July 22, 2025 • 48 mins
Sugar permeates nearly every aspect of modern Western life, yet few of us recognize our relationship with it for what it truly is – an addiction. In this eye-opening episode, I explore the shocking research from Penn University demonstrating that sugar is potentially more addictive than cocaine, with lab rats willing to endure electric shocks just to get their sweet fix.
The dark history of refined sugar reveals uncomfortable truths about our cultural dependence. William Dufty's "Sugar Blues" chronicles how sugar fueled the slave trade and dramatically impacted European health when introduced centuries ago. Meanwhile, dentist Weston Price's global research uncovered that indigenous communities untouched by Western diets maintained perfect dental health, while those consuming sugar and refined flour experienced physical degeneration over generations.
What makes sugar addiction particularly insidious is its ubiquity and social acceptance. I break down six telltale signs you might be addicted: secretly stashing sweets, sneaking treats when no one's looking, manipulating loved ones to get your fix, recruiting others to join your indulgence, rationalizing consumption with clever excuses, and experiencing mood lifts just knowing sugar is in your near future. Sound familiar?
The politics behind our sugar consumption are equally troubling. Big Sugar has successfully changed food labeling laws to hide just how much we're consuming – the average American takes in 34 teaspoons daily, nearly six times the recommended amount. With one in three Americans now having diabetes, the consequences are severe, yet powerful industry lobbying prevents meaningful regulation or warning labels.
Ready to break free? I share practical strategies for gradually eliminating sugar, identifying hidden sources in everyday foods, and addressing the gut imbalances that often drive our most intense cravings. Your journey to optimal health begins with recognizing this powerful addiction for what it is and taking small, consistent steps toward freedom.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello again.
This is Patti with.
Patti Talks Too Much, and todayI'm talking about an addiction
that afflicts the majority of usin the West.
We don't really think we'readdicted, because we're addicts.
We're addicts.
Thanks for joining me today.
(00:32):
The subject that I'm talkingabout is something that's been
bothering me for a very longtime, so it is something that is
a bit of an addiction forparticularly those of us in the
West, especially in America, andyet it really doesn't get
(00:52):
talked about in the way that weare alarmed about just about
every addiction addiction.
(01:14):
There is no AA or NA or somespecial group that is out there
that is helping people kick thisaddiction.
So what is it?
Have you guessed?
Well, you know when I say ityou might get upset with me for
that, but if you're really upsetwith me, is that a sign that
you might be addicted?
Hmm, so just bear with mebecause I'm going to go through
(01:39):
some of the reasons why this isdefinitely an addiction, of the
reasons why this is definitelyan addiction, signs that you can
tell, six signs that you cantell that this is an addiction
for you and a few ways that youcan kick it if you really want
to.
All right.
So what's the addiction?
Sugar.
(02:01):
If you guessed sugar, you'reright.
If you've been able to kicksugar, then I congratulate you,
because there's almost nosupport out there for us to do
so.
If you are committed to kickingsugar and you have successfully
(02:21):
done it, then I commend youhighly, because this is one of
the toughest addictions to kick.
Now, if you were addicted toheroin and everywhere you went
especially on that impulse buyarea, by the checkout register
at every grocery store andliquor store, and you know
(02:44):
Target and wherever you saw youknow your, your little heroin
stash, it would be a little bithard to kick heroin.
If we had heroin kind of snuckinto our food, it might be a
little hard to kick heroin, butthat is literally what we're up
(03:07):
against if we want to kick sugar.
Now, why kick sugar?
What's so bad about it?
Well, if you really want to takea deep dive into the history of
refined sugar, the refinedsugar industry there are an its
effects on our health over thelast few hundred years in the
(03:32):
West then there are two booksthat I highly highly recommend.
One of them is called SugarBlues by William Dufty.
Now, this is an amazing bookthat goes back hundreds of years
and chronicles the introductionto refined sugar in the diets
(03:55):
of Europeans and Americans, andit literally links sugar
production to all kinds of thedarker aspects of our histories.
For instance, did you know itwas the sugar industry that
catapulted the slave market inthe Americas?
(04:20):
What were they shipping?
They were shipping sugar, sugarmolasses.
All right.
So the sugar industry and sugarcultivation sugar cane out of
the Caribbean in particular wasa huge, became a huge industry
(04:40):
because once the Europeans gothooked on sugar, they didn't
care.
Their morals could go straightout the window, because they
needed their jams and theirjellies and their pastries and
their confectioners and all ofthose little sweet things that
made them feel oh so civilizedcompared to the rest of the
(05:04):
world.
All right, I'm being sarcastic,but honestly, my sarcasm will
often saves me from profanity.
So you know, I think it mightbe a blessing.
So Sugar Blues an excellent,eye-opening, jaw-dropping book
that chronicles the history ofthe sugar industry and its
(05:28):
impact on Europe as it wasintroduced.
This includes the Europeanpolitics, this includes the
decline of health in Europeancities in particular.
So it's a fascinating read andso, if you really want to read,
(05:50):
you know the history of sugarand the introduction of refined
sugar and its impact on ourhealth and on our politics.
And so, for the kind of thedark side of the sugar industry,
sugar Blues by William Dufty isan amazing book.
(06:11):
So that's one.
Now, another book that I highlyrecommend is a book that was
written by Weston Price.
He was a dentist, so check thisout.
In the 1930s, this dentist,weston Price.
He's noticing that all of hispatients have everybody has
cavities and rotting teeth.
(06:32):
What's going on?
What's going on?
And his curiosity eventually ledhim to do his own scientific
research on the dental health ofpeople all over the world.
Did everyone suffer fromdecaying teeth?
And why was it that we had topull wisdom teeth?
(06:56):
Why did wisdom teeth?
Why didn't our mouths have roomanymore for our wisdom teeth?
Our mouths have room anymorefor our wisdom teeth.
So what he did was he wentaround the world and studied
indigenous people who had notyet been introduced to the
(07:18):
Western, let's say the, acivilized diet of refined sugar
and refined wheat.
All right, so those are the twomain culprits, but sugar is
definitely a big, big culprit.
So he went around and he foundthat among these people they had
(07:41):
perfect teeth.
They had perfect teeth.
He went to these areas wherethe Western diet had not yet
been introduced, and thesepeople had perfect teeth.
They also had jaw lines andsinus cavities that were shaped
(08:03):
in a way that allowed all oftheir teeth to be present.
They didn't have to have teethpulled.
There was room enough in theirmouths for the teeth that they
were growing.
Hmm, so what was it about theintroduction of the Western diet
(08:23):
that caused the, that causedthis?
It's kind of like thisdevolution in health.
And literally what he came torealize in his research was that
this Western diet was shaping,was, was changing the shape of
our heads was changing the shapeof our heads was changing the
(08:47):
shape of our sinus cavities, ourjaws, and so that eventually,
after generations, our jawline,our sinus cavity, the cavity,
the shape of our mouths, nosupported, no longer had room
(09:07):
for all of the teeth that weregrowing.
All right, that is whathappened after several, several
generations.
And so his book is calledNutrition and Physical
Degeneration and PhysicalDegeneration Nutrition and
(09:33):
Physical Degeneration by WestonA Price, dds.
It is a fascinating book.
It's thick, it's dense, it'sgot pictures.
It's really an amazing book ofresearch that kind of chronicles
the impact of the Western dieton our teeth, on our dental.
We're not even talking aboutother health issues, we're just
talking about the effect on ourteeth and also the effects on
(09:56):
the shape of our mouths and oursinus cavities.
Fasc, fascinating stuff.
I highly recommend these twobooks If you really want to take
a deep dive into the history ofsugar, the refined sugar
introduction into you, know, ourcivilizations and the impact of
(10:18):
that on our overall health, andalso the impact of the
introduction to sugar andrefined wheat on our teeth as
compared to other groups aroundthe world Fascinating stuff.
(10:38):
So I highly recommend that.
Now the question is is sugarreally addictive?
Yes, my dear, it is.
It is one of the most addictivesubstances on the planet.
I do not say that lightly and Iwill cite a Penn University
(11:02):
research study that was done toshow how amazingly addictive
sugar is.
All right, so this goes back aways.
It was a research project thatwas done at Penn University, all
right.
So you know and I feel sorryfor the lab rats, you know they
always get the brunt ofeverything right and all those
(11:23):
poor animals in those labs.
So that aside.
So imagine this you've got twocages containing two different
groups of rats and in one cageyou have the, the water
dispenser.
Right that they go over andthey, they lick, there's a
little ball on the bottom andthey lick it.
(11:45):
Now that dispenser.
Right that they go over andthey lick, there's a little ball
on the bottom and they lick it.
Now that dispenser.
In that dispenser the water islaced with cocaine.
Okay, in the other cage theyhave a water dispenser that is
laced with sugar.
All right, now the experimentgoes like this is where it gets
(12:05):
kind of cruel to those poorlittle rats.
Once the rats in each cage kindof get to enjoying that water,
whether it was laced withcocaine or laced with sugar,
right, they're enjoying it Atsome point they start giving.
The floor of the cages wereelectrified and so they could
(12:32):
kind of send shocks through thecage floor to the rats, and so
they began to shock the rats asthey approached the water
dispenser.
All right, so they did that inthe heroin laced water cage and
they did that in the sugar lacedwater cage, and what they
(12:56):
observed is that eventually therats in the heroin laced not the
heroin, the cocaine Did I sayheroin, that's a whole other
thing and we're going to talkabout heroin but in the cocaine
laced water, they eventuallystopped approaching it.
It was too painful, right, itwasn't worth it.
(13:19):
They didn't want to electrocutetheir poor little you know paws
on that.
They didn't want to go throughthat pain, so they stopped.
That wasn't true for the ratsin the sugar-laced water group.
They kept coming for the sugareven as they were being
(13:39):
electrocuted.
That's some crazy stuff rightthere, all right.
So what did the scientists positfrom this?
Is that our evidence shows thatsugar is potentially more
addictive than cocaine or someof the strongest narcotics that
(14:01):
we have.
All right.
So you would think that thatwould have sent up alarm bells,
but it didn't, because by thenand by you know the 19th century
, sugar had become a hugeindustry in the politics, money,
(14:21):
profit, all right.
So I'm gonna give you anexample of how powerful big
sugar is in our country, and youmay already be familiar with
this.
(14:42):
But the big sugar is so powerfulthat they have been able to
change the laws around how sugaris presented on nutrition
labels.
So I'll give you an example.
If you look at a label, it hashow much is contained in each
(15:03):
serving of whatever thatingredient is?
How much is contained in eachserving of whatever that
ingredient is and then it hasthe RDA, the recommended daily
allowance of that particularthing.
They managed to adjust the lawsregarding food labeling so that
sugary things like soda, whichis all sugar, didn't show the
(15:28):
RDA.
Right?
So it didn't show the RDAbecause the fact is most soda
has about four or five daysworth of sugar in one bottle
that you get out of a vendingmachine that you consume in 10
minutes.
Think about the effects of thaton your liver.
(15:51):
All right, so it wouldn'tbenefit the sugar industry to
have on labels things like 567%of the RDA for sugar in this.
You know, people might havestopped, they might have said
what, what, that's?
(16:13):
That's a lot, because the theamount of sugar apparently that
is allowed that is allowed likethe RDA for sugar is about six
teaspoons a day.
The average American consumesabout 34 teaspoons a day of
(16:36):
sugar.
So we're already, in one daywe're consuming four days worth
of sugar.
Now I know some teenagers whoare well beyond that.
If you are someone who isdowning Coca-Cola, right, and
ice cream and all of thosesugary, sugary snacks and treats
(16:58):
, then you are well, well, wellover.
You know you might be consuminga whole week's worth of sugar
in one day.
And then we wonder why one inthree Americans have diabetes.
So it is a huge problem.
(17:21):
There is no warning label onsoda.
I've been a big proponent ofthis, like you really need to
have warning labels on somethingthat is so bad for you.
But let's face it, we live in acountry where, you know, I can
stand in my classroom and watchstudents drink monster drinks,
(17:42):
which are banned in othercountries because they're
literally liquid poison, whichare banned in other countries
because they're literally liquidpoison.
So we have a long way to go interms of looking out for the
general health of Americans.
But that's a whole other thing.
The dark side of that is well,you know you make a whole lot of
money on sugar and you know ifpeople have medical issues, well
(18:07):
, you know we'll make a wholelot of money on that on the
other side, right?
So it ends up being a wholeprofit driven kind of thing.
So big money, big politicsinvolved in the sugar industry.
The sugar industry is very,very, very powerful.
There's a whole lot of moneyinvolved in sugar, big sugar.
(18:28):
Now I'm going to tell you alittle story which kind of was
one of those things that got meon a tear for like we really
this is outrageous.
We really should do somethingabout this.
So, back after my, my cafeclosed, you know.
I returned to teaching and oneof the things you know and I
(18:50):
took some nutrition courses,because it's very, very
obviously I was.
I've been interested innutrition for years, but I was
very, very interested inteaching nutrition and cooking
to young people.
So I got a.
I got a um, a summer job, um,which I really really liked.
So it was a job where you wentaround, it was kind of like an
(19:11):
afterschool program, but theyhad a summer program and I was
involved in that um, where wewent out to schools and we
taught nutrition and then wetaught cooking.
So, uh, it was a two hour thingand there was like the
nutrition lesson, hands-on, likenutrition lesson, and there was
like the nutrition lesson,hands on, like nutrition lesson,
and then it would be followedby a teaching them how to make
(19:33):
healthy snacks and and I lovedit because that was that was
right up my alley.
Well, in this particular summer,my boss asked me if I was
interested.
This was when I lived inFlorida.
I lived in Palm Beach County,florida, and my boss asked me if
I was interested.
This was when I lived inFlorida.
I lived in Palm Beach County,florida, and my boss asked me if
I was interested in travelingout to Pahokee to teach
(19:56):
nutrition and cooking classes.
And I was like, well, well,sure, now it was an hour drive,
right?
And and she said, well, youknow a lot of of people they
don't like the drive.
And it's also you know this islike one of the poorest
communities in the state.
And I said I know all the morereason.
Yes, I will do this.
(20:16):
So I began to drive out topohoki.
Now pohoki is one of thepoorest communities in all of
Florida.
They're kind of isolated.
They're out there almost on thebanks of the Okeechobee Lake,
okeechobee, and they and it'skind of like a food desert.
(20:38):
So it's very hard to findgrocery stores with a lot of
produce or anything like that.
Health food stores, forget it.
There's a liquor store on everycorner though, you know, and
there's like fried chicken andall of that kind of stuff.
But the but it's really kind oflike a food desert.
There's really not a lot ofchoices out there for people to
(20:58):
eat healthy, and that was reallyreflected in the young people
that I was working with.
That was really reflected inthe young people that I was
working with.
But on this drive out to Pahokeeit was an hour drive, a long
hour long drive and there'snothing really between the
eastern part of Palm BeachCounty and then out to kind of
(21:22):
the banks of Lake Okeechobee.
So it's just miles and milesand miles of farmland.
And what I noticed when I wasdriving out to Pahokee was I had
never, ever seen such fertile,such fertile soil.
(21:45):
It was tar black.
It was the richest soil I hadever seen in my life.
I could not believe how richthat soil was.
And you have to understand it'son the banks of Lake Okeechobee
and historically LakeOkeechobee would kind of flood
(22:06):
out and the waters of LakeOkeechobee really did feed that
area and so that area had lotsand lots of nutrients from Lake
Okeechobee and it just becamethis ultra-rich, fertile soil,
(22:34):
rich, fertile soil.
But as I'm driving miles andmiles and miles out to Pahokee,
the only crop that grew in thatlong expanse of dark, rich soil
was sugar.
It was miles and miles andmiles of just sugar cane.
There was no corn, there wereno green beans, nothing, nothing
(22:57):
but sugar.
I didn't see a bit of any othercrop in this beautiful,
beautiful soil, it was all sugarcane.
Now, back in the Zora NealeHurston days when she wrote,
(23:18):
their Eyes Were Watching God,she wrote that story based on
the hurricane that went overLake Okeechobee in 1929 and
wiped out thousands of peoplewho were migrant farmers around
Lake Okeechobee.
Because this land has been richand beautiful for a very long
(23:43):
time, it was perfect for growinganything really.
So at the time of the hurricane, the migrant farmers were down
there, and I'm pretty sure thatthe crop that was growing at
that time was beans just loadsand loads and loads of beans.
And so these migrant farmerswould come in and they would
(24:06):
just pick beans until all thebeans were harvested and then
they would move on to somewhereelse to harvest.
So something happened.
Obviously after that, whereasthere was no vegetable growing
anymore around Lake Okeechobee,it was taken over by big sugar,
(24:32):
and now the only thing thatgrows there there's not.
I didn't see a string beanplant anywhere, or tomato plant,
or corn or anything.
It's all sugar.
And so the?
I'm sharing this story becausefor me it was a dramatic
contrast.
(24:53):
Here you had miles and miles ofsome of the best soil in the
country dedicated to a crop cropthat may be one of the most
detrimental things that we couldbe growing right, and it's
there and it's protected and ithas just taken over the whole
(25:14):
area and right next to it is oneof the poorest communities
where it's hard for them to, youknow, to find a fresh tomato on
a farm stand anywhere.
It's just it doesn't grow.
You don't see vegetablesgrowing out there.
It's all been taken over by bigsugar.
(25:35):
So the contrast to that and I'mgoing out there and teaching
them nutrition and cooking andI'm thinking the odds are
completely stacked against them.
They're growing up in a fooddesert, right next to rich soil
that's growing a crop that would.
(25:58):
That is so detrimental thathalf the community was diabetic.
So it's it was.
It was kind of heartbreakingfor me to see that kind of
juxtaposition.
So that's my story.
So let's get to how it is, howyou would know if you're
(26:21):
addicted.
Now we know, like, if you'veever been around an alcoholic or
somebody who's addicted to adrug, you know what the
behaviors are.
We often don't trust thembecause they're not honest and
there's all kinds of shady stuffthat goes on.
Because you know, as the oldsaying goes, you don't do drugs.
(26:43):
Drugs do you right, and there'sa reason why they say that
Drugs do, do you?
They control your thinking.
They can control, you know,your behavior.
They slant and pervert yourmorals, all right, and so that
is what an addiction does.
(27:04):
So I'm going to go over sixthings that you know.
If you're wondering, am Iaddicted, I'm going to go over
six things that are anindication that you might be
addicted to sugar.
All right, so one is hiding andstashing.
One is hiding and stashing.
So if you are someone who likesto sneak little candies or
(27:29):
chocolate bars or whatever it's,somewhere in your bedroom or in
your desk, or in a drawer orsomewhere in your car or
whatever, so you've got yoursecret stash.
Just like people have theirsecret stash of cigarettes or
their secret stash of liquor.
Secret stash of cigarettes ortheir secret stash of liquor.
You know, sometimes people will, you know, keep a bottle of
(27:58):
liquor under the seat of theircar, right, so they can take a
swig when no one's, when noone's looking.
All right, so that's a littlebit like sugars.
So if you are somebody whohides stuff or stashes it, you
have to have your stash.
It's kind of like your drugstash, where's my drug stash?
Because you've got to knowwhere your next fix is coming
from, right.
(28:18):
Where's my next fix coming from?
If I can't get to this or that?
I know where I've kept a stash,all right.
So that's addict behavior.
The second one is stealing orsneaking.
So if you are, you know, andthis is where we kind of like we
would never like take anythingfrom anyone, like I'm not going
(28:41):
to steal your pen, even thoughit's a really nice pen, and I
want to put it in my pocket.
I'm not going to do it becauseit's not moral.
But, you know, maybe I'll, youknow, take one of your cookies
or I'll take something.
So it might be small but orsneaking, if there's, if there's
(29:03):
a table laid out with desserts,no one's around, you might just
go over and take an extradessert, right, put it somewhere
.
You've seen that.
You've heard those stories ofpeople at those all you can eat
buffets, you know kind ofsneaking whatever they can into
their pockets or pocketbooks,right, that's a straight up food
(29:24):
addiction, right?
All right.
So stealing and sneaking andI'm not talking huge, I'm just
talking about these littlethings, these little things that
you might not do with somethingelse but you might do with
sweet.
The next one manipulating.
So addicts will manipulate toget what they want, and so if
(29:47):
you are addicted to sugar, youmight say something to a loved
one or a partner that would, andyou kind of pour on the charm
or give them extra kisses.
(30:10):
If they promise to bring you asweet, then you're all smiles,
you're not grumpy anymore, right?
Oh great, you know he might getsome nookie later if he brings
you a treat.
So subtle manipulations.
Another one is recruiting.
All right, and I experiencedthis a lot at work.
(30:33):
So I've kicked sugar and tookme a while.
It was not easy.
I'm going to share some of thatwith you.
But there are people at my jobwho are thoroughly and
completely addicted to sugar andit kind of annoys them when I
say no, you know.
Oh, we've got donuts.
Patty, you want a donut?
(30:53):
No, I'm good, I'm good, oh, oneof these days, one of these
days, we're going to get you toeat a donut.
Come on, just have a donut withus, it's just one, all right,
there's, there's this, this kindof sense of like come on, you
know, join us.
Because being not addicted andbeing able to say no, there is a
(31:18):
subtle sense like,subconsciously, they know.
Subconsciously they knowthey're hooked and it's very
uncomfortable to be aroundsomebody who is not, and so
there's a bit of recruitinggoing.
Come on just one, all right.
So if you find yourself doingthat to someone who isn't
(31:41):
interested in having a sugartreat, are you recruiting?
All right.
So that's another signRationalizing.
Rationalizing is somethingaddicts do all the time.
It's just that, you know, Ididn't have breakfast, so it's
okay if I have this for lunch,right?
(32:03):
Or oh, I'll skip that later,right?
Like I used to, when I waskicking sugar, I had to go
through stages and when I kickedthe refined sugar, I found
myself rationalizing, eatingother things that kind of had
(32:23):
sugar in them, but it wasn'tstraight up refined sugar.
Well, it's not as bad as that,it's not really sugar, you know,
it's not really sugar.
Or well, it's cane sugar, right?
(32:44):
Or it's better than white sugar.
This is this is not white sugar, it's brown sugar.
That's better for you, allright.
So all of all of those kinds ofrationalizations are things
that addicts do so that they canhave their, what they're
(33:05):
addicted to.
The next one is, I call it,following the dopamine trail,
all right.
So imagine this you're addictedto sugar and you haven't had
your fix for the day and you'restarting to get like the
cravings.
The cravings are setting in,you want your sugar right and
(33:31):
you're getting grumpy.
You're getting kind of grumpybecause you haven't had your
sugar.
Sometimes people will be thisway with coffee.
You know, you're addicted tocoffee.
When you're grumpy until youhave that first cup.
You know, right, we're nottalking about coffee right now.
That's a whole other thing.
People get really mad when youalso talk about coffee as an
(33:53):
addiction.
They get very, very angry withyou.
So if, for instance, you'regetting kind of grumpy right,
and you have the thought, allright, 15 minutes before I can
take a break and I have a dollarin my pocket and I can go to
the vending machine and I canget those cookies for a dollar,
(34:14):
all of a sudden your moodchanges because now you know in
15 minutes you'll have your fix.
So you follow the dope.
It's like following thedopamine trail.
Follow the dope.
It's like following thedopamine trail.
Monitor your mood.
Does your mood change when youknow that it's just an X amount
(34:38):
of time before you can have yourfix right?
So when it's in sight, whenthere's a light at the end of
the tunnel and you know, okay,my sugar fix is coming.
You kind of relax and you smileagain.
All of a sudden, now you're ina good mood because you're
already feeling it.
You're already feeling it,that's the dopamine hit, right,
(34:59):
that's that's you like already.
You're already, your body isalready getting ready for that
hit, all right.
So it's really important for usto be kind of metacognitive
about this.
How am I feeling?
Why did my mood change?
As soon as you know, as soon asI realized that I was going to
or so-and-so's coming over andthey're bringing pie.
(35:20):
Now I'm in a really great moodbecause I know that in a short
amount of time I'm going to getmy fix, all right.
So those are, those are the sixthat I could think of.
So we're talking stashing,stealing, manipulating,
recruiting, rationalizing andfollowing the dopamine trail.
(35:43):
So if this is something that'sfamiliar to you, then you know,
don't, don't feel bad.
Almost all of us are addicted tosugar and it's really a
travesty for because of you know, for our health, because of the
kind of damage that it's doingto our bodies.
But that kind of damage, andthe alarm bells are not ringing
(36:05):
because it is such a huge,profitable industry, supported
by very, very powerful people,that we're on our own if we want
to kick sugar.
Because, just about you look,you know, everywhere you go,
it's all about the sugar.
And when you start lookingaround, you start trying to kick
sugar.
You realize, oh my God, I amsurrounded by the drug I'm
(36:28):
trying to kick Right, and thatis.
That really is a shame.
Now I'm going to bring upanother thing I forgot to
mention, and that goes back tothe politics of it.
So Big Sugar.
When I was talking about howpowerful Big Sugar is, there was
a group of activists who at onetime, went after the big cereal
(36:49):
companies, which are notoriousfor, I mean, they just load up
cereals like the worst.
We should not feed our childrencereal.
It's half sugar, and then theirother half is almost not food.
All right so, but at any rateso much sugar.
So you have these companiesthat are advertising
specifically to children for thesugary cereals, and then what
(37:14):
they'll do?
These companies pay for theirplacement in grocery stores, and
they literally would make surethat what they were advertising
was at eye level to children whoare being pushed in carriages
down the grocery aisle.
And so, at any rate, there wasa whole it was a class action
(37:35):
lawsuit brought against these.
You know these, these big serialcompanies.
You know Kellogg's post,whatever, and they managed to
use a free speech argument towin.
So Big Sugar and Big Cereal,they're all kind of working
(37:56):
together there.
They won because they used theargument of free speech.
Isn't that interesting.
It's hard for the averagecitizen to use the free speech
argument, but Big Sugar can whenit's advertising to your
children.
All right, because, let's faceit, if you can get children
(38:19):
addicted, then you've got acustomer for life.
So and that's what is just thedark side of sugar, you know,
get the kids addicted early andyou have a customer for life.
Another dark thing about sugaris that if you are addicted to
sugar in your younger years,research shows that you are more
(38:43):
vulnerable to drug addictionlater on, or alcohol addiction.
When I had my coffee house, Ihad a lot of folks who would
come to my coffee house from AAmeetings, recovery meetings
around the area, and one thingthat I noticed was that most of
(39:04):
them were chain smokers and theyliked the most sugary coffee
drinks.
So it was nicotine, caffeineand sugar.
Nicotine, caffeine and sugar.
So basically, they hadsubstituted a couple of other
addictions for their formeraddiction, but they're all you
(39:27):
know.
But these are just legal.
But I saw that very much amongthe folks that I knew who were
recovering, were early in theirrecovery years, very early in
their recovery years.
And this is what happens isthat you will substitute.
You will find something tosubstitute to fill that in so
(39:49):
that you get that hit.
So what do we do to kick it?
Like, if you're serious, likeall right, patty, all right, all
right, maybe I'll try kickingit.
It's like okay, I'm going totell you it's really hard and
it'll probably take more thanone shot at it.
It certainly was hard.
For me it was a process thatkind of extended over a few
(40:13):
years.
I had to keep going deeper andrecognizing the next layer and
the next layer in the ways thatI might have been rationalizing
or following the dopamine trail,like what am I doing?
So I kind of thought about thestages and these are just
(40:34):
suggestions.
That it's kind of what I did.
But you know people do differentthings.
Sometimes people will do coldturkey.
I will tell you that if you'rekicking sugar, it's really hard
to do cold turkey because sugaris everywhere, it's embedded,
it's hiding, and so you reallyhave to do your research, you
have to become a label reader,because they hide sugar
(40:58):
everywhere and in differentforms.
So stage one is the easiest one, it's the most obvious Get rid
of, like kick, all refined sugar, just all refined sugar, the
sugar you put in your coffee,and that really does include a
lot of things like that, thatcake, that ice cream and that.
All right, now you can go sugarfree on things.
(41:22):
But that also it can be aslippery slope because a lot of
those sugar substitutes like youknow, the stuff with sugar-free
soda, what they use insugar-free soda ends up being
worse for you, like Diet Coke.
It's probably worse for youthan the actual sugar itself.
(41:43):
So be careful with thesugar-free stuff, but definitely
refined sugar, and you willfind that that in and of itself
is huge, because you realize,even with refined sugar, the
most obvious sugar, the mostobvious form of sugar, is
everywhere and in everything.
All right.
(42:04):
The second one is, once youthink that you've you've kicked
that and you're feeling prettygood, to start looking at foods
that contain high fructose cornsyrup.
Now you might find that whenyou kick the actual sugar right,
that you're going to gravitatetowards things that you think,
oh well, this is okay, itdoesn't have any sugar in it.
(42:25):
But then when you start readingthe labels closely you see, and
they've actually they'rechanging the name of high
fructose corn syrup.
Now they call it differentthings, so it's harder to detect
.
But you might find yourselfgravitating towards things that
contain or things that have highfructose corn syrup snuck into
(42:46):
them.
One of the things that I dealtwith was that all of a sudden I
was into condiments.
It's like why am I intocondiments?
Why am I so into ketchup nowand mustard?
Why is that?
You know, it was a substitute.
It kind of gave me that littlebit of a hit because of the high
(43:06):
fructose corn syrup in thecondiments.
So that was one thing that Inoticed when I kicked the
refined sugar is that all of asudden I was gravitating towards
things like condiments that hadsugar in another form.
Another thing to take a look atyou might kick the refined sugar
and the foods with highfructose corn syrup and then all
(43:29):
of a sudden it's like now youhave a hankering for dried
fruits.
Oh, I like these driedcranberries, I like these dried.
You know, these dried fruitsare awesome, but what you're
going to find is in a lot ofthem, or you gravitate towards
fruits with a high, high sugarcontent.
So your body is still wantingthat sugar.
(43:51):
And the last thing I will say,sugar substitutes.
It's still kind of giving youthat sugar hit and it can
prolong your addiction becauseit's still registering as
something sweet, somethingsugary, and so you might find
that you're not able to kickyour cravings for it.
(44:12):
I do want to say a word or twoabout cravings.
This is the stuff that ends upbeing pretty upsetting.
Where do those cravings comefrom?
So it's addictive.
But I know I've talked a lotabout the gut and the thing is
is that sugar feeds bacteria, itfeeds fungus and even some
(44:36):
parasites, all right.
So if you have a gut imbalance,often what is driving those
cravings?
Often what is driving thosecravings are those little
rascals living in your gut.
So if you have a gut that's outof balance, you are more
(44:57):
vulnerable to sugar addiction.
And it might be what is drivingyour sugar addiction, because
you have billions of littlecritters in your gut saying
sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar.
Millions of little critters inyour gut saying sugar, sugar,
sugar, sugar, and they drivethose messages to your brain and
all of a sudden you've gotchocolate cake popping up in
your visuals.
So they're not saying give mechocolate cake, they are
(45:20):
stimulating a craving for sugarand your brain gets fixated on
whatever it is that's going tothat, whatever food that is
Twinkies, hard candy, ice cream,something that is going to give
you that, give you that hit.
So again, candida will drivesugar cravings.
(45:43):
So if you have an overgrowth ofbad bacteria and fungus, fungus
loves sugar.
As a matter of fact, researchis showing that there's also a
link to some cancers that alsofeed on sugar.
So, and that is the devastatingthing about it, is that there
(46:06):
are these imbalances in ourbodies that are generating these
cravings, that make thisaddiction so darn hard to kick.
So I will just say thatrebalancing the gut, rebalancing
my gut, has really made adifference in terms of my
cravings, because now I don'thave those cravings and I'm not
(46:29):
always fighting to staycommitted to my abstinence of
sugar.
You know, it becomes a loteasier when we rebalance our gut
.
If we have like a normal,balanced gut, we don't have
these cravings for sugar.
So it is worth doing the workto balance out the bacteria and
such in your gut so that you canreally reduce and even
(46:53):
eliminate these cravings in thefirst place.
So that's really what I have tosay about sugar.
It may have been more of a ranttoday than anything, but it is
something that I feel reallystrongly about.
It is a blight on our overallhealth and we will go a long way
(47:18):
in obtaining optimal health ifwe can kick sugar.
It will literally transform ourhealth, our moods.
It can literally transformeverything.
So I encourage you to considerit.
I know that sometimes whenpeople are addicted to something
(47:41):
, they get really angry with thepeople who point it out.
So don't shoot the messenger.
Just consider these things andif you decide you want to
address it, then take baby steps.
Don't be hard on yourself.
Just take little steps towardseliminating sugar from your diet
(48:03):
, or at least dramaticallyreducing it, and rebalance your
gut so you don't have to dealwith those overwhelming cravings
.
So that's it for today.
I wish you all the very best ofhealth.
I will see you next time.
This is Patty, with Patty TalksToo Much, ciao.
Hello again.
This is Patti with.
Patti Talks Too Much, and todayI'm talking about an addiction
that afflicts the majority of usin the West.
We don't really think we'readdicted, because we're addicts.
We're addicts.
Thanks for joining me today.
(00:32):
The subject that I'm talkingabout is something that's been
bothering me for a very longtime, so it is something that is
a bit of an addiction forparticularly those of us in the
West, especially in America, andyet it really doesn't get
(00:52):
talked about in the way that weare alarmed about just about
every addiction addiction.
(01:14):
There is no AA or NA or somespecial group that is out there
that is helping people kick thisaddiction.
So what is it?
Have you guessed?
Well, you know when I say ityou might get upset with me for
that, but if you're really upsetwith me, is that a sign that
you might be addicted?
Hmm, so just bear with mebecause I'm going to go through
(01:39):
some of the reasons why this isdefinitely an addiction, of the
reasons why this is definitelyan addiction, signs that you can
tell, six signs that you cantell that this is an addiction
for you and a few ways that youcan kick it if you really want
to.
All right.
So what's the addiction?
Sugar.
(02:01):
If you guessed sugar, you'reright.
If you've been able to kicksugar, then I congratulate you,
because there's almost nosupport out there for us to do
so.
If you are committed to kickingsugar and you have successfully
(02:21):
done it, then I commend youhighly, because this is one of
the toughest addictions to kick.
Now, if you were addicted toheroin and everywhere you went
especially on that impulse buyarea, by the checkout register
at every grocery store andliquor store, and you know
(02:44):
Target and wherever you saw youknow your, your little heroin
stash, it would be a little bithard to kick heroin.
If we had heroin kind of snuckinto our food, it might be a
little hard to kick heroin, butthat is literally what we're up
(03:07):
against if we want to kick sugar.
Now, why kick sugar?
What's so bad about it?
Well, if you really want to takea deep dive into the history of
refined sugar, the refinedsugar industry there are an its
effects on our health over thelast few hundred years in the
(03:32):
West then there are two booksthat I highly highly recommend.
One of them is called SugarBlues by William Dufty.
Now, this is an amazing bookthat goes back hundreds of years
and chronicles the introductionto refined sugar in the diets
(03:55):
of Europeans and Americans, andit literally links sugar
production to all kinds of thedarker aspects of our histories.
For instance, did you know itwas the sugar industry that
catapulted the slave market inthe Americas?
(04:20):
What were they shipping?
They were shipping sugar, sugarmolasses.
All right.
So the sugar industry and sugarcultivation sugar cane out of
the Caribbean in particular wasa huge, became a huge industry
(04:40):
because once the Europeans gothooked on sugar, they didn't
care.
Their morals could go straightout the window, because they
needed their jams and theirjellies and their pastries and
their confectioners and all ofthose little sweet things that
made them feel oh so civilizedcompared to the rest of the
(05:04):
world.
All right, I'm being sarcastic,but honestly, my sarcasm will
often saves me from profanity.
So you know, I think it mightbe a blessing.
So Sugar Blues an excellent,eye-opening, jaw-dropping book
that chronicles the history ofthe sugar industry and its
(05:28):
impact on Europe as it wasintroduced.
This includes the Europeanpolitics, this includes the
decline of health in Europeancities in particular.
So it's a fascinating read andso, if you really want to read,
(05:50):
you know the history of sugarand the introduction of refined
sugar and its impact on ourhealth and on our politics.
And so, for the kind of thedark side of the sugar industry,
sugar Blues by William Dufty isan amazing book.
(06:11):
So that's one.
Now, another book that I highlyrecommend is a book that was
written by Weston Price.
He was a dentist, so check thisout.
In the 1930s, this dentist,weston Price.
He's noticing that all of hispatients have everybody has
cavities and rotting teeth.
(06:32):
What's going on?
What's going on?
And his curiosity eventually ledhim to do his own scientific
research on the dental health ofpeople all over the world.
Did everyone suffer fromdecaying teeth?
And why was it that we had topull wisdom teeth?
(06:56):
Why did wisdom teeth?
Why didn't our mouths have roomanymore for our wisdom teeth?
Our mouths have room anymorefor our wisdom teeth.
So what he did was he wentaround the world and studied
indigenous people who had notyet been introduced to the
(07:18):
Western, let's say the, acivilized diet of refined sugar
and refined wheat.
All right, so those are the twomain culprits, but sugar is
definitely a big, big culprit.
So he went around and he foundthat among these people they had
(07:41):
perfect teeth.
They had perfect teeth.
He went to these areas wherethe Western diet had not yet
been introduced, and thesepeople had perfect teeth.
They also had jaw lines andsinus cavities that were shaped
(08:03):
in a way that allowed all oftheir teeth to be present.
They didn't have to have teethpulled.
There was room enough in theirmouths for the teeth that they
were growing.
Hmm, so what was it about theintroduction of the Western diet
(08:23):
that caused the, that causedthis?
It's kind of like thisdevolution in health.
And literally what he came torealize in his research was that
this Western diet was shaping,was, was changing the shape of
our heads was changing the shapeof our heads was changing the
(08:47):
shape of our sinus cavities, ourjaws, and so that eventually,
after generations, our jawline,our sinus cavity, the cavity,
the shape of our mouths, nosupported, no longer had room
(09:07):
for all of the teeth that weregrowing.
All right, that is whathappened after several, several
generations.
And so his book is calledNutrition and Physical
Degeneration and PhysicalDegeneration Nutrition and
(09:33):
Physical Degeneration by WestonA Price, dds.
It is a fascinating book.
It's thick, it's dense, it'sgot pictures.
It's really an amazing book ofresearch that kind of chronicles
the impact of the Western dieton our teeth, on our dental.
We're not even talking aboutother health issues, we're just
talking about the effect on ourteeth and also the effects on
(09:56):
the shape of our mouths and oursinus cavities.
Fasc, fascinating stuff.
I highly recommend these twobooks If you really want to take
a deep dive into the history ofsugar, the refined sugar
introduction into you, know, ourcivilizations and the impact of
(10:18):
that on our overall health, andalso the impact of the
introduction to sugar andrefined wheat on our teeth as
compared to other groups aroundthe world Fascinating stuff.
(10:38):
So I highly recommend that.
Now the question is is sugarreally addictive?
Yes, my dear, it is.
It is one of the most addictivesubstances on the planet.
I do not say that lightly and Iwill cite a Penn University
(11:02):
research study that was done toshow how amazingly addictive
sugar is.
All right, so this goes back aways.
It was a research project thatwas done at Penn University, all
right.
So you know and I feel sorryfor the lab rats, you know they
always get the brunt ofeverything right and all those
(11:23):
poor animals in those labs.
So that aside.
So imagine this you've got twocages containing two different
groups of rats and in one cageyou have the, the water
dispenser.
Right that they go over andthey, they lick, there's a
little ball on the bottom andthey lick it.
(11:45):
Now that dispenser.
Right that they go over andthey lick, there's a little ball
on the bottom and they lick it.
Now that dispenser.
In that dispenser the water islaced with cocaine.
Okay, in the other cage theyhave a water dispenser that is
laced with sugar.
All right, now the experimentgoes like this is where it gets
(12:05):
kind of cruel to those poorlittle rats.
Once the rats in each cage kindof get to enjoying that water,
whether it was laced withcocaine or laced with sugar,
right, they're enjoying it Atsome point they start giving.
The floor of the cages wereelectrified and so they could
(12:32):
kind of send shocks through thecage floor to the rats, and so
they began to shock the rats asthey approached the water
dispenser.
All right, so they did that inthe heroin laced water cage and
they did that in the sugar lacedwater cage, and what they
(12:56):
observed is that eventually therats in the heroin laced not the
heroin, the cocaine Did I sayheroin, that's a whole other
thing and we're going to talkabout heroin but in the cocaine
laced water, they eventuallystopped approaching it.
It was too painful, right, itwasn't worth it.
(13:19):
They didn't want to electrocutetheir poor little you know paws
on that.
They didn't want to go throughthat pain, so they stopped.
That wasn't true for the ratsin the sugar-laced water group.
They kept coming for the sugareven as they were being
(13:39):
electrocuted.
That's some crazy stuff rightthere, all right.
So what did the scientists positfrom this?
Is that our evidence shows thatsugar is potentially more
addictive than cocaine or someof the strongest narcotics that
(14:01):
we have.
All right.
So you would think that thatwould have sent up alarm bells,
but it didn't, because by thenand by you know the 19th century
, sugar had become a hugeindustry in the politics, money,
(14:21):
profit, all right.
So I'm gonna give you anexample of how powerful big
sugar is in our country, and youmay already be familiar with
this.
(14:42):
But the big sugar is so powerfulthat they have been able to
change the laws around how sugaris presented on nutrition
labels.
So I'll give you an example.
If you look at a label, it hashow much is contained in each
(15:03):
serving of whatever thatingredient is?
How much is contained in eachserving of whatever that
ingredient is and then it hasthe RDA, the recommended daily
allowance of that particularthing.
They managed to adjust the lawsregarding food labeling so that
sugary things like soda, whichis all sugar, didn't show the
(15:28):
RDA.
Right?
So it didn't show the RDAbecause the fact is most soda
has about four or five daysworth of sugar in one bottle
that you get out of a vendingmachine that you consume in 10
minutes.
Think about the effects of thaton your liver.
(15:51):
All right, so it wouldn'tbenefit the sugar industry to
have on labels things like 567%of the RDA for sugar in this.
You know, people might havestopped, they might have said
what, what, that's?
(16:13):
That's a lot, because the theamount of sugar apparently that
is allowed that is allowed likethe RDA for sugar is about six
teaspoons a day.
The average American consumesabout 34 teaspoons a day of
(16:36):
sugar.
So we're already, in one daywe're consuming four days worth
of sugar.
Now I know some teenagers whoare well beyond that.
If you are someone who isdowning Coca-Cola, right, and
ice cream and all of thosesugary, sugary snacks and treats
(16:58):
, then you are well, well, wellover.
You know you might be consuminga whole week's worth of sugar
in one day.
And then we wonder why one inthree Americans have diabetes.
So it is a huge problem.
(17:21):
There is no warning label onsoda.
I've been a big proponent ofthis, like you really need to
have warning labels on somethingthat is so bad for you.
But let's face it, we live in acountry where, you know, I can
stand in my classroom and watchstudents drink monster drinks,
(17:42):
which are banned in othercountries because they're
literally liquid poison, whichare banned in other countries
because they're literally liquidpoison.
So we have a long way to go interms of looking out for the
general health of Americans.
But that's a whole other thing.
The dark side of that is well,you know you make a whole lot of
money on sugar and you know ifpeople have medical issues, well
(18:07):
, you know we'll make a wholelot of money on that on the
other side, right?
So it ends up being a wholeprofit driven kind of thing.
So big money, big politicsinvolved in the sugar industry.
The sugar industry is very,very, very powerful.
There's a whole lot of moneyinvolved in sugar, big sugar.
(18:28):
Now I'm going to tell you alittle story which kind of was
one of those things that got meon a tear for like we really
this is outrageous.
We really should do somethingabout this.
So, back after my, my cafeclosed, you know.
I returned to teaching and oneof the things you know and I
(18:50):
took some nutrition courses,because it's very, very
obviously I was.
I've been interested innutrition for years, but I was
very, very interested inteaching nutrition and cooking
to young people.
So I got a.
I got a um, a summer job, um,which I really really liked.
So it was a job where you wentaround, it was kind of like an
(19:11):
afterschool program, but theyhad a summer program and I was
involved in that um, where wewent out to schools and we
taught nutrition and then wetaught cooking.
So, uh, it was a two hour thingand there was like the
nutrition lesson, hands-on, likenutrition lesson, and there was
like the nutrition lesson,hands on, like nutrition lesson,
and then it would be followedby a teaching them how to make
(19:33):
healthy snacks and and I lovedit because that was that was
right up my alley.
Well, in this particular summer,my boss asked me if I was
interested.
This was when I lived inFlorida.
I lived in Palm Beach County,florida, and my boss asked me if
I was interested.
This was when I lived inFlorida.
I lived in Palm Beach County,florida, and my boss asked me if
I was interested in travelingout to Pahokee to teach
(19:56):
nutrition and cooking classes.
And I was like, well, well,sure, now it was an hour drive,
right?
And and she said, well, youknow a lot of of people they
don't like the drive.
And it's also you know this islike one of the poorest
communities in the state.
And I said I know all the morereason.
Yes, I will do this.
(20:16):
So I began to drive out topohoki.
Now pohoki is one of thepoorest communities in all of
Florida.
They're kind of isolated.
They're out there almost on thebanks of the Okeechobee Lake,
okeechobee, and they and it'skind of like a food desert.
(20:38):
So it's very hard to findgrocery stores with a lot of
produce or anything like that.
Health food stores, forget it.
There's a liquor store on everycorner though, you know, and
there's like fried chicken andall of that kind of stuff.
But the but it's really kind oflike a food desert.
There's really not a lot ofchoices out there for people to
(20:58):
eat healthy, and that was reallyreflected in the young people
that I was working with.
That was really reflected inthe young people that I was
working with.
But on this drive out to Pahokeeit was an hour drive, a long
hour long drive and there'snothing really between the
eastern part of Palm BeachCounty and then out to kind of
(21:22):
the banks of Lake Okeechobee.
So it's just miles and milesand miles of farmland.
And what I noticed when I wasdriving out to Pahokee was I had
never, ever seen such fertile,such fertile soil.
(21:45):
It was tar black.
It was the richest soil I hadever seen in my life.
I could not believe how richthat soil was.
And you have to understand it'son the banks of Lake Okeechobee
and historically LakeOkeechobee would kind of flood
(22:06):
out and the waters of LakeOkeechobee really did feed that
area and so that area had lotsand lots of nutrients from Lake
Okeechobee and it just becamethis ultra-rich, fertile soil,
(22:34):
rich, fertile soil.
But as I'm driving miles andmiles and miles out to Pahokee,
the only crop that grew in thatlong expanse of dark, rich soil
was sugar.
It was miles and miles andmiles of just sugar cane.
There was no corn, there wereno green beans, nothing, nothing
(22:57):
but sugar.
I didn't see a bit of any othercrop in this beautiful,
beautiful soil, it was all sugarcane.
Now, back in the Zora NealeHurston days when she wrote,
(23:18):
their Eyes Were Watching God,she wrote that story based on
the hurricane that went overLake Okeechobee in 1929 and
wiped out thousands of peoplewho were migrant farmers around
Lake Okeechobee.
Because this land has been richand beautiful for a very long
(23:43):
time, it was perfect for growinganything really.
So at the time of the hurricane, the migrant farmers were down
there, and I'm pretty sure thatthe crop that was growing at
that time was beans just loadsand loads and loads of beans.
And so these migrant farmerswould come in and they would
(24:06):
just pick beans until all thebeans were harvested and then
they would move on to somewhereelse to harvest.
So something happened.
Obviously after that, whereasthere was no vegetable growing
anymore around Lake Okeechobee,it was taken over by big sugar,
(24:32):
and now the only thing thatgrows there there's not.
I didn't see a string beanplant anywhere, or tomato plant,
or corn or anything.
It's all sugar.
And so the?
I'm sharing this story becausefor me it was a dramatic
contrast.
(24:53):
Here you had miles and miles ofsome of the best soil in the
country dedicated to a crop cropthat may be one of the most
detrimental things that we couldbe growing right, and it's
there and it's protected and ithas just taken over the whole
(25:14):
area and right next to it is oneof the poorest communities
where it's hard for them to, youknow, to find a fresh tomato on
a farm stand anywhere.
It's just it doesn't grow.
You don't see vegetablesgrowing out there.
It's all been taken over by bigsugar.
(25:35):
So the contrast to that and I'mgoing out there and teaching
them nutrition and cooking andI'm thinking the odds are
completely stacked against them.
They're growing up in a fooddesert, right next to rich soil
that's growing a crop that would.
(25:58):
That is so detrimental thathalf the community was diabetic.
So it's it was.
It was kind of heartbreakingfor me to see that kind of
juxtaposition.
So that's my story.
So let's get to how it is, howyou would know if you're
(26:21):
addicted.
Now we know, like, if you'veever been around an alcoholic or
somebody who's addicted to adrug, you know what the
behaviors are.
We often don't trust thembecause they're not honest and
there's all kinds of shady stuffthat goes on.
Because you know, as the oldsaying goes, you don't do drugs.
(26:43):
Drugs do you right, and there'sa reason why they say that
Drugs do, do you?
They control your thinking.
They can control, you know,your behavior.
They slant and pervert yourmorals, all right, and so that
is what an addiction does.
(27:04):
So I'm going to go over sixthings that you know.
If you're wondering, am Iaddicted, I'm going to go over
six things that are anindication that you might be
addicted to sugar.
All right, so one is hiding andstashing.
One is hiding and stashing.
So if you are someone who likesto sneak little candies or
(27:29):
chocolate bars or whatever it's,somewhere in your bedroom or in
your desk, or in a drawer orsomewhere in your car or
whatever, so you've got yoursecret stash.
Just like people have theirsecret stash of cigarettes or
their secret stash of liquor.
Secret stash of cigarettes ortheir secret stash of liquor.
You know, sometimes people will, you know, keep a bottle of
(27:58):
liquor under the seat of theircar, right, so they can take a
swig when no one's, when noone's looking.
All right, so that's a littlebit like sugars.
So if you are somebody whohides stuff or stashes it, you
have to have your stash.
It's kind of like your drugstash, where's my drug stash?
Because you've got to knowwhere your next fix is coming
from, right.
(28:18):
Where's my next fix coming from?
If I can't get to this or that?
I know where I've kept a stash,all right.
So that's addict behavior.
The second one is stealing orsneaking.
So if you are, you know, andthis is where we kind of like we
would never like take anythingfrom anyone, like I'm not going
(28:41):
to steal your pen, even thoughit's a really nice pen, and I
want to put it in my pocket.
I'm not going to do it becauseit's not moral.
But, you know, maybe I'll, youknow, take one of your cookies
or I'll take something.
So it might be small but orsneaking, if there's, if there's
(29:03):
a table laid out with desserts,no one's around, you might just
go over and take an extradessert, right, put it somewhere
.
You've seen that.
You've heard those stories ofpeople at those all you can eat
buffets, you know kind ofsneaking whatever they can into
their pockets or pocketbooks,right, that's a straight up food
(29:24):
addiction, right?
All right.
So stealing and sneaking andI'm not talking huge, I'm just
talking about these littlethings, these little things that
you might not do with somethingelse but you might do with
sweet.
The next one manipulating.
So addicts will manipulate toget what they want, and so if
(29:47):
you are addicted to sugar, youmight say something to a loved
one or a partner that would, andyou kind of pour on the charm
or give them extra kisses.
(30:10):
If they promise to bring you asweet, then you're all smiles,
you're not grumpy anymore, right?
Oh great, you know he might getsome nookie later if he brings
you a treat.
So subtle manipulations.
Another one is recruiting.
All right, and I experiencedthis a lot at work.
(30:33):
So I've kicked sugar and tookme a while.
It was not easy.
I'm going to share some of thatwith you.
But there are people at my jobwho are thoroughly and
completely addicted to sugar andit kind of annoys them when I
say no, you know.
Oh, we've got donuts.
Patty, you want a donut?
(30:53):
No, I'm good, I'm good, oh, oneof these days, one of these
days, we're going to get you toeat a donut.
Come on, just have a donut withus, it's just one, all right,
there's, there's this, this kindof sense of like come on, you
know, join us.
Because being not addicted andbeing able to say no, there is a
(31:18):
subtle sense like,subconsciously, they know.
Subconsciously they knowthey're hooked and it's very
uncomfortable to be aroundsomebody who is not, and so
there's a bit of recruitinggoing.
Come on just one, all right.
So if you find yourself doingthat to someone who isn't
(31:41):
interested in having a sugartreat, are you recruiting?
All right.
So that's another signRationalizing.
Rationalizing is somethingaddicts do all the time.
It's just that, you know, Ididn't have breakfast, so it's
okay if I have this for lunch,right?
(32:03):
Or oh, I'll skip that later,right?
Like I used to, when I waskicking sugar, I had to go
through stages and when I kickedthe refined sugar, I found
myself rationalizing, eatingother things that kind of had
(32:23):
sugar in them, but it wasn'tstraight up refined sugar.
Well, it's not as bad as that,it's not really sugar, you know,
it's not really sugar.
Or well, it's cane sugar, right?
(32:44):
Or it's better than white sugar.
This is this is not white sugar, it's brown sugar.
That's better for you, allright.
So all of all of those kinds ofrationalizations are things
that addicts do so that they canhave their, what they're
(33:05):
addicted to.
The next one is, I call it,following the dopamine trail,
all right.
So imagine this you're addictedto sugar and you haven't had
your fix for the day and you'restarting to get like the
cravings.
The cravings are setting in,you want your sugar right and
(33:31):
you're getting grumpy.
You're getting kind of grumpybecause you haven't had your
sugar.
Sometimes people will be thisway with coffee.
You know, you're addicted tocoffee.
When you're grumpy until youhave that first cup.
You know, right, we're nottalking about coffee right now.
That's a whole other thing.
People get really mad when youalso talk about coffee as an
(33:53):
addiction.
They get very, very angry withyou.
So if, for instance, you'regetting kind of grumpy right,
and you have the thought, allright, 15 minutes before I can
take a break and I have a dollarin my pocket and I can go to
the vending machine and I canget those cookies for a dollar,
(34:14):
all of a sudden your moodchanges because now you know in
15 minutes you'll have your fix.
So you follow the dope.
It's like following thedopamine trail.
Follow the dope.
It's like following thedopamine trail.
Monitor your mood.
Does your mood change when youknow that it's just an X amount
(34:38):
of time before you can have yourfix right?
So when it's in sight, whenthere's a light at the end of
the tunnel and you know, okay,my sugar fix is coming.
You kind of relax and you smileagain.
All of a sudden, now you're ina good mood because you're
already feeling it.
You're already feeling it,that's the dopamine hit, right,
(34:59):
that's that's you like already.
You're already, your body isalready getting ready for that
hit, all right.
So it's really important for usto be kind of metacognitive
about this.
How am I feeling?
Why did my mood change?
As soon as you know, as soon asI realized that I was going to
or so-and-so's coming over andthey're bringing pie.
(35:20):
Now I'm in a really great moodbecause I know that in a short
amount of time I'm going to getmy fix, all right.
So those are, those are the sixthat I could think of.
So we're talking stashing,stealing, manipulating,
recruiting, rationalizing andfollowing the dopamine trail.
(35:43):
So if this is something that'sfamiliar to you, then you know,
don't, don't feel bad.
Almost all of us are addicted tosugar and it's really a
travesty for because of you know, for our health, because of the
kind of damage that it's doingto our bodies.
But that kind of damage, andthe alarm bells are not ringing
(36:05):
because it is such a huge,profitable industry, supported
by very, very powerful people,that we're on our own if we want
to kick sugar.
Because, just about you look,you know, everywhere you go,
it's all about the sugar.
And when you start lookingaround, you start trying to kick
sugar.
You realize, oh my God, I amsurrounded by the drug I'm
(36:28):
trying to kick Right, and thatis.
That really is a shame.
Now I'm going to bring upanother thing I forgot to
mention, and that goes back tothe politics of it.
So Big Sugar.
When I was talking about howpowerful Big Sugar is, there was
a group of activists who at onetime, went after the big cereal
(36:49):
companies, which are notoriousfor, I mean, they just load up
cereals like the worst.
We should not feed our childrencereal.
It's half sugar, and then theirother half is almost not food.
All right so, but at any rateso much sugar.
So you have these companiesthat are advertising
specifically to children for thesugary cereals, and then what
(37:14):
they'll do?
These companies pay for theirplacement in grocery stores, and
they literally would make surethat what they were advertising
was at eye level to children whoare being pushed in carriages
down the grocery aisle.
And so, at any rate, there wasa whole it was a class action
(37:35):
lawsuit brought against these.
You know these, these big serialcompanies.
You know Kellogg's post,whatever, and they managed to
use a free speech argument towin.
So Big Sugar and Big Cereal,they're all kind of working
(37:56):
together there.
They won because they used theargument of free speech.
Isn't that interesting.
It's hard for the averagecitizen to use the free speech
argument, but Big Sugar can whenit's advertising to your
children.
All right, because, let's faceit, if you can get children
(38:19):
addicted, then you've got acustomer for life.
So and that's what is just thedark side of sugar, you know,
get the kids addicted early andyou have a customer for life.
Another dark thing about sugaris that if you are addicted to
sugar in your younger years,research shows that you are more
(38:43):
vulnerable to drug addictionlater on, or alcohol addiction.
When I had my coffee house, Ihad a lot of folks who would
come to my coffee house from AAmeetings, recovery meetings
around the area, and one thingthat I noticed was that most of
(39:04):
them were chain smokers and theyliked the most sugary coffee
drinks.
So it was nicotine, caffeineand sugar.
Nicotine, caffeine and sugar.
So basically, they hadsubstituted a couple of other
addictions for their formeraddiction, but they're all you
(39:27):
know.
But these are just legal.
But I saw that very much amongthe folks that I knew who were
recovering, were early in theirrecovery years, very early in
their recovery years.
And this is what happens isthat you will substitute.
You will find something tosubstitute to fill that in so
(39:49):
that you get that hit.
So what do we do to kick it?
Like, if you're serious, likeall right, patty, all right, all
right, maybe I'll try kickingit.
It's like okay, I'm going totell you it's really hard and
it'll probably take more thanone shot at it.
It certainly was hard.
For me it was a process thatkind of extended over a few
(40:13):
years.
I had to keep going deeper andrecognizing the next layer and
the next layer in the ways thatI might have been rationalizing
or following the dopamine trail,like what am I doing?
So I kind of thought about thestages and these are just
(40:34):
suggestions.
That it's kind of what I did.
But you know people do differentthings.
Sometimes people will do coldturkey.
I will tell you that if you'rekicking sugar, it's really hard
to do cold turkey because sugaris everywhere, it's embedded,
it's hiding, and so you reallyhave to do your research, you
have to become a label reader,because they hide sugar
(40:58):
everywhere and in differentforms.
So stage one is the easiest one, it's the most obvious Get rid
of, like kick, all refined sugar, just all refined sugar, the
sugar you put in your coffee,and that really does include a
lot of things like that, thatcake, that ice cream and that.
All right, now you can go sugarfree on things.
(41:22):
But that also it can be aslippery slope because a lot of
those sugar substitutes like youknow, the stuff with sugar-free
soda, what they use insugar-free soda ends up being
worse for you, like Diet Coke.
It's probably worse for youthan the actual sugar itself.
(41:43):
So be careful with thesugar-free stuff, but definitely
refined sugar, and you willfind that that in and of itself
is huge, because you realize,even with refined sugar, the
most obvious sugar, the mostobvious form of sugar, is
everywhere and in everything.
All right.
(42:04):
The second one is, once youthink that you've you've kicked
that and you're feeling prettygood, to start looking at foods
that contain high fructose cornsyrup.
Now you might find that whenyou kick the actual sugar right,
that you're going to gravitatetowards things that you think,
oh well, this is okay, itdoesn't have any sugar in it.
(42:25):
But then when you start readingthe labels closely you see, and
they've actually they'rechanging the name of high
fructose corn syrup.
Now they call it differentthings, so it's harder to detect
.
But you might find yourselfgravitating towards things that
contain or things that have highfructose corn syrup snuck into
(42:46):
them.
One of the things that I dealtwith was that all of a sudden I
was into condiments.
It's like why am I intocondiments?
Why am I so into ketchup nowand mustard?
Why is that?
You know, it was a substitute.
It kind of gave me that littlebit of a hit because of the high
(43:06):
fructose corn syrup in thecondiments.
So that was one thing that Inoticed when I kicked the
refined sugar is that all of asudden I was gravitating towards
things like condiments that hadsugar in another form.
Another thing to take a look atyou might kick the refined sugar
and the foods with highfructose corn syrup and then all
(43:29):
of a sudden it's like now youhave a hankering for dried
fruits.
Oh, I like these driedcranberries, I like these dried.
You know, these dried fruitsare awesome, but what you're
going to find is in a lot ofthem, or you gravitate towards
fruits with a high, high sugarcontent.
So your body is still wantingthat sugar.
(43:51):
And the last thing I will say,sugar substitutes.
It's still kind of giving youthat sugar hit and it can
prolong your addiction becauseit's still registering as
something sweet, somethingsugary, and so you might find
that you're not able to kickyour cravings for it.
(44:12):
I do want to say a word or twoabout cravings.
This is the stuff that ends upbeing pretty upsetting.
Where do those cravings comefrom?
So it's addictive.
But I know I've talked a lotabout the gut and the thing is
is that sugar feeds bacteria, itfeeds fungus and even some
(44:36):
parasites, all right.
So if you have a gut imbalance,often what is driving those
cravings?
Often what is driving thosecravings are those little
rascals living in your gut.
So if you have a gut that's outof balance, you are more
(44:57):
vulnerable to sugar addiction.
And it might be what is drivingyour sugar addiction, because
you have billions of littlecritters in your gut saying
sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar.
Millions of little critters inyour gut saying sugar, sugar,
sugar, sugar, and they drivethose messages to your brain and
all of a sudden you've gotchocolate cake popping up in
your visuals.
So they're not saying give mechocolate cake, they are
(45:20):
stimulating a craving for sugarand your brain gets fixated on
whatever it is that's going tothat, whatever food that is
Twinkies, hard candy, ice cream,something that is going to give
you that, give you that hit.
So again, candida will drivesugar cravings.
(45:43):
So if you have an overgrowth ofbad bacteria and fungus, fungus
loves sugar.
As a matter of fact, researchis showing that there's also a
link to some cancers that alsofeed on sugar.
So, and that is the devastatingthing about it, is that there
(46:06):
are these imbalances in ourbodies that are generating these
cravings, that make thisaddiction so darn hard to kick.
So I will just say thatrebalancing the gut, rebalancing
my gut, has really made adifference in terms of my
cravings, because now I don'thave those cravings and I'm not
(46:29):
always fighting to staycommitted to my abstinence of
sugar.
You know, it becomes a loteasier when we rebalance our gut
.
If we have like a normal,balanced gut, we don't have
these cravings for sugar.
So it is worth doing the workto balance out the bacteria and
such in your gut so that you canreally reduce and even
(46:53):
eliminate these cravings in thefirst place.
So that's really what I have tosay about sugar.
It may have been more of a ranttoday than anything, but it is
something that I feel reallystrongly about.
It is a blight on our overallhealth and we will go a long way
(47:18):
in obtaining optimal health ifwe can kick sugar.
It will literally transform ourhealth, our moods.
It can literally transformeverything.
So I encourage you to considerit.
I know that sometimes whenpeople are addicted to something
(47:41):
, they get really angry with thepeople who point it out.
So don't shoot the messenger.
Just consider these things andif you decide you want to
address it, then take baby steps.
Don't be hard on yourself.
Just take little steps towardseliminating sugar from your diet
(48:03):
, or at least dramaticallyreducing it, and rebalance your
gut so you don't have to dealwith those overwhelming cravings
.
So that's it for today.
I wish you all the very best ofhealth.
I will see you next time.
This is Patty, with Patty TalksToo Much, ciao.
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