re in a terrible mood. Whatever you do, don’t take solace in the following foods! After scouring the web for expert nutrition advice, I discovered that these comfort food favorites can also be energy-sucking, headache-inducing, anxiety-causing culinary downers:

BAGEL

While a bagel may seem like a safe morning staple, according to health expert, author, and certified nutritionist Samantha Heller, white grains, especially when ingested without protein, can cause a spike in blood sugar. Your body reacts by pulling your blood sugar down, causing you to feel lethargic. So while that morning bagel may fill you up and give you a momentary sense of well-being, you’ll regret it an hour later when you’re tired, cranky, and you forget the client’s name (again) on your 11 a.m. conference call.

HOT DOGS

Mass-produced packaged meats, such as salami, bologna, and hot dogs (basically anything you could procure at a gas station) are loaded down with nitrates, a common food preservative. According to Christine Simmons of HeathAssist.net, nitrate-containing foods can cause migrane headaches, as well as tension headaches—that lovely head-in-a-vise feeling. If you've gotta get your cured meat on, look for organic or locally sourced options.

CUPCAKE

The cupcake craze shows no sign of ebbing—any birthday, engagement party or office celebration will inevitably trot out these frosted sugar-bombs. According to Susan Biali, M.D. in Psychology Today, carbohydrate-rich foods enable tryptophan to enter the brain, which produces serotonin, a neurotransmitter that, simply put, makes us feel great. But the surge of energy caused by the combo of white flours and white sugars is followed by a major crash, as well as mood swings and agitation, making for not-so-happy birthdays.

WHITE CHOCOLATE
According to Men’s Health editor David Zinczenko, white chocolate is a sweet imposter. It’s not technically chocolate, as it lacks the cocoa solids to stimulate feel-good boosters like serotonin. So you get all of the sugar (and subsequent sugar crash) of real chocolate with none of the benefits. If you’re going to indulge, stick with the real thing—the darker the better.

FAST FOOD FRIES

French fry, mon cherie! You tempt me with your crisp saltiness, tender insides, and heavenly golden sheen, but you’re bad for me, and even worse for my mood. Not only are fast food fries loaded with refined carbohydrates, sugars, and a whopping salt content, health expert and "Recipe Doctor" columnist Elaine Magee, MPH, RD reveals that many contain “bad fats” (saturated and trans fats), which take hours to digest, putting you into a sluggish food coma. If you must indulge (and I understand if you must), make your own!

COCKTAIL HOUR

While a drink or a glass of wine at the end of the day releases the brain chemical beta-endorphin for a momentary rush of buzzy contentment, remember that this feeling is fleeting. Leading toxicology expert and author Sherry Rogers, MD warns that alcohol is a depressant. The more alcohol you drink, the more it depresses your mood, interferes with cognition, and causes reckless or aggressive behavior. You know that sad, surly person at the end of the bar shouting at the TV? Don’t be that person.

TRIPLE SHOT FLAVORED LATTE

I know, pumpkin latte season is here with gingerbread lattes soon to come, but caffeine makes you feel energized by triggering the pituitary gland to produce adrenaline, and if you drink too much too quickly, this sharp increase in adrenaline can increase anxiety. According to WebMD, side effects of too much caffeine also include headache, agitation, chest pain, and ringing in the ears. The added sugars in flavored drinks will give you a momentary rush, but in an hour or so you’ll start to feel like it's January 1st.

For recipes that will make you feel good, check out these warm and cozy fall desserts. For some holiday cheer, try our Thanksgiving or Christmas cookie favorites, or join our cookie swap.

Vision of Hope's Testimonial Video

This is it, folks....the only Christian inpatient center I would recommend. All of Vision of Hope's counselors are NANC certified (which not only means they've been training in counseling practice; it also means they are doctrinally sound), and treatment at the center is free of charge. The home is located in Lafayette Indiana and is affiliated with Faith Ministries.

He Makes All Things New

I just discovered, by checking links on the Site Meter, that this blog is in the top position of Google search results for "Christian bulimic ministry". It is also in the number one spot for the keywords "Jesus heals eating disorders" and "bulimia Christian".

This is...humbling. It both amazes and humbles me. I am awed and amazed that God would not only FORGIVE me, but that He would then use my testimony for fruitful ministry to His other daughters who are still struggling. This is what is meant by the title, "Redeemed from the Pit".

At the same time, I am humbled and even a bit nervous - having any sort of ministry platform is a huge responsibility. I am now accountable before God for everything I write, and the counsel I give His daughters. This is why I am so thankful that Martha Peace called my attention to a subtle, yet critical error in my theology a few months back. Being able to edit the chapter in question before the book goes to print will no doubt save me much regret and anxiety, knowing I could have mislead someone with my words.

To the reader who googled "Does God forgive eating disorders?" the answer is YES, my friend. YES, He does...and so much more. In the words of Steven Curtis Chapman, "He renews and He transforms, He redeems and restores - He makes all things new...."

I'm a "Snake-Oil Peddler"

So I've been called a "snake-oil peddler" for encouraging bulimic women to examine the spiritual causes and solutions to their eating disorder and to realize that they can walk free.

As Dave Barry would say, "I swear I am not making this up."

Funny, that accusation, in that NO biblical counselors worth their salt (myself included) take so much as a cent from their counselees (although purveyors of humanism, ie. secular therapists, often charge over $100 per hour for experimental theories and speculative treatment which does no good). Counseling for money is a huge ethics violation in the biblical counseling world, as well it should be. The whole counsel of God has been given to us freely; it is a privilege to help others apply His Word to their lives.

In fact, if a woman cannot afford a study Bible, I gladly purchase one for her out of my own pocket.

I wonder what the "snake oil" is that she refers to? Let's examine the meaning behind the term "snake oil". According to Wiki,

Snake oil is a traditional Chinese medicine used to treat joint pain. However, the most common usage of the phrase is as a derogatory term for compounds offered as medicines which implies that they are fake, fraudulent, quackish, or ineffective. The expression is also applied metaphorically to any product with exaggerated marketing, but questionable or unverifiable quality or benefit.

Second sentence drives home the irony of her charge - "compounds offered as medicines". Hmm, kind of like the psychotropic drugs routinely prescribed to eating disordered patients, depite the fact that they have absolutely no clinical success in decreasing bulimic behavior or anorexic tendencies?

Today's "snake oil" comes under names such as Celex, Celebrex, Lexapro, Prozac, Pamelor, and Elavil. Tricyclic anti-depressants and SSRIs have been so over-prescribed and proven so ineffectual in the long run that several years ago the FDA issued a statement cautioning against their use in children under 18. As the organism becomes dependant on the unnatural chemical effect, the patient requires an ever-increasing dosage.

Yet the mindset towards food and eating remains untouched by the drug prescribed to cure it. NOW who's the "snake-oil peddler"?

Ah, she argues, "eating disorders are PHYSICAL diseases!" (Right. And they've isolated the Compulsive Shopping Gene, too.) Actually, no; they are not. Not a single criteria for the definition of "disease" has been produced, in nearly 30 years of research. To meet the clinical definition of "disease", it must be proven empirically that the condition has an organic origin. Eating disorders certainly LEAD to physical symptoms and, yes, even diseases (such as renal failure), but the mindset and resultant behavior are not neurological in nature.

I am then informed that "repentance is not a viable medical cure" and that one should seek only medical treatment. (Tell that to the tens of thousands of us former bulimics who are now completely free - both of the behavior, and of the toxic thinking fueling it). Heaven forbid anyone should desire to turn away from this self-destructive lifestyle, or take responsibility for her own choices. That's wildly subversive stuff! Think of the implications!

This is from someone who endorses lap-band surgery as a cure for bulimia, yet (by her own admission), if hers were to be removed, she would probably go back to bingeing and purging tomorrow (her words; not mine).

Now you tell me who has the better answer.

What's sad, in my estimation, is just the blindness. Not only in this particular girl for whom my heart breaks - but the willfull, widespread blindness that people embrace, choosing to believe a pill or "looking within" or increasing their self esteem will get them out of their misery. By nature, we turn to counterfeit pleasures seeking satisfaction, but ultimately are enslaved by them (if this were not true, addictions and besetting habits would not exist). Yet rather than embracing personal responsibility and turning to God for help, there is something in us that prefers to see ourselves as victims. We want to be told that we are "sick", that our addiction is really a "disease", because it takes the responsibility off of our shoulders. The entire basis of behavioral psychology rests on humanism, which makes man his own god. Rather than embracing what we NEED to hear, if we buy into humanistic lies, we will pay good money to those who will tell us what we WANT to hear.

While doing research for my book, I was genuinely surprised at the sheer number of psychologists and psychiatrists who have walked away from the profession once they realized it was built upon a foundation of sand. Like a house of cards, once the lack of empirical evidence is brought to light, they are forced to admit that psychology is nothing more than a collection of subjective, ever-changing theories. It is not medicine, and as many disenfranchised psychologists have admitted, it is not a "science" in any sense of the word.

Yet desperate people cling to it's promises, frantically reaching for the next "magic cure" that will numb their feelings so they won't have to face them; hoping for something that will help them convince themselves that their addictions are "diseases". They are threatened by hearing that, yes, they are responsible for their own behavior and there is a God Who will hold them accountable for disregarding His counsel.

Learning that eating disorders, drunkenness, and other addictive deviant behaviors are sins rather that diseases should some as a relief; not an unpleasant shock. This realization means that it is possible to put them behind us, once and for all. How is this not preferable to being a passive victim of circumstance? In nouthetic counseling, even in clients where physiological conditions may play a role, (such as OCD; PPD; etc.) the emphasis is always put upon what the client CAN control. This produces better results, more lasting change, and ultimately happier clients than endless "self-awareness" and pill-popping that are staples of secular therapy.

And it certainly works better than lap-band surgery.

ETA: Thirty years ago, the American Psychological Association itself stated that psychology is not and cannot be a science. (The National Science Foundation subsidized the lengthy study from which this conclusion sprang). Hunt also quoted Karl Popper, a philosopher of science, as declaring that psychological theories have ‘more in common with primitive myths than with science’.[1] In the 1960’s, psychologists themselves began questioning the prevailing notions that roots of anti-social behavior lay outside of the patient himself. O. Hobart Mowrer, Research Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois, published The Crisis in Psychiatry and Religion in 1961. The book was ground-breaking in that Mowrer questioned the validity of institutionalized psychiatry and refuted the prevailing psychological theories of the day.

---

[1] E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., Freudian Fraud (HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1992) p. 217

Did You Know...? (More About "Deliverance")

Did you know.........


...that bulimia is a serious sin (Proverbs 23:2, 21; Philippians 3:19; Titus 1:12)?

...that there is NO sin of which we cannot repent, and no sin too big to be forgiven (Matthew 12:31; Mark 3:28; James 5:15)?

...that NOWHERE in Scripture do we see Satan or his demons putting a "curse" on anyone?

...that NOWHERE in Scripture do we see "generational curses" put on believers?

...that the practice of "pleading the blood" is notably absent from the Bible?

...that "territorial spirits/demons" are a doctrine of man; the Bible does not uphold their existence?

...that NOWHERE in the Bible do we see instructions for "breaking off" a "curse" under which we supposedly live?

...that most dogma concerning "spiritual warfare" was developed in the last 50 years?

...that saying Satan has us in bondage is giving the devil far too much credit (if we are in Christ)?

...that the power of ALL sin and the "curse" of death was broken at the Cross? (Col. 2:15)

...that prayer and repentance is the key to overcoming addictive sin?

...that if you are in Christ, you are NO LONGER a slave to sin (Romans 6:16-22)?

...that there are no shortcuts to holiness? (Galatians 5:7-8)

...that the road to freedom is found only through steadfast prayer, renewal of the mind with the washing of the Word, and progressive sanctification - not through sensational experiences, or ecstatic emotion?