Sugar the sweet source of Addiction

May 5, 2014

Sugar the sweet source of Addiction-The sweet store of Calories

Sugar the sweet drug for addiction. As sweet as they are these blocks of sugar are injurious to your health

It’s the naked truth that addiction is injurious to humanity and so efforts are being made to bring this problem to manageable level. One would wonder why with the current modern technology this is still a challenge, in the cause of this article you will get to know why this is so and possible solutions for this injurious but common problem. The world over is weeping for help because everyone is affected either directly or indirectly and this is causing health bodies and professionals great concern. Different governments the world over are spending huge amount of their budgets in trying to contain this but with very little success.

Sugar the sweet source of Addiction-Self-study/research

Several studies have been conducted just to try to understand why the increase level of addiction that cuts across all age groups. Today even infants are being born obese or with some elements of addiction depending on the parents behavior before, during pregnancy and after delivery. I ask why? Take walk down in any of the streets in your neighborhood, go to learning institutions, work environments e.g offices or places of worships literally every ware you will notice that there will be at least people who are obese or are suffering from one kind of addiction. This is a study you can do and you need not to be an expert for you to notice overweight people around you. Without putting up the figures your observation will certainly capture overweight individuals around which is why we want to get the answer to the question we asked earlier “why?” the answer is all about sugar and it’s becoming common that high fructose corn syrup has become the number one source of calories for most Americans and the world over. Taking a look at the feeding habits of most people you will many people are fun of drinks like soda and consumes an average of 130 pounds of sugar which results in more calories and hence weight gain and poor health.

Sugar the sweet source of Addiction-Why do we love sugar?

Of cause the obvious response to this would be “sugar is sweet” which is true and amidst that sweetness what you may not know is that sugar just like any other drug activates the release of dopamine which reinforces the use of the substance. In fact consuming sugar makes us want more it. Sugar interferes with the body’s appetite creating and influencing the desire to continue eating even when a person is no longer hungry. It should come as no surprise that there is a link between increasing sugar consumption and the obesity epidemic in America.

Consuming all this sugar is addicting. A study conducted recently(Connecticut College) found that when rats eat cookies there are more neurons activated in the brain’s pleasure center than when the rat is exposed to cocaine or morphine. Another study showed that the brain of a person with food addictions reacted to junk food in the same way people with drug addiction react to the presence of drugs. It is therefore no wonder sugar addicts display many of the same behaviors as drug addicts: cravings, tolerance, withdrawal, denial, and continuing the behavior even though negative consequences are recognized.

Sugar the sweet source of Addiction-Why is this information so disturbing?

For sure the various food processing plants across the globe are creating the impression consuming sweet foods and by extension sugar. As a tool of maximization of profit food processing industries use this knowledge of human desire for sweets to increase the consumption of processed foods. The message these companies pass to their consumers especially children is to eat only tasty foods that sweet foods. Parents are also not left out they majorly purchase breakfast cereals, juices, and snacks that were originally designed to have a quantity of sugar that has been formulated to the bliss point the more sugar the better. In an attempt to try to reduce the sugar content in consumables, a seminar was organized by a top official at Pillsbury in 1999 inviting all executives from all major food processing companies to discourse the rising concern that snacks and convenience foods invented to be occasional treats were being linked to the obesity crisis because they are eaten daily.

When this question was raised, an official from Kraft Foods then spoke of the need for industry-wide limits to reduce the copious amounts of sugar, fat, and salt in foods so that cravings could be reduced. This was received with hostility and a direct response to this was given by the then CEO of General Mills in total disagreement of the proposal that his company would not change the recipes that were so alluring to his customer base. His fear was based on the possibility of reduction of sales and by extension low profits margins if this proposal was to see the light of the day. Because every CEO in attendance was up for total maximization of profit, the golden opportunity to change the food industry was lost and all of the major food corporations at the meeting rejected the idea of reformulating their products to improve American health and the world at large. To-date sugar-laden foods continue to be produced and marketed to consumers, who have willingly consented to trade nutrition for convenience and suffer the consequences.

Sugar the sweet source of Addiction-The result of the food industry valuing profit over nutrition

I can now tell you that listening to these professionals you would wonder the serious problems that we under go because of love for money or just greed. Having lost that opportunity today excess consumption of sugar cane, sugar beets, and high fructose corn syrup is linked to increasing rates of diabetes, heart disease, certain types of cancer, yeast infections, depression, immune system suppression, dental decay, gum disease, obesity name it. Reducing these health disorders will require not only individual responsibility, but also food corporations finally adopting industry standards to enforce limits on what is added to food. Sadly, addiction therapy to help individuals retrain their brain’s desire for substances may also be needed by sugar addicts. It is time for corporate globally to put health before profits. I am left wondering if this will ever happen.

Having read the article you are now informed dear reader with or without doing the correct thing, life has to go on and so if you are in anyway addicted or your love once is there is help at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under Doctor Akoury’s care. Doctor Akoury and her team of experts are doing their very best to correct what the corporations chief could not by offering treatment based on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE. I strongly recommend this facility to you and you will escape the wrath of addiction and obesity with caring experts.

Sugar the sweet source of Addiction-The sweet store of Calories

Obesity and sugar addiction

March 13, 2014

Obesity and sugar addiction-Neuroendocrine imbalances

Obesity and sugar addiction-Sugar, sweetness or palatability

Sugar addiction is associated with obesity what you eat can have diverse effect on your life.

The concept of sugar addiction relies on rats given the choice between a palatable sucrose solution and a much less palatable chow. Naturally in such circumstances they consume sucrose. The question is whether it is sucrose, sweetness or palatability to which they are responding? It needs to be demonstrated that similar behavior could not be demonstrated with carbohydrate in general, artificial sweeteners or fat-rich palatable foods. Comparisons have been made between the reaction of rats to the provision of sucrose, a high-fat diet and a sweet-fat combination. The ability of the opioid antagonist naloxone to produce withdrawal symptoms was not observed with fat although it occurred when sucrose alone was provided, evidence that in this paradigm different types of palatable food produce different responses.

However, it appears that rats do not have a preference for sucrose consumption as there is a preference for sucrose in sham feeding studies, where after passing through the mouth it leaves the body, ensuring no post-ingestive effects occur. Dopamine is released from the nucleus accumbency with this procedure. The sweetness of fruit juices is rewarding as judged by “reward expectation-related neuronal activity” in the primate striatum, although it is produced by sugars other than sucrose.

There is a preference for artificial sweeteners that in turn have been shown to influence the activity of the nucleus accumbency. The intermittent access of rats to a saccharin solution rather than sucrose has also resulted in withdrawal symptoms when consumption stopped. It appears that in part at least there is a response not to sucrose but rather to a sweet taste.

More generally, is the response of a rat specifically to sweetness rather than palatability? Woolley questioned whether the opioid regulation of food consumption reflects the macronutrient content rather than flavor. They studied the consumption of two types of food pellets that differed in flavor although they were nutritionally identical. A μ-opioid receptor agonist injected into the nucleus accumbency increased the consumption of both pellets in a similar manner if they were tested when only one of the two foods was present. However, when both flavors of pellets were presented simultaneously, the agonist increased and the antagonist naltrexone selectively decreased the consumption of the preferred flavor. The authors suggested that based exclusively on flavor cues, opioid mechanisms in the nucleus accumbency increase the intake of palatable foods. Similarly the administration of naltrexone into the nucleus accumbency selectively decreased sucrose intake, although it had only a minimal influence on the consumption of less preferred chow. In addition a specific μ-agonist selectively increased the intake of sucrose, saccharin and a dilute saline solution. These findings demonstrated an important role for opioids in the nucleus accumbency in promoting the consumption of preferred palatable foods. When rats consumed a high-palatability sucrose solution the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbency was dose dependent but palatable high-fat/sweet foods similarly induced dopamine release. The message is that it is palatability rather than sweetness or being sucrose that is critical in determining food preference.

This conclusion is supported by studying the impact of opioid drugs. As a generalization it has been known for many years that opioid agents enhance and opioid antagonists decrease feeding. In the rat the positive facial response to a sucrose solution was enhanced by morphine and decreased by opioid antagonists. The administration of morphine caused a short-term increase in food intake, and at least initially an increase in fat intake at the expense of carbohydrate.

The opioid antagonist, naloxone decreased fat rather than carbohydrate consumption in rats. As it is known that for many rats fat is more attractive than carbohydrates these finding are consistent with the view that opioid mechanisms influence the intake of palatable foods. Such a suggestion is supported by the study of initial food preferences. As there is variability amongst rats in their preferences for carbohydrate and fat Gosnell considered whether morphine was acting on food preferences. They distinguished fat-preferring from carbohydrate-preferring rats. Morphine increased carbohydrate intake in carbohydrate-preferring rats and increased fat intake in fat-preferring rats. Therefore morphine increased the intake of the preferred diet rather than a specific macronutrient. Similarly naloxone selectively decreased the intake of preferred foods and not sucrose content as would be predicted by the ‘sugar addiction’ hypothesis.

Obesity and sugar addiction-Sugar and reward mechanisms

Addictive drugs and palatable food both release dopamine from the nucleus accumbency.

The nucleus accumbency has different populations of neurons that are activated by natural and drug reinforcement. The release of dopamine by natural rewards, unlike drugs of abuse, undergoes rapid habituation.

Although the food-induced release of dopamine is markedly inhibited by pre-exposure to visual and olfactory stimuli that have been conditioned to food, similar visual and olfactory stimuli that had previously been conditioned to drugs of abuse strongly potentiate the dopaminergic reaction.

The suggestion, based on the animal evidence, is not that palatable foods are physically addictive but rather that a particular style of eating can produce a reaction to food that is similar to the response to drugs of abuse.

Obesity and sugar addiction-Comparisons of dopamine release induced by food and drugs of abuse

Although addictive drugs and palatable food both increase the release of dopamine from the nucleus accumbency it appears that they influence different populations of neurons. Such a conclusion is supported by studies in which either pharmacological manipulation or selective lesions reduce the self-administration of cocaine but do not influence the response to natural rewards. For example Caine and Koob used 6-hydroxydopamine to deplete the nucleus accumbency of dopamine and found a reduction in cocaine self-administration without altering the response to food.

Additional evidence arises from the study of the time scale of dopamine release. Dopaminergic functioning can be estimated using a range of methods. Recording the rate of firing of dopaminergic neurons allows the examination of functioning in a milli-second time frame. Similarly voltammetry measures dopamine release over sub-second periods. In contrast, microdialysis is used to estimate extra-cellular concentrations of dopamine over longer periods.

Finally research and studies will always be done on this topic obesity and addiction to find the scientific solution, nevertheless to achieve optimal weight loss in a record time efficiently and economically, it will be necessary to pay a visit to AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under Doctor Akoury’s where a lot of focus is put on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE. This way you will get help fast while the endless researches and studies continue.

Obesity and sugar addiction-Neuroendocrine imbalances

Why sugar is eight times more addictive than cocaine, Cocaine

February 17, 2014

Why sugar is eight times more addictive than cocaine, White Poison.

Much as we need sugar in our bodies, its a very dangerous substance for the body sweet as it may be.

What if someone tells you that almost every day you ingest a drug that is one of the most addictive known to mankind? Or what if you are told that researchers and medical professionals the world over are now saying that if they knew the effects and destruction that this substance has on people they would have banned it and placed it on the same list as cocaine.

Sugar like cocaine is the cause of a pandemic of health issues, diabetes, obesity, disease and death. And what if you are told that you and your children are probably already addicts?

Contrary to Cocaine Sugar is a drug however that is consumable. In fact, it’s not only legal to push, pedal, distribute and sell sugar, it is also promoted and advertised openly and is one of the world’s most traded commodities. It is one of America’s top exported products of mass destruction. Together with weapons of war, alcohol, tobacco and entertainment. It is pervasive in almost every food type and major American food brand.

This addictive drug sugar not cocaine is one of the world’s most valuable agricultural commodities. In 2011 global export trade was worth $47 billion. $33 billion of it was exported from developing countries. Around 160,000,000 tons is produced every year, legally, by more than 123 countries.

The secret of its deadliness is out in most developed countries and its use however has increased in spite of this knowledge and has more than doubled in developing countries. So what is this addictive, pervasive, legal drug of choice? You have probably guessed it by now its C12H22O11 and I am almost sure you are a user on some level! Sugar!

Sugar is more addictive than cocaine

Research found that almost everything, delicious and very addictive stuff, called sugar or sucrose or fructose or many other names it now goes by to hide its presence. Ever since laws have been implemented to specifically state the amount of sugar in their products, manufacturers have been using various other names to hide the actual amount of sugar contained in them.

For instance look out for these sneaky labels – barley malt, beet sugar, brown sugar, buttered syrup, caramel, corn syrup, confectioners’ sugar, carob syrup, caster, date or demerara sugar, dextran, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup, maltose, molasses, sorghum syrup, treacle, panocha and many more.

Researched papers, documented by medical professionals, scientist and healthcare professionals. Every one of them agreed that sugar is the number one cause of obesity, diabetes, weight gain, inability to lose weight, loss of mental sharpness and the fact that overconsumption of sugar is in some way associated with many diseases in the world today. Some doctors are now saying that sugar is the next tobacco and that all of the techniques and tactics used by big tobacco to hide the addictiveness and destructiveness of tobacco are now being used and has been used by sugar manufacturers and sugar product manufacturers. One medical professor calls Pepsi and Coca-Cola trucks delivering their products to a store, “weapons of mass destruction” as dangerous as cocaine.

Sugar is more addictive than cocaine – My Own experience

Yes we do need sugar (glucose) and our bodies cannot function without it. We can however get our required amount from healthy fruits and foods and we need not add the extra 4kg of refined sugar every month, over and above what we require. May I share my addiction experience? It started a few weeks after I was born when my well-meaning, loving mother, was taught to add a few spoons of sugar into my cow’s milk (no formula back then) at every feed. It shut me up and I was a happy baby. It is crazy that we wouldn’t give a newborn child a bottle of Coke to drink but we give them sweetened milk and milk formula’s full of sugar without blinking an eye. Before I was two months old, I looked like a baby sumo wrestler and my habit was about 48 grams of pure Brazilian White a day.

I was on solids – porridge, within 3 weeks and the sugar doubled. I was tripping on Durban Snow at every feed. It didn’t stop there. In my teens, our family of four consumed up to 4 crates of Coca-Cola every week. That was almost a crate of Coca-Cola per person or 12 x 2L Cokes a week EACH. At 24 teaspoons of Angel White per bottle that was quite a habit. I want to remind you that Coca-Cola contained cocaine a century ago.

My sugar intake however wasn’t limited to Coca-Cola, I also got my fix from moms sugar filled cooking and La Rochelle bakery’s milk tarts, cakes, doughnuts, Koeksisters, Chelsea buns, desserts, custards and takeaways. My mom even put sugar in her carrot salad, which was also drenched in Oros. My favourite “salad” at a braai, was her sliced bananas covered in whipped cream with loads of sugar. Now that’s a flippen’ salad!

Funny thing was, if you offered her chocolates or cake she’d tell you she didn’t have a sweet tooth and didn’t eat chocolate or cakes. I gravitated to the brown form of the drug like Malema to a tender and chocolate became my drug of choice. Any fellow addict will tell you there is no better fix than a garage pie, a coke and a chocolate. Sugar fix is for some a better fix than a cocaine fix.

It’s no wonder that most research papers and sites on sugar report that the average teen consumes between 34 and 38 teaspoons of sugar every day. In 2012 adults in the United States consumed over 45kg’s of sugar per year. That is more than 3.75kg a month. Looking at South Africa’s obesity and health issues and the fact that our diets have been influenced by all major US brands and “soda” companies we’re probably about the same if not worse.

Unlike Cocaine, sugar is found in most of our food but the adding of extra sugar and the creation of sugary products has grown exponentially. Researchers tell us the most efficient way to deliver a sugar fix is via the soft drink industry. Apart from the effects on your health, a sugar researcher tells us that drinking one sugary soft drink a day will increase your weight by 6kg per year. A bottle of Coke a day will increase your weight by 11kg per year. And don’t get me started on sugar substitutes and “diet” cold drinks. According to medical professionals they are nothing more than poisons. Medically most, if not all sugar substitutes are referred to as neurotoxins.

Sugar is more addictive than cocaine – Behavior Change

So I decided on 11 November 2013 to go 40 days cold turkey with my addiction. My father became a diabetic (no surprise) he stopped eating sugar and lost about 20kg in 6 months with no exercise and no change at all in his diet. After 40 of the hardest days of my life I lost 5kg and now on day 71, am down 8kg. I have to add that I have been weight training and not eating bread. So yes, I had a miserable Christmas!

I never started my sugar stoppage for weight loss. I really did it because I got to a stage when my health started to suffer and I was out of control. I needed an intervention and the opportunity to kick my own ass. My waist had gotten so big I was asked to audition for a Michelin commercial, and I battled to tie my shoelaces in the morning without a respirator. I was on thyroid medication and Nexium for gastro oesophageal reflux, I battled to sleep, I had no energy and by 3 o’clock in the afternoon wanted to take a nap, I always got colds and flu, I got muscle cramps and injuries and I felt all round crappy.

Today I feel 100% healthier, I have stopped all of my medications, I sleep well, have more energy than ever before and I have lost 8 kg in fat. Not bad for just stopping and looking out for sugar. The most important and significant change is the fact that I have taken back control of my life from my drug of choice, beautiful, deadly, Florida icing – sugar.

Unfortunately I have found that one of the only ways to beat an addiction is to be placed in situations of temptation again and again and having to say no. Every time you are tempted and you say no, you take back the power. You take the power away from the addiction one temptation at a time. You will find, like I did, that the universe will, with love and kindness, put you into situations of mass temptation the exact day and week you decide to take back your power. It is perfectly designed because you cannot take back your power unless you are tempted. Taking yourself out of a situation does not allow you to exercise personal control. It’s the toughest most rewarding ride you will ever take. I dare you to be and acquire your superpower of self-control!

Well that is my drug, my admission and my personal challenge for the New Year. What is yours? Help is very close to you Dr. Akoury of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center will help you achieve optimal weight loss if sugar brings obesity to your life. At this facility we focus on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE.

Why sugar is eight times more addictive than cocaine, White Poison.

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