When it's more than cravings

This site is built for the craving majority. This page is for everyone else, and for anyone who isn't sure which group they're in.

Almost everything on Satisfying Plate rests on one idea: for most people, sugar cravings are not a character flaw. They're the predictable result of a blood sugar cycle that keeps getting kicked off by meals with too little protein and fiber. Fix the meals, and the cravings loosen their grip. That's the honest story for most of us, and it's the story this whole site tells.

But it isn't the story for everyone. For some people the pull toward sugar runs deeper than the blood sugar cycle, and no amount of "just add more protein" is going to touch it. If that's you, being handed another plate-building tip isn't help. It's a delay.

So this page exists to point you somewhere better. Coming here isn't giving up on the approach. It's using the right tool for what's actually going on.

How do you tell the difference?

You can't do it from a website, and that includes this one. Our quiz can't do it either. But there are patterns worth paying attention to, and they're worth a conversation with someone qualified:

  • The pull keeps its grip even during stretches when you're eating well and sleeping enough
  • You eat in secret, or hide wrappers, or feel dread about someone noticing
  • You've tried to cut back many times and can't, and each attempt ends the same way
  • There's real shame or distress wrapped around it, not just frustration
  • It's affecting your relationships, your work, or your health, and you keep going anyway
  • You find yourself eating past the point of physical discomfort on a regular basis

None of that is a diagnosis, and seeing yourself in this list doesn't mean the worst. It means it's worth asking someone who can actually assess you. That's a reasonable thing to do, and it's a lot cheaper than another five years of trying harder on your own.

Eating disorder support in Canada

If any of the above rings true, or if your relationship with food has started to feel frightening rather than frustrating, start here. This is the first call to make, and it's free.

NEDIC, the National Eating Disorder Information Centre
Helpline: 1-866-633-4220 (1-866-NEDIC-20)
Online chat available through their site. Hours vary by day, and both chat and phone are listed on their contact page.

NEDIC is a national, free, non-judgmental service. They give information, support, and referrals, and you do not need a diagnosis, a referral, or a crisis to call them. You're allowed to call just because you're worried.

Specialists in food and sugar addiction

Food addiction is a contested area. Not every clinician accepts the framing, the research is still developing, and you'll find serious people on both sides of it. We're not going to pretend that debate is settled. These are two people who have worked in this specific area for a long time and who are worth knowing about.

Dr. Vera Tarman
A Canadian family physician and ABAM-accredited addiction medicine practitioner, and Medical Director at Renascent in Toronto. She has worked in addiction medicine for decades and writes and speaks specifically about food addiction. Her site has talks, articles, and a podcast.

Bitten Jonsson
A Swedish registered nurse with around forty years in addiction medicine, and the person behind the SUGAR assessment, a structured clinical interview for sugar and processed food addiction built on DSM-5 and ICD-11 criteria. Worth noting: SUGAR is a professional tool administered by certified practitioners, so it isn't something you can sit down and take yourself. Her site is in English and lists practitioners trained in her method.

Books

Food Junkies: Recovery from Food Addiction by Dr. Vera Tarman with Phil Werdell (revised second edition, Dundurn Press). The most accessible starting point if you want to understand the food addiction model properly rather than through headlines. It's honest about what's known and what isn't.

Peer support groups

These are free, worldwide, and run by people in recovery rather than clinicians. That's their strength and also their limit. They're mutual support, not assessment, not treatment, and not crisis care. Plenty of people use them alongside professional help rather than instead of it.

A fair warning, since we'd rather you hear it here: the abstinence framing in these groups doesn't suit everyone, and for some people it can make things worse rather than better, particularly if you have an eating disorder history. If you're not sure, talk to NEDIC or your doctor before you go.

Prediabetes and blood sugar

If our prediabetes article struck a nerve, these are the next steps, and they're better than anything we can offer:

  • Diabetes Canada, prediabetes information, the national charity's own plain-language explanation.
  • CANRISK, a validated risk questionnaire from the Government of Canada. Diabetes Canada points people to it too. It's a screening tool, not a diagnosis, and only bloodwork ordered by your doctor can tell you where you actually stand.

If you want to know your numbers, ask your doctor for an A1C test. It's a routine blood test, and knowing is better than wondering.

Finding a dietitian

A registered dietitian is the person who can do what this site structurally cannot: look at your actual history, your bloodwork, and your medications, and give you advice built for you. If you can access one, that beats any website, including this one.

Find a Dietitian, the public directory from Dietitians of Canada. It's free to search.

One honest caveat: that directory is mostly private practice, and those visits usually aren't covered by provincial health insurance, though many workplace benefit plans do cover them. There are free routes too. Ask your family doctor for a referral, check your local public health unit, or look into your province's Diabetes Education Programs, which often include dietitian access at no cost.

If you're in crisis

If you're having thoughts of harming yourself, please don't sit with it alone. In Canada and the United States, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide Crisis Helpline. It's free, confidential, available 24 hours a day, and in Canada it's bilingual. You can also go to your nearest emergency department.

About these referrals

We don't earn anything from anyone on this page. No affiliate links, no referral fees, no arrangements of any kind. These are here because they're the right places to send people, and that's the only reason.

Nothing here is medical advice, and this page doesn't diagnose anything. See our Medical Disclaimer for the full picture. If you know of a resource that belongs on this page, or you find one of these links has gone stale, please tell us.