On June 27, 2005, USA Today sounded the obesity alarm. Requiring larger belt sizes costs Americans about $36.5 billion per year. This equates to the amount of money needed to fund 730,000 more public school teachers or to simply pay current teachers what they deserve. Instead, obese consumers blindly give it to drug companies in an attempt to treat (mask) the deadly symptoms of being overweight � that being diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Masking symptoms is suicide in slow motion.

U.S. health officials could reverse the death sentence and the exorbitant spending overnight by educating consumers on the cause of obesity � sugar. Instead, they mandate the socially accepted habit of prescription drug addiction for obese and misinformed Americans. Don�t be a lamb. Re-think your use (and your child�s use) of sugar.

The term sugar refers to sucrose, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup and milk sugars such as lactose and maltose. Unlike natural sugars consumed via whole fruits, these quickly absorbed flavors are forging an emotional addiction between you and them. The strength of the sugar addiction is akin to that seen with heroin and morphine.[1] It makes you feel good artificially. It is no wonder that street heroin is often laced with sugar (sucrose).[2] Food and soda companies profit immensely from this dependence. And drug companies too, thanks to the negative consequence of �artificial feel good.�

Once the addiction sets in, sugar consumption increases exponentially along with fat gain. This is no coincidence or statistical association. It�s the reason. Sugar is the cog in your metabolic wheel. Rather than burn (via thermogenesis) excess calories consumed, the dysfunctional metabolism tells your brain to eat, eat, eat and your body to store, store, store. Don�t believe me? Find an obese person and challenge them to avoid sugars for a single day. It won�t happen.

Over time, sugar-induced fat gain leads to the aforementioned �sugar eating illnesses� like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Despite its alarming consequence to wealth and health, officials ignore and even work to silence the sugar threat. Some ghastly examples exist.

In a PBS health documentary entitled Seven Steps to Perfect Health, Gary Null and Associates (GNA) announced that sugar is an unhealthy component of the modern American diet. General Counsel for the Sugar Association quickly moved to censor GNA. Seven Steps was removed from certain public television stations, such as WETA in Washington, D.C. The public remained ignorant of the growing health threat due to sugar addiction.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced that sugar is the number one contributing factor to obesity. Furious over the claim made by the WHO, the sugar industry threatened to �challenge� the $460 million funding given to the WHO by the United States for making this �dubious� claim. Reacting to the financial threat, the WHO remained silent on the dangers of sugar. The world remained ignorant of the growing health threat due to sugar addiction.

That same $460 million from the sugar industry appears to have silenced the self-proclaimed watchdog of U.S. health, the Center for Disease Control (CDC). To substantiate, on June 2, 2005, Dr. Gerberding of the CDC gave a telebriefing regarding the mass weight gain among U.S. children and adults. In his briefing, entitled Overweight and Obesity: Clearing the Confusion, he doesn�t make a single mention of sugar or its effect on fat gain. Instead, in �clearing the confusion� he asserts that the science of fat loss is inconclusive. This is not the conclusion you would expect from a scientist of the CDC. It is scary to think what ideas the �doctor� would have mustered up without all those years of higher education. The obese will continue to remain ignorant of the growing health threat due to sugar addiction.

Don�t count on the American Heart Association (AHA) to sound the alarm. Perform a quick search for �sugar� at www.americanheart.org and you get their special recipe for Sugar-Dusted Mocha Brownies. Those at risk for heart disease will remain ignorant of the growing health threat due to sugar addiction.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) has exercised a perverse display of power. A chief ADA researcher claimed, �Sugar has nothing to do with diabetes.� This statement was based on wealth not health. Prior to the statement, the ADA formed a three-year, multi-million dollar alliance with Cadbury Schweppes America�s Beverage - a major manufacturer of sugary sodas and candies.[3] Diabetics will remain ignorant of the growing health threat due to sugar addiction.

Diabetics and people worldwide don�t be fooled; avoid sugar at all costs � break the sugar addiction. Doing so will normalize blood glucose levels. Anita Manning, writing for USA Today on June 14 reported, "Early, intensive treatment to keep blood sugar levels close to normal in people with diabetes can cut their risk of cardiovascular disease by about 50% and the risk of heart attack and stroke by 57%, much better results than those achieved by any cholesterol or blood pressure drug, researchers reported Sunday." Imagine what quitting sugar would do for longevity among those who are not diabetic.

To avoid prescription drug servitude and illness, tackle the obesity problem by breaking the sugar addiction. Doing so may be the most inexpensive and valuable step toward living healthy. No, let me rephrase that: �Doing so is the best damn thing you could do for your finances and health.�

Breaking an addiction dictates that you have a replacement. Only a few acceptable alternatives to sugar exist. They are stevia, xylitol or agave. High-fructose corn syrup, aspartame, acesulfame-K, sucralose (Splenda�), monosodium glutamate (MSG), and hydrolyzed vegetable proteins do not count. Read the fine print on food labels and discard products with these ingredients. Stop lapping up sodas, fruit juice and ice cream cones and trash the �low-carb� sugar-ladened nutrition bar. In other words, think before you eat.

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Once the sugar addiction is broken over a long period of time, plan on looking and feeling 5-10 years younger. The death threat and expensive medical bills due to obesity will vanish. Corporate drug pushers will be forced to take huge pay cuts.

Footnotes:

1, Erlanson-Albertsson C. Sugar triggers our reward-system. Sweets release opiates which stimulates the appetite for sucrose--insulin can depress it. Lakartidningen. 2005 May 23-29;102(21):1620-2, 1625, 1627. And www.health-fx.net/sugar.html Ruegg H, Yu WZ, Bodnar RJ. Opioid-receptor subtype agonist-induced enhancements of sucrose intake are dependent upon sucrose concentration. Physiology and Behavior. 1997 Jul;62(1):121-8.
2, ONDCP Drug Policy Information Clearinghouse
3, American Diabetes Association Says Sugar Isn't Linked to Diabetes.