I’m trying to give up sugar now and it’s worse than giving up smoking so far and almost exactly the same feeling for me, inability to sleep, joint pains, headache, disorientation, mood swings and so on (obviously hunger too). I had a small amount of mass produced bread with stew for dinner and the bread was insanely sweet in a way that can only be described as like a fix for a drug addict - pure pleasure - but it was so extreme that I think any bread is out too until I’m able to break my addiction.
I LOVE sugar. I can easily eat two pints of ice cream in one sitting. When working, I can consume ungodly amounts of sugar to keep my mind running. When my blood sugar would get low, I would literally eat 3 snickers bars out of sheer desperation. I started doing a keto diet to lose a little weight, and it's actually been extremely easy. Apparently, having a high fat, low carb diet causes hormones to be released that suppress appetite and sugar cravings. I really would enjoy eating some sugar, as I miss the food I love, but I don't have a single craving.
The craving for sugar is so difficult to resist as well, and low sugar attractive food is hard to find. And as soon as you have to eat socially with a partner, friends, family etc it basically becomes impossible to avoid sugar because the only way to do it is basically handcraft your own diet.
I used to drink sugared beverages constantly (Coke, Snapple). Just stopped one day. Replace the Snapple with unsweetened iced tea and add just a dash of lemonade. Today years later if I try a Snapple I find it disgustingly cloying and overly sweet. So it's quite possible to retrain your palate. That and a square of dark chocolate are all I need - the darker, the less sugar.
