Perfect Hunger: The Sugar Edition
From a Doctor of Chinese Medicine who once ate Frosted Flakes topped with microwaved marshmallows for breakfast
Perfect Hunger is a new, twice-monthly series delivering bite-sized nourishment and heart-sourced guidance on food, body, wellness, and spirit. You can upgrade your subscription for full access here:
This series might be new, but I’m already so encouraged by the comments and emails I’ve received. Hearing that you feel seen, understood, and cared for—that this work deeply resonates with you, that you love the Yin-Yang approach, and that the guidance I’m offering aligns with how some of you have healed from autoimmune disease or other health challenges—means the world to me. Thank you for sharing your stories and being part of this journey.
And to those of you who share in the comments, please know your words are helping others feel seen and less alone—even if their experiences aren’t exactly the same as yours. By opening up (which is always optional, of course), you’re also helping me shape this series to better support you.
This week, I want to highlight a comment and question from Margaret in the last Perfect Hunger issue, 5 “food rules” for feeling better. Margaret writes:
“I find these ‘rules’ so valuable. As someone in my sixties who’s struggled with emotional eating and disordered eating, I’m working on listening to my body and cutting back on sugar. Any suggestions for overcoming sugar addiction and the all-or-nothing mindset?”
Concern around sugar addiction has never been greater, so I know Margaret isn’t the only one engaging in this place of exploration and practice. Today, I want to share what helped me find freedom from sugar addiction and how I’ve supported clients with sugar cravings as a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor.
I’ll also walk you through a hard reset on sugar, a powerful way to recalibrate your cravings and discover how much better you can feel. Whether you’re struggling with sugar, refined carbs, or any food that seems irresistible but ultimately leaves you worse off, these steps and tips are designed to help you reclaim your body as refuge and create lasting change.
A note on my qualifications & an advice disclaimer: In addition to completing a five-year Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine program and passing licensing board exams in both the United States and Canada, I pursued additional training in ancestral health and nutrition to become a Certified Primal Health Coach. I also developed the curriculum for and taught in the inaugural Holistic Nutrition Program at Kootenay Columbia College of Integrative Health Sciences. Additionally, I served as an instructor and Dean of Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine at Pacific Rim College, home to one of the largest Chinese Medicine programs in North America.
As a licensed healthcare professional, I cannot give individual-specific medical or dietary advice without conducting a full intake and having the client sign consent and privacy waivers. While what follows may feel like good medicine, it’s not prescriptive or medical advice.
My story with sugar
In my twenties, eating and my relationship with food was a far cry from the nourishing, nutrient-rich experience it is today. Back then, my diet revolved around sugar, counting calories, and limiting fat… I gave scant regard to nutrition.
Breakfast? A heaping bowl of Frosted Flakes topped with microwaved marshmallows, a side of chocolate chip cookies, and a 16-ounce Diet Coke. Lunch? More cereal drenched in skim milk and Sweet’N Low, another Diet Coke, and a Snickers bar. Dinner? A frozen veggie burger paired with Frosted Pop-Tarts and—you guessed it—yet another Diet Coke.
I was a runner, a straight-A grad student, and vegetarian. Great on paper, but I felt awful. I was full-on addicted to sugar, refined carbs, and artificial sweeteners.
It wasn’t until my thirties that I realized something truly shocking: I didn’t even enjoy Diet Coke! I didn’t even like the drink I was consuming three times a day! What’s more, I found Frosted Flakes and Pop-Tarts pretty disgusting. All that excess sugar, the lingering aftertaste, the frenetic highs that left me moody and crashing… when I stopped to think about it, I discovered I hated it.
What I actually craved, I began to realize, was the momentary relief and numbed-out comfort of consuming something familiar—even if it made me feel miserable. The turning point came when I could no longer ignore how awful I felt. My body was sending me constant signals: I struggled with adult-onset acne, hadn’t had my period in years, battled severe insomnia, and was chronically exhausted, depressed, and anxious. On top of that, I dealt with frequent illnesses and slow-healing injuries.
One day, after yet another sleepless night and a breakfast that left me crashing and weepy by mid-morning, it hit me: This isn’t normal. This doesn’t have to be this way. The sugar highs and lows, the endless Diet Cokes, the ultra-processed meals, the calorie counting and trying to “run off” what I’d consumed—these weren’t just habits; they were part of a deeply harmful, profoundly addictive cycle.
Similar to my process of quitting alcohol years later, changing my relationship with food didn’t happen the moment I acknowledged a problem. Long before I made any real changes, I immersed myself in learning. Alongside my five years of formal Chinese Medicine studies, I began scouring paleo-primal sites online—devouring functional nutrition science and personal stories of people who’d overhauled their diets, their health, and their lives. For much of this time, I read and researched, but it was all theoretical. Eventually, though, the dissonance between what I knew and how I was eating reached a tipping point: I was tired of reading, learning, and planning. I was ready to commit—to finally do something different.
The first step was quitting Diet Coke and artificial sweeteners. Next, I started making small shifts, like swapping sugary and ultra-processed foods for slightly healthier options, such as rice bowls for dinner. But the real breakthrough came when I committed to a Whole30—eliminating all grains, added sugars, highly processed foods, and alcohol for 30 days. That experience was transformative in body, mind, and behavior. Afterwards, I stayed mostly grain-free and minimized sugar for the next decade. I felt so good, and I was enjoying my new way of eating so much, why not continue?
These days, my meals are built around quality protein, fresh produce, and a small amount of plain, high-fat dairy. Over the past decade of eating this way, I’ve developed metabolic flexibility and resilience, allowing me to enjoy a little bit of almost anything without reigniting the cravings and bingeing-restricting cycles of my past. My taste buds and physiology have recalibrated: not only do I consume minimal sugar and refined carbs, but I don’t want them most of the time. In fact, I’ve developed an aversion to eating anything—sugar included—to excess.
I love eating more than ever, and I feel better than I ever have.
It’s true: I still love eating! Meals are a highlight of my day. The difference is that I now crave food that makes me feel good—both in the moment and afterwards.
The results of the past fifteen years speak for themselves. Now nearing 50, I have a regular and easy monthly period, my skin is clear, and I rarely struggle with insomnia. When injuries or illnesses occur, they heal quickly. I have more energy, physical strength, mental clarity, and optimism than I did in my twenties. While these benefits—far more than how my body looks—are what keep me motivated, the truth is, I genuinely love eating this way and can’t imagine going back to how I ate before.
For me, getting to this place required a hard reset.
If I wanted to find freedom from sugar addiction and to stop compulsively swinging between bingeing and restricting, practices like “moderation” and “intuitive eating” weren’t going to get me there. The way I’d been eating derailed my internal signaling system, and I had to abstain from certain foods until sugar, artificial sweeteners, and refined carbs were no longer hijacking my body, mind, and behavior. During that time, I also had to start eating the high-quality protein and fats I was desperately needing.
My point here is this: what would it look like to get really honest with ourselves about whether moderation is actually working? Is it helping us feel better? Is it moving us closer to where we want to be with our body, our mind, and our health?
If not, trying a “hard reset” approach—even for a set period like a week or month—can be an eye-opening, transformative practice. A hard reset on sugar, for example, can help break the cycle of cravings, recalibrate your taste buds, and give your body a chance to recover from the rollercoaster of highs and lows. Otherwise, we risk staying stuck in the same painful cycle without ever knowing what’s possible.
Note: I trust you to take care of yourself, and I hope it goes without saying: if you feel that anything I’m discussing or proposing here or anywhere else in this newsletter is not a good fit for you and your body, please skip it. That said, I do want to be honest that, for me, what I’m describing was central to healing from eating disorders, including binge eating but also anorexia and exercise addiction, while becoming far healthier both physically and mentally in a way that’s been easy and enjoyable to sustain. I reached this place while on a very low income, without money for optional lab tests, supplements, programs, coaches, or doctors. While certain “eating parameters” or ways of eating won’t be for everyone, for others, they are life changing and even life saving. In certain circles online, I feel as though naming that (or even talking about “healthy eating and living”) has become taboo. This is demeaning, disempowering, and causing much harm. Today and always in this space, please take care and take what you need. In taking care of ourselves, we’re better resourced to show up for others.
This Week’s Practice: A Hard Reset on Sugar
If you’re ready to shift your relationship with sugar, this week’s practice is for you. For a set period of time, I invite you to eliminate all added sugars and refined carbs, and pay close attention to how your body and mind respond. You might be surprised by what you discover—and by how much better you feel.
To support you in this experiment, I’m sharing the steps that helped me break free from sugar addiction and transform my health. These strategies are rooted in my personal experience over two decades, my training as a Chinese Medicine doctor, and my work with clients. They’re designed to help you reset your habits, recalibrate your cravings, and discover what truly nourishes you.
Five steps that transformed my relationship with sugar and food: