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a cup of coffee and get a pleasant buzz. You feel a bit more alert and awake for a couple of hours.
    Then one cup of coffee barely has any effect, so you up your dose to two. Then eventually you need three, and the buzz isn’t quite as powerful. Pretty soon you’re drinking coffee several times a day, just to stay awake. From a mild and pleasant stimulant, caffeine has become the only thing standing between you and utter exhaustion.
    The same thing happens with addictive foods:
    • First you just enjoy them.
    • Then you need them. You still enjoy them . . . but it hurts not to have them.
    • Finally, you need them desperately, just to feel normal. You might not even enjoy them anymore—but you know you feel lousy without them.
    Is it possible to have just an occasional addictive food and not get hooked? Sure! The Scripps study rats who were fed sweet, high-fat foods for only an hour a day never made the switch to becoming addicted. Their brains continued to work as they always had because their exposure was not great enough to trigger any change. (Likewise, if you limit your intake of caffeine to healthy amounts, you’ll probably keep getting a sustainable energy boost when you do drink coffee.)
    The rats that had unlimited access to those high-fat foods, however, developed tolerance. The more they ate, the less they felt it. That’s why they couldn’t stop eating—and why they couldn’t stop gaining weight.
    Addiction Prescription
     
    Why can’t we simply regulate our brain chemistry through medication? Couldn’t we take something to prevent outside stimulants from throwing our brains out of balance?
    In fact, low doses of dopamine-blocking drugs have been tried on test groups of people to see if they could affect their alcohol consumption. The treatment did reduce drinking by decreasing the enjoyment people found in it, but unfortunately, the dopamine blockers produced Parkinson’s-like tremors. (That’s probably related to the fact that Parkinson’s lowers your dopamine levels about as far as they will go.)
    People with substance-abuse problems frequently get substitute drugs. Heroin addicts receive methadone, smokers use Nicorette, and alcoholics and other drug users are prescribed anti-anxiety drugs—all to help wean them off their primary drugs more slowly. The substitutes blunt or prevent withdrawal symptoms, allowing people to clear their systems and rebalance their brain chemistry without suffering.
    Well, guess what? In Diet Rehab, we’re following the same effective principle! I’m going to have you detox gradually from addictive “pitfall foods” as you fill your diet and your life with foods and activities that naturally boost your supply of healthy brain chemicals. That way, you can overcome your addiction painlessly, and transition effortlessly into a healthy new life.
     

Making It Through Withdrawal
     
    Besides tolerance, the other hallmark of addiction is withdrawal— the pain of giving up an addictive substance that the body has come to rely on. My training at the Betty Ford Center and my current work as the clinical director of therapeutic and behavioral services at The Body Well integrative medical center in Los Angeles have given me an intimate acquaintance with withdrawal symptoms. I know very well how painful the recovery process can be.
    Here are some of the most common withdrawal symptoms; they plague food, nicotine, alcohol, and drug addicts fairly equally. Have you noticed any of these symptoms whenever you’ve tried to change your diet?
    • problems with memory
    • impaired concentration
    • changes in sleep patterns
    • anxiety
    • depression
    • fatigue
    • increased reliance on other addictions
    • moodiness
    • irritability
    • headaches
    Sound familiar? No wonder it’s so hard to let go of our favorite treats! We’re used to thinking of dieting as an emotional issue or a matter of willpower, and those certainly may be elements in our struggles. But at the