Alex thought it was the flu. She had headaches, “crazy fatigue” and belly trouble. But when most of her symptoms faded after a few weeks, she chalked them up to a positive change in her diet: She had quit sugar and flour cold turkey.
“When I felt withdrawal, I thought, ‘Holy crap, it is an addiction,” says Alex, a 40-something human resources professional in Northern California who requested her name be kept private to respect the guidelines of Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous, to which she belongs. “I feel like a drug addict coming off drugs.”
Other people report similar experiences after making healthy, albeit drastic, changes to their diets. David Downs, a 46-year-old project manager in Athens, Georgia, for example, craved sugar and Diet Coke intensely when starting the Whole30 diet, which requires followers to cut out all sugar, alcohol, grains, dairy and legumes for 30 days, in September.
“After the first five days, the symptoms seemed to subside, although throughout the first two weeks I did struggle with bouts of being more tired than I expected,” says Downs, who’s planning on starting a 60-day version of the plan again this month.
But while physical withdrawal from drugs, alcohol and even caffeine are recognized by the medical community as being real and sometimes dangerous, symptoms like headaches, fatigue, acne and irritability from eliminating something like sugar or processed food from your diet are less understood.
“Psychologically, it’s possible that you would miss it, but I don’t think that it’s the same thing as something like withdrawal from tobacco or alcohol,” says Marlene Schwartz, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at the University of Connecticut. Most people who make healthy changes to their diets, she’s found, say they feel better. “They report feeling less tired and less of the ups and downs” from sugar spikes and crashes, she says.
Other people may think they’re experiencing “withdrawal” from unhealthy foods when in reality, they’re dealing with changes related to what they’ve replaced those foods with, says Lori Zanini, a registered dietitian in Manhattan Beach, California, and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “If you’re going from 5 grams of fiber [a day] to 30 grams of fiber, there’s definitely going to be some symptoms,” she says.
[See: 10 Fiber-Friendly Food Swaps to Help You Lose Weight.]
Still, there is some evidence that refined sugar and highly processed carbs affect the brain in ways similar to drug and alcohol addiction, and so suffering comparable withdrawal symptoms is not out of the question. One small 2013 randomized controlled trial of 12 overweight or obese men, for example, found that four hours after consuming meal-replacement shakes that included fast-acting carbohydrates like corn syrup, participants’ brain regions associated with reward and cravings “lit up like a laser,” says Dr. David Ludwig, a nutrition professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and one of the study’s authors. Consuming a shake with the same nutrient composition and taste, but containing different, slower-acting carbohydrates, did not have that effect.
“That raises the possibility that these highly processed carbohydrates are hijacking basic reward and pleasure circuitry in the brain, producing something akin to food addiction,” says Ludwig, who describes his method for sustainable weight loss, including how to beat cravings, in his book, “Always Hungry?”.
The good news, however, is that unlike withdrawal from drug or alcohol addiction, symptoms from quitting highly processed foods, like cravings, can be curbed quickly by, for example, focusing on eating satisfying, healthy fats such as nuts, avocados and olive oil, Ludwig says. “If you can get off of those [bad-for-you] foods, these cycles quickly calm down,” he says, since it’s highly processed foods that seem to trigger withdrawal-like symptoms to begin with.
[See: 15 Best Weight-Loss Diets at a Glance.]
But whether food addiction (and withdrawal) is “real,” any drastic dietary change should be approached with care. Here’s what experts say to keep in mind if you’re planning on quitting a type of food this year — and how to cope should withdrawal symptoms arise:
1. Proceed with caution.
Consider whether going “cold turkey” is the right approach for you. “I discourage anything crazy like [cutting] entire food groups,” particularly macronutrients including fat, carbohydrates and protein, Schwartz says. “You want to have a balanced diet.” For many people, gradually cutting down on less-healthy foods — while still enjoying occasional indulgences — is more successful. “Slow changes are actually the most sustainable anyway,” Zanini says.
2. Seek professional guidance.
Quitting sugar doesn’t pose the same withdrawal-related health risks as quitting a drug you’re addicted to, but it still behooves you to talk to a physician, registered dietitian or both about your plan. They may, for instance, advise you to drink more water while you up your fiber intake slowly (drastic fiber upticks can wreak digestive havoc) or suggest a supplement to account for any nutrients you may newly be missing. Going vegan, for example, likely calls for a vitamin B12 supplement, Schwartz says.
3. Be patient.
It took Downs 15 to 20 days on the Whole30 diet to ditch his most persistent withdrawal symptoms like fatigue. Then, he “felt really great.” For Alex, some symptoms lasted months. That’s to be expected, experts say. “Any time you change your eating habits substantially, your body — maybe even your microbiome — needs time to adjust,” Ludwig says. But there is a light at the end of the (short) tunnel, since your taste buds regenerate after about 10 to 15 days, says Zanini, who can no longer stomach the sweet tea she grew up with. “After that 10- to 15-day window, [people] will notice that the food they used to eat tastes even sweeter and even saltier,” she says.
[See: 9 Simple Ways to Reduce Your Sodium Intake Now.]
4. Strategize.
If you’re quitting sugar, there will be times when you want a piece of chocolate or a can of soda. The question is: How will you handle it? For Downs, planning ahead was critical to sticking to the Whole30 plan. “I always made sure I had compliant food choices on hand,” he says. For Alex, simply leaving the room with the troublesome food remains a top strategy. “I no longer hang out in the kitchen.” Schwartz encourages people to surround themselves with others who have similar health goals, and to find the joy in cooking so they don’t fall back on unhealthy take-out habits. “If there’s a way to try to make it an enjoyable experience, it can make all the difference,” she says. ” Once it becomes part of your regular routine, it’s a lot easier to sustain.”
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Is Food Withdrawal a Real Thing? originally appeared on usnews.com
