sugar addict seeking for help

[heartie]

i've always had this awfully strong passion for sweet things, perhaps from having been raised by a pastry chef and permanently being able to eat embarrassing amounts of sugar throughout childhood. i have always seriously been one of those people who could eat cake for breakfast, chocolate for lunch and candy for dinner,even if it made them feel miserable.
however, even if my sweet tooth was pretty bad before being a vegan, now it's downright uncontrollable.i'm not blaming the diet, in any way, being a vegan is absolutely great but it has brought about many changes in my life and the circumstances just somehow lead to my being a pathetic sugar addict.
when i binge eat , it's almost always something obscenely sweet.preferably both sweet and fatty. or pasta .or rice. you get where i'm going here. no meal feels complete without having something sweet afterwards. if i lived on my own i could surely control what was in the house and not be tempted to eat stuff that is bad for me but that is not the case. and if something vegan and really tempting is around i WILL end up eating it. many of you probably know where i'm coming from, i don't know.
i've just been pretty disappointed with myself lately.i know this way of living is terrible for my health but just that fact doesn't seem to motivate me enough. like for example, knowing the facts of the meat industry was good enough incentive for me to just stop eating meat altogether and never ever consider touching it with my lips again. it's horrible but in reality i don't care about myself enough.
i guess i just want to hear something encouraging right now. perhaps if you've had this issue yourself and you've overcome it, you could share your story? or share a solution you think could work? for all of us looking for that magical thing that will finally stop us from craving sugar.

[Lentils]

What about sweet fruits such as strawberries? Fresh ones are so sweet that they almost make me cringe, they'd probably just hit the spot for you though!

[CoolCat]

Since recently stevia has been approved for consumption by the EU. Maybe try some products made with stevia? And/or get some stevia to try baking with it yourself? Unlike artificial sweeteners this one comes from a plant that is much sweeter than sugar from beet/cane.

[Muvesz]

You could replace your normal sugary snacks with healthier alternatives. Use less sugar in your foods. Switch the sugars you cook with from processed to raw cane sugar, coconut sugar, stevia, etc.
I used to have a pretty nasty sweet tooth, as well. Now, when I get that craving, I stop for a minute and think about how I am going to feel after I eat something unhealthy.
I only eat sugar (not including fruits, of course) maybe once a week now.

[Firestorm]

There is a company in the UK (Natural Balance Foods) that makes raw food bars. I'm not sure if you can get these or similar products where you live, but raw food bars tend to be quite sweet without actually having sugar in (except for raw chocolate). I know that other countries have similar products such as Larabars so there might be something like this that you could try.

[heartie]

@Lentils - I don't find strawberries that sweet at all..even at their sweetest . I could probably eat sugar with a spoon and not necessarily think that it's too sweet, to give you an idea of what I'm dealing with

@CoolCat- I haven't seen stevia at all in our supermarkets. but again, even tofu is difficult to find where I live right now.they only sell one brand. Romania is not a good country to be a poor vegan student at all. huuuge meat eating culture. not to mention the dairy

@Muvesz -
I'm happy to hear about your success, gives me hope that it's possible to overcome this :]
Thing is, I am an 18 year old high school student living with her grandmother. When I went vegan (waaay back, 6 months ago ) I had this deal with her that I would do all my cooking for myself and buy all my food myself, just so I wouldn't burden her and could better control what I put into my body (because no offence but even if she is old she was absolutely clueless about veganism. I on the other hand, had done research and had been strongly interested in it for over a year).
My budget is extremely small , so I can barely afford the things I NEED. I never, ever, buy unhealthy things or sugary things that I know will make me want to eat huge quantities of them (I mostly buy produce, as a matter of fact) nor have I ever cooked with sugar.
My grandmother on the other hand means well but she is certainly not helping me and she doesn't seem to think I have a sugar problem. She keeps buying processed (and probably expensive) crap that I really don't need , thinking that she's doing me a favour (there is sugar in EVERYTHING, including the apparently non-sugary things. tomato sauce,canned corn etc.). And I just can't help myself when these things are in the house. I just feel like i NEED to eat them and get it over with so I can no longer think about them. I don't understand why, but my already ferocious sweet tooth went BOOM when I went vegan.
Also whenever she sees that I'm out of food she keeps cooking for me, which is something I get angry about all the time. Angry at her because she can't respect my choice and let me handle situations on my own and angry at myself because I keep eating whatever she makes ,out of convenience, regardless of how Taste-First-Nutrition-Last it is, and simply for the fact that it would go to waste otherwise.She gets pretty upset if I refuse to eat what she makes or if I tell her to stop buying things and let me deal with my eating . I know that she probably wouldn't buy or prepare things anymore had I just stopped eating whatever hasn't been brought by me in the house . It seems like I am blaming her here but I am aware that I am the problem, truly.Just felt the need to share all these things because I'm frustrated. I simply hate myself sometimes for not being a more picky eater and having such little self restraint . sorry for the super long reply.

[Blueberries]

Heya Heartie, it sounds like you're quite stressed and dealing with a difficult situation. I know once you're dealing with relatives it gets complicated and all I can do is reassure you that it won't always be that way, as you say once you live on your own you'll have more control over what food is accessable to you.

Also, just to add- You say that your grandmother doesn't think you have a sugar problem. To be honest I think that most people don't except that sugar is addictive, even though diabetes is becoming an epidemic in the developed world.

[markusaurelius]

When I think of sugar I think of my tooth cavities and all the amalgam fillings that I've had over the years and how much that mercury is poisoning my body every time I eat.

[Lissy]

I know where your at, I use to eat sugar, especially in soda form like crazy! I now have very little sugar, and don't even drink soda anymore. I find the best thing to do is to go with just about none (or as little as possible) for 3 weeks, this will clear your pallet, and you shouldn't be so addicted anymore. I know this can be really hard, but its worth it. When you do the 3 weeks I find the fruit helps because it is naturally sweet.

[Vertigo]

Fellow sugar addict here. I've managed to quit drinking, smoking, and animal products, but I have never quite managed to quit sugar. The most success I've ever had were at times when I surrounded myself with as much negative information about sugar as possible. So I suggest reading lots studies about sugar's effects on the body (brain, teeth, and immune system, for example) and about the labor practices sometimes used in sugar production. It's even been suggested that the sugar-harvesting machinery kills many animals, disproportionately many compared to most plant food.

Hope this helps!

[-spacemermaid~]

This sugar adiction thing is important to me too. . i'm quite worried . a montth ago i used to eat vanila icing whenever iw anted someonething sweet ( whuch kind of contradicts in a way something i likeabout being a vegan which is , you can't just go and get a random chocolate bar/ sweet because hardly nothing is. but i just used to eat icing like eVERY DAY! i used to crave ut alot , and i'd always feel hyperactive . But
i think i've made little improvments. i haven't eaten any icing suger for weeks now. okay , it was pancake day yesterday and i had abit of left over chocolate so i ate that. but sometiems i get worried because one i ate sugar a few weeks ago and i started like.. sweatting !. that scared the shit out of me especially becaus ediabeties runs in my dads side! and ithink aout it alot an i really want to ween myself off of suger almos completely. now i ahve to tackle my next problem. bread!. i do love fruit though and i lovee sweet potato o_o thats a great sweet thing which is actually savory. and i like peppers and kale and cabbage etc etc ( apart from sprouts :/ lol ..i still hate them) sometiems when i make cakes i try to put less suger in . I also try to get my mum to get agave and it says it doens't giev you "highs and lows of sugar" . so hope you think i'm doing okay. but i sw you said you don't think strawberries re that seet. I actually found that the elss sugar i ate.. the more sweet i think something is. like now amounts of suger i used to eat just seem sickening to me. i feel you on this. and i hope you had/ continue to have or whereever you are wth it now, had some success.

[Peabrain]

Yeah I'm a sugar addict... A recovering one that is... I quit it 14 years ago as I had a serious binge eating problem, and at first I thought I was going mad with the withdrawals, but after only 3 days I started to feel better again... The thing about sugar itself is, that it "blunts" your taste (I don't know if it's the taste buds themselves or your brain's way of processing tastes), so at first nothing seems very yummy in comparison, but then you find it all starts getting better, even spicy foods like curries are more tasty and salty things too! So sweet fruits become a good alternative after you get used to the new sense of taste you have. And like spacemermaid, the taste of refines sugar actually seems much less appealing (to me it even tastes quite chemical now)... having said all that, i can still be a bit of a sweet tooth so i have to be sparing with raisins or one particular naturally sweetened banana cake that i like... But nothing like before where I'd eat huge mounds of choccies at once.