- My blood sugar rises more quickly and highly than ‘normal’ people when I eat any type of refined carbohydrate which causes an abnormal ‘high’ and then an abnormal ‘low’ soon after.

- I have lower levels of endogenous beta endorphin and therefore react much more to exogenous factors that trigger its release; namely to simple carbohydrates. In other words, I don’t make much of my own, so my body goes a bit crazy when it gets some from an outside source.

- I don’t naturally produce ‘normal’ levels of serotonin, leading to poor mood, depression and poor impulse control.

Although there are emotional causes as well, my allergy to refined carbohydrates has been a huge factor in my long history of eating disorders and I’ve become chemically dependent on sugar to make me feel anywhere normal, and need huge amounts to get any effect. The trouble is, I somehow manage to trick myself into believing there’s nothing wrong with me and ‘irrationalize’ that chocolate/white pasta etc won’t hurt me and yet it does…every time.

As far as I know, I don’t have diabetes (yet) but my average daily intake of refined sugar was about 140g, and that’s just the sugar on it’s own- I’m not een counting all the simple carbs in bread and pasta etc I was eating.