A type 3 sugar addiction needs sugar fixes regularly. From morning to night, the type 3 sugar addict noshes on donuts, Danish, cookies, cake, Ho-Hos, and other sweets. Without knowing it, however, when you feed yourself sugar, you are also feeding the yeast in your body. No, we’re not talking about the type that you use to make bread rise. We’re talking Candida albicans, the type that grows in your digestive system from fermenting sugar and carbs. When yeast ferments hops to make beer, that’s a good thing. When it uses your gut as a fermentation tank, though, the result is pretty toxic. And it sends your sugar addiction spiraling out of control.
Take This Quiz
Your total score will tell you whether you fit the type 3 profile. Do you?
_____Do you have chronic nasal congestion or sinusitis? (50 points)
_____Do you have spastic colon or irritable bowel syndrome (gas, bloating, and diarrhea and/or constipation)? (50 points)
_____Have you been treated for acne with tetracycline, erythromycin, or any other antibiotic for one month or longer? (50 points)
_____Have you taken antibiotics for any type of infection for more than two consecutive months or shorter courses more than three times in a twelve-month period? (20 points)
_____Have you taken an antibiotic––even for a single course? (6 points)
_____Do you have chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia? (50 points)
_____Have you had prostatitis or chronic yeast vaginitis? (25 points)
_____Have you been pregnant? (5 points)
_____Have you taken birth control pills? (10 points)
_____Have you taken corticosteroids, such as Prednisone, for over a month? (15 points)
_____When you are exposed to perfumes, insecticides, or other odors or chemicals, do you develop wheezing, burning eyes, or any other distress? (10 points)
_____Are your symptoms worse on damp or humid days or in moldy places? (10 points)
_____Have you had a fungal infection, such as jock itch, athlete’s foot, or a nail or skin infection, that was difficult to treat? (20 points)
_____Do you have postnasal drip or clear your throat a lot? (20 points)
_____Do you crave sugar or breads? (20 points)
_____Do you have food allergies? (20 points)
_____Your total score
Score
If your total is 70 or higher, you likely have a yeast/candida overgrowth and need the treatment outlined in chapter 8.
What Does a Type 3 Sugar Addict Look Like?
Your life revolves around sugar. Someone mentions sweets and your eyes light up. You eat sugar all day long, starting with a breakfast of coffee and a sweet Danish or yummy donut. This sugar-laden feast just gears you up to want more. By mid-morning you reach for a candy bar from the vending machine. Lunch is a sandwich on white bread (which quickly converts to glucose: sugar) washed down with a large soft drink. By mid-afternoon, you need a snack and reach for cookies, Twinkies, or a Ho-Ho, and don’t forget a bedtime snack! You constantly crave sugar and make sure you always have cookies, cake, and other sweets in your kitchen, office, purse, and car. It’s not unusual to see you at the local convenience store in the middle of the night getting your fix.
But the price of overindulging in sweets is high. A type 3 sugar addict often feels tired; you may even have chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. It doesn’t stop there. Yeast overgrowth fueled by sugar can cause numerous other health problems, like sinusitis or postnasal drip. When this happens, you’ll see the doctor for antibiotics to treat what you think is a sinus infection. You may also have problems with your digestion, such as gas, bloating, diarrhea and/or constipation, and irritable bowel syndrome. Poor eating habits and eating sugar-laden foods can also mean that you are overweight or obese. You may even be allergic to these foods, although you don’t realize it. More about this later.
The Role of Yeast in Sugar Addiction
Why does sugar cause so many problems? Sugar and yeast have a symbiotic relationship. In fact, yeast grow from the fermenting sugars in your body. Yeast can also make you feel like you have no will power, triggering your sugar cravings by releasing a certain chemical, so you’ll feed them their favorite food. Smart, huh? So whenever you eat sweets, you’re feeding the yeast as well. Although science has not yet tracked down the chemical that triggers the sugar cravings, experience with many thousands of patients shows that their sugar cravings decrease dramatically after the yeast have been killed off.
The Link between Yeast Overgrowth and Food Allergies
A yeast overgrowth can also cause food allergies. The most common food allergies are to wheat, milk, chocolate, citrus, and eggs. Often, what we are allergic to we crave the most. The more you eat of something, the more allergic you become, because your immune system sees more of the proteins in those foods. If you are allergic to chocolate, for example, you want to eat it all the more. More sugar, more yeast. More yeast, more allergies. That’s why it’s sometimes necessary to treat food allergies in conjunction with yeast overgrowth. (We’ll talk more about this in chapter 8.)
Different foods contain different proteins. When some food proteins are only partially broken down during digestion, they can mimic various hormones and neurotransmitters in the body. Wheat, for example, contains gluten, which has protein chunks that mimic endorphin. Although we think of endorphin as the “happy hormone” that causes the “runner’s high,” when it gets into the bloodstream and into the brain where it doesn’t belong, it can lead to inflammation. Schizophrenia, for instance, has been associated with wheat and milk allergies, and patients improve much more quickly when they avoid wheat and milk.
Allergies can also cause emotional problems, such as mood shifts, anxiety, and depression. When you feel anxious, depressed, or emotionally upset, you’re more likely to reach for something sweet to eat––comfort foods like cookies and ice cream are favorites. And the cycle continues.
Nix Sugar to Nix Yeast
Although some yeast experts recommend avoiding all yeast-containing foods, this is not necessary except for the small portion of people who are also allergic to yeast. The bigger mandate is to stay away from sugar—which feeds the yeast.
The Price Type 3 Sugar Addicts Pay Over Time
In addition to causing allergies, yeast overgrowth can lead to chronic conditions for type 3 sugar addicts, such as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia, and immune dysfunction. Our research at the Fatigue and Fibromyalgia Research Center shows that if you have CFS, you improve when you eliminate the yeast. Research by Birgitta Evengård, MD, PhD, a specialist in infectious diseases and clinical immunology at Huddinge University Hospital and an associate professor and lecturer at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, has even found higher bowel candida levels to be present during CFS flare-ups.
Although there is no test to distinguish fungal overgrowth from normal fungal levels, you can diagnose overgrowth by symptoms, such as the allergies we just discussed, nasal congestion or sinusitis, spastic colon, unusual rashes, and food allergies. The good news? When the Candida is treated, which can be done very simply, these other problems go away along with the sugar cravings!
Excerpted from The Complete Guide to Beating Sugar Addiction (Fair Winds Press, 2015) by Jacob Teitelbaum M.D.
  | Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, is a board certified internist and nationally known expert in the fields of chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, sleep and pain. Dr. Teitelbaum does frequent media appearances including Good Morning America, CNN, Fox News Channel, the Dr. Oz Show and Oprah & Friends. He lives in Kona, Hawaii. He has published several books including his latest book The Complete Guide to Beating Sugar Addiction. |