Is Sugar as Addicting as This Drug?!

Scott: I think we all know sugar's bad.  Do we really know the extent of it, of how bad it really is, or how much we actually consume?

Holly Lucille: Well, we are consuming, the average person actually consumes their body weight, and then some, in a year now.  That's these days, alright?  In pounds of sugar.  And it used to be about one to two pounds.  This is refined sugar, this isn't natural sugar.  Because when you're looking at natural sugar, that's blended with the other phyto or plant nutrients, the fibers, all those minerals.  And it helps your body assimilate that sugar better.  But this refined, added sugar?  It's really nasty and I'll tell you why.  Because we do get addicted.  It absolutely affects the dopamine receptors in our brain.  And when we don't have it there is withdrawal, there is craving.  And so... and it's almost as bad as cocaine or heroin.  You want more of it in order to sustain what you first got as that nice relief when you know, you sort of binged on it the first time.  So I think it's pretty nasty and I think it's a problem. 

Nutritionally valueless.  And empty calories.  So high in calories, and low in nutrients.  Probably one of the worst things for you. 

Scott:  Yeah.  And it's another thing where you really have to read labels.  If you're going for foods that are, most people think healthy, like I used an example yesterday, yogurt.  It's got yogurt, it's got blueberries on the bottom.  It's got to be healthy for me right?  And then you look at the label and it's just the opposite. 

Lucille:  Yeah.  And that's why I think it's so important that we start really trying to get consumers to use their own mind.  Because...it sounds good when you say it really fast, and certainly yogurt with fruit on the bottom, but yep, that's a whopping dose of sugar usually and it's got some other additives there that might not be doing you any good.

Scott: So a lot of people will think I'll skip the sugar, because I'll have product XYZ that has artificial sugar in it so it's got low calories or no calories.  Are those just as bad?

Lucille:  Well, they are because of what they do in your body, and I'll tell you what.  Your body doesn't know that you're not having sugar.  It thinks that you're having sugar.  So it responds like you're having sugar.  That taste on your tongue.  Even if you see, there's a phallic stage of digestion.  Even if you see pastries or smell them, your enzymes and that insulin starts to get going, it's ready for that sugar to come down.  Here's the problem.  Insulin is released, in response to hey, sugar's coming.  There's no sugar.  So insulin's like where's the sugar?  Where's the sugar?  I'm supposed to process this sugar.  And then you get insulin that's got no where to go.  And where does it go?  Belly fat.  It goes to belly fat.  And also, it makes you more hungry.