This Popular Food Hijacks Your Brain's Reward Center Like Alcohol
and Drugs
The Truth About Sugar
December 12, 2015
Story at-a-glance
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High-sugar diets are the primary culprit in
skyrocketing obesity and type 2 diabetes rates, and
other chronic health problems associated with
insulin resistance
Cutting out added sugars can improve biomarkers
associated with health in as little as 10 days —
even when overall calorie count and percentage of
carbohydrates remains the same
Added sugars are pernicious in virtually all
processed foods. A package of sweet and sour chicken
with rice contains over 12 teaspoons, more than a
can of soda, and twice the daily recommended amount
of sugar
By Dr. Mercola
"The Truth About Sugar" features Cara Patterson, Rick
Shabilla, Audrey Cannon, and Simon Gallagher, who between them
consume nearly 120 teaspoons of sugar a day.
Refined sugar has become a dietary staple in most developed
nations, and many are at a loss as to how to avoid this
pernicious ingredient, which can be found in virtually every
processed food — typically in the form of
high-fructose corn syrup.
High-sugar diets are undoubtedly the primary culprit in
skyrocketing obesity and
type 2 diabetes rates and other chronic health problems
associated with insulin resistance.
For example, according to recent research1
presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific
Sessions 2015, obese children as young as 8 now display signs of
heart disease, and excessive sugar consumption right from birth
on is at the root of this trend.
Cutting out Sugar Is One of the Easiest and Fastest Ways to
Improve Your Health
"The Truth About Sugar," which aired on BBC One, aims to
"demystify some of the myths about sugar — namely, what food
products secretly contain it — and demonstrate the impact it can
make on your health if you reduce the amount you eat."
Three of the individuals in the film did indeed manage to
lose nearly 6 kilos (13 pounds) each after going on a low-sugar
diet — cutting their added sugar from an average of 23 to 39
teaspoons a day, down to 6 teaspoons, as recommended by the
World Health Organization (WHO).
Recent research2,3,4,5
has revealed that cutting out added sugars can improve
biomarkers associated with health in as little as 10 days
— even when overall calorie count and percentage of
carbohydrates remains the same.
The study, led by Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric
endocrinologist who has long argued that
added sugar is toxic when consumed in too-high amounts,
reduced the amount of added sugars from an average of 27 percent
of daily calories down to about 10 percent.
This is in line with the most recent recommendations by the
federal government's Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee,
issued in February.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also proposed
adding "added sugar" to the Nutrition Facts panel on processed
foods, set at 10 percent of total energy intake for a 2,000
calorie-a-day diet.
Dr. Lustig's research suggests such a labeling addition could
potentially make a big difference in people's health, provided
they read food labels.
Sugar Is Disguised Under Many Names
Many are simply unaware of just how much sugar they're
consuming. Added sugar oftentimes hides under other less
familiar names, such as dextrose, maltose, galactose, and
maltodextrin, for example.
According to SugarScience.org, added sugars hide in 74
percent of processed foods under more than 60 different names.
(For a full list, please see SugarScience.org's "Hidden in Plain
Sight" page.6)
Misled by shrewd advertisers, many are also still unaware of
how too much sugar can disrupt your health and well-being. As
previously reported by The New York Times:7
"The scientists who started SugarScience.org say they
have reviewed 8,000 independent clinical research articles
on sugar and its role in metabolic conditions that are some
of the leading killers of Americans, like heart disease,
Type 2 diabetes, and liver disease.
The link between sugar and chronic disease has
attracted increasing scientific scrutiny in recent years.
But many studies have provided conflicting conclusions, and
experts say part of the reason is that biased studies have
clouded the debate."
Industry Front Groups Work to Keep Sugar Hazards Secret
Indeed, the sugar-processed food and beverage industries have
fought hard to hide and downplay the health hazards associated
with sugar. Large sums of money have been spent to this end, and
scientific integrity has been tossed by the wayside in order to
convince you that sugar belongs in your diet.
Weight problems, they say, are due to inactivity — not
excessive sugar consumption. The
Global Energy Balance Network is one front group peddling
this misinformation, originally funded with millions of dollars
by none other than Coca-Cola.
But we are making progress as last week, due to all the
public exposure and negative press, the Global Energy Network
shut down.8
It was to counter profit-driven industry interests that
SugarScience.org9
was created. Run by dozens of scientists at three American
universities, this educational website makes independent
research available to the public, so if you want the real scoop
on what sugar does to your health, this is the place to look.
Refined Sugar Is All Energy and No Nutrition
When we talk about sugar, we're really including ALL sugars,
including honey, agave, table sugar, high-fructose corn syrup
(HFCS), and the natural fructose found in fresh-pressed fruit
juice and whole fruits.
However, refined sugar and
processed fructose are two of the worst, with fructose
having even worse health impacts than refined sugar. In the
film, biologist Marty Jopson, Ph.D., explains what makes refined
sugar so unhealthy.
Sugar cane and sugar beets are used in sugar production, as
these plants have high concentrations of sugar. The refining
process further increases that sugar concentration.
Since all the fiber, roughage, and most of the water is
removed, what's left — the refined sugar — is nothing but empty
calories (pure energy), completely devoid of nutrition. Should
you fail to use up all these calories through physical activity,
it will inevitably be stored as fat. And that's the problem with
eating some 30 teaspoons or more of refined sugar a day. You
simply cannot burn it all!
For example, to burn off the calories from one Snickers bar
you'd have to walk about five miles, and to offset a
one-soda-per-day habit — equivalent to about 10 teaspoons of
sugar — you have to walk one hour per day just to prevent
additional weight gain.
But it's not just candy, pastries and soda that are loaded
with added sugars. Savory foods contain it as well. As do most,
if not all condiments, and even infant formula and baby food.
How Much Sugar Do You Eat Each Day?
If you're like most people, you probably don't know the exact
answer to that question, and the reason for this is because it's
in virtually all processed food products, including
products you would never suspect would have added sugar in it.
For example, the film mentions that a serving of Pad Thai
noodles contains 9.5 teaspoons of sugar; a package of sweet and
sour chicken with rice contains 12.5 teaspoons (more than a can
of soda); and a can of baked beans contains 6 teaspoons of sugar
— which, remember, would ideally be your grand total for the
day!
The film goes on to discuss the science of addictive foods,
and how food manufacturers employ scientists to determine the
precise "bliss point" of each food, be it tomato sauce or chips.
This "bliss point" is achieved through combinations of sugar,
salt, and fat, plus proprietary additives and flavorings, as
detailed in my previous article "The
Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food."
One question raised is: were food manufacturers to take sugar
out of their foods completely, would we still buy them? The
answer is likely no, because without all these flavor additives,
of which sugar is more or less essential, many processed foods
would be unpalatable, as the processing removes much of the
natural flavors.
This is a problem relegated to the processed food industry.
You don't really have this problem when you're cooking from
scratch with whole foods, which are packed with natural flavors.
Then all you need is seasoning. Rarely, if ever would you
consider adding several teaspoons of sugar to a home-cooked
meal!
How Quickly Can a High-Sugar Diet Pack on Unwanted Pounds?
So, just how quickly can a high sugar diet like this pack on
extra pounds? To use Dr. Jopson's example, let's say you drink 3
cups of tea or coffee per day, and you add 2 teaspoons of sugar
to each cup. Let's also assume that you're not burning off that
extra sugar due to a sit-down job and leisure time inactivity.
At the end of one year, that sugar (6 teaspoons a day), would
turn into a whopping 4.5 kilos, or 9.9 pounds, of body fat.
When you consider that most consume five or six times more
sugar than that each day, it's easy to see how obesity has
become more the norm than the exception. One of the volunteers
featured in "The Truth About Sugar" had a body fat percentage of
51, and that's not unusual these days. A
body fat percentage of 32 and over is considered obese for
women, and anything above 25 percent falls in the obese category
for men.
What to Do If Your Body Fat Percentage Is Too High
It's important to realize that the benefits of reducing belly
fat go far beyond aesthetics. Abdominal fat — the
visceral fat that deposits around your internal organs —
releases proteins and hormones that can cause inflammation,
which in turn can damage arteries and enter your liver,
affecting how your body breaks down sugars and fats.
The chronic inflammation associated with visceral fat
accumulation can trigger a wide range of systemic diseases
linked with metabolic syndrome. This is why carrying extra
weight around your middle is linked to type 2 diabetes, heart
disease, strokes, and other chronic diseases, and why measuring
your waist-to-hip ratio is actually a better indicator of your
health status than body mass index (BMI).
For the majority of people, severely restricting
carbohydrates such as sugars, fructose, and grains in your diet
will be the key to weight loss. Refined carbohydrates like
breakfast cereals, bagels, waffles, pretzels, and most other
processed foods will raise your insulin levels and, over time,
cause insulin resistance, which is the No. 1 underlying factor
of nearly every chronic disease and condition known to man,
including weight gain.
If you're currently drinking soda, other sweetened beverages,
or fruit juices on a daily basis, you may want to start by
eliminating those, and work your way through the rest of your
food choices from there. The only beverage your body truly needs
is clean, pure water.
As you cut the sugars from your diet, you need to replace
them with healthy substitutes like vegetables and healthy fats
(including natural saturated fats). You can find a detailed a
step-by-step guide to this type of healthy eating program in my
comprehensive nutrition plan, and I urge you to consult this
guide if you are trying to lose weight.
Remember, one of the simplest guidelines to shedding excess
weight is to EAT REAL FOOD, meaning food in the most natural
form you can find, ideally whole organic produce, and
pasture-raised when it comes to meats and animal products like
dairy and eggs.
Increases secretion of human growth hormone (HGH), a
fat-burning hormone
Increases catecholamines, which increases resting energy
expenditure
Decreases insulin levels and improves insulin
sensitivity
Increases ghrelin, aka "the hunger hormone," thereby
reducing overeating
Shifts your body from burning sugar to burning fat as
its primary fuel
Sugar Addiction Is Real
The film also addresses the very real phenomenon of
sugar addiction. Previous research10
has demonstrated that sugar is more addictive than cocaine.
And, as revealed in my interview with
Dr. Pamela Peeke, author of The New York Times bestseller,
"The Hunger Fix: The Three-Stage Detox and Recovery Plan for
Overeating and Food Addiction," refined and processed
"hyperpalatables" (sugary, fatty, and salty food combinations)
hijack the reward center in your brain, causing brain changes
identical to those in drug addicts and alcoholics.
A critical player in all forms of addiction, including food
addiction, is the neurotransmitter dopamine. Groundbreaking
research into addiction has revealed that you will not feel
pleasure or reward unless dopamine binds with its receptor,
called the D2 receptor, which is located all throughout the
reward center in your brain. When dopamine links to this
receptor, immediate changes take place in brain cells and then
you experience a "hit" of pleasure and reward.
However, when you indulge in too much of these
hyper-stimulators, your brain's reward center notes that you're
overstimulated, which the brain perceives as adverse to
survival, and so it compensates by decreasing your sense of
pleasure and reward. It does this by downregulating your D2
receptors, basically eliminating some of them.
But this survival strategy creates another problem, because
now you don't feel anywhere near the pleasure and reward you
once had when you began your addiction, no matter whether it's
food or drugs. As a result, you develop tolerance which means
that you want more and more of your fix but never achieve the
same "high" you once had. And so, cravings grow stronger.
Breaking Sugar Addiction
Fortunately, there are solutions to unhealthy junk food
cravings. One of the most effective strategies I know of is
intermittent fasting — mentioned above — along with diet
modifications that effectively help reset your body's
metabolism, i.e. replacing sugars and non-vegetable carbs with
vegetables and healthy fats.
Intermittent fasting will help you reduce your calorie intake
and help your liver to produce healing ketones. When sugar is
not needed for your primary fuel and when your sugar stores run
low, your body will crave it less.
Another helpful technique, which addresses the emotional
component of food cravings, is the Emotional Freedom Techniques
(EFT). If you maintain negative thoughts and feelings about
yourself while trying to take physical steps to improve your
body, you're unlikely to succeed. Fine-tuning your brain to
"positive" mode is absolutely imperative to achieve optimal
physical health.
Unfortunately, many people shun this notion, not because it
doesn't make sense, but because the medical establishment has
conned them into believing that it means they'll be shelling out
many thousands of dollars for traditional psychological care.
While traditional psychological approaches may sometimes
work, EFT has shown to be a far better, not to mention
inexpensive, solution. If you feel that your emotions, or your
own self-image, may be your own worst enemies when it comes to
altering your relationship with food, I highly recommend you
read my
free EFT manual and consider trying EFT on your own. A
version of EFT specifically geared toward combating sugar
cravings is called Turbo Tapping.
For further instructions, please see the article, "Turbo
Tapping: How to Get Rid of Your Soda Addiction." In the
video below, EFT practitioner Julie Schiffman also demonstrates
how to use EFT to fight food cravings of all kinds.
Eating REAL Food Is the Answer
The concerted effort by the processed food industry to make
their products as addictive as possible has the unfortunate side
effect of stimulating your metabolism to burn carbs as its
primary fuel. As long as you are in primary carb-burning mode,
you will strongly crave these types of foods.
The solution is to decrease the amount of processed foods you
eat, and replace them with real foods, i.e. high-quality whole
foods. Also remember that non-vegetable carbs need to be
replaced with healthy fats to successfully achieve this
metabolic switchover.
Again, intermittent fasting is one of the most effective ways
to end
junk food cravings, especially cravings for sugar and
grains. No matter how cleverly enhanced these junk foods are,
your cravings for them will dramatically diminish, if not vanish
altogether, once your body starts burning fat instead of sugar
as its primary fuel.
To protect your health, I recommend spending 90 percent of
your food budget on whole foods, and only 10 percent or less on
processed foods. Unfortunately, most Americans currently do the
opposite, which is in large part why so many struggle with junk
food cravings. Remember, virtually ALL processed foods are to
some degree designed to have a high "craveability" factor, and
it's really difficult to find products that do not contain high
amounts of addictive sugar and carbs.