Welcome to ‘Dear Laura’ - a monthly column where I fashion myself as an agony aunt and answer the questions that readers submit. If you’d like to send in a question for me to answer next month, you can submit it here.
I’m happy to answer Qs about anti-diet nutrition, developing a more peaceful relationship to food and weight-inclusive health, annoying diet trends and news stories, body image challenges, and, of course, challenges with feeding your kiddos. Please give as much detail as you’re comfortable with and let me know if you’d like me to include your name or keep it anon.
Please remember that these answers are for educational purposes only and are not a substitute for medical or nutritional advice; please speak to your GP or a qualified nutrition professional if you need further support.
This month we have two questions - let's take a look at the first: one about 'sugar addiction' and another about how important is it to expose kids to new foods. Let's go!
Dear Laura, I almost always want to eat something sweet (usually chocolate) after dinner. Does that mean I'm addicted to sugar?
Alright, so there isn’t a ton of detail here so it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on for this person. But I think it’s pretty interesting how we’ve internalised the idea that wanting something sweet after a meal is tantamount to an addiction when the concept of a sweet dessert has been around *checks notes* forever? Ok, so maybe not forever, but, I think it’s safe to say it’s been a while.
I've talked about the contested idea of ‘food addiction’ before, so I‘ll refer you to that for a more detailed exploration of the evidence. But in my experience, what can often feel like an addiction or a compulsion to food is, at least in part, a byproduct of restriction. When we don’t let ourselves eat foods that bring us pleasure – or we swap it for poor imitations of what we actually want to eat, like diet, low-carb, or sugar-free versions of our favourite food – our cravings dial up. Ditto when we try to control our calories or macros in order to manipulate our bodies into a smaller size. The physical restriction, combined with the psychological ‘forbidden fruit’ effect, is a one-two punch that often leaves us feeling unsatisfied and before we know it we’re at the bottom of a tub of Ben and Jerry’s or elbow deep in the Pringles tube (not a judgement). This often gets mislabelled as ‘addiction’, but can usually be traced back to trying to micromanage food and our bodies; i.e. the opposite of intuitive eating.
