Read The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet: Activate Your Body's Natural Ability to Burn Fat and Lose Weight Fast for Free Online Page A
Authors: Mark Hyman
is how sugar and junk food hijack your brain chemistry and your metabolism.
Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. The fructose (mostly from high-fructose corn syrup) gets directly absorbed from your gut and goes to the liver without passing through the normal controls that glucose has to deal with. Insulin is required to get glucose into the cells, but fructose gets mainlined directly into the liver. This switches on
lipogenesis
, the mechanism that turns sugar directly into fat. Think fatty liver. Think foie gras—not in a goose, but in
you
.
A fatty liver is an inflamed liver. This, in turn, causes even more insulin resistance. Your cells become numb to the effects of insulin, but your body desperately wants to get the sugar into your cells. The body then pumps out more insulin, creating more belly fat and inflammation. This is the cause of most heart attacks and strokes, many cancers, and even dementia. In fact,
insulin resistance is the very cause of aging itself
.
THE PLEASURE CENTER: THE POWER OF SUGAR
Calorie for calorie, sugar is different from other calories that come from protein, fat, or nonstarchy carbs such as greens. As you’ve seen, it scrambles all your normal appetite controls. So you consume more and more, driving your metabolism to convert it into lethal belly fat. There is no doubt about it: By any definition, sugar is a toxin. Paracelsus, the great medical philosopher, said,
“The dose makes the poison.”
We are all overdosed at an average of twenty-two teaspoons of sugar a day per person in America.
Remember the milk shake study? Sugar lights up the pleasure center in the brain and releases dopamine, the “feel-good” chemical. It works on the same parts of the brain as cocaine or heroin, but it is much worse. When researchers provide direct electrical stimulation of the reward centers in the brains of rats, they still can’t compete with sugar water. Cocaine lights up only one part of the brain, while sugar lights it up like fireworks on Independence Day!
Brain imaging studies in humans find the same thing. Eating—or even seeing pictures of—junk and processed food lights up the brain like heroin. People say they gain weight just by looking at a donut. They may actually be right, because the body pumps out insulin in response to even the
thought
of something sweet.
When you continue to “use” sugar and processed foods, your dopamine receptors are decreased. That means you need more and more of the addictive substance to generate the same amount of pleasure. This dynamic is called tolerance. It explains why a light or occasional drinker, like me, might feel significant effects from a single alcoholic drink, while a heavy drinker or an alcoholic may need to drink a fifth of vodka just to get a buzz.
When food addicts try to “quit” without proper support, they get withdrawal symptoms lasting up to seven days, including nausea, headaches, shakiness, disorientation, fatigue, cravings, irritability, disturbed sleep, and nightmares. (Don’t worry—these symptoms are much less challenging and last for a shorter time when you follow the 10-Day Detox Diet.)
For many, even gastric bypass cannot overcome this addiction. One patient of mine lost 200 pounds through gastric bypass and ate his way back to obesity through a constant stream of M&M’s. Too often, gastric bypass fails because it doesn’t fix the underlying biology of food addiction.
The Special Case of High-Fructose Corn Syrup
In his book
Fat Chance
, Dr. Robert Lustig calls fructose “the toxin” because it is qualitatively different from other sugars. When fructose occurs naturally, as it does in fruit, with fiber and other nutrients, and when not consumed in excessive quantities, it is fine. But strip fructose out of corn, throw it into a new stew of “free” fructose comprising 55 to 75 percent of the high-fructose corn syrup in sodas (table sugar is 50/50 fructose and glucose), and you have the disaster that
Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. The fructose (mostly from high-fructose corn syrup) gets directly absorbed from your gut and goes to the liver without passing through the normal controls that glucose has to deal with. Insulin is required to get glucose into the cells, but fructose gets mainlined directly into the liver. This switches on
lipogenesis
, the mechanism that turns sugar directly into fat. Think fatty liver. Think foie gras—not in a goose, but in
you
.
A fatty liver is an inflamed liver. This, in turn, causes even more insulin resistance. Your cells become numb to the effects of insulin, but your body desperately wants to get the sugar into your cells. The body then pumps out more insulin, creating more belly fat and inflammation. This is the cause of most heart attacks and strokes, many cancers, and even dementia. In fact,
insulin resistance is the very cause of aging itself
.
THE PLEASURE CENTER: THE POWER OF SUGAR
Calorie for calorie, sugar is different from other calories that come from protein, fat, or nonstarchy carbs such as greens. As you’ve seen, it scrambles all your normal appetite controls. So you consume more and more, driving your metabolism to convert it into lethal belly fat. There is no doubt about it: By any definition, sugar is a toxin. Paracelsus, the great medical philosopher, said,
“The dose makes the poison.”
We are all overdosed at an average of twenty-two teaspoons of sugar a day per person in America.
Remember the milk shake study? Sugar lights up the pleasure center in the brain and releases dopamine, the “feel-good” chemical. It works on the same parts of the brain as cocaine or heroin, but it is much worse. When researchers provide direct electrical stimulation of the reward centers in the brains of rats, they still can’t compete with sugar water. Cocaine lights up only one part of the brain, while sugar lights it up like fireworks on Independence Day!
Brain imaging studies in humans find the same thing. Eating—or even seeing pictures of—junk and processed food lights up the brain like heroin. People say they gain weight just by looking at a donut. They may actually be right, because the body pumps out insulin in response to even the
thought
of something sweet.
When you continue to “use” sugar and processed foods, your dopamine receptors are decreased. That means you need more and more of the addictive substance to generate the same amount of pleasure. This dynamic is called tolerance. It explains why a light or occasional drinker, like me, might feel significant effects from a single alcoholic drink, while a heavy drinker or an alcoholic may need to drink a fifth of vodka just to get a buzz.
When food addicts try to “quit” without proper support, they get withdrawal symptoms lasting up to seven days, including nausea, headaches, shakiness, disorientation, fatigue, cravings, irritability, disturbed sleep, and nightmares. (Don’t worry—these symptoms are much less challenging and last for a shorter time when you follow the 10-Day Detox Diet.)
For many, even gastric bypass cannot overcome this addiction. One patient of mine lost 200 pounds through gastric bypass and ate his way back to obesity through a constant stream of M&M’s. Too often, gastric bypass fails because it doesn’t fix the underlying biology of food addiction.
The Special Case of High-Fructose Corn Syrup
In his book
Fat Chance
, Dr. Robert Lustig calls fructose “the toxin” because it is qualitatively different from other sugars. When fructose occurs naturally, as it does in fruit, with fiber and other nutrients, and when not consumed in excessive quantities, it is fine. But strip fructose out of corn, throw it into a new stew of “free” fructose comprising 55 to 75 percent of the high-fructose corn syrup in sodas (table sugar is 50/50 fructose and glucose), and you have the disaster that
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