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Health March 2016

Eat Right Now

Are You a Slave to Sugar?

By Wendell Fowler

Sugar causes massive dopamine release in your brain. Eating high-sugar foods lights up your brain like a Times Square billboard. The part of the brain that lights up is the same part that's triggered by cocaine or heroin according to research.

Over decades of writing, my words have shepherded countless horses to water. What gives me goosebumps of joy – occasionally I meet a grateful horse. On the other hand, there are stubborn old mules who wouldn't take a drink even if their life depended upon it. For those, this column is dedicated.

"I gotta have something sweet." Like a junkie, you can't say no and doggedly justify eating sugar. So why can't you stop no matter how much you try? Well, that's because sugar causes massive dopamine release in your brain. Eating high-sugar foods lights up your brain like a Times Square billboard. The part of the brain that lights up is the same part that's triggered by cocaine or heroin according to research.

Highly addictive sugar hitting your brain like a drug is an insidious, albeit successful business model used by food cartels to get you “hooked” on their food-like twaddle. That's why today, food manufactures aggressively market sugary food and beverages since it is so addictively profitable – much like statins and narcotic drugs.

Until 100 years ago, processed sugar was nearly absent from the human diet – when cancer, heart disease, obesity and diabetes were almost unheard of. Sugar became ubiquitous, and chronic disease rates simultaneously appeared and began to increase.

Armed with personal experience, November 2015, marked one year of my not eating processed sugar. Not only did this allow me to get off statins, but I lost 15 pounds, my dentist remarked I was cavity-free, I had more energy, my inflammation subsided, and toe fungus died of starvation. My immune system rocks. I learned it's not fat, it's sugar that raises cholesterol, gives you heart disease, and incubates acidic internal inflammation, the silent killer. When I learned sugar feeds cancers cells like plant fertilizer, I was motivated to starve any in me.   

Researchers report fructose may also "make you dumb." UCLA neuroscientists discovered sweet drinks scrambled the memories and stunted learning in lab rats, leading to high concern over what sugary diets may do to people. If you don't want to believe me, at least consider these shocking, scientifically supported conclusions from an impressive list of health authorities and news outlets: The NIH, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, CNN’s Sonjay Gupta, Fox, and Mayo and Cleveland Clinics to name a few. Sugar can cause insulin resistance, a steppingstone towards metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Overloading your liver with fructose can cause non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Sugar is the leading contributor to obesity in children and adults due to its effects on hormones and brain, and sugar has unique fat-promoting effects.

I've witnessed a man injecting insulin while eating doughnuts. A 70-something lady, supported by a tripod walker, her body wracked with crippling physical disabilities, angrily walked out on my lecture on the perils of sugar. People get really pissed at me for sullying their best buddy. Like a junkie hooked on Vicodin, nothing will stop the craving except another hit. Zoom, crash and burn baby!

The American Heart Association advises cutting back on sugar in any form such as beet or inverted sugar and anything ending in “ose.” Are you ready to be a grateful horse and drink deeply? I sincerely hope so.

 

Chef Wendell hosts Eat Right Now on WISH TV 8 CBS Indianapolis. He can be reached at 317-372-2592 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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