A first-person account of severe sugar addiction and its links to chronic back pain; the speaker describes overcoming cravings by replacing added sugar with fruit (notably blueberries), which helped reduce dependence on sugary foods and improve pain-related functioning.
I was more addicted to sugar than anyone I know. The donuts used to talk to me from the break room. I couldn't walk by the nurse's station without grabbing a handful of M&MS. Or licorice. But here's the thing. I was in chronic pain. I had so much back pain, I could barely walk away from the OR table after surgery. It was killing me. You know what I did? I swapped out sugar for fruit. And fruit didn't feel very sugary to me at the beginning, but I kept eating it. I ate so many BL blueberries, I thought it was going to turn blue. But it really helped me to break up with sugar.
