I don’t know about you, but I love sweets. They taste so good it’s hard to imagine that they could be one of the major causes of panic attacks. My parents live in Orlando and there’s a place in downtown Winter Park called The Briar Patch that makes homemade cakes and ice cream. Mind you, the slices of cake are the size of your head. My two all-time favorite sugary indulgences? Bananas foster, set on fire right next to the table and dribbled down to my waiting ice cream. And of course, homemade red velvet cake.

One time when we the Briarpatch, I swallowed a little too much red velvet cake. For the next couple of days I was so on edge that the slightest thing would almost incite me to panic. Really. Here’s an important fact: refined sugar is one of the three most horrible things you can ingest if you’re sensitive to panic attacks.

There are a number of causes of panic attacks such as: how much stress is in your life, the amount of rest you are getting, your current physical condition, what you eat, and your psychological health. These all factor in to what degree you might suffer from panic attacks. Since we’re talking about diet, let’s go over the three worst things you can swallow. They are caffeine, alcohol, and sugar. I’ve written other articles where I go into detail about caffeine and alcohol. Here we are going to focus on sugar, but know you should stay away from the other two even without all the details right now.

So why is sugar so bad? Sure sugar does taste great but its loaded with negligible ingredients and has empty calories. Sadly, sugar also raises blood lactate levels which lends itself directly to instability. Imagine this: you eat a bunch of sugar and you become hyperactive. Now you are emotionally unbalanced. And where you may have normally had a shot of talking yourself down off the ledge when you started to get that anxious feeling, now you’re almost a slave to your blood sugar level and will more likely fall off the ledge.

Though there may literally be hundreds of things that can trigger a panic attack, the root cause is usually the same thing – our thoughts. Typically we’ll lose control of a thought then our bodies react in that dreaded flight or fight response that we recognize as a panic attack. Luckily, modifying our diet can make our bodies less sensitive. The benefits you’ll enjoy by limiting the amount of refined sugar in your diet are twofold. The first benefit is that you will be less anxious and therefore less likely to have a panic attack. The second benefit is that by consciously taking a step to stop panic attacks by limiting the sugar in your diet, you have taken control. In your mind YOU KNOW that you are no longer as susceptible to panic attacks. Because panic attacks are primarily mental, simply believing that you can’t have a panic attack is super powerful.

So should you quit eating refined sugars altogether? If you can, why not? Now the market is full of sugar free alternatives. Mind you, many of them come with their own list of health hazards, but I’ve only heard good things about Stevia so far. If quitting refined sugars cold turkey is too much for you to handle, do your best to seriously limit them. By eliminating dietary causes of panic attacks, you’ll see a profound difference in your health, appearance, and mood. Take back control of your life!

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