Avoiding Cookie Monster mode

Sugar and it's (un)expected impact

Aug 04, 2023

Waze adds Cookie Monster voice navigation to celebrate the puppet's birthday - Good Morning America

I stopped eating sugar. It started as a quick experiment but now has taken on a life of its own…

It shouldn’t be that dramatic a change. Sugar is just one ingredient in a world of plenty. In fact, it’s often a minor ingredient – nothing but a small twist on an enormous platter. But what I’ve found these past months is that its impact is much larger than I anticipated. By just removing sugar I’ve eliminated almost all food cravings — my lifelong shifts into “cookie monster” mode where I would overeat at certain meals, feel heavy and gross, and then make resolutions to do better tomorrow, have completely disappeared with just this one change…

I’ve held back from writing about sugar because I find it’s kind of a touchy topic, but the impact on my life has been so dramatic I figured I would share in the spirit that someone reading this might also find it helpful. I wish I had known this a few decades ago…

Sugar is everywhere

“What if I just stop eating sugar” - that was the prompt that popped into my head one morning. “What if I just do this for a while and see how it goes?”

It’s not that crazy an idea - basically all diets have “no sugar” as one of their core tenets and nobody I know has ever said “sugar is good for you.” But sugar is usually one in the long list of things that one should be aware of or change when eating healthily.

What I’ve started to think after months of not eating sugar, is that this “one among many” thesis is wrong. Sugar isn’t just one-among-equals in a list of things things to watch out for - it’s probably the most important…

The first thing I learned when I started my experiment was that I was eating sugar in ways that I didn’t realize. By “sugar” I mean processed sugar that you find on foods: in other words, if you look at the ingredients and it says “sugar” (and its variants) then that counts. I thought I was already eating well since I don’t really eat that many processed foods and I didn’t eat that many sweets. What was there to remove?

It turns out that sugar was all throughout my diet. I call it “Little Sugar” and it was sneaking in through all the cracks… That roll of “Dave’s Killer Bread” I was bought from the store - the one that says “healthy” all over it — it has sugar. The ketchup I would put on my chicken breast - full of sugar. Sriracha I would use to add flavor? Also full of sugar. The dressing that the restaurant uses for my healthy salad? Full of sugar. What the hell was going on?

Sugar is omnipresent. It’s not just the ice cream desert - it’s also in the appetizer, the entree, the side dish and the condiments. I was eating sugar multiple times a meal, every meal, every single day… Which would be fine if it wasn’t also causing me go into cookie monster mode and having an enormous impact on my mood and wellbeing.

Sugar begets sugar

What I’ve now realized after many months is that sugar begets more sugar: once I eat it (even in small portions) my body then gets hungry and wants to eat more - even if I’m full... I’m not a doctor and won’t pretend I understand all the cascade of biochemical reactions that happen with sugar (you can see that at this link instead), but at an experiential level, I am now fully conscious of the fact that just eating a little sugar during a meal completely changes the course of my eating behaviors the rest of the day. In other words, a little bit of sugar will then make it more likely I eat even more sugar later…

The counterfactual to this is what I see now without sugar: at the end of a meal it’s way easier to just stop eating and not get hunger cravings before my next meal. My weight also doesn’t yo-yo and my mood remains more equanimous.

The other implication of “sugar begetting sugar” is that then the issue with losing weight and eating better is less one of willpower but more about avoiding the cookie monster cascade. It’s not about “just do better, try harder and eat healthier” - that can of course help, but ultimately it doesn’t address the underlying trigger; The main reason I would go cookie monster was that I was eating sugar!

While this might seem obvious to some, the more I’ve chatted with people about it the more I realize it’s a radical proposition.

We treat ourselves with sugar. We put sugar in everything. Sugar is how we say “good job,” it’s how we say “I love you,” it’s how we say “fun”, it’s how we say “relax...” Sugar is how a mother shows love to her children, it’s how camps get people excited, it’s how I bribe my children to do things… It’s so deeply part of my world that not eating sugar is maybe the craziest thing I do (and I do a lot of quirky things)...

So where does this leave me?

It’s month four without eating sugar most days. The only real exceptions are when I find something that would be truly spectacular and it’s a special group event — going to an incredible ice cream shop on vacation for example, or eating something someone made with love... Overall, I now think of sugar more as a controlled substance - in the same group as coffee or alcohol. Something to be consumed with caution but mostly avoid.

Will this last? If I look back in a year, will I think differently? Will the Cookie Monster return? Perhaps… But for now, feeling good every day is hard to beat.

PS - If you’re interested in learning more, I found this post from someone sugar free for 30 years quite helpful.

PPS - From the comments: “I think you may be fascinated by the research of Dr. Richard Johnson as it really explains the biological drivers, processes and pathways - his most recent book "Nature Wants Us to Be Fat" has a wealth of good information - he also has been on a few podcasts and videos. Sugar is indeed a huge issue - but that is primarily because of fructose. It's part of our 'survival switch' - fructose in large quantities causes animals to store fat - hence hibernating bears will gorge on hundreds of pounds of ripe fruit to trigger fat gain. The other switch would be dehydration - as fat can be used to provide water while hibernating/not drinking (i.e. a camel's humps). And that trigger would be the salt concentration levels - i.e. eating salty food very fast will trigger fat storage (via triggering the body to turn glucose into fructose). Umami may also be a trigger but we eat much less of that. Most interesting and applicable thing I have found is that what matters is the CONCENTRATION of salt and fructose hitting your liver/bloodstream. So if you are planning on eating that tasty burger and/or fries, drink a full glass of water right before and throughout eating so the salt concentration does not change. With sugar/fructose/high glycemic carbs if you are eating them at all eat slowly and combine with things that slow digestion (i.e. proteins, fats, fiber). This of course means things like drinking High Fructose Corn Syrup quickly (i.e. Soda) about the worst thing you could possibly do (unless you are intentionally trying to trigger your survival instincts to gain fat). I can't possibly do this justice in a short comment but it's really super fascinating and applicable to every day life. I've noticed remarkable improvements personally.”