Sugar Addiction

Whether they know it or not, hundreds of millions of people in the 'first world' are addicted to sugar, and that sugar addiction is the single biggest cause of "diet fail" in the USA. It's not that hard to give up sugar at first - compared to the withdrawal symptoms of heroin or crack cocaine, sugar is pretty tame: basically like having a bad flu, minus the vomiting, for 10-15 days. The hardest part is staying off of sugar for the 12-18 months it can take for your body to finally recognize sugar as something it doesn't want.

Because a high-sugar/high-flour diet causes regular mood swings ('sugar rushes'), the first several days off of sugar can make you feel easily annoyed and emotionally fragile. Until your body gets used to burning fat for energy (instead of the sugar you were used to burning), you will feel incredibly fatigued, like your limbs are leaden. You will have headaches akin to those you get when you go through caffeine withdrawal. Don't worry; all of these symptoms are very short-term, and getting through them will help you more than you can ever guess.

You will think clearer, you will look and feel healthier and more attractive, and most important, you will be in a better mood every morning than you could ever be on a high-sugar diet. By swearing off of sugar and it's less sweet-but still as deadly-counterpart, flour, you are also swearing off of diabetes, acne, and many more health problems from mild to lethal.

If you know ahead of time what you will go through, you are much more likely to resolve yourself to suffering through the two short weeks of sugar withdrawal. Just keep in mind that it's been scientifically proven that a single dose of sugar - just one donut or one caramel macchiato - affects your body's ability to burn fat for fifteen days. Think it's a coincidence that sugar addiction symptoms last two weeks?

So mark your calendars, for 16 days later just to be absolutely sure. Tell your boss that you're mildly ill, and that's why you're not quite up to snuff. Warn your family. But whatever you do, don't you dare break down and treat yourself to a bowl of Golden Grahams on day 14 - because that's all it takes to start the process all over again, and you'll have to suffer through it all a second time.

Of course, like I said, you will still have to watch yourself very carefully - your body remembers what it was like to have that sugar addiction, and it can take as much as a year or even eighteen months before your body will start to look at sugar and think "ugh" instead of "yum!" It can be easy, once you're feeling the high energy levels and general good health of a no-sugar/no-flour diet, to think that "just one" sugary or floury food couldn't dent the fortitude you've built up - but it's never just one. Remind your body of what that sugar high felt like, and "just one" will turn into "just one a day", and then "just one every several hours" - and then all your work is for naught.

Of course, breaking your sugar addiction is only the first step to true health - you also need to get complete nutrition, and avoid other major consumable hazards like soy. Start on the path to true health today -- right here!