Are you addicted to sugar? If you are, you aren’t alone. In fact, Americans consume more sugar than any other nation on earth, with an average of 126.4 grams a day, which is nearly 10 times the recommended amount.

Sugar is therefore a big problem. We find it everywhere – in processed foods, fizzy drinks, even in fruit juice when we are trying to ingest one of our five-a-day.

For many of us, the issue runs much deeper than liking the taste of sugar or being greedy. We suffer from what is a very real sugar addiction, with some scientists asserting that it can be as addictive as many drugs. That’s a huge problem when it is found in 75 per cent of our countries packaged food.

So, the big question is, how can you overcome sugar addiction? Here are five ways.

Avoid processed foods

The easiest way of overcoming sugar addiction is by preventing too much of it entering your body. As already noted, sugar is most commonly found in processed foods so avoiding them in favor of fresh, healthy meals is a good starting point. Eating sugars affects the part of your brain charged with producing the chemical dopamine, the pleasure neurotransmitter. When dopamine levels have been artificially inflated by sugar and then drop, we start to feel flatter leading our bodies to crave that which boosted them in the first place – sugar. That’s how the addiction starts and that is why processed foods with their massive sugar count are so dangerous.

Drink water – and lots of it

Often when our body is crying out for sugar, the problem is that we are actually dehydrated and craving water. Water therefore has a two-fold effect on sugar addiction – drinking water can help trick out body into thinking its full, which means we eat less and if we are eating less, chances are we are consuming less sugar. It also rehydrates your body. You can even satisfy your cravings for sweetness with water by adding drops of lemon to a glass or enjoying a refreshing green tea.

Boost your serotonin levels

Those with higher levels of serotonin are less likely to have cravings for sweets. Serotonin is otherwise known as the “happy hormone” and helps fight off depression. The best ways of increasing the amount of it in your body are through exercise, diet and getting the recommended seven to nine hours sleep per night that an adult needs.

Detoxing

Sugar addiction comes about when the substance takes over your taste buds, brain chemistry, hormones and metabolism. Because this is the case, willpower alone may not be able to break your addiction. A scientifically designed medical detox from sugar can help your cleanse your body of this horrible substance for good and remove your dependency on it. Selfhealinginstitute.Com have lots of information on body detoxification to get your started.

Eat lots of sea vegetables

Seaweed or sea vegetables have an extremely high mineral count, while eating anything with sugar immediately depletes minerals from your body. By eating plenty of sea vegetables, you are offsetting that damage caused by sugars and preventing them from becoming further ingrained in your body.